Because we were doing a rally in Yardley, PA, We didn’t get the opportunity to watch last night’s entire Presidential “debate” — a misnomer for the game show that used to be a true debate but is nowadays more of a soundbite cum campaign stump speech. Anyway, we caught the last half hour of it, and what we watched was not particularly impressive or illuminating.
So today I clicked over to Michelle Malkin’s site to get her take on it. Whew! She let them have it, both barrels, and I’m glad she did. Someone has to expose the sham and political agenda that’s in play here by “debate” hosts MSNBC. She titled it:
Why the Reagan Library GOP debate sucked
Quick take…
Readers want to know who I thought “won” the GOP debate at the Reagan Library last night.
My answer: Twitter.
It’s where quick-fingered conservatives who actually care about conservatism freely debated and dissected the bone-headed questions and condescension of liberal D.C./N.Y. “moderator” Brian Williams, Politico staffer John Harris, and ethnic representative Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo throughout the MSNBC telecast. (Why not a minority journalist representing every race and ethnicity in the U.S. next time for a full Identity Politics-palooza!)
The questions ranged from the predictable (querying Perry about “low-wage” jobs created in Texas) to the hostile (Williams asking Perry how he could “sleep at night” based on his death penalty record) and calculated (Harris lobbing a softball invitation to Jon Huntsman to identify the “crazy” Republicans in the room). Transcript excerpts can be found here.
I have still not settled on a candidate. I’m not on any team. My operating question is not “Who are you for?” but “WHAT are you for?”
And: Does your record match your rhetoric?
What I found most striking and informative was not anything discussed in the debate — the immigration segment was superficial and platitude-filled, Perry’s death penalty answer was mainstream GOP red meat, the Perry/Romney Punch-and-Judy scenes were mildly entertaining, the global warming portion rushed and shaky — but what was left out.
The East Coast/Beltway-centric producers and journalists who put this debate on didn’t include a single question about the economic distress of Western states and the Rocky Mountain region. Not a word about Obama’s War on the West and what the candidates would do to undo the damage.
The top governance issue outside the Beltway — bloated public union pensions and benefits — warranted zero attention.
Not a word about the bloody Operation Fast and Furious scandal and who GOP candidates would put in charge at DOJ and ATF to right the wrongs and secure our borders.
And how about the undue influence of the profane, Tea Party-bashing, corrupted leaders of Big Labor on the White House? Nada.
I was glad to see a question about Rick Perry’s atrocious Gardasil executive order and glad to see several of the candidates (most effectively, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann) challenge his reckless disregard for transparency, parental autonomy, and limited government. But there were zero follow-up questions about Perry’s Merck entanglements and the crony capitalism angle in general.
Debates are supposed to be illuminating, vigorous exchanges of ideas and vetting of records. (Unlike Newt “The Peacemaker” Gingrich, I find NOTHING wrong with internal battles between candidates over policy and ideology.) In the end, of course, politicians are all still…politicians. The Big Biz/Big Govt rent-seeking racket never ends.
It’s still worth it to put them up on stage and make them defend and explain their flips, flops, and double-half-twists.
But when the bobbleheads in charge of organizing the debate probably think Friedrich Hayek is Salma Hayek’s dad and are more concerned with pandering to Telemundo viewers than informing Republican voters, what’s the point?
There’s more. Read it.
