"They Will Miss the Crazy"

[applegrove]

They Will Miss the Crazy

By Ron Klain at Slate

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/05/the_republican_party_should_keep_its_crazy_debates_those_gop_contests_were.html

"SNIP.......................



The Republican Party has “taken control” of its presidential primary debate process—putting a party committee in charge of its primary debates, and signaling that they will have fewer debates, with stricter rules, and fewer candidates. Slate’s John Dickerson has summed up the move by writing, “The Republican Party wants an orderly process so that their candidates can put their best foot forward,” and explaining that the plan is an effort to “take control of the crazy” that dominated the 2012 GOP debates.

Except for this: What is crazy is changing the one thing that actually worked well for Republicans in 2012—their unruly, burdensome, endless debate process. Sure, the candidates hated it. Sure, the party elders hated it. Yes, it was messy. But those messy, crazy, chaotic debates did more to give the GOP a fighting chance in 2012 than anything else the party did—and they are making a big mistake in undoing what worked so well.

The GOP debates in 2012 saved the party from what surely would have led to a 50-state Obama landslide: nominating Rick Perry. It may be hard to remember, but when Texas Gov. Rick Perry entered the race in 2011, it looked like the nomination was his for the taking and the Perry momentum was overwhelming. In fact, a year prior to Election Day 2012 the Perry juggernaut was so strong that even the Great and Powerful Oz (aka Nate Silver) wrote a New York Times Sunday magazine piece forecasting a 55 percent chance that Perry would beat Obama in the general election.

What stopped Perry, and saved the Republican Party from nominating a hopeless, hapless candidate? Those much reviled debates, where Perry blew—not one, not two—but three debate appearances. And what finally did Perry in? One of those much maligned “media sponsored” debates, where CNBC journalist John Harwood called Perry out for being unable to name the three federal agencies he proposed to abolish. It took multiple debates to expose Perry’s weakness, and sharp questioning by a savvy reporter to make that weakness fatal. Absent those, the GOP might have nominated an atrocious candidate and left the dissection work to President Obama in the fall. Rather than trying to cut back the number of debates and wrest control of them from media types, the Republican Party should send Harwood and CNBC a bouquet and beg them to hold 20 more debates in 2016 to weed out any empty suit candidates.




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[dhill926]

1. they'll need to hold 40….

to weed out the amount of crazies they have….

[applegrove]

2. LOL!

[spanone]

3. will the teaparty split from the reTHUGS and form their own idiocracy?

that would be sweet

[okaawhatever]

4. The problem with the debates for the GOP is that the truth eventually comes out. They think it is

that they pull candidates too far to the right to win in the general, but that isn't the issue. People finding out what their candidates believe is the problem.