Anyone in the over 40 demographic who pays attention to politics likely still has vivid memories of the 2004 Presidential campaign. That particular year holds a special significance for Yours Truly as that was when I actually got down off the fence and chose sides by joining a political party for the first time in my life. Try as I may, I cannot forget the weak charges of flip-flopping made by the incumbent President against his decorated Vietnam combat veteran challenger, 527 groups like the swift boaters and all the crap they threw against the wall with their bogus claims, and I especially cannot forget the paranoia of the Republican Party so over the top that they required attendees to their incumbent President’s rallies to sign loyalty oaths. They really did go to exquisite extremes to make sure that if their President ended up looking like less than the stellar celebrity they sought to frame him as that any gaffe would only be seen or heard by dedicated devotees and his image as a great and competent leader would endure.
As I stated a few weeks ago on this blog, one commonality among conservatives and Republicans are their usual . They insist on looking and sounding good and get upset when they end up looking and sounding like less than the rock star image they are trying to portray. Because of their distorted sense of self-importance they often interpret innocuous and totally neutral questions as pointedly hostile. I mean when Katie Couric asked Candidate Sarah Palin what newspapers she read, she really wasn’t trying to make her look bad. As with the former half term Alaska governor, the current slate of GOP candidates requires little help from anyone to expose gaps in their basic knowledge of government and pertinent issues which make them appear inept.
Dr. Ben Carson, who has overtaken Donald Trump as GOP frontrunner in some polls, has been making the case to the GOP base and disaffected conservative Independents that he is the political outsider who can lead the Republican Party out of the electoral wilderness and back to the White House. Through no deliberately malicious interrogatives on air or off, Dr. Carson has displayed a less-than-learned demeanor befitting a candidate with a doctorate level degree. Yes, the good doctor has exposed his ignorance on policy issues ranging from the national debt, federal budget and foreign policy to social issues such as sexual orientation and the age of the earth.
I can personally attest that there is nothing like finding out where your weaknesses are, especially when they are revealed through public discourse. Most would agree that shoring up education in areas which appear overtly lacking in basic knowledge is entirely reasonable. After all, when you are running for President of the United States the voters to whom you are selling yourself would like to know exactly what they are getting. Smooth talk can usually only carry the ignorant so far and better to know where failure may be lurking rather than to get blindsided by it at a critical moment down the road. That said, there is a growing segment of the voting public that is getting increasingly tired of a certain political movement promoting the notion that a given candidate’s ignorance is just as good as another one’s knowledge so long as they embrace and embody the movement’s ideology. Given all the complaints from the GOP candidates over the questions they got from the moderators of their last debate (a CNBC sponsored event no less), you would think it was some liberal conspiracy to sully their collective reputations as legitimate candidates. So instead of preparing for hard probing questions from non-partisan debate moderators on policy positions and hypothetical questions of leadership, candidate Donald Trump would rather select his own panel of moderators, ones he can count on to ask him questions he can look good answering. One of my favorite bloggers, The Rude Pundit, articulated the demands of the GOP frontrunners beautifully in the second of his two posts on the issue: Republican Candidates are Goddamn Titty Babies About the Debates. I will not be surprised if in future GOP debates all attendees will have to sign a loyalty oath ala 2004. I mean it worked for them then or at least it seemed to. The downside is 2016 is not going to be 2004. The demographics of the electorate is changing every cycle and some of the sweeping policy proposals made by some of these candidates that would effect so many voters are going to be an increasingly hard sell to a national electorate.
It certainly does not bode well for the GOP’s Presidential hopes going forward if their frontrunner candidates have to control the debate forum to the point that any element of critical thought is completely shut out. In short, it seems they have all but forgotten the prediction of their Fox News soundproof chamber assuring them of “Romney in a landslide” a mere three years ago. President Obama was spot on with his criticism of these candidates and their inability to handle the CNBC moderators. These self made rules seeking to prop up marginal debating and critical thinking skills are not going to serve the GOP well. They are going to have to relearn the lesson that vigorous debate and examination nets your party the best candidates. The sobering thought in all this is that the winner of all this is going to be on a Presidential Election ballot next November. Whatever you do, do not try to convince yourself that things cannot get worse. As the reelection of the first Supreme Court appointed President underscored in 2004, things can get MUCH worse!