Republican Debate-Santorum vs. Perry

I listened to the Republican debate as a radio replay before nodding off last night. These debates are good tools for insomniacs, but last night a few confrontations kept me awake.

Rick Santorum is not likely to ever get a nomination but his straight forward logical questioning of Rick Perry concerning college education of illegal aliens was interesting.

Santorum dared to point out the lack of any sensible logical progression in Perry’s stance that illegal aliens should receive in-state tuition to attend college. Santorum asked where the logic was that a citizen from another state would be required to pay an out of state tuition to attend a Texas university while an illegal alien in the state would get an in- state tuition, The difference would amount to an additional $100.000 in tuition for the citizen from another State in the United States compared to that a paid by a student who is illegally in the country.

Santorum made clear that his point was not to restrict attendance of anyone but that giving an illegal alien a $100, 000 reduction over a United States citizen applicant’s 4 year tuition cost made no sense at all

Perry answered weakly and looked less than presidential handling Santorum’s straightforward questioning on the subject.

Another part of the debate that kept me from dozing off was a comment by Herman Cain concerning the debate over what to do about social security. Perry has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and there has been all kinds of commentary on his categorization. Although there is general agreement that Social Security needs fixing, There have been few concrete suggestions as to how to fix it.

Cain stepped up with the suggestion that we look into adopting the Chilean model of Social Security which has been successful for years and has been adopted by 30 countries. I do not yet have a clue as to what Chile does but Cain is the only candidate that has even come up with a suggestion that I will be able to look at.

Cain and Santorum have no chance of winning the nomination but they have focused my attention on major issues by which I can make a judgment on the major players.
The straight talk of Cain and Santorum on issues is something that the others might try.