FIRST And you thought Fox News’ Megyn Kelly’s moderating performance during the first GOP debate back in August was awful!
CNBC’s moderators, Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick, and John Harwood, were rude, asked outrageous questions, and were downright hostile and snarky to every single man and woman on Wednesday’s night stage in Boulder, CO. This display of media bias designed to try and destroy each and every candidate will go down in history as the worst start to finish moderation of a presidential debate.
Sure, there have been moments in the past when a single moderator asked an outrageous question (George Stephanopoulos contraception in 2012), was rude (Megyn Kelly), or was a team player for one of the candidates (Candy Crowley). But from the opening question, “What is your biggest weakness?”, you knew it was going to be a despicable display of collective debate moderating.
But enough of CNBC, they are a joke.
Let’s dissect each candidate’s performance.
Donald Trump – From one debate to the next, Mr. Trump seems to be more calm and less bombastic. Perhaps he realizes he doesn’t need to be a lightning rod in order for his poll numbers to go up. He can just be himself. He went after John Kasich (read more below in our analysis of Kasich’s performance) and got the upper hand. As usual, Mr. Trump was attacked by the moderators with their childlike questions and comments and the leading GOP candidate swatted them away with class and ease. Overall, the business mogul was steady. Nothing wrong with that considering his standing in the polls.
Dr. Ben Carson – The man now leading in the polls in Iowa was also steady. He handled himself with grace from the questions that were full of snark, half-truths, and lies. He refused to engage with John Kasich over the attacks that came his way from the Ohio governor. Dr. Carson reiterated his support for traditional marriage while eloquently explaining how the Constitution protects the rights of all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation. Being a gentleman, he thanked his rivals at the end of the night for a good debate. The debate stage is not where Dr. Carson will win or lose the nomination. And after three debates, his grace and graciousness are more than enough for the people to decide his fate. So far they like what they see.
Marco Rubio – Quick on his feet, witty, and always well-prepared, the debates are Senator Rubio’s comfort zone. He is articulate, passionate, and is at his best when he is attacked or challenged, by either his fellow rivals or on this particular night, the CNBC moderators. Though we think the Florida senator should partake in important votes on the Senate floor, he hit a grand slam when Jeb Bush challenged him on his shoddy attendance record. Rubio knew it was coming and made Bush look silly with his prepared rebuttal. Another moment that added to his very good night was calling the mainstream media the Super-PAC for Hillary Clinton. The biggest problem with Senator Rubio? Immigration of course. During the debate, he doubled down on his H-1B visa policy, which allows foreign temporary “guest workers” into this country. The senator lays the blame at the feet of the American worker’s lack of skills for the reason companies need more H-1B visas. Replacing American workers is bad enough, but often, companies make them train their replacements before they are let go. That’s despicable! Shame on Senator Rubio for supporting this atrocity.
Carly Fiorina – She had a very good night. The debate stage is where she really shines and she should regain some of the ground that was lost in the past few weeks. One of the things she does during the debates is restate the question that is being asked of her and then explains it in a simple and straight-forward manner. Ms. Fiorina is calm, cool, collected, and very serious. Her explanation of crony capitalism, big business saddling up with the government to solve our country’s problems, was dead-on and easy for the political novice to understand. She may just yet have a chance at being “Hillary’s worst nightmare.”
Jeb Bush – Money will certainly keep the former Florida governor in the race, but we predict that he will depart the presidential field sometime in January in order save himself from being embarrassed by the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. While the man himself is certainly to blame for much of what has gone wrong so far, whoever is advising him or coaching him needs to be fired for doing him no favors. He keeps preaching his “conservative reform” record as governor in an election cycle that wants nothing to do with career politicians, regardless of their success in the past. Four years ago, the “Florida model” or the “Ohio model” might have worked. This time around, the primary voters, so far, are sick and tired of those individuals who are/were chief executives of a state. They want someone new, something fresh, and they certainly do not want a member of the political establishment class becoming the next president. Jeb’s heart is not quite in this fight. It’s very obvious and whoever is propping this man up so they can be a part of another Bush administration should be ashamed of themselves. We hate to admit it, but we actually feel somewhat sorry for Mr. Bush.
