November 6, 2015

"Thirteen Republican presidential campaigns had started the week in a kind of solidarity, brainstorming ideas to make the cable news debates more fair."

"They ended the week in pathos and disarray, after Fox Business announced that two candidates would be shunted from prime time to an 'undercard' debate, and two mainstays of the undercard debate would not make it to the Nov. 10 forum at all."

Writes WaPo's David Weigel, after the news that Christie and Huckabee got reseated at the kids table and Graham and Pataki are excluded altogether.

33 comments:

MaxedOutMama said...

Tis the season of florid political journalism??

Bay Area Guy said...

Excluding Pataki & Graham - a good thing

Huckabee to the political kiddie table? - another good thing.

Christie should probably get into the debate over Paul, though.

I like the winnowing . This is a winnable election for the GOP. A win for Hillary means mass amnesty, Trannies in girl locker rooms, more Iran appeasement, more taxes, more fighting against global warming/climate change, a weaker more gay military, more Prius drivers, more systemic unemployment, more cops being shot - a country that more resembles Bill de Blasio, than Teddy Roosevelt.

To stop Hillary, we need to start consolidating around a winnable candidate. I'm thinking Rubio or Cruz.

Once written, twice... said...

It was announced this morning that once again unemployment is way down. Hillary is going to mop the floor with whoever comes out of the Republican three ring circus. Suck on that you Althouse Hillbillies.

Bob Ellison said...

Math is hard.

MikeR said...

"It was announced this morning that once again unemployment is way down." How about overall percentage of population employed? That takes into account people who have given up looking for work. And that has not recovered since 2008 - period. We have a smaller percentage working, and it's stayed that way through your whole "recovery".
Who are you fooling, yourself? Do you think that people who've given up finding work are going to thank the Democrats?

elcee said...

The format I suggest for candidate debates is adapting a Congressional hearing model, the kind broadcast on CSPAN.

Each GOP candidate takes a turn in front of a panel made up only of the other GOP candidates who act as interlocutors.

The GOP candidate ‘on the stand’ can give an opening and closing statement, but otherwise the entire period is spent responding to examination by the other GOP candidates.

Whether they want to be adversarial, collaborative, wonkish, petty, etc, with each other is up to them, understanding that the interlocutor is being judged by viewers, too, and every interlocutor will take his or her turn 'on the stand'.

All the candidates agree beforehand on a neutral non-candidate moderator who doesn’t get involved with substance, but simply manages the format and ground rules like a chair for a hearing.

If a particular candidate emphasized a particular issue like immigration in his campaign, he would have his turn challenging the record and position of every other candidate on that issue while they’re ‘on the stand’. The other candidates can change or broaden the agenda with their interrogatories in the same way.

A common website can be set up for the candidates to upload additional material relevant to subject matter raised in the debates, like reports are supplied at Congressional hearings. In fact, the candidate ‘on the stand’ can have his or her staff ready to upload the material in real-time during the debates.

Rick said...

See?
The Republican strategy appears to rely heavily on circus features coverage, not the economic and military issues that affect the American people.


If one party takes actions we deem of lesser importance and the other party criticizes them for doing so what priority structure justifies blaming the party criticizing more than the party taking the actions? Is there any possible rationale other partisanship?

garage mahal said...

They formed a little union to fight against those mean old reporters. Awwwww!

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Thirteen Republican presidential campaigns had started the week in a kind of solidarity, brainstorming ideas to make the cable news debates more fair.

There's that nasty four letter "F" word again.

The much abused word properly applies, I argue, only to situations of full consensus. Fair is where *everyone* involved agrees with the decision. Democracy, where a majority vote is imposed on the minority, is not "fair."

Particularly offensive is where one or a coalition of involved parties - or an outside arbitrator - imposes a decision on other parties and arrogantly declares it to be "fair."

Such are minimum wage and other price control laws, quotas, rationing, and ALL taxes.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Eric @ 08:38.

Ooooooh. That would be nice! Hafta be CSPAN or YouTube, though. Networks would have no chance to sell advertising or strut their reporter/commentator "stars."

elcee said...

"Networks would have no chance to sell advertising or strut their reporter/commentator "stars.""

Adopt my suggestion, I think ratings and thus advertising sales would be higher.

