Hello friends,
I just finished watching the CNBC Republican debate. This wasn’t a great night of TV watching for me. First, I “enjoyed” watching my New York Mets get thrashed by the Kansas City Royals in Game 2 of the World Series. Then, as soon as that wipe-out was mercifully over, I got to “enjoy” watching CNBC’s 437 moderators ask some ridiculous questions to the ten Republican contenders on the main debate stage.
I’m leaving for LAX in less than an hour, heading to NYC for a visit with my mother, brother and hometown Mets, so I’m writing fast, apologies for any typos!
First of all, I need to rant for a moment: what the frack was up with CNBC running a live Twitter feed during this debate????!!!! Because I am a huge sports fan, I have two TV’s in my living room, often watching two games at once. Tonight I was watching the World Series on my main TV and the debate on the smaller one. I couldn’t hear anything being said but I was curious about the questions being asked: in the last debate, CNN often put up graphics showing the questions. But that’s not what I saw: what I saw was a bottom-screen crawl of Twitter comments made by what appeared to be some regular folks but what also included campaign operatives of both political parties!
So I have to ask, is it fair to the ten GOP candidates, many of whom had limited time to speak in the two hour debate format, that the audience was also treated to (and distracted by) repetitive comments, many of them by their political opponents? I saw more Tweets from Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and California Barbara Boxer than I saw face time from some of the candidates.
This Tweet came from the Chairman of the RNC after the fact:
“CNBC should be ashamed at how this debate was handled.”
— Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee
The Twitter feed was just part of the problem: many of the questions from CNBC’s moderators were patently ridiculous. Ted Cruz had the line of the night, fairly early in the debate, when he said this:
“This is not a cage match. And, you look at the questions — “Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?” “Ben Carson, can you do math?” “John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?” “Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?” “Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?”
How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?”
— Ted Cruz, Texas Senator
Even after getting called out by Cruz about the ridiculous questions (to thunderous applause, I might add), towards the end of the debate, one of the moderators actually asked Jeb Bush if the federal government should regulate daily fantasy websites!! I mean, there are serious economic issues in our country and we’re talking about fantasy sports???!!! Good for Chris Christie for calling them out on this (to equally thunderous applauase).
But this is serious: forgetting about the questions asked for a moment, if Priebus knew that CNBC was going to run this Twitter feed and didn’t make the biggest stink possible to stop it, firing him should be contemplated.
Now, having finished my rant on this topic, I will say that Cruz, Christie and several other candidates turned the CNBC lunacy to their advantage. There’s nothing that plays better with Republican voters than their candidates battling (and exposing) the bias of the mainstream media. Marco Rubio, when commenting on Donald Trump’s diatribe against super-PAC’s in American Politics, delivered this great one-liner:
“I know the Democrats have the ultimate Super-PAC. It’s called the mainstream media”
— Marco Rubio, Florida Senator
(Incidentally, I agree with Trump that Super-PAC’s are an evil part of American politics. For those who don’t know, these are organizations that can raise millions or tens of millions of dollars in support of a candidate but are not legally allowed to coordinate with the candidate. It is convenient for Trump to rail against these entities because he’s a billionaire and get more free media than all of the other candidates combined.)
Anyway, some quick thoughts on each of the 10 candidates:
Donald Trump: this was a “do no harm” debate for The Donald. It was the first debate that he didn’t completely dominate; there were a limited number of attacks directed to or from him. I think his supporters will still support, his detractors will still detract. But a recent national poll put Ben Carson in front of him; the whole key to Trump’s campaign message is that he’s a “winner” and he’s “winning” all of the polls. Once that’s no longer true, he may start to slide.
Ben Carson: he didn’t seem to say much. I think he should be dubbed “Gentle Ben” (like the golfer Ben Crenshaw). Because he didn’t name anybody else and was barely named himself, he seemed invisible for a top-tier candidate.
Marco Rubio: it’s my belief that he was the winner of this debate. When attacked by either the moderators or by his competitors, he cleverly spun the responses into his personal story and to a positive message. He’s currently the #1 non-outsider candidate and I think this debate will solidify and grow that status.
Jeb Bush: he was a little better than the previous two efforts but don’t think he did anything to advance his candidacy.
Ted Cruz: I believe that Cruz is being highly underrated in this campaign. He had a terrific performance tonight, he’s best positioned to pick up Trump supporters if/when he falters and apparently has had really good fund-raising numbers. This race could ultimately be Rubio v Cruz if/when the Trump-Carson phenomenon fades.
Carly Fiorina: once again, she proved that she excels in this format but she didn’t have many memorable moments tonight. She was the clear winner of the CNN debate but was one of many tonight. She rose substantially in the polls after the CNN outing but then fell back (not sure exactly what that’s about), I doubt she’s going to bump up again. She is DEFINITELY showing that she’s the one you want in the VP debate against whomever the Dems choose.
Chris Christie: the New Jersey governor did really well tonight. He forced his way into some conversations and had some great moments. I think he is still a huge long-shot but, if he hangs around, he’s good at these debates.
John Kasich: he came out attacking early, talking about some of the false promises being made by his competitors (such as having Mexico pay for a wall on our southern border). This was his first attack on Trump and the Donald fired back quickly, stealing the Ohio Governor’s thunder. I like Kasich a lot. I think he’s got the experience and people skills to be a great president but he’s considered a RINO by the base and remains a long-shot.
Mike Huckabee: I’m sorry, was he there too? I like the former Arkansas governor but he missed his moment four years ago when he would have been a legitimate opponent to Mitt Romney.
Rand Paul: he was there too?
Anyway, gotta go, Let’s Go Mets!! On my way to NYC.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Bodig