You may have heard that the Republican National Committee has announced that after the CNBC debate the other night, they will participate in no more debates involving NBC. Why? Ted Cruz gave the game away on Fox News on Thursday when he suggested debates moderated by Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh…
…in other words, moderators who will ask them questions they want to be asked. No one will ask anyone how come the math on his or her tax plan doesn't add up or how they can defend a past vote or financial association or why they seem to advocate one thing and do another. What they want is pure infomercial. With moderators like that, the candidates could have their answers prepared and just read them off TelePrompters.
They thought the CNBC moderators were disrespectful and interested in confrontation. That may be true, though I would think folks who brag about how they'll stand up to Putin could face a little of that. The CNBC interrogators sure didn't impress me as great journalists, not that a lot of folks do these days. But I think the real problem is that they did ask some questions that caused candidates to give answers they regretted and which may have hurt them. That's what the candidates want to stop.
As I've said repeatedly, I don't like these "debates." I think they distill important issues down to quick, incomplete sound bites. They always remind me of Miss America finalists being asked to summarize their plan for World Peace in 90 seconds. In every one, too many questions are answered, "I have a plan to fix this" and we never get around to hearing what that plan is.
I, for one, would like to have heard Mike Huckabee — an opponent of fetal tissue research and many scientific programs — explain what he would do to hasten the finding of cures for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's. My guess is it involves prayer, not raising taxes, eliminating F.D.A. regulations and creating new ways for private sector researcher firms to claim any damn thing they want and to soak sick, desperate people for remedies of questionable effectiveness.