The Republican Debate

   
Growltiger couldn't conceive any network coming up with worse moderators than Fox News's triumvirate or CNBC's trio, but CBS dug deep and managed to scrounge up John Dickerson and Kimberly Strassel. The third functionary, Major Garret, didn't get much opportunity to participate so seemed to be there at the behest of Donald Trump to show that somebody can have worse hair than Trump.

Though dressed beautifully, Ms. Strassel looked stiff, uncomfortable in her own skin and seemed to be sucking on persimmons. Ms. Strassel's vicious attacks on Mr. Trump in the Wall Street Journal should have disqualified her as a moderator, and the fact that the RNC allowed her to participate is evidence that the RNC is not being fair to Mr. Trump, and, therefore, Mr. Trump's pledge not to run as an Independent should no longer be valid. Allowing Ms. Strassel to moderate this debate was like allowing Peyton Manning's father to officiate the Super Bowl.

The evening started with the sad announcement that Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, had died. Growltiger sends her deepest condolences to Justice Scalia's family and bids him rest in peace. But as terrible as this news is to the Scalias, it bodes far worse for the future of the United States.

Justice Scalia's death immediately brought up whether President Obama should be allowed to appoint a successor. Of course, he should be. He is the President and will be for the next eleven months. To argue otherwise is illogical. A country cannot grind to a halt just because the leader has only a year remaining. Elections have consequences. Nominations have consequences. The Republican Establishment, believing in 2012, that President Obama was so vulnerable anyone could defeat him, nominated the only candidate who could not defeat him.

Another disastrous appointment to the SCOTUS by President Obama may very well could turn the United States into Venezuela. But who is to say a Republican nominee wouldn't be just as disastrous? After all, George W. Bush appointed Chief Justice, John Roberts who turned a fine into a tax and saved ObamaCare, and his father, George H. W. Bush appointed Justice Souter who was the most reliable liberal on the Court. 
Only Donald Trump gave the correct answer to the question, saying that, of course, President Obama will nominate a successor. But he added that Senate has the duty to advise and consent, and Mr. Trump suggested they "delay, delay, delay".

Though Mr. Trump did not say so, the Senate also has the option of Borking whomever President Obama nominates. Whether the current Republican Establishment Senators would have the spine to do what Democrats do so easily is the question. As the Boehner-Ryan Omnibus bill demonstrates, there is no evidence that Republican Establishment politicians are not on board with Mr. Obama's policies of open borders, amnesty, deficit spending, Iran's nuclear ambitions and/or destroying America's manufacturing industries with deals like the TPP. So why should they object to any nominee who will ensure these policies continue?

The other candidates gave answers they think the primary voters want to hear, mainly, no, Obama should not be allowed to appoint a replacement for Justice Scalia. None suggested how that might be possible.

Unlike the other debates, CBS included Dr. Carson and actually asked him a few questions, for which Dr. Carson thanked them.

The rest of the night was chaos, professional wrestling in a pig sty, and only John Kasich and Ben Carson came out without having to take a shower.

Ms. Stassel smirked and Mr. Garret sat silently under his hair while Mr. Dickinson totally lost control. Trump and Cruz savaged each other, Cruz and Rubio traded barbs, Trump went after Bush, Bush went after Trump, Bush for some unknown reason took a swipe at Kasich who suggested they were all nuts. Cruz sermonized, Rubio oiled, Trump looked like he was about to explode, and Ben Carson proved brain surgeons are too smart to be politicians.

There really wasn't any reason to watch. There really isn't any reason to hold anymore Republican debates. Growltiger suspects in spite of the media constantly telling us how many "undecideds" there are, most voters are locked in by now and will not change their minds.

The only surprise was the audience. The Republican Establishment, Rupert Murdoch's Tabloid News Empire (Fox and the Wall Street Journal), the Weekly Standard and National Review have their backs to the wall. They do not want Mr. Trump to be the nominee. They claim it is because he will lose to the Democrats' nominee, but that's not the truth. They simply hate him. He cannot be bought ergo cannot be influenced.

Prior to the debate, it was reported that the candidates each got 20 tickets and the remainder of the audience was composed of Republican "donors" (which is code for lobbyists, king-makers and special interests). A more fair distribution would be to divide the number of available seats by the number of candidates and allow the candidates to distribute their share of tickets to their supporters. But of course, that would not serve the purpose, and Mr. Trump, should take that, too, into consideration should the RNC continue undermining him.

That the audience was here to try to defeat Donald Trump and elevate the two establishment favorites (Bush and Rubio) was obvious. When Governor Bush complained that he didn't mind attacks on him but resented Mr. Trump attacking his mother and brother, the audience hooted and hollered it's support. When Mr. Trump responded, they booed loudly. But what nobody pointed out, not even Mr. Trump, was that former President Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush are actively campaigning against Mr. Trump. He has every right to fight back against people campaigning against him.

Because of the audience's boorish behavior, they came off worse than the candidates or the moderators.

The GOP Establishment meme is that Donald Trump is not a Republican, not a conservative. For those who wish to make up their own minds, Growltiger suggests the following video filmed at the 1988 Republican Convention. Small minds have short memories.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usb0iE5WiZI

Please note: The Missouri Patriot has, thus far, taken no position in support of any candidate in the ongoing Presidential Primary race. However, as a journalism enterprise, we reserve the right at any time to be both critical and supportive of a wide range of issues and of candidates running for pubic office.  Our goal is to publish a sampling of information, views and opinions that we feel are representative of arguments being offered by various campaigns. One of our objectives is to provide voters with a sampling of information and opinion that we feel is interesting and informative. A motivating factor in our activities is to focus on what we believe to be in the public interest. It goes without saying that our choice of what to publish depends on many factors such as quality of writing, clarity, appeal to our audience and various other factors. Our commentaries cannot be, and are not meant to be, all things to all people or comprehensive in coverage. (We do not sell things or advertise!)  Obviously, we are independent conservative oriented.

We publish Guest Editor's opinions because we feel their views are not only interesting and informative but deserve whatever additional distribution we can give them. That said, their views are their own and do not necessarily mirror ours.  

The Editors

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO RECOMMEND OUR COMMENTARIES TO YOUR FULL LIST OF FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES AND REQUEST THAT THEY RE-DISTRIBUTE THEM AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE .

Important: 

(For forwarding Constant Contact documents, please use the "forward email" link at the bottom of the page)