My mom and I watched the GOP debate — or about twenty minutes of it — on the DVR this evening. That's about all I could take without chugging more gin than would be good for me.
There wasn't a man up there that I can imagine being president. Well, I shouldn't go too far with that — Kasich managed to try to talk about bringing people together, in contrast to the OBAMA-HILLARY-ISIS!!!! hatefest that the other candidates (esp. Rubio and Cruz) were so focused on, and Bush discussed some stuff on foreign policy that made him sound like a hell of a lot more grown up and policy-savvy than everyone else's sound bites, and Paul managed to raise up some concerns (as he's done) on privacy issues that were worth hearing (and which drew applause).
But, holy moley, the general tone was apocalyptic. LIttle kid Rubio had ISIS cut-throats lurking on everyone's front lawn; Carson's schtick seemed to be "Yeah, I don't know anything about being president, but that's my secret qualification"; Christie seemed to actually be running on his record rather than his rhetoric, but couldn't decide whether he was addressing the camera or the audience, and so came out a kind of crazy-shifty-eyed; and Ted Cruz alternated between being the world's smarmiest used car salesman and petulantly complaining that everyone was picking on him just because he was the top-polling candidate on the stage.
And everyone hated the Donald, and everyone thought that Obama was a horrifying traitor who is gleefully dismantling the military, and everything preached against Clinton for being even worse than Obama. And the casually tossed rhetorical-accusations-presented-as-truths were …
… well, I didn't want to drink all the gin. So we switched over to a recording of Shark Tank, which was a million times more entertaining (and liberal (and rational (and realistic))).
It did reconfirm to me that anyone who thinks there is no difference between the Dems and the Republicans, or that if Clinton gets the Dem nomination then one might as well not vote because she's as bad as anyone in the GOP, ought to have their head examined. Really. I'd vote for Clinton, Sanders, or Martin O'Malley (or Pat Paulsen, for that matter) before I'd let Cruz (in particular) get anywhere near the Oval Office.
Yeesh.
It's like a clown car if clowns could ruin the country.
Skipped it. Pretty sure I didn't miss much.
The pundit class declared Rubio the winner, so there you go.
+Stan Pedzick Depends on which pundit class one tunes into.
Reading the coverage the next day, it suddenly occurred to me that the Donald was fiendishly clever. By stepping away from the stage, he didn't seriously impact his True Believers, but he let Cruz take all the fire from the others, weakening his closet competitor. If that was his plan, I have to say I'm impressed.
Rubio … I would have problems taking seriously. He honestly looked like a college kid up there, shouting wide-eyed "Apocalyptic! Apocalyptic!" and talking as fast as he could to get as many words in as possible.