Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Cole is on a roll !

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

When we show up, we win.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Motown is Joe-Town!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / GOP Debate, Who is Left?

Reader Interactions

531Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    Mom Sense did a pretty good job keeping us informed on the kiddie debate. I hate to ask her to do double duty, but she was really, really good..

  2. 2.

    mike in dc

    I think this is the one where they all dog-pile on Trump(and Cruz) at some point. 4 establishment guys trying to get traction, plus Carson trying to avoid completely cratering. Shooting each other in the face with 3 weeks to go is unlikely to boost any one of them past the high teens.

  3. 3.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    Mwhahahahahhahahahahhahahhahahah

    ¿Jeb ? is at the very end of the stage (see photo)

    I just ? seeing him humiliated ?

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Is Rand Tribble-Top Paul going to try to crash the main debate party? And if so, will we get to see Fox Security drag him away?

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Rand Paul got demoted to the second league, and so, in a huff, he took his ball and went to some Town Hall meeting, no doubt with a hand picked audience of drooling Objectivists.

  12. 12.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    HRC is on Rachel on MSNBC now. First question is about Iran and the Navy boats…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: @Villago Delenda Est: What people are not paying attention to, but what Senator Paul remarked about last night on Chris Hayes show, is that he claims that his campaign network has already locked up promises of support from 1,100 delegates. Now I have no way to know if he’s telling the truth or even how to verify that, but I do know that his Dad perfected a very subtle and effective ground game in each primary state. A ground game that allowed him to collect delegate counts far outside his polling results and his seeming electability. We know Dr. Carson has no ground system in place. And no one is sure about Trumps. Senator Cruz seems to have a good one based on reporting and I’ve seen reporting all over the map for Governors Bush and Christie and Senator Rubio. So at this point, who really knows what’s really going on.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    And I see Senator Cruz is doing a President George W Bush put on Texas accent. He sounds like Dana Carvey’s spoof of the first President Bush.

  21. 21.

    Schlemazel

    @NotMax:
    That would have worked out so well. Not just for the sailors but for the two nations that might have had to go to war because of the couple of dozen dead on each side

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    Also, I note that Cruz somehow managed to forget to mention that the sailors in question spent a grand total of 0.5 days in Iranian custody and have since been released.

  25. 25.

    benw

    I’m watching Cavaliers at Spurs. I’d rather be dunked on 50 times by LeBron than watch 10 seconds of the GOP “debate”.

  26. 26.

    jl

    HoKay Doakay.

    Dumb sounding donk donk stop sound signal.
    First question is for 2012 campaign against Obama (no one tell them he is not running again)
    Cruz hypes nothingburger Iranboatgate.

    And, seems like BS debate format with different questions for each candidate, skipping from topic to topic.

    Kasich squishes out with exempting health and safety from regulation freeze.

    Baiting Christie into bad world on fire metaphors on security.

    I’ve heard enough of this one. I’m out. Have fun.

  27. 27.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    And the Joisey Whale tells us there needs to be limits to our patience. NO THIRD TERM.

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    Tax cuts will save us! Would it kill one of these moderators to point out that we tried that under the Shrub already and it didn’t work?

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    !Jeb: “It’s totally untrue that things have gotten better since my brother left office.”

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mike J: Allen West is a fucking idiot, as well as a war criminal who should not have been allowed to retire in lieu of a court martial.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @jl

    Dumb sounding donk donk stop sound signal.

    What, no sad trombone? No “moderator” running up to strike a gong?

  39. 39.

    Renie

    @Schlemazel: OT I’ve been trying to find you in an active thread to thank you so much for mentioning the youtube series The Great War. I have been watching it regularly (to catch up) and am enjoying it very much! Thanks again for mentioning it the other day.

  43. 43.

    gene108

    @Mary G:

    Tax cuts will save us! Would it kill one of these moderators to point out that we tried that under the Shrub already and it didn’t work?

    We did not cut taxes far enough.

    Tax cuts cannot fail. They can only be failed.

  44. 44.

    jl

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Too late sound off.

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I don’t think that Ron Paul’s super secret counterintuitive unskewed attempts at delegate accumulation ever produced anything remotely close to the brags.
    Maybe Rand believes it, he is often very into an alternative reality.

  45. 45.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    There’s a war against ISIS, Marco? How about that AMUF, Marco? You’re still a Senator, right?

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: It did bag him Iowa in 2012. Beyond that I agree it was not that impressive. As I said I have no idea how to even begin to substantiate Senator Paul’s remarks.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    Just got home from a lovely dinner with friends and turned this shitshow on in time to discover that Lil’ Marco has donned ranty pants to go with his fancy boots. And now Carson is babbling foolishly. Gyad. Why?

    ETA: Why the fuck am I watching this, I mean.

  50. 50.

    Mandalay

    Little Marco has had way too much sugar. He’s going to piss himself if he doesn’t calm down.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, the Paul crowd is great at gaming the caucuses until the Partei steps in and out maneuvers them. Then they have the pesky problem of having no chance in hell of wining many delegates in primary states, what with the GOP’s winner take all system in a number of states. The Pauls, pere et fils, have their hardcore groupies who will go in and grab lots of delegates from caucus states, but it did nothing to get pere even a podium appearance at the 2012 GOP convention.

    The important thing, of course, is that they’re raking in the bucks from the rubes.

  57. 57.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Betty Cracker: Have you guys seen the anti-Marco RtR PAC ad which shamelessly steals from Nancy Sinatra?

