In just the first 30 minutes of the debate, we’ve had the candidates falling over each other to demonize what’s left of the sensible wing of the Republican party – people like Chris Dodd and Ben Bernanke. We’ve had Rick Santorum propose a 0% tax rate. And we’ve had Newt Gingrich come out with a passionate tirade against statistics. What we haven’t had is any kind of substantive debate. Either between the candidates, or between the moderators and the candidates. This has been a series of set pieces, where questions are not answered and set-piece speeches are always preferred to anything which directly addresses the subject at hand.

Most of the answers in this debate have come from an ideological cloud-cuckoo land, where we can start from scratch and create a brand-new Utopian fiscal and monetary policy simply by dint of having been elected president. Mitt Romney and John Huntsman have given hints that they live in the real world (albeit a real world where Milton Friedman can be risen from the grave), but in general this is a debate where the impossible is being fed to the fanatical, and those of us unlikely to vote in a Republican primary – including Charlie Rose and the rest of the questioners – are being studiously ignored.

Ari Fleischer thinks that this is “a wonky debate”; he’s wrong. Wonks deal in reality; these candidates are dealing in ideology. Which actually tells us nothing about how they would actually govern if elected president.

Felix Salmon

270 Notes

  1. nhaler reblogged this from soupsoup
  2. awesomeocelot reblogged this from soupsoup
  3. shaydonarmstrong reblogged this from soupsoup
  4. theoofiles reblogged this from soupsoup
  5. This was featured in #News
  6. This was featured in #Politics
  7. soupsoup posted this


Higher Legal - California State Bar certified Los Angeles lawyer referral service focusing on personal injury cases. | coupons | Medifast Coupons | compare car insurance rates | online dating | Submit Articles at SooperArticles.com | SEOP celebrity Eric Schiffer | dining table and chairs online shopping