RONALD REAGAN WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE THE DEBATE IN HIS OWN LIBRARY

…11 Candidates in the Ronald Reagan Library Debate

The so-called GOP “debate” said that American voters are still anti- Washington

Well, with 11 potential nominees on the stage for the 2^nd GOP debate, it was probably a good idea for CNN to go a full 3 hours.  At least there was sufficient time for all the individuals to answer the myriad of political questions.  For the one woman on stage, Carly Fiorina, she complained that she did all 3 hours while wearing high heels.  I would hope that she would have the good sense to wear flats or tennis shoe for the next debate, if there are still 10 or more candidates on the stage.

But what I really think came out of the Ronald Reagan Library CNN Debate, was an astounding display of how intellectually bankrupt the Republican Party has become over the last 20 years.

I have already been asked multiple times, “Who do you think won the debate?”

Seriously, nobody actually won.  Oh, Carly was probably the one that gained the most from her comments in dealing with Donald Trump’s previous nasty remarks about her face.  Also, her responses about what she would do her first day in the White House.  But she damaged whatever reputation she had with her false comments about the Planned Parenthood videos and about Hillary Clinton.

With that many individuals on stage and 3 hours of questions, the situation was more like what’s been going on with the national polls.

As with the polls, this was just a big TV stage show, not a real political debate.  At the end, there were those celebrities that got the most attention, and it was probably the same ones that are also still ahead in the polls.  And just as most of the others are in single digits in the polls, that’s pretty much how this 2^nd “debate” ended up as well.

So, yes Carly will be called the winner, but that’s only because her celebrity profile was the main one that really increased.  Virtually, everyone else either stayed the same, or dropped or rose a miniscule amount.

I will say that, due to their answers, perhaps three of the candidates did make some moves, but not necessarily good moves. 

Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker really needed to come out big to improve his position in the polls.  But after the debate, he had to admit to a reporter that he is putting all his eggs in the Iowa Caucus basket.  If he doesn’t do well there, it could be all over for him. 

 

Dr. Ben Carson didn’t do his case that much better.  He is very well liked as a candidate, but when he gets into taking about the issues, his support really drops.  He comes across as a very nice, intelligent man. But as someone to consider as a world leader, not so much.

As for New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie, he did show some real gusto and probably did himself some good when he chastised the others for arguing amongst themselves instead of talking about how to fix the problems of the country.

But as usual with Republicans, the “show” seemed to consist of seeing which candidate could take the hardest right-wing line on whatever issues came up. 

As examples, who could crack-down the hardest on illegal immigration, or do the most on building up the military?  Who would deploy the most ground troops against ISIS, or who could handle Vladimir Putin’s imperial goals?  Who would be the fastest to reject the nuclear disarmament treaty with Iran, or whether continued federal funding of Planned Parenthood was a sufficient reason to shut down the federal government next month? 

There were even arguments as to whether it was a Republican presidential mistake for appointing John Roberts as the Supreme Court Chief Justice.  That was because Roberts' court had the gall to both save Obamacare and sanction same-sex marriage?

Jeb Bush showed a bit more energy than usual when he stated that Trump had failed to bribe Florida politicians into allowing a casino to be built when Bush was the governor of Florida.  As expected, Trump just replied that Jeb was totally wrong because he, Trump, would have gotten the casino if he had really wanted one, which he didn’t.

What did become clear was that up to this point, conservative Americans are so against the status-quo in Washington, those maverick candidates with no elective experience, including Trump, Dr. Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, they have been collectively acquiring more than 50% of the support in polls.

The desire for anti-Washington outsiders was the tone of the leadership qualities and agendas that the voters were apparently asking for, by way of the polls.

But if you put all the candidate's right-wing bluster aside, the new leadership shown by the candidates was mainly the same old GOP B.S. .  They were all taking extreme right-wing positions wherever possible, and said they would implement them with as much muscle as possible.  That was for both militarily issues overseas or domestically. Only Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Dr. Carson differentiated between smart ways to do things and muscular ways to do things.

The debate’s major focus was supposedly about foreign policy, but the candidate’s comments went all over the map.

With a Democrat being on his second term in the White House, the Republican candidates just had to go after the one man who wasn’t there to respond.

Obama was mentioned more than once as a weak international leader.  They made a big point of saying the US had lost the respect of both foreign friends and foes under his watch. They each had said they’d do everything differently than Obama, which was totally predictable, but their approaches were mostly unworkable or highly questionable.

Trump said he would make deals with Putin and would get him out of Syria and the Ukraine. But as usual, Trump offered us no details on that.  Those details would "come later"….RIGHT!

Fiorina said she’d cut off all contact with Putin and send troops and arms to Russia’s border to make him behave.  She even listed how many more ships, planes and military divisions were needed.  No mention about how to pay for this military build up.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among some other candidates said ISIS, and an enriched and terrorist-friendly Iran, were existential threats to the US mainland.  They all said that ground troops were needed in Syria and Iraq and everyone there rejected Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. Only Ohio’s John Kasich kept saying it was in our national interest to deal and act with our allies abroad.  It was obvious, their alternatives for Iran were mostly just to start another mid-east war. 

What was really disturbing was that all of them were eager to rev up the military and turn them loose on the world.  One of the oddest moments came after Jeb Bush declared that the US “must lead the world” again.”  Did he mean like his brother did???  

Trump then told Jeb that it was his brother that gave America, Barak Obama as a president, after all of George W. Bush’s many failures as president.

Jeb quickly answered: “But my brother kept us safe.” 

Excuse Me!  Jeb actually said “kept us safe”?  The Bush administration had been warned that Osama bin Laden was going to attack America and they totally ignored the intelligence warnings.  The US mainland was attacked on George W. Bush’s watch.  Jeb, that’s what you call safe?

But apparently all those on the stage agreed with Jeb’s absurd revisionist history.

They all then blamed Obama solely for the mid-east’s on-going civil wars as if nothing had happened before he took office. They all said with straight faces that Obama’s reluctance to use force and instead rely on diplomacy had left the US isolated and without allies. (If we are w/o allies, how did the multi-national sanctions against Iran happen?)  Somehow, they all seemed to forget that it was W’s pre-emptive war doctrine that left the US reviled and far more isolated back then in the international circles.

The one positive point was that they all mentioned their disappointment with the current GOP-led Congress about as many times as they mentioned Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

It is obvious that mainstream media will declare Carly Fiorina as the night’s winner and perhaps Scott Walker as one of the losers.  What I find interesting in going forward is that Ms. Fiorina has virtually no campaign organization in any of the first three nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.  Her whole campaign is based on whatever exposure she gets on TV or on social media.

The big picture, however, is that despite the large size of the GOP field, it is notable that Republicans aren’t offering one new idea.  Being tougher, meaner and more militant is not a new prescription for the GOP.  The Republicans are still trying to only deal with a troubled and increasingly interconnected world by showing more military muscle. You know, kind of a 1930's "Hitler-esk" approach. 

 
How that is supposed to address today's refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe is beyond me.  How showing US military might would address today’s issues of climate change or reduce the use of fossil fuels instead of reusable energy is also a big question.

But based on these first two debates, key issues like those and many others, are not on the GOP’s agenda and certainly don’t fit into their bazaar vision of US leadership.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to call this GOP a real political party. 

Copyright G.Ater  2015