Everyone Agrees the Debate Moderators Were the Big Losers Last Night

I was just watching Morning Joe. Neither he nor Hugh Hewitt feels that Rubio simply won the debate. They argue he may have won a part of it, Ted Cruz.

Of course, my main man, Donald Trump-the man I want to win the primary if it were up to me; as a Democrat of course it isn't!-has again defied those who claimed that he was a big player' by winning all the online polls though I will freely admit these are not worth much at this point.

Who can forget that post Democrat debate polls where all these polls showed Bernie beating Hillary 80% to 15%? Once I saw some that had her being blown out not just by Bernie but by Jim Webb, I knew they weren't worth the paper they were printed on-or as it was an online poll, the paper they weren't printed on.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/so-bernie-truthers-bern-did-fine-but.html?showComment=1445059353548#c3132663988623554214

Speaking of Ted Cruz, his big moment was stepping up the demonization of the media that Rubio had already started in his response to the Florida editorial that had called on him to resign from the Senate as he never shows up for votes.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/rubio-on-not-doing-his-senate-job-no.html

I was happily surprised that no one less than Ann Coulter got bored of the GOP whining about the moderators last night.

"GOP's media bashing is getting boring.CNBC Qs not measurably different from CNN or FNC. They're just imitating Trump "

However, the consensus is that the moderators really did do a bad job and Morning Joe speaks for many in saying it was just a terrible debate. Listen to Bill Kristol!

"Would be better to have @PaulBegala, @davidaxelrod, & @danpfeiffer as questioners. They'd be more intelligent and less self-righteous."

https://twitter.com/BillKristol

I'm sure they'd be willing to do it. Heck I'd be willing to do it. How about me, Sid Blumenthal, and David Brock?

Part of it I think was the moderators were bullied by Cruz, Rubio and then Chris Christie who this morning on CNBC was still demonizing John Harwood.

"RNC Chair Reince Priebus, who partnered with CNBC to put on this debate, is crapping on CNBC big time for putting on a terrible debate. I thought it was a terrible debate. But I was a little unclear why Priebus thought it was so terrible from a GOP perspective. That became a little more clear after I saw the breakdown of how much each candidate got to talk. Carly Fiorina, who is barely in the running, got more time than anyone else. Jeb Bush got the least by a significant margin - less than Rand Paul, Huckabee, Christie, people who aren't even really in the race. Priebus is clearly getting hell for that."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/some-more-thoughts-on-the-debate

There was that moment when Jeb Bush's campaign manager was banging on the door, irate:

"Banging on the CNBC production team’s door halfway through the debate, campaign manager Danny Diaz reamed the debate host over how little time Bush was getting. In the end, the one-time front-runner scored less than seven minutes, worse than almost every other candidate"

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/my-interpretation-of-last-nights-debate.html

As far as Carly Fiorina leading in time goes I have a few reactions.

1. I really hadn't noticed this which shows that her performance didn't stand out too much or at least not for me.

2. It points to the rather disorganized way the moderators ran the debate. They allowed some candidates to gon for longer than others.

3. She dominated in time last debate too on CNN. This suggests she may know how to game the system. She's able to get moderators to let her go on for longer.

That CNBC did a terrible job is a pretty universal meme this morning.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/republican-debate-cnbc-moderators-media-215316

Josh Marshall offers an explanation of why it was so bad:

"But as I reflect on the debate a bit more I think a big reason the debate was so weird was that so many of the questions were based on obscurantist and myopic CNBC nonsense - which is not only far-right and identified with great wealth but specifically owned by the bubble of Wall Street. That led to a lot of odd questions - like Jim Cramer's saying why aren't GM execs going to jail, Santelli's wild questions or that question about fantasy football. Lots of people are into fantasy football. But whether it's betting and whether it should be regulated, that's a Wall Streeter question - in the same way huge amounts of the money that gets pushed through political betting sites comes off Wall Street. It's hard for Republicans to say this. But I think this is a significant reason why the debate seemed so odd. And it made it kind of odd to hear anti-liberal bias attacks on the moderators when they were asking questions like shouldn't the Fed be forced to take us back to the gold standard."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/some-more-thoughts-on-the-debate

I did find the media bashing of Rubio, Cruz, and Christie pretty cheap. But they got away with it. Like I said, Christie was still bashing Hardwood this morning.

P.S. Joe Scarborough picks up on the way Rubio lied last night about his personal finances. Ann Coulter pointed out the same thing. Joe can't believe there was no followup.
So we'll see about just how well Rubio really did or not. But at the end of the day, if Jeb is going down as even Nate Silver seems to think then this is a bonanza for Rubio.