{"id":3115,"date":"2015-10-29T09:38:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T15:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3115"},"modified":"2015-10-29T09:38:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T15:38:15","slug":"the-cnbc-debate-two-hours-of-my-life-i-wont-get-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/10\/the-cnbc-debate-two-hours-of-my-life-i-wont-get-back.html","title":{"rendered":"The CNBC debate: two hours of my life I won’t get back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/a>
from pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Yes, the general consensus is \u201ctrain wreck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moderators, the general consensus is, were fools. \u00a0They took their job to be adversaries, demonstrating the awfulness of the GOP field, rather than pursuing the job they had been assigned, asking questions that would help Republican voters identify which candidate they wished to support based on policy positions and overall sensibility.<\/p>\n

Sample question: \u00a0\u201cMr. X, my research shows you\u2019re dumb as a bag of rocks. \u00a0How do you respond?\u201d<\/p>\n

Which, of course, was counterproductive. \u00a0Once it became clear that that\u2019s what their game was, and candidates called them on it, those same candidates felt an awful lot freer to counter back, and even when the moderators\u2019 accusations were credible, they had lost their credibility in the eyes of the candidates and the audience. \u00a0Hence, Trump was able to escape a confrontation over a policy paper by his campaign on immigration that he seemingly hadn\u2019t read, and Carson was able to wiggle out of an endorsement of a shady supplements company, to the approval of the audience.<\/p>\n

And Chris Christie was able to score some points by calling them on the foolishness of asking about fantasy football in a debate that was supposed to focus on substantive economic issues.<\/p>\n

I still like Chris Christie, by the way, for being the first candidate to address the issue of Social Security, though I\u2019ve accepted that he\u2019s simply too tainted by his embrace of Obama in \u201912, and the appointment of a Democrat to a vacant Senate seat.<\/p>\n

Other impressions of candidates:<\/p>\n

Very disappointed that, where for the Democrats it\u2019s a bidding war of who\u2019ll promise the most generous new government spending (free college! \u00a0free daycare! \u00a0paid parental leave!), for the Republicans it\u2019s a bidding war of who\u2019ll cut taxes the most, with a mantra that the tax cuts will unleash economic growth so they\u2019ll pay for themselves. \u00a0I\u2019d say that any candidate who promises an unrealistic tax plan is ruled out, but that leaves pretty much no one.<\/p>\n

And sorry, Carly, you can\u2019t boil the tax code down to three pages \u2014 it\u2019s easy enough to say, \u201cpay tax on your income according to these tax brackets,\u201d but the trick is that you need to define income, and that\u2019s not easily done when you move beyond wages to investment income and self-employment\u00a0income of various kinds, or even benefits-in-kind, though, to be sure, there are lots of improvements possible in getting rid of all manner of special tax credits.<\/p>\n

Though I have to give Fiorina credit \u2014 she got her speaking time by taking it for herself, jumping in at every possible lull rather than waiting to be called on. \u00a0I suppose, in a way, this was just another way in which the moderators were screw-ups, not running a tight ship, and, at some point, she just started repeating herself, with her mantra of \u201cthere are lots of good ideas out there on [name of issue], but we need a leader who has the ability to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasich went into the debate portraying himself as the realist, and, let\u2019s face it, he\u2019s got a good resume, but right now he just comes off as an a**. \u00a0 And you can tell that he\u2019s a left-leaning Republican by the fact that he didn\u2019t get a single dopey confrontational from the moderators.<\/p>\n

Rubio talked a good game on H1-B visas, saying that \u201cof course\u201d companies would be required to advertise jobs first and pay at above-market rates, and be banned from the program if they didn\u2019t comply, but according to my twitter feed last night, he sponsored legislation that contained no such provisions. \u00a0He\u2019s still the most likely candidate but I have deep reservations on this issue.<\/p>\n

Entitlements? \u00a0Everyone boiled it down to \u201cwe have to make some common-sense changes for the younger generation,\u201d but I didn\u2019t see any substance here. \u00a0(Remember, the Jane Plan<\/a> is still out there for any candidate who wishes to adopt it.)<\/p>\n

And Cruz? \u00a0The gold standard? \u00a0And there were other similar flaky bits, that were simply overshadowed by the moderators\u2019 \u201ccage match\u201d, as Cruz called it. \u00a0The moderators hoped to show the GOP as a bunch of fools, but their approach simply meant that viewers ultimately were far more<\/em> likely to tune out these flaky bits because they\u2019d discredited themselves.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, the general consensus is \u201ctrain wreck.\u201d The moderators, the general consensus is, were fools. \u00a0They took their job to be adversaries, demonstrating the awfulness of the GOP field, rather than pursuing the job they had been assigned, asking questions that would help Republican voters identify which candidate they wished to support based on policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe CNBC debate: two hours of my life I won't get back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, the general consensus is "train wreck." 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