A GOP Debate Sans Iraq & Immigration?

The three most-important issues on the GOP side of the presidential slate are the War on Terror, Iraq and Immigration. It should then be assumed that those topics would be front and center in the last debate prior to the Iowa Caucuses, should it not?

Try not. Des Moines Register Editor Carolyn Washburn failed the voters by not engaging the candidates on these crucial issues:

The problems went beyond Washburn's lack of mad moderating skillz. From the outset, Washburn announced that the candidates would not be discussing either Iraq or immigration. Swell! It's the biggest debate of the season, so let's take the two biggest issues off the table. For what it's worth, Washburn brought all the charm to her assignment of a latter-day Nurse Ratched.

At some point, the political parties will have to begin to wonder why they entrust such a critical part of our president-choosing process to people like Carolyn Washburn, people who obviously aren't up to the task.

Aside from Dean Barnett using the word "skillz", he does have a point, while the situation in Iraq is indeed improving, it's not over and will remain the single biggest issue for the eventual new President. Immigration is also a hot-button topic that will be a central issue in the general election. There's very little nuance with the public, you either support open borders and granting amnesty to those here or you seal the border and deport those who broke the law in crossing the border illegally.

Fred Thompson (who Barnett believes won a much-needed victory) saw this debate for the sham it was and took a stand against the idiotic showing of hands tactic. More on Thompson later.

I didn't see the debate live but have watched most of it online and it seems that Thompson may be finding his stride. More on that later.