    Guys have a lot of money, but not much sense.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    Who will be the first to suggest offering the Flint, Michigan special manager to oversee water plants in Syria?

  72. 72.

    mike in dc

    Ted Cruz(R-Goldman Sachs) did a reasonable job rebutting the “attack”, which was more of a softball really. These are mostly meatball questions.

  73. 73.

    Fair Economist

    @Adam L Silverman:

    What people are not paying attention to, but what Senator Paul remarked about last night on Chris Hayes show, is that he claims that his campaign network has already locked up promises of support from 1,100 delegates.

    He may have done some of that, but that’s a wild exaggeration. He’s less popular than his dad was, and the Republican establishment has changed the rules to make that kind of thing harder.

  74. 74.

    Anne Laurie

    From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:

    Watching Reince Priebus try to fire up a crowd is like watching a bowl of oatmeal try to start a gang fight.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Old Dan and Little Anne:

    Yes, that’s exactly what he said.

    These moderators are something else.

    Wish I could watch and comment on BJ at the same time, but I can’t.

    See you in the next commercial break!

  78. 78.

    Mandalay

    Cruz is wholly unconvincing on his cheapo loan from GS.

    His actual “crime” may be a nothingburger, but it’s coming out that he is in bed with the Wall Street and East Coast elites that he constantly whines about.

  79. 79.

    dmsilev

    And, we’re back. The candidates have wiped the blood off their mouths (again), so here we go.

    Q: Cruz birtherism.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @Villago Delenda Est: Saw it. Good idea but shitty execution as far as the lyrics go. I could have written a better set in 20 minutes (just in case that RtR moron who occasionally trolls us is listening).

    @raven: With calves the size of cantaloupes!

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    Senator Cruz is actually quite good in this format. His tone, pitch, timber, and delivery are very good. And he just put the knife in.

  87. 87.

    Thoughtful Today

    …

    Hillary’s Rovian scare tactics on Maddow’s show were divisive and dishonest.

    It’s a pattern.

    It will be interesting to see how Democratic Party voters respond.

  91. 91.

    mike in dc

    Cruz: I’m eligible to be Prez-o-dent, just like Greg Stillson.

    Trump: I’m beating you in the polls, Ted. Cruz can’t be my VP because he’s a filthy foreigner.

  92. 92.

    lamh36

    I got rid of my cable and only have local channels, and I was lamenting it a few hours ago….but then when I realized the GOP Debate was tonight and I didn’t have access to any of the upper cable channels I became content with my bleek cable net choices… :-)

  93. 93.

    Schlemazel

    @NotMax:
    Following The advice that the sailors should have fought instead of giving up. At least some of them would have gotten killed along with some of the Iranians. Those deaths would have encouraged the loons in each country to escalate. It could have gone south very fast

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    Cruz is handling this birther business pretty effectively, despite being a smarmy prick.

  99. 99.

    NotMax

    @Schlemazel

    Still haven’t the foggiest notion why that was addressed to me.

    I wasn’t on the same planet with any such idea and made not anything remotely close to a mention of it.

  103. 103.

    mike in dc

    Nimrata Randhawa question to Trump. He accepts the Mantle of Anger. Achievement Unlocked?

  108. 108.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker:

    Someone told Lil’ Marco to channel Grumpypants McCain.

    Quite possibly McCain his own self. Rubio’s big selling point, to the GOP, seems to be that he listens to his elders like a nice young puppet man should.

    As was said of Al Gore many years ago: “An old person’s idea of a young person.”

  110. 110.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: Lets also remember how the Law of the Sea conventions work. Had this been a foreign nation’s Naval vessels unannounced entry into US waters we would have responded similarly. At least one if not two Coast Guard cutters would have interdicted the craft. They would have signaled intent to board and inspect and done so. While doing so, and while speaking to the vessels commander, the crew would have been held under armed guard until a reasonable answer was given and verified. Once that was done, then basic hospitality would have been extended while the vessel and crew were secured, repairs made, and the diplomatic contacts arranged for the return of the crew and equipment. The only things that would have changed this response is if the basic safety inspection turned up an irregularity, a sailor needed more extensive military care – in which case he or she would be taken for appropriate treatment and provisions would be made for a consular official to meet that sailor and remain with him or her, and/or some other irregularity was detected between the initial search and the vessel commander’s answer.

    We have rules that govern these interactions. The only states that do not recognize them are those that have placed themselves or been placed outside of the governing conventions. Iran desperately wants to be part of the community of nations. And they finally see that possibility really becoming reality. There is no way, shape, or form that they would violate the Law of the Sea Treaty on something like this.

  114. 114.

    oldgold

    I thought Cruz’s response awful. Canned answer delivered in an intellectuallyl dishonest manner. Referring to Trump’s mother being born Scotland was idiocy on steroids.

  115. 115.

    Adam L Silverman

    Ooops! Governor Christie just called magazines clips. He just failed in trying to shore up his 2nd Amendment bona fides.

  116. 116.

    gene108

    What is wrong with Common Core?

    Why has it turned into a right-wing “whipping boy” for what’s wrong with the kids today?

  118. 118.

    ThresherK

    @gene108: There’s something about being in the hothouse of Fox News in January that makes me think, What kind of test is this for any Republican, seriously?

  122. 122.

    Geeno

    @Iowa Old Lady: Hockey fans unite!
    They do that at all sporting events in Buffalo. I’ not 100% about Bills games these days – haven’t been in 10 years, but they used to. Too many fans come across the bridge from Ft. Erie, ON not to.

