The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

GOP Debate, Arguably, Still Going Strong

Posted on | February 17, 2012 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

I met young Ben Shapiro at the blogger awards event Friday morning at CPAC. Crowder was making a running joke on the topic of condoms and a social conservative Presidential candidate. After two or three tries that fell flat, I looked at Shapiro and said “He’s going to keep inflating that joke until it pops.”

Is the last pre-Super Tuesday GOP debate on 01 March in some way similar to a Steven Crowder condom joke? I contend that the topic of the debate informs the question. Sample debate topics for which total collapse of the debate itself is appropriate:

  • The economy.
  • Every good thing President Obama ever did.
  • U.S. credibility in Southwest Asia.
  • The Constitutional basis for Progressivism.
  • What the Left knows about free market capitalism.
  • Courageous bureaucratic acts.

So, no hint as to what the candidates were to have discussed at the onset of March Madness. However, given the relative lack of substantive policy debate in the preceding events, it’s hard to argue that a collapse on 01 March is any worse than what came before.

In fact, it is arguably more honest that that candidates not bother wasting our time, again, rather than stand there for 1-2 hours saying nothing to each other in the most caustic political terms available.

Good news, bad news: who can say?

Category: Debates, GOP, humor

Comments

11 Responses to “GOP Debate, Arguably, Still Going Strong”

  1. Zilla of the Resistance
    February 17th, 2012 @ 8:28 am

    The debate was going to be hosted by hostile liberals anyway, because our party are suckers, it’s not like it was going to be worth a damn if it had gone on.

  2. ThePaganTemple
    February 17th, 2012 @ 8:30 am

     The real story is, they called it off after Romney cancelled, which I take it as meaning they didn’t want to give any of the others a forum.

  3. smitty
    February 17th, 2012 @ 9:21 am

    And Romney cancels because he sees no value in engaging. “Brave, brave Sir Romney!”

  4. Thomas L. Knapp
    February 17th, 2012 @ 9:56 am

    It’s not complicated: None of the three are perfectly happy with what they’ve got at the moment , but all three are scared to death to get in the ring with Newt again, lest he take what they’ve got at the moment away from them.

    If Newt’s got the budget, he should have guys in chicken suits stalking all three of them at every campaign event from here on out, and run a commercial asking “if these guys are too fragile to debate me, what are they going to do when it’s time to debate Obama?”

  5. richard mcenroe
    February 17th, 2012 @ 10:06 am

    After his dynamite performances in the last two debates. Yup.

    Whatcha got here is Rick, Mitt and even Crazy Uncle Ron doing what Newt couldn’t do even with all the bitter cheated on wives of SC behind him: putting the fossil media in their place.

    Newt was a tubby little pit bull with John King because the question was personally embarrassing to him, but by the next debate he was back to meek acquiescence.

  6. smitty
    February 17th, 2012 @ 10:07 am

    In an era where bold leadership is needed, this does smack of a leadership vacuum.
    I can’t imagine CNN giving Newt that much of a forum, unless they’re sure he can divide conservatives.

  7. Bob Belvedere
    February 17th, 2012 @ 10:23 am

    When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.

  8. AnonymousDrivel
    February 17th, 2012 @ 10:34 am

    The stable remaining is inhabited by moderate-level Statists on the governance front. Yet another rehashing of their past will provide nothing but fodder for Democrats and the MFM (BIRM). On the plus side, every single one of them is an order or two better than SCoaMF.

    So let’s everyone vote their conscience without all the “electability” crap; let each caucus/primary handle its affairs without intrusion by other caucus/primary bomb-throwers; and let’s let the chips fall where they may. Anyone fallowing politics at this point from the Dextrosphere will be voting AnyoneButObama despite protestations about how awful everyone is.

    Skipping yet another debate wherein the JournoList/Media Matters/MFM cabal gets another round of whacks while sniping politicos hold up each others’ bloodied carcasses for more beatings until morale improves seems like a positive. Even more positive would be the remaining candidates laying out their blueprints for short-, mid-, and long-term plans outside of the Thunderdome where something tangible can be pitched.

  9. SDN
    February 17th, 2012 @ 12:22 pm

     Which is why anyone who uses the words “sincere” and “Romney” in the same sentence without quotes needs a full toxicology panel….

  10. Adjoran
    February 17th, 2012 @ 2:14 pm

    CNN’s conduct of previous debates in this cycle – and the last, for that matter – have been unsatisfactory.  Have any of the debates been enlightening as to policies and plans and solutions?  Of course not – any idea which can be explained in two minutes is probably far too simplistic to deal with a complex problem.

    It’s pretty clear Romney and Santorum agreed in advance on this – hence Santorum’s quick assent.  Had there been no deal, he might at least have crowed a bit about scaring Mitt away, but instead he immediately ditched it himself.

    As to being “afraid of Newt,” well, that’s just laughable.  Newt’s been in all 18-20 debates so far.  He won the two just before SC, powered by softballs served up by questioners begging to be slapped down, and by consensus ONE prior debate.  Most of his performances were steady but not winners, and the last two particularly lackluster.

    “Newt the great debater” is a myth, just as it is a myth he was a competent Speaker, that he had a major role in balancing the budget or creating jobs in the ’90s, or even that he is some brilliant historian (he failed to win tenure after eight years at Georgia Western College, hardly the Ivy League of Appalachia).  The less we see of this nasty little cretin and his revisionist supporters from now on, the better.

  11. Friday Roundup 2/17/12
    February 17th, 2012 @ 4:14 pm

    […] GOP Debate, Arguably, Still Going Strong […]