It's over for Randal Paul. He hasn't a chance. I mean, obviously, Fox Nooz is running the show. 7 hopefuls were sent to the kid's table, likely ending their chances. I heard Rick Perry (who was on the cusp) wasn't happy to be edged out by Kasich.
But Randal? the Fox pundits obviously do not like him. One of the big moments of the night, according to the post-debate discussion, was when Randal stood up for our 4th amendment rights and Christie went after him for it (yeah Christie!). Fox is clearly not on the side of the Constitution on this one. Those rights need to be chucked out the window in order to wage the "war on terror".
Of course everyone had to out anti-choice each other. Huckabee wasn't the only one who went full on Religious Right and declared that fertilized eggs have full Constitutional rights. Although, I'm guessing these eggs don't have the rights we need to chuck in order to "keep us safe" from the "terrorists". But the one that keeps the eggs from getting murdered? They definitely have that right.
One area where Fox (nor the audience) did not go full on Religious Right, however, was in regard to Megyn Kelly asking Kasich about expanding Medicaid... and him citing his religious beliefs as why he did it. Both the Fox moderators and the audience voiced their disagreement on that one. Which reminded me of the last time the Repub potus hopefuls debated and an audience member yelled out in the affirmative in response to Ron Paul being asked about letting someone without HC die (Ron's answer was also YES).
Helping needy Americans is clearly something the Right does not like. So Kasich is gone too. Despite the fact that he just squeaked by (poll-wise) to make it to the big boy table. For the record, he came off as the most Moderate of the bunch by far. Even though he is also anti-choice (I don't recall if they got to him on that question).
Ben Carson said (my interpretation) that Black people should just get over it (racism, that is). And it's Obama's fault that race relations have gotten worse during his time in office. Don't blame all the racist Right-wingers for hating that a Black man was elected president, in other words. The audience LOVED that. Ben is the right kind of Black man. An (ex) MSNBC personality described him as the Conservative Black best friend... although someone told me that's racist. A Conservative someone, btw.
My verdict? Kasich is out. Carson is likely out. Randal, like his father, will stick it out although he will NOT be the nominee. He does not seem to be quite as popular as his father, however, so that ups his chance of dropping out before the convention (quite a bit, I think). Everyone who did not even make it to the debate? They're probably out too.
In regards to the front runner, Donald Trump... right out of the gate Megyn asked the 10 contestants which of them would not take a pledge to support the nominee and not run 3rd party. A question obviously aimed at Donald. Raise your hand if you won't pledge, Megyn said. They waited and Donald eventually raised his hand... and the audience did not like his response.
Later Megyn asked Trump about some misogynist comments he had made, and he shrugged them off with a joke about him only saying such things about Rosie O'Donnell. And not being politically correct - which did not cut it. The audience didn't buy it. Nor did they buy it when he was asked what his proof is that the Mexican government is sending rapists and drug dealers over the border - and he couldn't provide it.
The panel of voters "just like me" after the debate said their opinion of Trump was harmed by his performance. Randal accused him of trying to help Hillary by leaving open the 3rd party run possibility. Megyn also suggested he would be helping the Dems (although she did so before Randal lept to the attack).
Rubio got a jab in when asked the God question - which was that the Democrats have no good candidates (even though polls show, I believe, that Hillary beats any one of them). And God gave the Republicans quite a few good candidates... according to Marco.
God approves, apparently, of punishing poor women because Planned Parenthood spends $0 of government money on abortion services. And of not helping poor people (because they refuse to help themselves?). Every candidate (who was able) was sure to stress their humble beginnings. They did it (became wealthy), so screw the lazy poors (sloth being a sin?).
Image: 10 candidates were interviewed by Fox Nooz on 8/6/2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland OH. (Row 1) Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, Donald Trump, Chris Christie. (Row 2) John Kasich, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Randal Paul.
SWTD Tags: 2016 Election, Fox Nooz, Mike Huckabee.
It's early, but your observations are ones I either partially or completely concur with.
ReplyDeleteI watched both debates. Clearly Fiorina and Kasich were the winners based on context and substance of their respnses. Watch for Fiorina and Perry, who did reasonable well, to move into their one.
Trump, likely third party announcement at some point. His game may very well be to split the GOP vote and thereby almost certainly assuring a democratic party victory in November 2016.