Forum: What Did You Take Away From The GOP Debates?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question:What Did You Take Away From The GOP Debates?


Don Surber : Only women bleed?

Seriously, Carly won. Kasich took the nightcap by co-opting the message of The Other Donald (my phrase for him). Next day comments by Donald Trump about Megyn Kelly may have ended his campaign.

My main takeaway was that it was good TV. Sharp, well-researched questions followed by good answers. No Coke or Pepsi bullshit. The bar is raised by Fox News.

The Independent Sentinel : Carly Florina won both debates. She was quick, knowledgeable, strong. she wants to bring America back and I believe she can do it.

The evening debate was a ruined after the intro and the second question which was worthy of a debate on TMZ since it was taken out of context and only meant to take Trump down.

An article by the hill called Trump teflon and they wondered how he could be taken down. The obvious answer is to stop trying to take him down with tactics unbefitting Fox News. People resent being manipulated and they don't like unfair attacks.

Of course the left loved it. The three-person Fox team took up one-third of the time and asked candidates questions at the start that addressed the worst criticisms against them. Everything the candidates said afterwards hardly mattered to those not on the right.

Hello, Fox, Hillary is the enemy, not our candidates!

And why did they go after the pro-life issues when we have Planned Parenthood selling infants parts from their baby chop shop. They're probably committing infanticide. Why all the social issues questions?

The afternoon debate wasn't the ratings-getter but it was so well-done. All our candidates could do their best in that atmosphere.

Did Fox switch teams to get ratings?

GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD:I pretty much decided yours truly doesn't give a rat's assets over anything GOV Christe, SEN Paul or GOV Kasich has to say. Personally rather see Carly Fiorina and GOV Perry get into the top ten.

All in all - a big phat field to choose from!

 JoshuaPundit : Much of what I had to say about the debate can be seen here. But I think a few points need to be emphasized, and definitely amplified in few of the events of the last few days.

While few questions could have been better off not asked, overall I thought FOX did a fine job, especially given the amount of people involved. They kept things moving and asked exactly the tough questions needed. FOX News is not an organ of the GOP. That, after all is what the Left says,isn't it? They are a news organization and their job is to ask the tough questions. Considering Trump's history of Twitter insults towards women I didn't find Megan Kelly's question to be at all out of line as it will be a major Democrat talking point.I found his obvious reference to her menstrual cycle to be odious, one men have used for years when faced with strong women they disapprove of.

Let us examine Mr. Trump. His speeches consist of obvious applause lines and zero real policy. Yet no one questions that. There's talk of the 'Teflon Trump' and insults to ethnic groups and women that would normally have the media in a howling frenzy get passed by, just like questions about aspects of his previous record. This sort of license is unheard of for Republican candidates. Ever wonder why?

I got my answers Thursday night. When he was asked straight questions about his 180 degree pivots on issues like abortion, his sudden change from being a lifelong Democrat to a Republican, and his relations with crony capitalism and the Clintons, he came out with obviously rehearsed and bogus sounding answers. And to top it off, he refused to commit to not running as a third party candidate.

Let's go back to 1992. Another billionaire named Ross Perot ran for president. He had the same formula...lots of applause lines and little meat, the ability to glom onto an angry electorate and a fair amount of media savvy; He did exactly what Trump is doing know, except he had the honesty to run as a third party from day one. He got just enough votes to allow Bill Clinton to slither into the Oval Office. You see, I fell for Perot's nonsense too so I know exactly what Trump's appeal is. Of all the votes I ever cast, that's the only one I wish I had back - it would likely have prevented 9/11, because George HW Bush would have had Osama bin-Laden in custody somewhere singing like a canary, North Korea wouldn't have the bomb and China would be at least 29 years behind militarily from where she is now.

Trump is this year's Perot, and being that he is so personally close to the Clintons, the idea might very well be for the Donald to help her get elected. It's exactly the sort of scheme I could see Bill Clinton coming up with. It also explains the 'Teflon Trump.' Why else would the ObamaMedia not be tearing his head off?

I urge people not to fall for this scam. If you really want an anti-establishment Republican, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee fill that space admirably. And with consistency without any last minute conversions.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason : The first GOP debate was disappointing. The format did not give each of the candidates enough time to leave an impression with the viewers. For the most part it was The Trump Show, and he spent more time bloviating than actually giving any substantial answers to any of the questions.

The good news is that over 24 million viewers watched the debate, which hopefully means people are truly looking for a change from the last six and a half years of President Obama’s destruction and fundamental transformation of our country.

The biggest problem the GOP faces is not Donald Trump, it is all of the disaffected voters who are tired of the GOP establishment turning their backs on the issues they promised to fix if only we gave them majorities in the House (which we did in 2010) and the Senate (delivered to them in 2014). We no longer have a Congress truly representative of we the people.

There were some good moments had by Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee. It will be interesting to see how the voters reacted to them and how their numbers do in the post debate polls.

