I also like the idea of having Fox hacks moderate all the winger presidential debates:
In fact, a Levin and Limbaugh moderated debate would be more interesting and probably more fun than most such affairs. Who doesn’t look forward to the spectacle of Mitt Romney sucking up to talk radio hosts while simultaneously trying to appear loftily Presidential and above the fray? It could be delicious. Indeed, this kind of debate might be much more illuminating than most “debates”. Which candidate, if any, will dare to suggest, even mildly, that the Great Limbaugh might be mistaken about anything? More probably, which candidate would most thoroughly abase themselves before their inquisitors?
But I suspect that the NO LIBRUL MEDIA AT OUR DEBATES stuff is a bargaining chip and that what we’ll really get is Candy Crowley and Chuck Todd tossing softballs to the crazies at the Ronaldus Maximus library next year.
david mizner
All for it.
It would serve only to expose their nuttiness.
Under questioning from Limbaugh, Romney would pledge to bite out the eyeballs of “illegals” and personally carry them back over the border.
Xecky Gilchrist
@david mizner: Agreed. I expect that the whole discussion would be a series of sneering dogwhistle catchphrases that are completely meaningless to anyone who hasn’t been reading/listening to wingnuts (or their dedicated detractors, like this blog) for years.
kdaug
Am I the only one who can’t read the words “Candy Crowley” or see her on TV without thinking about cookie crumbs?
Mark S.
I’m in favor of giving more exposure to Mark Levin. Nobody believes me when I tell them his show is more suicide-inducing than Michael Savage’s.
kdaug
@Xecky Gilchrist: Precisely. “My view is that we ought to double Guantanimo”
Fucking Mittens.
Zifnab
@david mizner:
Wait, didn’t he promise that in the ’08 Presidential debate?
BGinCHI
Best would be David Gregory, cuz then he could breathlessly ask them all if they’re running for President.
And they could actually answer.
And the answer would be, “what are you, fucking stupid?”
Mumphrey
Oh, man, I’d even watch the “debate” if Levin or Limbaugh ran the show. I wonder how many Republicans are deluded enough to believe that Limbaugh or Levin would be a big hit with Americans of all kinds watching. I hope they’ve bought into their own bullshit enough to do this.
As an aside, I’d like to bring up what a joke these debates are in the first place. And that goes for Democratic debates as well as for Republican ones. Nobody can answer something like “How do you plan to balance the budget?” or “What do you think our tax policy should be?” in a minute and a half. Dumbass pundits like David Broder bemoan Americans’ lack of grasp of the Big Issues Of The Day, but the way the press sets up these debates does as much to keep most Americans in the dark as anything the politicians themselves do. I saw Chuck Todd smirking this past fall about how there just aren’t any more “Lincoln-Douglas Debate moments” any more in our elections, since the candidates are so rehearsed and everything they say is rote. This from a guy who I bet sometimes sits at these debates and asks Senator So and So things like, “Senator, unemployment is still at 9%. What would you do to bring it down? You have 35 seconds to answer.”
Ash Can
You know, this really is a hell of an idea. And make sure the spectacle is covered, without commercial interruption, live — again I say, live — on as many networks as possible.
Nah — we couldn’t possibly be that lucky.
Dennis SGMM
@Mumphrey:
The format for the Lincoln-Douglas debates was that the first
spoke for sixty minutes, the second for ninety minutes, then the first speaker gave a 30 minute rejoinder. Clearly, people had much longer attention spans back then.
In the near future, the presidential debates will be replaced by having the candidates appear on Dancing with the Stars. The bad news is that none of the blow dried newsreaders will be involved. The good news is that the event will be more substantive.
joe from Lowell
I’m going to rudely ‘jack this thread to complain about the lowest moment in the 2008 presidential debates: the CNN Democratic primary debate moderated by Wold Blitzer and Campbell Brown, featuring Clinton, Obama, and Edwards.
Campbell opens it up with a serious and penetrating question, along the lines of, Hillary, what did you think about what Barack said about what you said in your ad?
