Posted on 08/07/2015 6:10:07 AM PDT by Hojczyk
The Fox News Prime Time debate was the best presidential debate I've ever seen. Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace asked excellent tough questions, gave the candidates appropriate time to weigh in and the candidates, mostly, responded in kind. It's a very difficult task to moderate a ten-candidate debate and it's hard to imagine that anyone could ever do a better job of it than the three Fox News anchors tonight.
Big moments included (1) Donald Trump's hands-up declaration that he isn't ruling out running as a third-party candidate. (2) The fierce argument over surveillance between Rand Paul and Chris Christie. (3) Trump's set to with Megyn Kelly over his comments to women. (4) Ben Carson's end-of-debate responses on race and what makes him unique.
But every candidate had his good moments and gave their spin doctors something to brag on in the spin room and post-debate interviews.
Donald Trump was combative, sometimes funny, capable of pivoting to talking points on occasion, but also sometimes flummoxed, as when Chris Wallace asked him for evidence that the Mexican government is purposely sending criminals across the border (Trump cited comments from Border Patrol officers he heard some weeks after first making the charge).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
According to previous pronouncements by Michael Barone, at this point we should be in the third year of the Romney administration.
I thought Ted Cruz was most presidential. He answered the 1 or 2 question thrown at him with unwavering aplomb and consistency. He is the rock among the shifting politics of republicanism!
That’s silly. I actually more thoroughly enjoyed many of the 2012 debates. The answers and content, and communication of conservative ideas was far superior to last nights. Far, far superior. It happens that this is a much stronger field, but the format last night did not present the same opportunities. One minute snippets is too short to say much of any substance. When the field shrinks to 7 or less, we’ll see some much better content.
I did not watch much of the debate…I think they are a waste of time..But we sure have polar opposite opinions about it….they are a media event and pretty much mean nothing..unless you explode like Perry did last time
Can you think of another male other than Mr. Trump who could pull off the kind of campaign he is running. I can think of one woman who might be able but is not rich enough to self-fund her own Presidential campaign as is the Donald.
(Anybody else remember her pizza-joint dinner meeting with Trump in NYC a couple of years ago?)
I am surprised that Barone calls this the “best debate ever”. It wasn’t really a debate, save for when Christie and Rand Paul got into it a little on surveillance. It was really more like some sort of oral exam. I think most of the candidates came off pretty well, given that in the absence of a real debate, no one challenged anyone on any of their answers.
I was most disappointed that Cruz didn’t even get a question until at least 30 minutes into the debate! What the...
No way. Fox had the opportunity to set the standard for debates among networks. They chose to be biased and ask tabloid like questions, instead of focusing on issues. They did not live up to their Fair and Balanced motto. Their performance was worse than the 2012 debate with moderator Candy Crowley. I expected professionalism from Fox, but got a performance similar to one of those daytime shows that take DNA tests to prove paternity.
Actually the question wasn't about running as a third party, it was about supporting the nominee. Those are two different things, though the answer may be the same.
I was really looking forward to hearing Cruz. Too bad FOX gave him fewer questions than the other candidates. Other that outright bias, I couldn’t figure out how they decided who would get the most questions. They certainly didn’t give them an equal amount of questions, and Cruz fewer questions than Kasich, who was in tenth place.
He’s made it clear that if he isn’t dealt with fairly by the establishment, he will have to consider the third party option. He’s simply asking for a fair fight. He didn’t get one last night. We’ll see how it pans out I guess.
These people are out of their minds.
Whatever that was last night, it was not a debate.
It was just a pre-determined, scripted set-up, from the very first “question”.
The propaganda Faux is doing this morning to spin this disaster would make Goebbels proud.
A complete disconnect from reality.
I don’t know what debate Barone watched. The one I saw was like a rowdy episode of Jeopardy but with giggling, smirking teenagers as moderators and categories ranging from “Gossip” to “Did You Hear What the Other Guy Said?”. Chaotic, jumping from topic to topic, excluding certain candidates and lots of personal attacks.
But Barone works for FOX now, doesn’t he.
Hemmer and McCallum were textbook moderators in the earlier debate. They were class, Kelly and Co. were crass.
Kelly sucked and needs to be fired YESTERDAY.
I didn’t have as much problem with Trump raising his hand as most of the pundits and chattering class. After all, if Bush is the nominee, or Christie, I ain’t supporting them either!
Yes, he has, but not everyone is a political junkie. That's why he should have said it last night.
I thought it was grotesqe. That first ten minutes of inane, self-absorbed chatter by the FoxNews crew was bizarre, and seemed to set the tone. Like a warped game-show, with a kind of tipsy giddiness, all while the long knives were brought out against those who’ve dared question their establishment masters. Discordant and unseemly in so many ways.
Ditto. And I promise I won't run third party!
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