  124. 124.

    Adam L Silverman

    @gene108: It was actually created as an initiative by the governors of a number of states, both Democrats and Republicans.

    Another great example of why no one really cares about Federalism and/or state’s rights (even though, again, state’s don’t have rights, they have powers).

  128. 128.

    gene108

    @ThresherK:

    What kind of test is this for any Republican, seriously?

    What kind of test is any debate?

    Cruz glibly talked his way through a couple of issues that were sort of dogging him lately.

  131. 131.

    Schlemazel

    @gene108:
    It was proposed by a Democrat, that is all they need to know – it must be the source of all the ills of the world

  132. 132.

    gene108

    @MomSense:

    Poor Kasich really wants to karate chop but he’s holding his own hand instead?

    Kasich reminds of Gary Shandling’s Larry Sanders character.

  134. 134.

    dmsilev

    Serious question: Has Carson actually read the Bible? It’s chock full of people being assholes to each other.

  136. 136.

    schrodinger's cat

    I haven’t yet watched a single debate, will tune in after the nominees are selected. I am getting my coverage through the Juicer lens, more entertaining and less aggravating.

  137. 137.

    MomSense

    Carson is complaining about the comment sections as if it is the progressives who make them cesspools.
    And now with the secularists have no values BS.

  139. 139.

    Really?

    “Facebook research.” The worst part is that you can’t even get a decent cabin in the woods anymore thank you Ted Ka-freakin-czyla-nis-z-jksi

  140. 140.

    Mandalay

    Carson showing us what a brain on drugs sounds like. He just gave a stream of consciousness that was pure drivel.

  141. 141.

    Baud

    @MomSense:

    Carson is complaining about the comment sections as if it is the progressives who make them cesspools.

    I didn’t know he read this blog.

  142. 142.

    Adam L Silverman

    I hate to break it to Dr. Carson, but there is a Judaic tradition and there is a Christian tradition. There is no Judeo-Christian tradition. Judaism, as a system of beliefs, including its sub-systems/sects, is agnostic towards Christianity. Christianity as a system of beliefs, including its sub-systems/sects, presumes that it subsumes and replaces Judaism, its errors and inaccuracies, and supercedes it by replacing its emphasis on right behavior with an emphasis on right belief.

  146. 146.

    dmsilev

    3 million people talking about guns on Facebook, compared to probably 3 billion people talking about cats.

  148. 148.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mike in dc: You need your primary handgun, then you need a backup, then you need your bailout gun. You also need at least one rifle and one shotgun. So I’m going with a minimum of five.

  149. 149.

    Really?

    “her incredible leadership in the face of that horrendous, liberal media-fueled desecration of a symbol of american freedom and liberty…”

  152. 152.

    mike in dc

    Smith and Wesson would like to extend their thoughts and prayers to the victims of gun violence.

  154. 154.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Ooh, cool, I have a kind of PiP on my iPad. Now to see if it cuts off the minute I try to post a comment here.

  155. 155.

    ThresherK

    What kind of a test for a Republican is a Fox News debate?

    When I’m sitting here wishing for the moderator to have the pillow-fighting skillz of Anderson Cooper or John Dickerson…

  160. 160.

    Mandalay

    Jeb!: “If you commit a crime with a gun in Florida you’re going to jail for a long, long time!”

    George Zimmerman begs to differ.

  162. 162.

    Schlemazel

    @amk:
    It is a conspiracy between the RNC and the national media to deny him his rightful place next to Ayn Paul on that stage!!

  167. 167.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mandalay: He’s talking about the 10, 20, Life law. Commit a crime in possession of a gun its an automatic 10 year increase on one’s sentence. Commit a crime while brandishing a firearm, its an automatic 20 year increase on one’s sentence. Commit a crime while firing a firearm, it an automatic life sentence.

    Unfortunately Zimmerman was acquitted.

  174. 174.

    NotMax

    @ThersherK

    Even worse, it’s the Fox Business Network, an outlet whose regular audience is measured in the thousands. And not hundreds of thousands either. Some of the dayparts reel in a total viewership of 8,000.

  175. 175.

    Mary G

    I had to go look at the doggies in the last thread to calm down. I can’t decide which one of these yahoos is the worst Christie just called the president a petulant child. Talk about projecting. I want to slap his face.

  176. 176.

    Mandalay

    Christie bragging that he is going to kick Obama’s rear end out of the White House.

    How brave!

    How tough!

    How classy!

    How presidential!

  185. 185.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Wonder if Carson will be relegated to the kiddies table next time. Is there a next time?

    I know I sound superficial but this bunch of candidates are really physically unattractive. Rubio is a lightweight and Kasich does not appear to have a chance.

  187. 187.

    gene108

    @NotMax:

    Not inclined to go and check if it already exists, but there’s got to be a market for a product called Ghee Whiz.

    Clarified butter shot out of a nozzle from a pressurized can…I agree there has to be a market…

  189. 189.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Bush wants a bigger navy and replace the B-52.

    ETA: I thought that was what the B-1 was.

  195. 195.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Does FBN have some kind of filter on their cameras? All the candidates including Christie and Trumpy, and Bartiromo look skinnier.

  196. 196.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: Plenty of white criminals in Florida get caught up in the 10, 20, Life law. The big change has been, as I know you’re aware, is the effect of the Baxley Amendment known as the Stand Your Ground Law.