Ted Cruz – The best moment from Wednesday’s night debate occurred when the Texas senator excoriated the CNBC moderators for trying to create a “cage match”. Sen. Cruz was solid, though quiet, during the first two debates, but Wednesday night’s showdown in Boulder was his shining moment. Even the liberal media said he won the debate. Cruz continues to ascend in the polling and is building a strong conservative grassroots movement. He is like a tortoise. He continues to slowly and steadily move up and up in the polls and under the radar. Many pundits are starting to believe each and every day that he has a very strong chance to accept the nomination next June in Cleveland.
Mike Huckabee – The former Arkansas chief executive is the most at-ease man on the stage. He is so calm and eloquent when he is actually called upon to answer a question. Unlike others on stage, he rarely interjects himself into the conversation as he awaits his turn which makes it seem like he is not even a participant. As he always does in every debate, he takes the high road and praises the other eight men and one woman on stage with him. We asked in our pre-debate blog if he could convince the evangelical Christians that propelled him to victory in Iowa in 2008 to switch from Dr. Carson over to his column. Unfortunately, Mr. Huckabee did nothing extraordinary to warrant that switch. A great man with not enough ideas to elevate his standing in a very strong field.
Chris Christie – We asked of the New Jersey Governor in our Wednesday morning pre-debate blog, “Is tonight the moment you finally hit one out of the park?” While he certainly didn’t hit a home run in the farce that was the third GOP presidential debate, he did have a very good debate. He was animated, funny, and rightfully annoyed towards the arrogant and bias moderators. His best line? “We’re talking about fantasy football!!??” The governor should get a nice bump up in the polls for his performance. We aren’t going to support him no matter what he does from here on out, but it was a very good night for Gov. Christie.
John Kasich – He vowed to be combative and he didn’t disappoint, with the help of CNBC. His social media war with Donald Trump over who is actually responsible for bringing Ford Motor Co. jobs back from Mexico was the shot across the bow. Trump takes credit and says he “badgered” the company to reconsider the move during his campaign stops. Gov. Kasich says the move took place in 2011 when he first took over as Ohio’s chief executive. After trashing both Trump and Dr. Carson at a campaign stop on Monday, the pot finally boiled over for the establishment candidate who has seen his poll numbers fall back to obscurity, a fact that Mr. Trump expectedly pointed out loud and clear Wednesday night. Overall, Gov. Kasich came across as whiny and angry and his demeanor reminded us of the opening moments during the 2nd debate at the Reagan Library when Sen. Rand Paul tried to go toe-to-toe with Mr. Trump and was shot down quickly and embarrassingly. Senator Rubio has now taken the mantle from the Ohio governor as the establishment’s second choice when Jeb Bush finally implodes and calls it quits. Gov. Kasich is also on the “drop out” watch list.
Rand Paul – The debate stage is just not Senator Paul’s comfort zone. Once again, and with no help from the moderators who gave the Kentucky senator the least amount of time, Sen. Paul was just average at best. He didn’t do anything to up his standing in the field, and with little money raised, he is on “drop out” watch. He seems more comfortable on the floor of the Senate filibustering major unconstitutional legislation, or, as he did on Thursday, obstructing the leadership from moving forward with a vote on the terrible budget deal that the House passed this week. This is why we had such high hopes for Sen. Paul: he participates in a debate 2,000 miles away, then the next day heads into the Senate chamber to stand up for the Constitution and conservatism to block the establishment’s budget bill. Perhaps he is best suited to restoring our republic as a U.S. Senator. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we commend it.
Final On Friday, the Republican National Committee announced that they have pulled out of the NBC News debate on February 26th due to the candidates threatened revolt. For once, it looks like the candidates themselves have the power, not the establishment back in Washington D.C. We still cannot understand why the RNC would ever allow political hacks working for NBC, CBS, or ABC to moderate any Republican debate. As Ted Cruz said during the debate, “Everyone home tonight knows that the moderators have no intention of voting in a Republican primary.” Exactly right.
On the Hannity television program right after Wednesday night’s “cage match”, Cruz promoted the idea that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin should moderate the next debate. You want to talk about record ratings!
We can dream.
