Here is one party that can’t believe that the GOP, Masters of Manipulation of their Message, allowed so many debates to take place. God bless them, because unlike in the broader media coverage and analysis, much is being revealed in the debates about the candidates inherent knowledge of the domestic and world scene, their beliefs and sentiments, plus their own decorum and self-control. And Las Vegas was a Doozy of Revelations.
The New York Times and the DailyBeast catch the full and many flurries of verbal fisticuffs in the Las Vegas debate. Everybody had moments of brilliance and come-uppance as raw emotional joustings occurred. One of the best outcomes of the debate is a feature that is appearing in the NYTimes [and to a lesser extent the TV media] – many news outlets are doing front page and almost immediately after the debate Fact Checking on what was said. This fact-checking has become a vital and just-in-time dose of reality which is desperately needed now that politicians characterized by Arizona GOP Senator Kyl who regularly use DoubleSpeak –#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement … ahem.
But absolutely top marks have to be given to Andrew Sullivan for his live blog of the debate [Apple does not have a monopoly on live blogs]. Here are some of the better observations available from Andrew
9.16 pm. You can see Romney’s strategy. Remove from all public consciousness anything that happened before Obama took office, and then blame everything bad since entirely on him. Which is roughly the entire Republican argument: amnesia.
9.32 pm. Santorum actually believes that we cannot save “one penny” on defense. When the US sits on a massive continent surrounded by vast seas and spends more than every other country on earth on defense … we are terribly vulnerable to a tin-pot country like Iran.
9.40 pm. God bless Ron Paul. He actually calls Ronald Reagan on Iran-contra! God love him. Gingrich does damage control for the Gipper. But this has been a lively debate – going to places we haven’t yet been.
To think just 153 years ago Prime Time for the USA were the Lincoln Douglas Debates which were about Slavery and Abraham Lincoln was the GOP-Republican candidate.