    In the case of Zimmerman he was acquitted at trial. I can’t prove it, but I’m relatively sure that even though Stand Your Ground wasn’t in play in his defense, that it still influenced members of the jury as its just in the air here, so to speak.

  197. 197.

    gene108

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Bush wants a bigger navy and replace the B-52.

    There are 22 aircraft carriers in the world. Not nuclear powered carriers, some are diesel electric with limited range without refueling.

    The U.S. has 11 of the 22 aircraft carriers on the planet, most of, if not all of ours, are nuclear powered.

    Our navy is so much more powerful than any other country’s it is mindboggling, if you stopped to think about it.

  199. 199.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: FBN? AKA the “DuMont Network of Fox”, God’s Waiting Room for the untelegenic, unappealing, lame and halt who can’t even survive in the welcoming bosom of Fox News?

  200. 200.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    They’re criticizing the religious right, wow.

    Oh wait that’s right, “radical clerics” to them doesn’t mean Franklin Graham and the like, does it.

  202. 202.

    Archon

    This is surreal, Trump is actually the most Presidential candidate on stage right now.

    Damning with faint praise I know but there it is, I think Trump is going to be the nominee.

  203. 203.

    Ohio Mom

    Bush wants a stronger military so we can”get back in the game.” Sounds like personal wishful thinking…if only *he* could back in the game.

    Lots of name-dropping by Kash. Subtext: I am already in big league.

    Came in just after Cruz slammed NY. As someone who was born in the Bronx, I’m miffed. But what exactly did he say?

  208. 208.

    mike in dc

    Dr. Ben Carson thinks we should ask the military what they need to defeat ISIS. Amazing no one has thought of that yet.

  211. 211.

    Mandalay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    These people are all insane.

    Well they are certainly all deluded. And apart from Carson, and possibly Kasich, they are utterly shameless. They will say anything to get a bump in the polls. They don’t really believe deeply in anything except winning.

  214. 214.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Is there something especially horrific that a surgeon just came out in favor of collateral damage?

  217. 217.

    NotMax

    @ThresherK

    Back when toiled at an ad agency in NYC, the in-house library had a near complete set of Nielsen rating booklets going all the way back.

    Would sometimes peruse ancient ones just for a spot of quick fun. Each network was color coded. Dumont’s color was pink.

    /really, really useless trivia

  221. 221.

    Helen

    I am a cynic and a bitch. And even I cannot believe how much I hate these people.

    For Christmas my sister sent me a case of craft beer. Not my thing, but I just broke it out.

    I hate these fucking people.

  222. 222.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: The GOP, party of tradition.

    All the old, bad, destructive traditions.

    Let’s go harass ‘n kill a bunch of Not-Our-Tribe people — for freedumb! And values!

    (and then we take their stuff, which was really our stuff all along, cuz reasons)

  226. 226.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anoniminous: I indicated rifle. That can be a modern sporting rifle aka a black rifle aka an assault rifle. It could also be a lever action or a bolt action. I’m a big fan of personal choice…

  228. 228.

    amk

    @gene108: yup, w.o. ghee and cashew nuts, it ain’t pongal at all. what’s the point of indian festivals if we cannot kill ourselves with fat and sugar?

  231. 231.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Trump saying “we’re laughed at all over the world” is like Bernie Maddof saying “some people give this hedge fund field a bad name”.

  232. 232.

    geg6

    I can’t wait watch these idiots. You guys who are watching are made of much tougher stuff than I am.

  236. 236.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: Probably should have doubled it, just in case one of these five primaries failed. I also forgot the trunk gun and the truck gun.

  241. 241.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: What color was used for the Overmeyer Network?

    /even uselesser trivia

    To be fair to Allan DuMont, building a TV network which was not overlaid on the profits and infrastructure of a radio network was a dragon that killed many knights.

  242. 242.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Its my constitutional right as an American not to be forced to look at one of these ugly people for four freaking years.

  243. 243.

    MomSense

    We don’t have to keep everybody out. We just have to keep the bad guys out.

    That’s some plan Christie.

  245. 245.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Rubio announces a motivation test for immigration. Officials will be issued sincerity-sensing goggles.

  248. 248.

    Mandalay

    Carson does Palin: “There isn’t a single problem that can’t be solved with common sense”.

    Jesus Christ.

  249. 249.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Probably should have doubled it, just in case one of these five primaries failed. I also forgot the trunk gun and the truck gun.

    I think it’s like the old joke about women and shoes — if you know exactly how many you own, you don’t own enough.

  251. 251.

    JPL

    Since I’m not watching, I was confused by some of the comments. I went to the Guardian to read their blog and it’s not better. I assume the debate is a bloody mess. Right?

  254. 254.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mandalay: These guys wouldn’t last five minutes at any of the five war colleges or the Eisenhower School. One of the major points of the curriculum at all of them is how to deal with ill structured (what we used to call wicked) problems. None of them are solvable with common sense. In fact most of them are only manageable.

  263. 263.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anne Laurie: @amk: I will say that I have a decent amount of shoes for a guy. Partially because I have about six pairs of different dress shoes because its coats and ties at the office (shirts and pants optional… ewwwwww!!!!). I prefer cowboy boots for casual and I’ve got four pairs of those. I’ve got a couple of pairs of combat boots and a pair of under the ankle tactical style shoes for work in an operational environment. And I always have two pairs of workout shoes at the same time – same make and model – that I alternate by day so I don’t wear them out too fast.

