The debates have turned into a sick kind of gameshow called, “Let’s Make Conservatives Look Stupid.” The hosts snicker and whisper and high five each other for particularly good “gotcha” questions.
Note it is not called “Let’s Make Republicans Look Stupid.” Only Conservatives—who threaten the sick status quo. Kasich got kid gloves and was blown kisses in the last one.
Yes they were indeed trying to make the candidates look stupid. They were also extraordinarily argumentative. Rude, as Christie said. They were arguing back, saying things like “I did the math and you are wrong”, and “even if you raise the rate you still come up short” and “Are you not going to answer my question?” and “too bad you used your time on something else”....
These were absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen. The moderators spoke for half the time it seems. They spoke on top of the candidates all the time when generally they should say “time” and let the candidate at least finish a thought or a sentence.
The grilling of Carson - whom I do not support (I support none yet but unlikely to be Carson even though I like him) - was really rude. It is not for the moderator to tell the candidate how much money he has to spend! It is the moderators job to ask the candidate his plans. If the numbers “come up short” then follow up with a question such as “if this does not raise $3 trillion a year, do you plan to borrow, cut, or find other sources of revenues?”. It is not for the moderator to say that well, your plan doesn’t raise the same money so it won’t work, as if every candidate is bound by chain to these ludicrous levels of federal spending.