I don't have a dog in this fight, but...

[Lamplighter]

In the GOP foreign policy debate Sunday in South Carolina, candidates were asked
whether they believed the U.S. should waterboard terror detainees.

This question did two things totally unique to this year's debates.
It resurrected the ghost of Dick Cheney on the issue of water boarding, and
it brought emphatic, yet matching responses from President Obama and Senator McCain.

Michele Bachmann explicitly endorsed waterboarding:

“If I were president, I would be willing to use waterboarding.”
"I’m on the same side as Vice President Cheney on this issue".

Cain told the debate moderators:

“I don’t see it as torture. I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique,”

Ron Paul, in contrast, upset a portion of the partisan crowd by declaring:

"water boarding is torture" and reminding the crowd that
"torture is illegal" under both US and international laws.

"Why would you accept the position of torturing a hundred people because
you know one person might have information?" Paul asked,
“I think it’s uncivilized. It would have no practical advantages
and is really un-American
to accept on principle that we will torture people we will capture.”

Huntsman, agreed, saying,

"We diminish our standing in the world and the values that we project,
which include liberty, democracy, human rights and open markets, when we torture."

Reactions from McCain and Obama were:

John McCain said:

“Very disappointed by statements at SC GOP debate supporting waterboarding.
Waterboarding is torture.”

President Obama responded: Let me just say this:

They’re wrong. *Waterboarding is torture. *It’s contrary to America’s traditions.
It’s contrary to our ideals. *That’s not who we are. *That’s not how we operate.
We don’t need it in order to prosecute the war on terrorism. And we did the right thing by ending that practice.
If we want to lead around the world, part of our leadership is setting a good example.
And anybody who has actually read about and understands the practice of waterboarding
would say that that is torture. *And that’s not something we do, period.

And besides all that:

Today Herman Cain showed that he is a manly man, with a link back
to Red Skelton's skits about the "Mean 'ittle Kid":

"Manly" men like more pizza toppings

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said in an interview
with GQ Monday that one can tell how "manly" a man is by looking at
how many toppings he puts on his pizza.
He also said a pizza covered in vegetables is a "sissy pizza."

"The more toppings a man has on his pizza, I believe the more manly he is," <snip>.

Cain, laughing, then explained that "the more manly man is not afraid of abundance"
before calling into question the manliness of a pizza with vegetables on it.
"A manly man don't want it piled high with vegetables!
He would call that a sissy pizza," Cain said.

Those were not the only food-related comments Cain made in the interview.
Cain has compared himself to black walnut ice cream;
asked what flavor Mitt Romney would be, Cain responded, "just plain vanilla."
He went on to call Rick Perry "rocky road" and deem
Michele Bachmann "tutti-frutti" after initially insisting, when asked about Bachmann,

"I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it."
"I know I'm going to get in trouble!," Cain said after deeming Bachmann tutti-frutti.

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