For commentators, I imagine network coverage would be like an extended sports tournament, say the NCAA basketball tournament or NFL, NBA, or MLB play-offs. Likely less in-game play-by-play coverage than a comparable sporting event, but there'd be much room for pre- and post-, half-time, and series coverage around the hearing-like debates.

holdfast said...

I'm looking forward to this one - I like Neil Cavuto, and Gerry Baker is great.

Demoting Huckabee was a great idea, and I would be in favor of exiling Graham and Patakai to an Arctic ice floe.

Not sure about the Christie thing - there is no chance that the Obama-hugging planetoid can win, but he's got a sharp tongue and does add something to the debate.

Roughcoat said...

They ended the week in pathos? Seriously?

How do you end a week in pathos?

rcocean said...

Funniest phrase from the article: "The Much liked Sen. Graham"
Hello? He's not liked by 99% of Republicans- that's why he's not in the debate.

As for Christie, he refused to attend the meeting on the debates, so no one cares.

robother said...

Yeah, I saw that "much liked" Lindsey Graham line and thought David Weigel needs to get out (of the Beltway) more.

Skeptical Voter said...

Hard to imagine that Lindsay Graham and George Pataki are the mainstays of anything these days larger than their family reunions. Has the WaPo writer lost his senses? The question answers itself.

narciso said...

he's a journolist,

robother said...

Although Weigel does quote two actual people roundly praising Graham: Jeb! Bush and Graham's campaign manager... (wait for it) Christian Ferry.

traditionalguy said...

The can't shoot straight minor Repubbie candidate roller skate team are getting the celebrity treatment, provided that they are used as Trump blockers. Otherwise they would seldom be on seen TV.

Trump is a one man Revolution.

YoungHegelian said...

They ended the week in pathos and disarray..

I just don't see how the winnowing of the candidates by percentage of support counts as pathos or disarray. It's what was supposed to happen, right?

Michael said...

This process of winnowing, culling, is upsetting to the prog. Should not every person have a trophy?

eric said...

Republicans jump ahead of Hillary in the polls as her trust numbers sink. How will the awful Repuican party recover from such a terrible thing?

Hillary lies to Congress. #winning!

Why do people read these partisans again?

richard mcenroe said...

They coulda/shoulda ditched that cop-killing Bible-thumping SOB Huckabee, too.

richard mcenroe said...

Once written, twice... Announce it all they want, we can all look around and see our family, friends and neighbors who are struggling for employment...

JAORE said...

"How do you end a week in pathos?"

Take a U-turn at logic.

Michael K said...

"Suck on that you Althouse Hillbillies."

Maybe after Hillary answers a question.

BN said...

"Maybe after Hillary answers a question."

First there is a video, then there is no video, then there is.

-Donovan

BN said...

First there is a server, then there is no server, then there is.

BN said...

Meanwhile, I'm going into the Chairman Mao pantsuit business for old ladies before the market takes off.

I'm looking for investors; who's in?

BN said...

Oh, this post was about the Republicans?

Cruz v. Rubio. Esta tiempo para... I've got some studying to do.

Chris N said...

I hear a lot of liberal and progressive ideas at work, and a discussion unfolded about Hilary Clinton, and I was surprised how negatively she was discussed.

Sanders was talked about as a guy with good ideas, kind of sentimentally, and no one has talked about anyone else, really.

There are, quite literally, people in Seattle who still talk about Obama as a rock-star figure, and who seem delighted at the prospect of rummaging through other people's trash for pay (still hot this season). Some would quite happily live-in a kind of equally miserable, communal trash-heap with good cummunity recycling practices, I suspect.

There's an open socialist doing well for reelection on the city council....I passed through (I kid you not) a Communist book-reading with a guy just returned from Bolivia with about 10 people in attendance: he had a black beret and a bad goatee....the community is strong in Bolivia, by the way.

It's a place about as anti-corporate, green, pink, and more-bike-lanes-for-homeless-migrating-transexual-unionized-Salmon as you can get, and Hillary was viewed as pretty bad Juju. Don't know if that means anything...

Probably not.

Chris N said...

'Community' really tired of autosuggest functionality on my mobile device...

Moneyrunner said...

The campaigns of Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, in the unique position of being booted from the main stage, responded through gritted teeth.

Have you noticed that Democrats never grit their teeth? How are teeth gritted anyway? Is the grit applied by hand or do dentists use some of these electro-mechanical appliances that they use to clean and polish your teeth? I have to ask my dental hygienist the at my next appointment if she uses grit.