  265. 265.

    dmsilev

    @mike in dc: The problem is that the GOP front-runners would immediately become Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina. I’m not really sure that’s an improvement.

  268. 268.

    dmsilev

    Obamacare a “certified job killer”. That would be the same certification board that Rand Paul set up to certify himself?

  281. 281.

    mike in dc

    Jeb! and Trump briefly cross swords. Ew. I’m just going to leave that image in your minds. Because I’m evil that way.

  285. 285.

    Suzanne

    HOLY SHIT, THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING IVE EVER SEEN.

    My kid just said, “Oh, good, glad this is on. I was feeling like my IQ was getting a little bit too high.”

  293. 293.

    Mike in NC

    In a worst case scenario I would like to see Trump elected, to guarantee the demise of the GOP that wankers like Lindsey Graham and George Will have wrung their hands over. He would be a national disgrace and international embarrassment who would accomplish exactly nothing in office. Scum like Bush, Cruz, Christie, or Rubio would be Tea Party darlings determined to turn the clock back 100 years.

  294. 294.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Honestly, every single person on that stage is infuckingsane.

    I include the moderators.

    They are all terrifyingly stupid and demented.

  302. 302.

    lamh36

    @JimGoldgeier
    Obama called “child” for second time tonight – can we agree if we are going to respect 2nd amendment we are going to respect presidency too?

  307. 307.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @mike in dc:

    Jeb! and Trump briefly cross swords. Ew. I’m just going to leave that image in your minds.

    At least one of them was wearing punctuation, as you always should.

  309. 309.

    Heliopause

    Chris Christie looks like Rich Little with a coupla extra pounds. I can’t be the first to ever notice this.

  314. 314.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He just needs to walk over and punch Trump in the face. Or kick him in the nuts. If he did that when Trump calls him weak, I’d vote for Jeb.

    Trump would make a fine Guild leader in Ankh-Morpork, that’s for sure. He *thinks* he could be Patrician, but he’s wrong about that.

    Jeb wouldn’t make a good leader of anywhere, real or imaginary, from what I can tell. He’s a born associate vice president — the guy whose best decision was picking his father (or father-in-law), the one who can’t be trusted except to hand out pink slips or get yelled at by ripped-off clients.

  319. 319.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: Okay, tracking. Yes, you’re going to die, defenseless and someone on a firearms blog will mock you in the comments with a link to the local news coverage.

  320. 320.

    mike in dc

    Dr. Ben Carson proposes a flat tax with no exemptions. Regulations are a regressive tax because making sure the food we eat won’t kill us is terribly unfair to something something OMG THIS DEBATE CAN DIE IN A FIRE.

  321. 321.

    JPL

    Maria Bartiroma is the person who interviewed Sarah. She spoke highly about Sarah’s intellect. Just remember that for all of you watching her performance tonight.

  325. 325.

    Mandalay

    These bozos who want a flat tax with no deductions would be slung out of office in a New York minute.

    Even Rand Paul supports the mortgage tax deduction.

  326. 326.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mike in dc: I’m pretty sure Dr. Carson’s mom, as good a woman as she seems to have been, never had to finance a fleet of nuclear powered aircraft carriers.

  334. 334.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Idiot Rubio doesn’t realize most people aren’t going to know what a VAT tax is. And Cruz is a fvcking moron because who’s going to collect taxes? The Tax Collection Agency? Ohhhh,okay dimass.

  337. 337.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You are a master of understatement. She is a botoxed, silicone-injected, over-made-up hag.

    Am I ageist for saying this? Fucking sue me. She is hideous.

  344. 344.

    Mike in NC

    @lamh36: Christie likes to call Obama a petulant child. Trouble is there is video of that fat slob hugging him like a sobbing, needy toddler after Hurricane Sandy wrecked the Jersey shore.

  346. 346.

    Heliopause

    We just had a flurry of Reagan references in the debate and somebody needs to send a paramedic to Matt Taibbi’s place to make sure he’s OK.

  348. 348.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Wait, I thought this was only 2 hours long. I may start drinking again, if this goes on too long.

  349. 349.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: I was trying to be polite. Her looks were her selling point, it wasn’t her understanding of business or finance. I remember watching Matt Taibbi having to explain credit default swaps to her back in 2009 because she had no idea what they were. And she didn’t seem to understand his explanation, which was, I must say, really accessible for the lay person.

  350. 350.

    Mandalay

    Christie acts like a bar room brawler: “No! You had your chance Marco….AND YOU BLEW IT!”

    Christie is just vile.

  352. 352.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: To be honest, I didn’t really start accumulating shoes until I was well into my 30s and working in an office where such things were noted on one’s performance record. And I have more pairs now than when I was working in that office, partially because the internet makes it too damned easy to find bargains, partially because pretty shoes in odd sizes are more available, but mostly because they don’t wear out if they’re rarely used. I have some pumps that are old enough to vote, which I can be sure of only because I remember buying them before we moved from the Midwest in 1989.

  357. 357.

    GregB

    This is horrifying. All I can picture is Slim Pickens riding a nuclear missile and screaming “Yeehaw!”

  360. 360.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    It’s funny because maybe two years ago it seemed like Christie in the primaries would be “the bully”, but now, in this field of candidates you look at him and think “Meh, C+” on the bullying thing. Even though he’s exactly as obnoxious and combative as he always was.

  364. 364.

    Helen

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Nah – you’re good. Isn’t she the one who fucked the guy she was reporting on? Really. I remember he had a plane.

