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| A metaphor for last night's Republican debate. |
Our house smells of skunk this morning. Must be because I
watched the whole Republican debate last night.
Watching the debate was (to mix my metaphors) like listening to an orchestra of out-of-tune instruments: Almost every
note rang false. Occasionally, almost by accident, the hint of an honest melody
could be heard (generally from Kasich, Christie, or Bush).
The conductors of
this orchestra—the CNBC panel of questioners—were even worse. Instead of using
a baton, they used a flamethrower. Their questions were biased, loaded, and
ill-stated when they weren’t trivial, irrelevant, or goading. They even argued with
the candidates—certainly not their role. These people were (to switch metaphors again) the
journalistic equivalent of blunt instruments.
On to winners and losers: If I were a Republican (which I
am decidedly not), I would be most impressed by the performances of Rubio,
Cruz, and Christie—all passionate Obama-bashers who know how to abuse the truth
with great glibness.* Trump, Carson, and Fiorina will see their stars burn out
by March. Kasich and Bush are the only ones I can abide, but Kasich has an
awkward speaking style (iguana movements with his mouth) and poor Jeb is
leaking protoplasm so fast that I suspect he will soon become invisible.
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| Jeb Bush as he leaks protoplasm. |
* Note: The Republicans especially like to fudge the truth without (they believe) quite leaving themselves open to a bald accusation that they lie. But lie they do. For example, Rubio's claim last night that during last week's Benghazi hearings Hillary Clinton was proved to be a liar is based on the Republicans' intentional misreading of a statement she made in the week after the Benghazi attack. In that statement, Hillary said that "some people claim" the attack was a consequence of an anti-Muslim video that had been aired the previous week. In her statement (and this is the part the Republicans intentionally ignore) Hillary then goes on to say that, even if the video were the cause, it did not excuse the attack. The Republicans, in other words, intentionally misconstrue the point of her statement, which never claims the attack was the direct result of the video. Rubio lied.
Here's another example of Republicans' playing fast and loose with the truth: For years Republicans have claimed, as Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina did last night, that, by many measures, the economy has either deteriorated or stagnated since "the day Obama first took office." That last phrase represents a very clever fudging of facts. During Obama's first eight months in office, the economy was still plummeting because of the Great Recession. More than 4 million jobs, for example, were lost in the first six months Obama was in office. But this was before Obama's economy policies could even take effect! A better measure of Obama's success or failure is to compare today's economic numbers with those of, say, September, 2009, when Obama's stimulus package began to be implemented. Such a comparison shows that, by almost every measure, the American economy is far healthier today than it was then. Do Bush and Fiorina lie? Not exactly. They simply distort the facts.
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| How to dress like a Republican for Halloween. |
