GOP debate and Fox “moderators”: Unfair and Unbalanced

cartoon credit: thethinkinggaill.com

Cleveland Tea Party does not endorse any of the four remaining candidates for the GOP nomination, but whether you support Cruz, Kasich, Rubio, or Trump, you were probably appalled at the conduct of the Fox News moderators at last Thursday’s debate. Even if you can’t stand Trump, the bias against him was obvious. If you thought the 2012 Candy Crowley-Mitt Romney moment was bad, take a look at John Nolte’s analysis of the debacle over at Breitbart: 

Another Fox News debate, another two hours of proof that the “fair and balanced” network is nothing more than a super PAC for

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who, by the way, had a terrible night. In their naked pursuit of Donald Trump’s scalp, moderators Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Megyn Kelly used every cheap trick in the book.

None of the other candidates faced dramatic graphics. Trump did.

None of the other candidates faced video of past statements.* Trump did.

Trump was never asked to attack his rivals. On at least three occasions, Trump’s rivals were invited to attack him.

. . .

On a number of occasions, Wallace and Kelly tossed off their roles as moderators to actually debate Trump, in the hopes of tripping him up or cornering him. As bad as the mainstream media has been to Republican presidential candidates over the years, I have never seen anything like this.

. . .

There were two unbelievable moments even lower than that. The first came from Kelly, who used leaked reports and unsubstantiated rumors surrounding an off-the-record interview Trump supposedly had with the left-wing New York Times. 

Apparently, the Times leaked information about the off-the-record interview to the left-wing BuzzFeed, who in turn, without hearing the audio, launched a McCarthy-ite attack against Trump, accusing him of saying one thing to the Times and another to the voters regarding immigration.

BuzzFeed then demanded Trump prove he’s not a communist liar.

There is nothing more sacred in journalism than an off-the-record situation. This is supposed to be inviolable. To see the New York Times and BuzzFeed behave in this way is one thing. To see Megyn Kelly and Fox News use a sacred off-the-record conversation to launch a relentless McCarthy-ite attack, was beyond disgraceful.

. . .

This is Fox News going way beyond anything we’ve seen in the past from CNBC’s John Harwood or ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

In the future, any Republican stupid enough to talk to the New York Times, BuzzFeed, or Fox News in an off-the-record capacity, deserves whatever knife he or she gets in the back.

. . .

Fox News’s brand and reputation is already in freefall. Thursday night, in service to Marco Rubio and the Republican Establishment, Fox News stooped lower than NBC News or CNN — something many of us never thought possible.

*To justify singling Trump out with graphics and videos, Fox News announced at the beginning that the other candidates had faced these in the debate Trump boycotted.

Read the rest (including transcripts of some of the more egregious set-ups) here.  

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Yet another GOP debate tonight

cartoon credit: gstatic.com

(The cartoon says Weds., but the image was too good to pass up 

just because it's Thursday.)

Another GOP "debate" tonight on Fox at 9pm. Expect another brawl.

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“Rubio trounces Trump in the GOP debate” ???

Art credit: therightscoop.com

Today’s message from the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund PAC opened with its endorsement of Ted Cruz, followed by this:

Rubio routs Trump in Thursday’s debate.

After last month’s weak (devastating, really) debate performance in New Hampshire, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio desperately needed a win at this week’s debate. And on Thursday, he certainly got the win his campaign wanted.

Sen. Rubio’s winning strategy centered heavily on attacking Donald Trump’s record. For many of the past debates, Trump’s opponents have given him a pass, choosing instead to attack one another – they figured (wrongly, it turns out) that rather than challenging Trump directly, the better strategy was to attempt to knock each other out in hopes of being the Last Man Standing against Trump (at which point they believe the 65-70% of the anti-Trump voters in the GOP would rally to their cause). But with Trump’s latest victory in Nevada, the other candidates are quickly realizing the short-sightedness of that strategy. And Sen. Rubio, for one, decided it was time for Trump to account for his record on everything from founding a “fake university” that defrauded people, to his history of hiring undocumented immigrants.

During the debate, Trump – who long ago became accustomed to being unchallenged in the debates – seemed unable to regain his footing after several of Sen. Rubio’s zingers. . . .

But here are some key polls, h/t Conservative Treehouse:

Drudge Report  

Political Opinion 

Right Scoop  

Telegraph  

Wall Street Journal 

The Blaze (click on the list of names to see results)

TimeDotCom  (click on the list of names to see results) 

Slate

All these polls showed Trump the winner. The Blaze poll is especially telling, since everyone knows that Glenn Beck has endorsed Cruz and loathes Trump. The Telegraph didn’t much like the poll results, either. But regardless of where you stand on the candidates, it’s unfortunate that Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund claims that Marco Rubio the winner of the debate, that he trounced Trump, when the above polls show otherwise. Where was at least a qualifier?

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And then there were five.

carton credit: thefederalistpapers.com

Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, and Carson

AP: The ninth Republican debate of the presidential campaign will take place just a few days before 11 states hold GOP elections that will either cement Trump's dominance — or let his rivals slow his march to his party's presidential nomination.

Tonight on CNN (Cleveland area Time Warner ch. 34) at 8:30 pm.

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No moderator, only a timekeeper.

Cartoon credit: cagle.com

Television date: The next GOP primary debate is tomorrow, Feb. 13 starting at 9pm, live on CBS, that’s Channel 4 in the greater Cleveland Time-Warner cable network. Moderator is John Dickerson, with panelists Major Garrett and Kimberley Strassel. The field is down to six: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, and John Kasich.

The venue in Greenville, South Carolina holds under 2,000. Audience members are allotted tickets based on their allegiance to the party establishment. Via Sundance:

The New Hampshire debate audience was Old School Republicans who cheered Jeb Bush and jeered the ‘next-in-line-jumper’ Marco Rubio.  However, South Carolina has already shown their most preferential candidate in the North Charleston debate, where party insiders were majority Rubio supporters.  Expect Greenville to be more like the latter than former.

I always thought Newt had a better idea: let the candidates debate amongt themselves:   "No moderator, only a timekeeper.”

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Another GOP Debate tonight

Cartoon credit: cagle.com/tag/this-tall/

NOTE that some of the candidates caricatured here have suspended their campaigns.

The next GOP debate is tonight at 8pm from New Hampshire. Watch it on ABC News (channel 5 in greater Cleveland). Still too many candidates onstage. Still no objective moderators; from Conservative Treehouse:

Progressive favorites David Muir and Martha Raddatz will moderate the debate, and position the narrative to expose the Republican party to as much ridicule and marginalization as possible.

As of today, Real Clear Politics is showing the top five candidates:

Trump at 30.7

Rubio at 16.4

Cruz at 12.0

Kasich at 12.0

Bush at 9.1

Fiorina, Christie and Carson are in single digits.

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GOP debate link

Art credit: WashingtonPost.com

The GOP debate this evening at 9pm is hosted by Fox Business Channel. Here's the website link to watch either a live stream online or on cable. For those who subscribe to a cable provider, just type in your zipcode at the link for options.

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Drunkblogging the GOP debate

For those of you who don't want to watch the 2nd GOP debate, there's always an alternative. Stephen Green, Mr. Vodkapundit, is Drunkblogging the event at PJ Media. 

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