It Must be Easy Being a Republican Candidate for President

I mean no matter what the question is, it's the liberal media's fault. Every question a GOP candidate doesn't like has the same answer.

Charles Pierce touches on something else about that debate. The candidates basically felt no compunction to even answer the questions they were asked.

Often they'd just decide they didn't like the question and answered another one no one had asked.

"There never has been a debate in which the panel seemed less relevant, and this isn't the fault of the three people on it. The folks behind all the podiums came to the stage wanting to say things, and damned if they weren't going to say them. It started when John Kasich answered a question about his biggest weakness by pointing out what know-nothing schlubs Donald Trump and Ben Carson are. Sequiturs? Non! It got worse. Trump bludgeoned Kasich in return about how much of Kasich's success as governor of Ohio was due to the fracking boom, and then mocked him for getting tough because he's polling so badly. Dr. Ben (The Blade) Carson spun his mathematical cotton candy into sweet swirls of complete non-fact. And Marco Rubio claimed that the bad press he's getting about missing votes—and, it must be said, for his going around talking about what a miserable job the Senate is—is a result of the gap between "the mainstream press" and conservative politicians. Jeb! Bush asked him "as a constituent" why he didn't walk away from the completely miserable existence forced upon him as a United States Senator. Rubio flashed back by reciting how many votes previous senators—​citing Bob Graham, John Kerry, and the president​—​missed while they were running. Of course, none of them complained about their day jobs and, by the time Kerry ran, he was a decorated war hero, and a veteran senator who had led hearings into international money laundering and the drug trade. Marco Rubio was…speaker of the Florida House. Where is Lloyd Bentsen when we all need him?"

"But the highlight of the first hour, and the most vivid example of what was going on, was when Ted Cruz was asked about the budget deal that was struck this week between the Congress and the White House,and he replied by ripping the moderators up one side and down the other. This was the Tailgunner in full cry, channeling the spirit of the original Tailgunner when he called the last Democratic debate, "the Bolsheviks vs. the Mensheviks." Are you now, or have you ever been."

"This wasn't a lack of control. The format was fine. But there's nothing you can do about someone like Ted Cruz, who isn't encumbered by either truth or civility. Even defending the other candidates, he doesn't care what damage he does, as long as he can stand atop the rubble. Come to think of it, that could be said of pretty much all of these people.​"

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a39260/gop-debate-question-doesnt-matter/

I'm still not sure how to characterize what happened with the moderators. The consensus seems to be they did a horrible job. I do agree with Paul Waldman here. It's not that the moderators are liberal-and how has there been this terrible media bias when the first debate was on Fox and the third was on CNBC-which if you've ever watched the station you know prefers Republicans?

You could just as soon call CNBC Stephen Moore TV. 

"The real bias is in the journalists' weak attempts to create drama."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/10/29/presidential-debates-often-stink-but-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-liberal-media-bias/

I think that's spot on. The CNN debate was very tiresome in this respect. Almost every question there was along the line of 'Donald Trump likes this for lunch. Why is he wrong?'

Meanwhile there is a movement afoot among the GOP candidates themselves to set up their own format in future debates. Just like the House GOP is always at war with its Speaker, the candidates are now taking aim at the RNC for doing such a bad job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/10/29/presidential-debates-often-stink-but-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-liberal-media-bias/

Josh Barro on Chris Hayes last night made the good point that Ted Cruz's war on the moderators doesn't benefit all the GOP candidates equally. The 'cage match' approach actually suits some, he argued like Carly Fiorina who would have been fine with another marathon 3 and a half hour debate like second debate.

Now Ben Carson is declaring that it's time to change the format as there isn't enough time to answer questions. That was true but then of course, as Tom Brown points out:

"Regarding Carson's demands that the debates be restructured, I found these two quotes:

"There's not enough time to talk about your plans..."

"Bennett noted that the Carson and Trump campaigns forced CNBC to shorten the debate"

Hmmm, is this a case of (as Jason pointed out in a recent post) A < B, B < C and C < A?

I.e. mob "logic?" Are the candidates becoming personifications of the irrational emergent "representative agent" of the mob?''

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/sorry-beltway-pundits-but-trumps-night.html?showComment=1446143411771#c2061979397374964370

Yet, I think in this case Ben's demands are coherent. The second debate was way too long and this one left too little time to answer questions properly.

The real problem is there are too many frigging GOP candidates. At the very least they ought to can the kid's table already. Sorry, if you have less than 3% just watch it from home.

P.S. The good news is that is the next GOP debate is under two weeks away and for this one Chris Christie may well not have the requisite 3% poll numbers to be in the main debate-I'm careful not say adults' table.

In that vein, maybe we shouldn't do away with the kid's table debate so fast. It would be worth it just to see Christie confined to it.

For more on Christie, here is the NY Times telling him to go home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/opinion/governor-chris-christie-time-to-go-home.html?_r=0

Trouble is they don't want him there either. NJ was very clear that they wanted him to resign if he ran for President.