I didn’t watch the Republican debate last night. I’m not particularly interested in candidates I’ll never have the opportunity to vote for (even if I wanted to) and I have little use for the joint press conference format of the “debates”. My observations are based on the accounts I’ve read.
There’s something that the entertainment industry can’t quite come to terms with and, let’s face it, whether in Hollywood, New York, or Washington, DC, cable newsreaders are in the entertainment industry. Although people take some interest in entertainers in somewhat the same way that they watch building on fire, they’re not really that interested in them. Ordinary people don’t have the all-absorbing interest in entertainers that entertainers have in themselves.
Journalists should report the news not be the news. When journalists are the news, there’s a serious problem. Jeff Jacoby’s remarks are just about right:
One of the CNBC moderators, Carl Quintanilla, asked Senator Ted Cruz whether his opposition to the just-announced congressional deal raising the federal debt limit demonstrates that he’s “not the kind of problem-solver American voters want.â€
Cruz’s response was to turn the tables on the moderators, blasting them for the hostility toward the candidates that oozed from virtually every question they had asked so far.
Then, with devastating accuracy, he recited back the offensive 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?â€
By this point, the audience was going wild with cheers.
But Cruz wasn’t finished. He contrasted the animus of the media panel toward the GOP field with the recent Democratic debate, “where every fawning question was: Which of you is more handsome, and why?†And then he underlined the message: “Nobody watching at home believes that any of the moderators has any intention of voting in a Republican primary.â€
It was brutal takedown, and CNBC’s smarmy moderators had it coming.
Now I recognize that Ted Cruz is quick on his feet but I’d bet a shiny new dime that he had pre-prepared that diatribe. He was just waiting for CNBC’s immoderate moderators to fall into the trap.
I have no interest in Ted Cruz. I think he’s a demagogue. But CNBC can help him become a star if they want to. Just keep being the news.
This wasn’t CNBC’s fault. The GOP looks terrible and even the network that gave Jim Cramer a show and Rick Santelli a forum was unable to change that.
The question asked to Cruz was completely legitimate. It was the type of question actual ‘ordinary’ people would want to ask. Same goes with the questions for Trump about his comic-book campaign (rendered, per Jacoby, in ‘devastating accuracy) and Carson about the utter BS behind his flat-tax plan.
I was listening on the radio while driving. After about 10 minutes I was shocked at the lack of professionalism. It was like a SNL skit. I suspect Cruz was in fact lying in the weeds, but that he knew the moderators would open themselves to being filleted like fish tells all.
There really is a difference in the tone of questions and the agenda is obviously to create a food fight among the GOP contenders. Now this might be because of the political bias of the moderators, or it may be their bias toward entertainment (likely it’s both) but it distracts from discussion of the issues.
So Cruz’s comment, whether premeditated or not, was useful in that it cleared the air. The rest of the debate included some good substantive policy discussion.
Apparently the RNC is dropping NBC from the debate schedule next February because it didn’t even follow the format originally agreed upon — including more questions with economic substance as well as the candidates having opening statements. I think this is a good move on the part of the RNC.
Furthermore, there has been increaasing disgruntlement about the liberal orientation of most moderators in these debates. Why isn’t there a balance of liberal and conservative questioners in the mix?
I agree, though, that what CNBC managed to do was create a good soundbite for Ted Cruz to install into his own campaign. It also appeared to rally all the candidates where they became a consolidated group rather than simply a backbiting faction of competing individuals — similar to the mode of the lockstep democrats.