    I remember watching her after the 2008 crisis. She looked like a deer in the headlights and just kept saying “The people on Wall Street need to get their bonuses. We can’t fire them. They are so smart”

    With no irony at all.

  365. 365.

    mike in dc

    Christie is asked what he would do to make sure cops can kill minorities freely again.

    Christie throws in a sanctuary cities reference to score the extra point.

  371. 371.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    If you ever saw the film version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the building that was used as the exterior for International Widgets or whatever the company was called was in reality the Union Carbide building, where I worked for two or three years in the 1960s. It was wild when filming took place.

  374. 374.

    dmsilev

    Was that a “we want Rand” chant? That’s probably the winner for “most pathetic” for tonight.

  376. 376.

    JPL

    This is from the Guardian.. heehe
    If you spaced out during the economics lesson of the last 20 minutes, you weren’t the only one – as demonstrated by Donald Trump’s limited understanding of macroeconomics. But then, Americans’ economic literacy is so.e of the worst in the developed world.

  377. 377.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: The highest TV number I ever witnessed was WWHT, channel 68, from New York City. This covered a distance of over 60 miles to my Connecticut home on one of those saucer-sized loop antennas and was quite viewable in the summer when conditions favored that end of the spectrum.

    I was not aware that channels 70-83 were removed from TV service in 1983. To be fair,who else knew?

  378. 378.

    Anoniminous

    @Anne Laurie:

    working in an office where such things were noted on one’s performance record.

    Excuse me but my brain just went sproing

    What POSSIBLE affect could one’s shoes have on one’s ability to do one’s job?

  385. 385.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    As a dude, I’ve found one of the keys to a long-lasting and harmonious marriage is to never say a word about shoes.

    Not true. If your Spousal Unit asks, are these shoes not cute? you should always agree that they are indeed cute, On her. Even (especially) when you haven’t got the faintest idea how they are different from the other pairs of cute shoes she owns.

    In return, I always admire my Spousal Unit’s tool purchases, even if I have no idea what they’re for, or why we need yet another cordless automatic angle-bending rechargeable drill, with bonus titanium blades and interchangeable chuck keys.

  389. 389.

    Heliopause

    Kasich is in a celebrity death match with Bush for “candidate competing for the reasonable vote amongst the least reasonable quintile of the population.” Fuck, at least Rubio is trying.

  393. 393.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    None of these people make the slightest bit of sense. Even the guy who almost seems to make sense makes no sense.

    The rest of them were actually pushing back on Trump’s “Just impose really yuge tariffs!” idiocy, pointing out why it was idiotic, but then they’d conclude with “The real way to deal with China is to abolish the IRS”.

    This is a WTF festival and no foolin.

  396. 396.

    Heliopause

    Somebody correct me if I’m wrong but it’s way after nighty-nights on the east coast. Why are they still talking?

  399. 399.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    Obama to Halt New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands

    The move would represent a significant setback for the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already flailing industry. President Obama telegraphed the step in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, saying, “I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.”

    G.O.A.T.

  401. 401.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @Helen: Maria was supposed to have fvcked a Citi bigwig. I believe he got canned. Also, don’t forget Maria asking Anthony Weiner during the O-Care debates: ‘If Medicare is so great how come you’re not on it?’

  406. 406.

    ThresherK

    Not that I ever cared for Maria Baritomo’s acumen, but once Sam Bee hit The Daily Show as the Cash Cow, the “Money Honey’s” ship had sailed.

  409. 409.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Helen: I did and came back with a separate reply on that as soon as I finished the Welch reply. Its comment # 383.

  410. 410.

    NotMax

    @ThresherK

    On a rare good night, if one stood just so while clutching the antenna, could get an intermittent fuzzy picture from WVIA (PBS, Scranton) channel 72 when was living in the boonies of northeast PA.

    Only UHF station I made a point of tuning in semi-regularly when in the NYC area was channel 68 from somewhere in NJ, longtime home of The Uncle Floyd Show.

  411. 411.

    mike in dc

    Maybe they should just keep the debate going until they go completely loopy and punchdrunk. So, another 5 minutes or so.

  415. 415.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    How did Jeb! Bush ever get elected to anything? Whiny, defensive, sheesh. It’s hard to imagine.

  416. 416.

    Ohio Mom

    Closing statements on their way! Hooray,I’ll be able to stop staring at this seven car pile up.

  421. 421.

    Matt McIrvin

    @mike in dc: Well, you’ve got three equipped weapon slots, but you can only have one Exotic weapon equipped at a time, so if you have, say, Hawkmoon, Hereafter and Dragon’s Breath, you also need Legendary weapons as backups to swap in place of the Exotics so that you can equip the Exotic you really want to use at any given time. Also, I find that it’s useful to have a combo of a close-up weapon and a distance weapon, like a Scout Rifle as primary and a Sidearm or Shotgun as special, or a Hand Cannon as primary and a Sniper as special, and that leads to some additional swapping around. And then there’s the elemental damage to consider: some kinds of enemies have shields particularly susceptible to Solar, Arc or Void damage, so a mix of all three helps, especially the ones that don’t correspond to your character subclass abilities. So you see the numbers can start to add up.

  425. 425.

    Gin & Tonic

    @NotMax: OMG, the Uncle Floyd Show!! The only thing that got us through the first 4 months with our first baby, who never slept more than 90 minutes at a stretch.

  427. 427.

    Mandalay

    Christie: “I’ve spent my whole life fighting.”

