If you’ve grown numb to the gaudy, glittering spectacles that are this year’s televised presidential debates, there’s a reason. Last Tuesday’s Republican forum on CNN was the 11th of 2011, or the 12th if you count a South Carolina gathering last spring that drew just five participants. At this point four years ago, both the Republican …
Debates
What You Missed While Not Watching the GOP National-Security Debate
0 minutes. They call it a campaign, but it’s really a reality-TV show with eight contestants who compete for nearly a year. Each week or so, they get on a stage and are prodded to attack each other, equivocate and regurgitate …
Debate Deja Vu: Newt Gingrich Faces Familiar Immigration Quandary
At times, Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate on nation security gave the unmistakable sensation of deja vu. The audience was culled from major conservative think tanks in Washington and familiar faces from the George W. Bush era such as former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, ex-speechwriter Marc Thiessen and …
The Snooki Effect: Why the GOP Debates Now Matter Less
The Republican Presidential candidates will gather tonight for their eleventh televised debate, and as usual the media mob is teeming with predictions and storylines to watch. I can’t help but wonder if the power of debates has …
On Foreign Policy, the Republicans Fumble Their Way
After a long series of Republican debates that focused almost exclusively, and rather predictably, on domestic policy–repeal ObamaCare? check. No new taxes? Check. Stimulus failed? Check–last night’s CBS debate devoted to …
The Republican Debate: Reverse Stockholm Syndrome
Yes, yes, Rick Perry….uh….what was I going to say……about…..Rick…..uh….oh, I remember! Those of us who have achieved a certain, ah, maturity can certainly sympathize with the Texas Governor’s aphasic moment, although the Republican electorate can’t afford to be so kind–there is, I suspect, zero chance that Republicans will …
What You Missed While Not Watching the CNBC ‘Oops’ Republican Debate
0 minutes. The beat calls to mind Queen and the boom-boom-chick of “We Will Rock You.” It’s CNBC’s way of setting the mood: a deep-voiced narrator. A video montage of struggling Detroit. The grim facts of American decline. …
‘Oops’: The Most Memorable Moment of the GOP Primary
Watching Rick Perry fail to recall the third part of his own answer in tonight’s debate was like seeing a thoroughbred get euthanized on the track after a fall. It was shocking, grisly and impossible to look away. Seems like the race is over for this horse.
Election 2011: A Victory for the Silent Majority
Rochester, Michigan
I’m out here for the deathless drama and schoolyard hijinks that attend each and every Republican debate and, wandering the spin room, I came upon NBC’s Chuck Todd who made a very good–and sort of flattering–political point: last night’s election results reaffirmed the mood that I encountered on my recent road …
What to Watch for at Tonight’s Republican Debate
For all the carping about how there are too many Republican presidential debates, I’m actually looking forward to No. 11. It’s been more than three weeks since the gloves came off in CNN’s Las Vegas debate and the field has …
Battle of the Book Tours
In what’s surely one of the greatest victories struck for American democracy since Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain will (finally) debate one-on-one:
“We initially wanted a forum with all of the candidates,” O’Sullivan says. “But when we heard Gingrich say he wanted a more serious debate, like
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The Debate in Vegas: BAM! POW!! OOOF!!!
I am just loving these Republican debates. There was a moment last night, when Mitt Romney put his hand on Rick Perry’s shoulder and Perry gave him a cowboy glare and it seemed that it might come to fisticuffs. The moment was averted when Perry froze in catatonic anger, as is his wont, and Romney retreated into smartest-kid-in-class …
What You Missed While Not Watching the Las Vegas GOP Debate
-1 minutes. There are two Anderson Coopers. The soft and fuzzy Anderson, who gets flu shots before a live studio audience during the day, and the hard charging Anderson, who gets indignant and outraged via satellite at night. Now …
