Darrell Delamaide's Political Capital: GOP ?debate? focuses on economy

By Darrell Delamaide

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) ? What a joke! The so-called Republican presidential ?debate? put on by CNN Monday night turned into a sloganeering rally with very little substance.

A debate requires two opposing points of view, yet the seven Republican hopefuls on the stage, mindful that they must reach the lowest common denominator on policy in order to have a chance in the primaries, were in agreement on virtually everything ? especially that Barack Obama must become a one-term president.

Part of the problem was the format. CNN?s decision to allow participants only a half-minute to answer turned the whole event into a breathless political version of ?Jeopardy,? with the difference that the game show is largely based on fact.

Republican presidential contenders

Facts were few and far between in this ?debate.? Instead, there were slogans (the administration?s ?job-killing? policies), rallying cries (?repeal Obamacare?), and the usual distortions and misstatements of the truth that characterize our sound-bite political discourse.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, for instance, blithely stated that the Congressional Budget Office determined that Obama?s healthcare reform would destroy 800,000 jobs. Politifact quickly pointed out that the actual finding by the CBO was that 800,000 people might leave the workforce because they no longer needed to have a job to get affordable healthcare ? a totally different kind of number ? and the fact-checker branded Bachmann?s statement misleading and ?barely true.?

Yet media pundits declared that Bachmann had established her ?credibility? as a presidential candidate and was one of the winners of the debate.

CNN anchor John King kept cutting answers short so, he said, they could get more audience participation. But the audience isn?t running for president ? the seven people on the stage are. There?s virtually no chance that they would actually attempt to answer an audience question in half a minute. Instead, predictably, they just trotted out the prepared talking point that may have shared a keyword or two with the question.

There was no reason in a two-hour event not to give these candidates three minutes ? or even five! ? for an opening statement with the requirement that they outline two or three policy initiatives they would undertake as president.

The half-minute answers forced the candidates to use Beltway shorthand in their answers that must have been indecipherable to any viewer who does not follow politics for a living. Texas congressman Ron Paul, for instance, babbled on about his fixation with the dollar as a reserve currency ? a concern that is extremely remote for most voters.

The one ?gotcha? highlight was when King challenged former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to repeat his bon mot from a Sunday talk show about ?Obamneycare? ? accusing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the current frontrunner in the Republican field, of foisting a precursor of the Obama health reform onto his state. Pawlenty declined to confront Romney on the stage, and was declared the ?loser? of the ?debate? by the punditocracy.

GOP hopefuls take aim at Obama

The crowded road to 2012 made its way to New Hampshire as seven republican presidential hopefuls squared off in a debate Monday night.

Whew, 17 more months of this? And think how much more fun it will be when former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and perhaps former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and maybe even Texas Gov. Rick Perry join this traveling circus. Perhaps answers will be limited to 15 seconds.

Is this any way to choose a presidential candidate?

Oddly, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has already been written off by many because of the troubled start to his campaign, was able to get in some answers with a shred of intellectual honesty. He fielded a question from left field about the space program and offered a cogent argument for public-private sector collaboration. He also cautioned once again about tinkering with Medicare if the American people are opposed.

The real message to emerge from the unison in this forum was that the Republican attack on Obama will focus on the economy. As a new wave of data shows a decided weakening in the economy, this attack hopefully will stiffen the administration?s resistance to draconian budget cuts that will further cripple economic recovery over the next year and a half.

The combination of Republican presidential candidates attacking weakness in the economy and congressional Republicans insisting on budget cuts that will further weaken the economy lends credence to the Democratic suspicion that the whole deficit debate is a cynical ploy by GOP politicians to damage Obama?s reelection chances by sabotaging the economy, regardless of the pain that causes the American people.

Is that any way to choose a president?

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B2959C5BC-9763-11E0-B7FE-002128049AD6%7D&siteid=rss&rss=1

dave mandy moore fistula jennifer hudson jim rogers sabbatical video editing software