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Wally Edge
Marcellus Jackson, who resigned his seat as a Passaic City Councilman after admitting that he took $26,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent, ... >
Bob Torricelli
The financial debacle on Wall Street may change many things. Our international power, standard of living and individual security might all ... >
Michael Patrick Carroll
Joe Biden promises to impose Catholic dogma upon the country, and calls it "patriotic". >
Debbie Holtz
The NJ 101.5 radio debate scheduled later this month was one Frank Lautenberg quickly agreed to - in fact his campaign was the first to confirm its ... >
Steve Lonegan
The sub prime mortgage melt down and its ensuing financial “crisis” has tested the mettle of all of us who believe in and support the free ... >
Dr. Joseph Marbach
For the past few weeks, I've watched with fascination as politician after politician have appeared on a beach or a boardwalk and declared their ... >
Rob Tornoe
To view a larger version of this cartoon, click here. >
Michael P. Riccards
Senator John McCain insisted that he and Senator Barak Obama should go on the road for a host of town hall meetings to discuss the issues in a ... >
Joey Novick
According to a Fairleigh Dickinson poll, Senator Frank Lautenberg leads Lobbyist Dick Zimmer by 16 points, 50-34 percent. Fourteen percent say ... >
Juan Melli
While New Jersey suffered from a crippling structural deficit, politicians created a slush fund to dole out tax dollars for their own personal gain.
... >
Carla Katz
As I drove home from a VP debate party on Thursday night, I surfed radio talk shows and heard countless callers say that Governor Palin ‘won’ the ... >
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I think it may be streaming
I think it may be streaming live here:
http://www.njn.net/television/webcast/livestreaming.html
Sabrin is winning
He is actually making sense.
OK, I watched the whole
OK, I watched the whole thing. I'll tell you this: Zimmer DEFINITELY lost the debate. He did horrible. He showed how boring and bland he is... AND he was destroyed. He had to admit that he's a lobbyist and he doesn't even sound like he cares. And that's among other things... For example, they asked about the GOP establishment switching between people and eventually asking him to run. He was owned! :P
Murray obviously did the best on all of the economy questions, there were a good amount of them too.
Why should he care?
"He had to admit that he's a lobbyist and he doesn't even sound like he cares"
I really never understand why being a lobbyist matters. It's a job. There's all sorts of lobbyists..one's for cancer research, children's healthcare, pro-gun, anti-gun, etc. Are all these people bad for earning a living and representing a particular interest?
I really don't think it's this big corrupt deal, never mind the fact that Zimmer is a pork-buster who wouldn't use earmarks.
The typical voter doesn't care if someone was a lobbyist, they look at a legislative record (if avail.) and look at the ideas for the future.
I watched this hot mess
Is it me or is NJN a step above a community college station? Sabrin looked the most senatorial, Zimmer looks out of it and just plain old and Jersey Joe made no sense on several issues including the energy question and immigration. Didn't he do any debate prep? At this rate the R's may want to go look for more candidates..... They'll be NO money coming in from the national party to help them against Lautenberg.
ESedler... are you kidding
ESedler... are you kidding me? The big word in the media this election was "lobbyist" and everyone paying attention will say lobbyists are evil. And here we have Zimmer... lobbyist... so it obviously doesn't make him look good.
And if you watched it you would see that Zimmer was very nervous during this part of the debate... he was nervous because he knew it wouldn't be good for him.
Sabrin did VERY well
Above having very good answers to policy questions, Sabrin looked the part of a Senator. Sorry to say that I have never seen Dick Zimmer look so bad before (I mean to think that Zimmer ran state-wide and was elected to Congress). Pennachio continues to play the "I look at life differently" routine, and it does not seem to be catching fire except for a few remote areas. Overall, it was a nice first real debate. Another round to Sabrin!
The W-I-N-N-E-R was ... Dr. Murray Sabrin
It wasn't even a close call. I can't believe how Dick Zimmer looked - I could have sworn he looked like he had some bad illness - I thought he was going to keel over right there on live on TV.
And Jersey Joe reinforced the fact that he was Jersey JOKE. He wasn't able to answer any real question except for some sound bites.
I agree with the other comments that Dr. Sabrin really looked like a U.S. Senator tonight!
Go Murray Go!
Senator Sabrin
The voters of New Jersey now can see on TV that there is a high-minded independent Republican with principles who can finally retire Frank Lautenberg. While Joe tried to make his tired stump speech and Zimmer obsessed over earmarks, Murray talked a clear plan to people for rebuilding our economy through a stronger currency as well as changing our foreign policy so America can be strong in a rapidly changing world. If we let Joe or Dick have the nomination, we will lose in November. The young will stay away or just continue down the Democratic ticket. Murray is the only one who understands why 75% of New Jersey wants out of Iraq and more than eight outta ten think America is going the wrong way. We need someone with the ideas and popular understanding, not another career politician whose been part of the travesty of the state and national GOP. And yeah Dick dont look so good on TV.
