Fox News is doing everything they can to distract from the immigration issue and to support Marco Rubio.
Around the world, from the US to Australia, Rupert Murdoch pushes for white countries to take in more non-whites.
* Very good Cruz immigration answer. Would have been more effective if he’d denounced Rubio/Jeb/Kasich by name.
* Cruz kept waiting for anti-amnesty applause that shld have come but didn’t. Leads me to suspect hall again stacked with RNC amnesty fans
* Rubio a wind-up doll with his little canned speeches.
From the Audacious Epigone: During the fourth Republican presidential debate, Fox News flashed a word chart in which the size of words corresponded to the alleged concern about the words, the larger the words the greater the alleged concern and the smaller the words the lesser the alleged concern.
Conspicuously missing was a term that, according to Google Trends over the last month, has garnered more search interest than any of the putative top four concerns on people’s minds has.
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| Immigration, Taxes, Homeland Security, Campaign Finance, and Size of Government |
* It was a Wall Street Journal sponsored debate too. They may not have wanted to promote their position on immigration with the Republican base voters.
It reminds me of the questionnaires I used to get from the RNC along with their requests for donations. They’d ask me to indicate which on a list of issues were the most important to me, but the list would never include the issues I consider most important–immigration, racial preferences, etc. Those issues were beyond the pale.
* Illegal immigration was a significant topic, but not immigration itself.
Trump proposes that all the illegals be kicked out, but he “hopes” they all get back in! Some opponent of mass migration!
It would make more sense to seal the border and then confer full citizenship on those who have arrived – and have done with it. The problem with the threat of deportation is that it helps further drive down wages.
And the American people, themselves very ambivalent about the cheap labor provided (depending largely on their own class position), have to partly blame their own inaction for illegal immigrants being allowed to remain long enough to integrate themselves into the economy. (In law it’s called maintaining an attractive nuisance. The alternative to amnesty may be reparations.)
* My review:
Kasich did very poorly, especially when talking about banking. He even got booed. He seems to be positioning himself as the “moderate” candidate, but he’s not doing well.
Rubio, Fiorina, and Cruz did well. Rubio seems like he’s now the establishment frontrunner, as he speaks well and knows how to articulate the basic conservative talking points (repeal Obamamcare, strong military, family values, etc). Rubio even was able to defend the child tax credit and come across as pro-family, while seeming anti-spending. Cruz hits the talking points well too. Fiorina seems tough and is articulate, but isn’t likeable enough.
Carson and Trump were okay. Carson was able to hold his own and evade the controversies that have been dogging him lately. Trump was tough on illegal immigration and called for building the wall on the border. Trump also cited Operation Wetback (from the Eisenhower era) and talked about the Israeli border fence. Trump had good points on trade and the TPP too. Bush and Kasich were against Trump’s immigration proposals, but neither man did well.
Jeb Bush was forgettable.
Rand Paul made very substantive points on foreign policy and military spending, but I think he’s out of sync with the party.
I was disappointed that the candidates don’t want to raise the minimum wage. I was also disappointed that the candidates are against regulating Wall Street. Rubio was smooth in positioning himself as anti-regulation and still positioning himself as anti-Wall Street.
A lot of the foreign policy talk was absolutely insane, especially from Carly Fiorina. Trump and Rand Paul were the only sane candidates in the room.
I don’t think much changed from this debate, except that Rubio (and maybe Cruz) will continue to surge at Bush’s expense.
* Carson had a more coherent and cogent response on the minimum wage than Trump. This should be Trump’s strength, but he almost seemed asleep tonight. Still tired from SNL on Saturday?
I thought Rand had the strongest points judged purely on intellectual merit — especially on the utter insanity of declaring a “no-fly zone” in an area where Russia now has military planes in the air! Also, Trump did wake up in talking about the craziness of going into Syria.
In terms of presentation, Cruz seemed strongest, followed by Fiorina. I actually found Cruz’s closing comment moving (and I’m pretty cynical).
Jeb! actually said something intelligent on the technical merits of natural gas. Aside from that, I hope he enjoyed his nap.
Kasich struck me and the females in the house as more than slightly scary: I’ve seen him in many one-on-one interviews over the years, and he is not really like this. I guess he just cannot handle the debate format.
There was a feature article on Rand recently the title of which was something like “He Wants to Be Your President, But Not Your Pal.” Alas, the country wants a pal.
So, I think it will narrow down over the next four months to Trump, Rubio, and Cruz. Let’s hope, for the sake of the country and the GOP, that it is not Rubio who gets the nomination.