One thing we need to see the Republican candidates do going forward is convey the fact that Hillary Clinton is just another Barack Obama and electing her would only bring us more of the same. In addition, they need to explain clearly what our country stands for and how that differs from the direction progressive policy makers and educators have taken us over the last century. This election is not just about whether an R or D becomes president. It is about restoring our country to the Constitutional Republic our founders intended.

The Right Planet : I was left scratching my head. Some believe Fox News was aiming to take down Donald Trump. But Fox has also given more airtime to Trump than any other candidate. I find that rather "interesting." The Washington Post (insert grain of salt here) reported Bill Clinton had called Donald Trump and encouraged him to play a larger role in the Republican Party. If these reports are true, why would Clinton want Trump more involved in Republican politics?

What is at play here, in my opinion, is what I call the "Trump Factor." Trump is tapping into the vast reservoir of frustration and anger many Republicans and right-leaning voters feel when it comes to the GOP's rather nasty habit of caving to the Left on just about everything. It is certainly something that has caused me endless exasperation and frustration. But I just can't take Trump serious as a viable candidate for president. I don't want a narcissistic hothead for leader. We already have one of those, albeit a passive-aggressive one. Yeah, Trump is good for a vicarious thrill. I get it. But that's about it for me. And I have some serious questions about Trump's motives.

It was interesting, too, to note that the Fox News moderators gave Trump more than double the amount of time (11:14 min.) as some of the other candidates. Jeb Bush came in second with 8:48 min. Rand Paul and Scott Walker spoke the least amount of time.

I think Cruz and Walker sounded the most presidential, and echoed a lot my own beliefs. Both Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee did surprisingly well. Although their responses seemed over-rehearsed and canned to me. Ben Carson seemed a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of the debate. But, as the debate got going, I really liked what Carson had to say. He certainly provided the best quote of the debate: "I'm the only one to take out half a brain, but if you went to Washington you would think someone had beat me to it." John Kasich's and Jeb Bush's brand of neocon, big government politics just does not appeal to me. I thought Jeb Bush did the worst overall, as expected.


 Puma By Design : I watched both debates, Tier 1 and Tier 2.

To be honest, I favored the Tier 1 debate over the second.

While there was no audience present at the Tier 1 debate referred to by the media as the “undercard”, it did little to stifle the energy and performance of Carly Fiorina.

Finally, Americans would hear directly from the candidates instead of a biased media acting as the intermediary, framing, sabotaging and misinterpreting what these candidates have to offer.

Enter the Tier 2 debate, which from my perch in the window came off as a well-orchestrated dog and pony show put into play by the GOP leadership. Primary agenda: Take out Donald Trump.

Acknowledging that time was limited with so many candidates on stage, right out of the gate, moderators and a few others seemed to set their sights on Trump. In so doing, the pace was set for the rest of the evening to the point of chaos prevailing and dominating the news cycle for two days after instead of the debate.

As a result, candidates were deprived of a long awaited opportunity to introduce themselves to America thus shortchanging 24 million viewers. To be honest, I expected better of Fox.

Jeb Bush was far from impressive and on common core Bush stated, “I don’t believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum or content. It is clearly a state responsibility. I’m for higher standards…And if states want to opt out of Common Core, fine. Just make sure your standards are high.”

Twenty-four million viewers tuned into the debate, I cannot begin to imagine how many of those viewers nearly felt out of their seats on that one.

Common Core IS federally funded. Bush also said that it is fine for states to opt out of Common Core provided states make sure that their standards are high. So who sets the bar, governor?

Balderdash. Taking a swipe at opponents of Common Core while commending Ohio governor, John Kasich’s embrace of Common Core, Bush in an op-ed posted in The Columbia Dispatch on April 27, 2013 entitled, “Students need challenge of Common Core standards” stated the following:

Ohio joined 45 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting world-class academic standards, known as the Common Core State Standards. The initiative is state-driven, voluntary and truly bipartisan. Unfortunately, as full implementation of the new standards nears, myths and misinformation are threatening to derail this great progress.

Retreating from this bold education reform would be bad policy and bad politics and would jeopardize the college and career readiness of future generations of students and, ultimately, the quality of tomorrow’s work force. It also would render Ohio’s already significant taxpayer investment in the new standards worthless and without account. To understand the significance of this policy issue, it is important to review the facts and separate the truth from mendacity….

You want to separate the truth from mendacity, let us start with the fact that Common Core standards are pushed by the Department of Education, a federal agency.

Kudos to Marco Rubio for checking Jeb Bush on this and setting the record straight.

I expected better of Rand Paul…PERIOD.

Emeritus of Neurosurgery, Benjamin Carson is a patriot but I suspect in over his head.

So who would I say won the debate? Carly Fiorina hands down. I would, however, recommend Fiorina not allow the mainstream media to pull her into Trump/Kelly debacle.

Finally, I believe that it is clear that the GOP leadership is determined to put on these dog and pony shows only to force their chosen one down the throats of Americans.

After all, they did it in 2012 and got away with it. The Republican leadership is working from the same playbook.


 Well, there you have it!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher's Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?