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The Spectacle Blog
Jeff Lord and Reid Smith differ on the merits of Donald Trump moderating a GOP debate.
Although I’m not a fan of Trump and was highly critical of him during the birther nonsense, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and especially Mitt Romney aren’t doing themselves any favors by ducking The Donald. As of this writing, neither Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann have made a decision as to whether they will attend. Rick Santorum figures he nothing to lose by accepting the invitation while Newt, of course, just loves a good debate. Or as Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard put it the other day:
Trump might be full of himself, but is he any worse than CBS’s Scott Pelley? “Scott Pelley was a terrible moderator,” Marc Thiessen wrote at the conclusion of the CBS hosted debate last month. “He treated the men who might be the next commander in chief like schoolchildren, cutting them off in mid-sentence, lecturing them to answer his questions.”
And what about CNN’s Anderson Cooper? Sure Trump is smarmy, but it would be a tight competition for who is smarmier between the two of them. Cooper helped make famous the derogative (and dirty) term “tea bagger” as a way of making of Tea Party conservatives.
Yet that never propelled fair-minded conservatives from saying that the Republican candidates should skip a debate hosted by Anderson Cooper.
Who knows? Trump could rise to the occasion. Stranger things have happened.
There are two potential downsides. First, would be if Trump were to drop F-bombs as he did during a speech last April in Las Vegas. Second, would be if he were to upstage the GOP candidates by announcing he will run as an independent candidate for President. Come to think of it, Trump could drop F-bombs while he’s announcing his White House bid.
UPDATE: Via Daniel Foster at NRO, the Perry campaign has announced that the Texas Governor will not be participating. This leaves Bachmann as the only candidate who hasn’t decided if she’s in or out.
If Bachmann declines then I wonder if Trump and Newsmax will cancel the debate. I can’t imagine them planning all this only to be left with a Gingrich-Santorum debate.
View all comments (9) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/12/08/thoughts-on-the-trump-gop-deba
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Joe M| 12.8.11 @ 11:58AM
"Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and especially Mitt Romney aren't doing themselves any favors by ducking The Donald."
Yes they are. They're making themselves look like serious candidates by not pandering to a circus sideshow ringmaster.
1blumutt| 12.8.11 @ 9:00PM
Joe M., you obviously did not read the article. As with the Cain, Gingrich meet up awhile back, as seen on video; the back and forth between Santorum and Gingrich could be equally if not more enlightening--- certainly interesting.
Dan| 12.8.11 @ 12:10PM
First off, about the want of dignity lent to the overall nomination process by Trump's presence.
1} What indignity could Trump introduce that hasn't already been introduced by the presence of Cain and Paul, by Huntsman and before him Johnson?
2} Why do we delude ourselves that Trump, a guy dead serious about the economy, would be less prepared and knowledgeable about the economy than our esteemed members of the 4th estate?
WL| 12.8.11 @ 12:30PM
I agree with you here Mr. Goldstein (one of the rare occassions)...
We are all tired of meally mouthed "so called conservative" mouthpieces anyway...
The Republican Est. has always "risen above" the folks and what has it gotten us? OBAMA, that's what...
I actually think that your comrades in the "conservative" media...don't want to let ANYONE besides themselves in...because all of us PLEBES will finally have somebody ask the questions we want asked....and not the extraneous template Garbage that the "propers" with reading glasses on the end of their noses usually ask.
I can't WAIT till the Trump debate.
Mr. Romney...here is your nugget...you are getting rejected PRECISELY because of the same reasons that you are not attending this debate. You'll never understand it.
Why do you think Newt the poot is doing so well...
We know he is a loose cannon that is likely to explode at any second....but we are DONE with wet blankets...and want somebody with some GUTS. We may lose with Newt...but we may also get a LANDSLIDE
DONE
D-O-N-E.
Bumr50| 12.8.11 @ 2:11PM
We had a debate with Jim Kramer asking questions.
So, is he "serious" enough for critics of Trump?
JimH| 12.8.11 @ 2:23PM
Trump brings the same gravitas to this event that he brought to his ‘Loser Gets His Hair Cut’ match with Vince McMahon in the WWE. Beside which, Trump is no conservative. I don’t know if he is even a Republican. I recall that years ago he was quite tight with the Demo machine in NYC.
crazy| 12.8.11 @ 3:46PM
Trump will talk about Trump's views - bad deal making - birth records - the spoils of war - punishing trade partners like China - etc. He'll likely produce lots of sound bites that will future marginalize the participants. Hard to see how this helps the participants or the Republican Party.
Red Phillips | 12.8.11 @ 6:12PM
As everyone knows, I'm a huge Ron Paul supporter, but he should have gone to this debate. Here's why.
Trump has gone out of his way to criticize Ron Paul, I think because his ego was bruised when people were chanting for Ron Paul during Trump’s speech at CPAC, and Paul’s supporters went after Trump for his response. So I can see why Paul might have a legitimate beef with Trump, but I think Paul should have agreed to attend the debate anyway. Not attending, gives the appearance, whether real or not of shunning Trump because of the birther stuff. This then gives the appearance of deliberately attempting to avoid conspiracy “taint” which I think empowers the conventional wisdom right think enforcers. Paul should have gone to the debate if for no other reason than to not be accused of not going to the debate base on Trump’s birther history and giving the conventional wisdom enforcers the satisfaction if that makes any kind of convoluted sense. It looks particularly bad since Paul was one of the two earliest to decline. Huntsman, the other candidate to drop out early, was clearly looking to avoid Trump taint.
Red Phillips | 12.8.11 @ 6:20PM
"was highly critical of him during the birther nonsense"
So Aaron, when can we expect the AmSpec special report on the forensic document eval of the long form BC Obama conveniently released at the height of Trump's birther fueled surge. Surely AmSpec commisioned one? Of course no conservative news source worth its salt would dub the thing authentic without doing due diligence first. So what's taking so long? When can we expect to see it? Maybe it's just waiting in line behind those forensic document evals you surely commisioned of his original short form BC and his draft registration card.