Im glad Murray pointed out what a political novice Joe really is because Morris County is so Republican. Why do we insist on running candidates who do not understand what life is like in urban New Jersey? Sabrin is actually in tune with people in Bergen and Hudson County, and in November I bet a lot of young Democrats and Independents will join us in making the change we need and deserve.
Jeremy..
For a Sabrin supporter you sure do follow the media a lot and put too much trust into what "they" believe about lobbyists. I was stating that I don't understand why someone who used to be a lobbyist has an automatic negative connotation.
And I really don't think the voters care. Jen Beck was called a lobbyist legislator 100 million times by Ellen Karcher on TV ads and she seemed to have no problem winning. The same thing goes for Bill Baroni who has been referred to as a lobbyist in every one of his 3 elections, and he had no problem dominating in a much more D friendly district then the 12th. Trust me, if the voters in the 14th District and towns like Hamilton never cared that Baroni was a lobbyist way back when, then most of this state will not care about who was a lobbyist. It's a typical attack that doesn't go far at all.
I support Zimmer, but even before I did I was saying that the lobbyist attack was useless and not worth much at all. There are lobbyists for military veterans care, are those people evil? Everyone gets this image of tobacco lobbyists and alcohol lobbyists, yet there's lobbyists for almost everything you can think of. It's a necessary job, whether you believe it's evil or not, it'll always be there.
And obviously what Zimmer looked like is in the eye of the one watching. I didn't see it yet, so I can't comment.
Bluntly though, I doubt many Republican primary voters watched at all, outside of us that are political junkies.
Fun Fact
An extra fact for all you D's out there...By tomorrow night, Zimmer will have participated in 3 debates already, where as Lautenberg has yet to do one with his opponents.
On Thursday all three R Candidates will debate once again at Stockton, making it the 4th time Zimmer has debated. (The 3rd being tomorrows debate with Murray streamed by the Courier Post).
Lautenberg will still be at zero..and only has agreed to 2 I believe.
I think there may be another Republican one at the end of the month as well.
Well ESedler, if you read my
Well ESedler, if you read my comment you'd see that I said people believe that lobbyists are evil and the media has exposed this. I agree with the media on this issue, but you're basically implying that it's my job to disagree with everything the media says? What? Just because I pointed out that the media talked about lobbyists more than they used to doesn't mean I like the media. Besides, this isn't just the media... who likes lobbyists besides lobbyists themselves or supporters of lobbyists (Zimmer supporters like yourself)? Stop trying to defend Zimmer on this... the bottom line is that people don't like lobbyists and he didn't look good when it was brought up during the debate. Which brings up another point. I watched the debate. Did you?
Good debate overall
I thought it was a good debate overall. Much more substantive then the presidenatial debates. I was surprised to see all three candidates making good points, and I found myself agreeing with most of what was said. I would say Sabrin came out the winner as he demonstrated a true understanding of the current economic crisis and gave real solutions, not empty platitudes. While Zimmer had many good points, especially on the reasons for the decline of our dollar, I can't help but feel that he is just a career politician saying what needs to be said to get elected. Pennacchio was well spoken as well, with strong conservative ideas. That said, everytime I hear him speak I think of the nazi manifesto he wrote. No way you can really trust a man who would write those sorts of things. So again, this one goes to Sabrin. I'm looking forward to the next debate. It will be interesting to see if Sabrin can keep winning the debates, or if one of the other candidates can step up their game.
Murry Won Yes..but
unfotunately no one was watching/listening. Except for maybe the 100 or so junkies that pay attention to this crap. Hate to break it to you folks but we tend to live in our own little (weird)political world. The normal folk don't give a damn (hence NJ). This has been a most unfortunate exercise in futility. But thanks for trying
People really don't care about lobbyists..
The average voter doesn't care about lobbyists. My point was to look at two legislators whose past of being a lobbyist had virtually no affect on their elections, one of which was a Republican in a Democrat-friendly district that has quite the independent streak. I'm not a lobbyist and frankly I don't know why anyone would "support" lobbyists, I just understand that they are necessary and it's just part of the way things are.
Sure the media portrays them in a certain light and some people view them automatically with negativity, but if that's the only negative point you've got against someone running for office, then good luck.
The debate was not available on NJN online last night after it originally aired and I was not home to watch it at 8pm. It might be today, but I haven't checked yet. I'll try and watch it tonight or tomorrow, but I really don't put too much emphasis in it. They will have very little effect on this race for Republicans.