    Probably the only truthful statement he made this evening.

  428. 428.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Helen: So is she alleged to have had two affairs then? With two different Citigroup execs? She must be great fun at parties.

  429. 429.

    JPL

    @dmsilev: Over there …whatever
    Face the music — come on boys, take ’em down!

    President Donald Trump, knows how
    To Make America Great
    Deal from strength or get crushed every time!”

    scary huh

  430. 430.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: The Worst Kiddie Show of All Time!

    Jeez, he and Joe Franklin were a couple of hosts that mere print could not describe. And the decades cannot improve.

    ETA: Surreal doesn’t begin to describe it, and I was a full-fledged SCTV fan at the time. It’s like finding the source material that SCTV was made to satirize.

  432. 432.

    NotMax

    @Anne Laurie

    “Does this Sawzall make my butt look big?”

    Of course, should he ever gush over a stud finder, and you’re in a playful mood, grab hold of it, point it at him and announce it doesn’t seem to be working. ;)

  442. 442.

    mike in dc

    Cruz promises Armageddon on Day 1. Trump promises that America will never lose again. I promise a unicorn in every pot, or something. The shitshow is over…for now.

  448. 448.

    Mandalay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The anger thing doesn’t work for Rubio.

    Despite all his tough talk he’s obviously still petrified about being up on a stage in front of the cameras and surrounded by grown ups. Sometimes he’ll go a few sentences mechanically spewing his script and then freeze, and look lost.

    The idea of Rubio running the country is far scarier than having Trump or Cruz in charge.

  449. 449.

    different-church-lady

    @Gin & Tonic: If I recall correctly, Oogie had a puppet of his own, called Boxie. Boxie was a tiny wooden box. Oogie, being a rather dim-witted puppet, couldn’t actually do any ventriloquism, and simply relayed all of Boxie’s lines in his own voice to Uncle Floyd.

    The puppet had a puppet. That is pure surrealist comedy genius.

  453. 453.

    NotMax

    Kind of amazing to see how many here were subversive enough or stoned enough (or both) to be familiar with Uncle Floyd.

    Haz a happy about that.

  458. 458.

    SFAW

    @GregB:

    I am sure if they were talking about Cruz they meant prolapsed.

    No, prolapsed — as in “prolapsed pig rectum” — would be Sunununununununuuuuu,

  460. 460.

    Heliopause

    @Felonius Monk:

    Just wondering because FOX can afford the best makeup artists, videographers, and lighting techs on the planet, and it’s still open to question.

  463. 463.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Which one?

    (I know, I know. All of ’em, Katie.)

    Hearing Dan Rather languidly pronounce the name Sununu is a tiny moment of pure art in spoken language. Impossible not to chuckle every time.

  465. 465.

    Helen

    Trump is on Fox talking bout the Cruz NY values thing. Can someone please say “THAT MEANS JEW. AND GAY. AND MINORITY. BUT MOSTLY JEW”

  466. 466.

    Helen

    Trump is on Fox talking about the Cruz NY values thing. Can someone please say “THAT MEANS JEW. AND GAY. AND MINORITY. BUT MOSTLY JEW”

  469. 469.

    Anne Laurie

    @Anoniminous:

    What POSSIBLE affect could one’s shoes have on one’s ability to do one’s job?

    “Presentation is important. What if a client happened to wander into the back cubicles and notice somebody was wearing unstylish shoes? It could potentially disgrace our entire office!”

    If you don’t believe me, ask some of the women in your life. Or Adam!

  472. 472.

    Mandalay

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    And it’s over!

    It’s only just beginning. Christ Matthews is already blathering incomprehensibly about Teddy Kennedy in 1980.

    If you thought the fuckers on stage were bad, you can now look forward to the Villagers opining for days. It ain’t over.

  475. 475.

    Thoughtful Today

    …

    Adam L Silverman @ 142,

    Judeo-Christian worldviews are real.

    And influential.

    And I think you misread how some that hold that worldview read the Bible (see: Matthew 5:17).

  478. 478.

    Tenar Darell

    @Mary G: Did anyone already say”Why yes, yes it would kill one of them, but first there’d be the face melting & the hair on fire & the sound of crackling bones!”

    ETA, And I forgot to add: it’s part of all their contracts that this will happen.

  480. 480.

    Anne Laurie

    @SFAW: Yeah, Cruz suffers from a different rectum-related disorder — apparently he can only shit through his mouth. Which explains his waxen sheen and permanent moue.

  483. 483.

    Mandalay

    @JPL:

    So who won? More important who lost

    Trump and Cruz won, and everyone else lost.

    Bush and Kasich both need to throw in the towel. They stand more chance of winning if they become Democrats.

  484. 484.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Thoughtful Today: they can be real and still not be accurate at the same time. From a Jewish perspective there is no Judeo-Christian values or tradition. There are Jewish values and traditions and Christian ones. I’m well aware and versed on Christian views on this, and to be polite, but blunt, they are, at best, patronizing. It is also every Christian’s right to hold those views and I’m happy to accept that they have that right and do hold those views regardless of what I might think of them.

  486. 486.

    Helen

    @Anne Laurie:

    Anne is right. NYC women wear their sneakers to work. Cuz when you are on the subway you never know when you will have to run. Also, too, heels hurt. They then change into shoes in the office. But. There was a NY investment firm in the 1980’s that made it clear that the women who worked there could not come into the office in sneakers. The Times had a pic of a bunch of women sitting outside the office changing from sneakers to shoes.