Blah blah blah, back and forth, take the bait, you said I said you said I said blah blah blah.
Next question: Barack, what do you think about what Barack just said about what Hillary said about what he said she said?
Blah blah blah, back and forth, take the bait, you said I said you said I said blah blah blah.
And then, somehow, magically, Obama and Clinton managed to steer the conversation to their health care reform plans, and started a little back and forth about the individual mandate…
At which point, Wolf interrupts with a chuckling, “Whoa, all right, all right, we’re going to have plenty of time tonight to talk about health care. Hillary, what do you think about what Barack said about what you said he said you said he said?”
Stupid, bearded D-bag.
trollhattan
Q: “George W. Bush, great president or greatest president?”
A: “All of them!” or “A duck!”
I find mself hankerin’ for a Palin/Bachmann ticket. Michele would add the needed national political gravitas, donchano.
Dennis SGMM
@trollhattan:
Only if they use their machine gun jumblies to mow down the islamofascists.
change
Say what you will about her, but Palin is clearly the front-runer right now and getting her own reality show was a stroke of political genius. Basically an 18 hour campaign commercial for free.
Bob L
Oh Gawd, please make this happen! The rest of the country wouldn’t understand a word said. The Daily Show would just be unedited footage of the debate with Stewart smirking head in a small box in the corner of the screen. It would be the best debate ever!
Dennis SGMM
@change:
Go back to being Atanajurat. This new persona is just fucking tedious.
Jose Padilla
Palin won’t show up for the debates anyway, so that’ll take a lot of the fun out of it.
trollhattan
@change:
Ask Meg Whitman about the pleasures and rewards of media overexposure.
dr. bloor
@Ash Can:
Careful what you wish for. Levin and Rushbo could run a debate that would make “Network” look sober and serious, and the mainstream media ninnies would just pick up where they left off in their post-debate “analysis.” I foresee Candy Crowley and her pals sitting around a table afterward engagin in a gravitas-laden discussion as to whether most immigrants are (a) lepers, (b) baby-eaters or (c) both.
trollhattan
@Dennis SGMM:
Yes! While sporting matching meat-dresses–one in veal and one in moose!
aimai
I’ve got no problem with all the Republican primary debates being run from the far right. Just so long as the Democratic ones are run from a progressive/liberal/left perspective with really fantastic and serious interlocutors.
That isn’t going to happen? Oh. Never mind.
aimai
Xecky Gilchrist
@Bob L: The rest of the country wouldn’t understand a word said.
Just so. I imagine it would sound kind of like Finnegans Wake translated into Fucktard.
change
@trollhattan:
Whitman doesn’t have the kind of following Palin does.
Lolis
@change:
Ha ha. Getting a reality show genius? Yeah, right. Apparently she complains about her neighbor for half of it. The more people see of her the less they like. She is a petty, vindictive woman who does not come across as presidential. Keep dreamin, change.
gnomedad
@dr. bloor:
Fox already makes “Network” look sober and serious.
DougJ
@joe from Lowell:
Great story.
trollhattan
@change:
Do tell: what “kind” of following does Palin have? Now subtract the fappers and who’s left?
There you go.
What Whitman has/had was an I.Q north of 100, a seasoned and mile-deep team and a literally unlimited bank account. She even kept her decrepit kids under wraps. Palin has none of the above. Results matter, and the Griftress is a city league softball player pretending to pitch in the majors. Popcorn time for thinking people everywhere.
daverave
The Spectator link lead me to another story about “Trickle Down Torture” wherein Glasgow crime gangs are now using waterboarding on each other… classic!
http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/6475755/trickledown-torture.thtml
Jim, Once
@Jose Padilla:
Or she’ll start filing her nails halfway through one, under the guise of checking her notes, then simply leave the stage.
kth
Romney’s not an idiot, just a psychopath, so he’ll know that having someone like Limbaugh emcee the debate would be a bad idea. What would be perfect (for Romney and the like-minded) would be a panel of hacks that neither needed nor wanted to be the center of attention.
The ideal panelist? Jeff Gannon, of course.