Has it ever occurred to the GOP that instead of dumbing down the debates they could smarten up their candidates?
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) November 3, 2015
SCOOP: Trump to deal directly w/ networks, blowing up group GOP debate effort, with @daveweigel https://t.co/3bwnsMP1mG
— Robert Costa (@costareports) November 2, 2015
Well, that certainly went well. From the Washington Post, company paper in the town whose monopoly industry is national politics, Monday evening:
The format and content of upcoming Republican debates became increasingly uncertain on Monday after Donald Trump’s campaign said the real estate mogul would negotiate his terms directly with television executives instead of as part of a joint effort with his rivals.
The move by Trump, coming just hours after his and other campaigns huddled in a Washington suburb to craft a three-page letter of possible demands, thwarts an effort to find consensus after what most candidates agreed was a debacle hosted by CNBC last week…
Parties control fewer things in super PAC era. So RNC tried to seize what was left. But that's now in jeopardy. https://t.co/f3wJ3JwuXK
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) November 2, 2015
Lost in debate freak-out: 2012 debates were overwhelmingly *good* for Romney until Newt blew out SC. Primary, not debates, pulled him right.
— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) November 2, 2015
Back story, from Jim Newell at Slate – “The GOP’s Presidential Contenders Are Hijacking Their Own Debates“:
In a Godfather-esque gathering of rival political concerns, representatives of the Republican presidential campaigns gathered in an Alexandria, Virginia Hilton on Sunday evening to draw up a list of conditions for their participation in future presidential debates. The campaigns still are all het up about the completely unfair questioning that business-Republican network CNBC subjected them to last week, such as, Marco Rubio, your tax plan is really good for the wealthy, no? or, Ben Carson, why were you in bed with this snake-oil company for so many years? If the moderators had asked fair questions, see, the candidates wouldn’t have been forced to lie. What’s so complicated about that?…
Late Night Open Thread: The RNC’s Never-Ending Debate Dumpster FirePost + Comments (120)