  487. 487.

    Suzanne

    I am tempted to change my party registration to vote for Trump in the primary, just to watch the GOP establishment’s heads blow up. LMMFAO.

  490. 490.

    ? Martin

    I’ve decided that I want Cruz to be disqualified from the presidency because that would mean that any random ‘anchor baby’ could be President but Cruz couldn’t be. And that makes me happy.

  492. 492.

    Eric U.

    @Suzanne: sounds fun. In other news, the machinist, a reliable republican, wants to vote for Bernie. I asked him if he meant in the primary or the general. He said in the general

    Of course, he’s enough of a fox listener that he thinks HRC will be in jail

  494. 494.

    Helen

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    So my hate is bigger that your hate?

    I fucking hate these people. See me up thread. I should stop watching. But it’s like rubber-necking.

    Also, too. Amarosa???? Really???

  496. 496.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Helen: Your hate seems to be bigger than mine. Yours seems to have compelled you to watch. Mine was less powerful than my sense of not wanting to smash my TV.

  498. 498.

    ? Martin

    I figured out what’s wrong with the girls at the Trump rally. None of them were strong enough to crush a human skull under their boot during the ‘crush our enemies’ part of the song. They missed the key visual to tie the whole thing together. Just sloppy.

  499. 499.

    jl

    @Thoughtful Today:

    Matthew 5:17 ?

    I think that is an odd verse to argue for something called Judeo-Christian values.
    It points out a split within the early Church that reflects differences between Judaism and Christianity, just as much as any commonality between Judaism and Christianity.
    The early church interpreted them in a way (the traditional Christo-centric view of history, Judaism, and the Old Testament) that no pious Jew of any school of thought would have agreed with.

    You’ll have to explain what you think it means before I understand.

  502. 502.

    Irony Abounds

    I’m not really all that enthusiastic about Hillary, but all the Republican candidates are such loathsome assholes, that I will walk over glass for her to beat whichever one of those scum emerges from the cesspool. If this country has problems now, just wait for the disaster that will ensue if the Republican wins.

  509. 509.

    Anne Laurie

    @Helen:

    NYC women wear their sneakers to work. Cuz when you are on the subway you never know when you will have to run. Also, too, heels hurt.

    Ditto, women in Boston. Hell, half the men in our office would wear sneakers to work during snow/slush/mud season, then change to their expensive wingtips in their cubicles/offices. (The Senior Vice President, needless to say, hated that. The SVP drove his company car into the enclosed garage with the reserved VP section — unless it was particularly nasty, in which case the company-paid limo service would pick him up at his leafy upscale abode and the private driver would take him into the heart of the Hub. But that was cost-effective, per the SVP, because he used that commuting time for important executive functions.)

  512. 512.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Betty Cracker: @01jack: I checked with Alain. He thinks something is running at midnight EST that is slowing the site down. He’s going to try to figure out what it is and then try to figure out when he can move it to that the slow down won’t impact commenting, loading, and reloading as much. He was thinking 3 AM EST.

  513. 513.

    Helen

    @Omnes Omnibus: You and I have had this conversation. Kinda. You got mad at me when I said I am giving up on America and our system. You kept saying FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.

    OO – darling. If you do not watch what is happening how can you know what is happening?

  515. 515.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Helen: I watched the first debate. I know that the GOP candidates are appalling assholes who oppose almost everything that I think is good about this country. I have comparatively low blood pressure. Why should I fuck with that to learn what I already know?

  516. 516.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: He’s got to figure out what it is, he was just shooting from the hip until he nails that down.

  517. 517.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: As the night janitor, I can attest that 3-4:30am tends to be the ‘dead zone’ on this blog. Although generally comments tend to taper off sharply around 2am, when the Left Coaster go to bed.

  518. 518.

    Anne Laurie

    And now that we’ve made a TBogg unit, new post up top: Ted Cruz makes terrible person Donald Trump look good by comparison.

  519. 519.

    Thoughtful Today

    jl @ 499

    The real fun would be to get Huckabee, Carson, and Romney in a room to discuss it for an hour.

    Adam can then annotate the discussion with his sociological insights.

  522. 522.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: I’m the foreign and defense policy and baking and meat recipe guy. I am not the tech guy. So my honest answer is: I have no idea. I said I’d check with him and report back. That’s what he told me. I am merely the messenger.

  527. 527.

    Origuy

    @amk: It may be a maintenance job that needs to be run periodically, like a database cleanup or something. Killing it could make things worse. Changing the priority might be another fix, so that it doesn’t slow down HTTP requests.

  528. 528.

    J R in WV

    @Suzanne:

    Here in WV we get to pick either party in the primary election, a newish thing. I would like to pick GOP to vote for Trump, but there a coal billionaire running for the Dem Gubernatorial nomination, and a pretty solid Dem who was a good US Prosecuting Attorney running against the coal billionaire.

    So I feel like I need to vote for the prosecuting attorney for the Dem Gov nom, in hopes that Jim Justice, who never pays his bills won’t get elected Gov. Of course it might not matter if we turned into a red state during Obama’s presidency, a Loon will be elected, and will proceed to help the republican controlled legislature destroy the state.

    This is all bad for me, I get my pension from the WV state government. The biggest part of our retirement income.

  530. 530.

    Sherparick

    @Baud: I am thinking perhaps New Zealand or Australia. The radioactive fallout will take a longer time to reach the Southern hemisphere.

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