It's my homage to my favorite GOP candidates' aversion to being asked to defend their policies
"Republican presidential candidates think they’ve been mistreated by debate moderators in the two Republican debates so far – so their representatives met today to pressure the networks to give them more sympathetic moderators and friendlier questions. (The Republican National Committee has already suspended a debate in February sponsored by NBC News, sister of CNBC, because of a perceived bias of the CNBC moderators in last week’s second Republican debate.)
What’s odd is that the first debate was sponsored and moderated by Fox News – hardly a liberal bastion. And CNBC is a right-of-center business channel peopled by the likes of Rick Santelli (whose rant on February 19, 1009 is credited with catalyzing the Tea Party movement) and conservative Larry Kudlow.
I don't think the Republican candidates want to be questioned at all. They want a right-wing beauty pageant where they can compete with one another over who has the most extreme conservative credentials. Ted Cruz even proposes future debates be moderated by right-wing broadcasters Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin. “How about instead of a bunch of attack journalists we had real conservatives?” he said recently, to loud cheers.
What do you think?"
Robert Reich
"Republican presidential candidates think they’ve been mistreated by debate moderators in the two Republican debates so far – so their representatives met today to pressure the networks to give them more sympathetic moderators and friendlier questions. (The Republican National Committee has already suspended a debate in February sponsored by NBC News, sister of CNBC, because of a perceived bias of the CNBC moderators in last week’s second Republican debate.)
What’s odd is that the first debate was sponsored and moderated by Fox News – hardly a liberal bastion. And CNBC is a right-of-center business channel peopled by the likes of Rick Santelli (whose rant on February 19, 1009 is credited with catalyzing the Tea Party movement) and conservative Larry Kudlow.
I don't think the Republican candidates want to be questioned at all. They want a right-wing beauty pageant where they can compete with one another over who has the most extreme conservative credentials. Ted Cruz even proposes future debates be moderated by right-wing broadcasters Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin. “How about instead of a bunch of attack journalists we had real conservatives?” he said recently, to loud cheers.
What do you think?"
Robert Reich
