Tag Archives: debates

national news

RNC loses will to fight

It is clear to me that the leadership of a once-great political party has lost its will to stand and fight for what it believes.

The Republican National Committee’s decision to bow out of future presidential debates — at the primary and general-election levels — has demonstrated to me that the party has been taken over by cowards.

Think of it. The titular head of the party, Donald J. Trump, is the former Coward in Chief. He bitched out loud during his term as president that the press is the “enemy of the people.” He yapped and yammered preparing for presidential debates with the fellow who beat him in 2020, Joe Biden, that the joint appearances were stacked against him.

Trump has managed to project his cowardice onto the leadership of the RNC, now led by Ronna Romney McDaniel. Here’s an example of how McDaniel shows her cowardly nature: She used to be proud to wear the name of her uncle, Mitt Romney; these days, because The Donald despises Romney, she has dropped the “Romney” from her name and now goes by Ronna McDaniel. It’s a little thing. Then again, it really isn’t.

Now the RNC has decided that it won’t rely on journalists to moderate future presidential debates. Its decision, therefore, to pull out of future events sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates — a non-partisan group — suggests it has swallowed the swill served by The Donald.

The nation has come to rely on these joint appearances to help voters make decisions on who is best suited to lead the country. And, yes, at times individuals emerge from these events whom no one expects. I am willing to argue that Donald Trump pulled off that very surprise during the 2016 presidential primary season.

So, what happened to The Donald? He lost re-election in 2020 and promptly blamed everyone else for his loss, ignoring the undeniable truth that the presidency he ran failed. He threw blame at the feet of the debate organizers.

Now we have the Republican National Committee continuing to adhere to the whims and machinations of the twice-impeached and defeated POTUS.

Cowards. All of ’em!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news, national news, political news

Trump now must decide: Do I show up to debate Hillary?

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I cannot believe some media outlets are actually asking this question seriously.

Is Donald Trump going to agree to debate Hillary Rodham Clinton now that we know who will moderate these three events, or will he back out?

Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has agreed to face Republican nominee Trump who, apparently, hasn’t yet agreed formally to show for any or all of them.

It seems that he wanted to see who the networks would select as moderators. Now he knows.

NBC’s Lester Holt will moderate the first one; ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper get the second one; Fox News’s Chris Wallace gets the third one.

All are capable journalists. All are tough-minded.

And all of them, apparently, have had some “issues” with Trump.

Thus, we get the question about whether the GOP nominee will show up.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-wanted-to-%E2%80%98see-who-the-moderators-are%E2%80%99-now-that-he-has-will-he-debate/ar-AAiu2ho?li=BBmkt5R

The tempest over his feud with Fox’s Megyn Kelly is going down already as a serious back story of this amazingly unpredictable campaign. Trump didn’t show up for a debate when he learned Kelly would be one of the co-moderators. His absence obviously didn’t harm his nomination chances.

Trump has bitched about moderators before. All of the journalists named as moderators have questioned Trump hard on some of the answers he has given. Will his notoriously thin skin prevent him from being questioned yet again?

He’s also griped that the debates were scheduled opposite televised NFL games, which he said would drive down viewership of the debate — which, quite naturally, he alleges is a conspiracy to get Clinton elected.

The only thing I can surmise if Trump were actually to refuse to show up for any of these three joint appearances is that some of the conspiracy theorists are right about one thing: Trump is throwing this election because he truly doesn’t want to be elected president of the United States.

national news, political news

Awaiting first joint Clinton-Trump joint appearance

Clinton-Trump-debate-jpg

OK, I’ll admit it.

I am anxiously awaiting the first joint appearance in four weeks between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump.

I won’t call it a “debate,” because it isn’t going to be one. They’ll answer questions from a moderator and likely will be unable to question each other.

Why the anxiousness?

I keep hearing and reading things about the way Trump is preparing for this event. He’s relying on ousted Fox News president Roger Ailes, his son Donald Jr., his daughter Ivanka and his new campaign chairman Steve Bannon.

There’s also buzz about how Trump isn’t going to have mock exchanges with stand-ins.

We all saw how he dismantled his GOP primary opponents. He mugged at them, called them names — e.g., Lyin’ Ted and Little Marco.

He faces someone in Clinton, though, who is as unflappable as they come. She’s been through these one-on-one exchanges before, in 2008 against a young U.S. senator named Barack Obama and again this year against U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Her own preparation likely is going to be as comprehensive as possible. Just how does one prepare for a candidate whose style has been compared to that of a nuclear bomb, or a runaway freight train?

She must expected to the totally unexpected.

There will be two more of these joint appearances with Clinton and Trump, as well as one with the VP picks, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Mike Pence.

This first one, though, well might be the whole show, the ballgame, the big enchilada.

I’m going to look for two things relating to body language:

* How will they greet each other when they walk onto the stage? Will they exchange warm handshakes, with them grabbing the person’s elbow with the “off hand”? Or will they greet each other with what amounts to a “pinkie handshake” while avoiding eye contact?

* How will it end? Will they still smile at the end of it? Or will Trump’s insults, invective and innuendo be too much for Clinton to take? Or will Trump snub his opponent after she continues to bombard him over his “unfitness to be commander in chief”?

They say the TV audience will be y-u-u-u-g-e.

I believe it. I’ll be one of many millions seeking to take some measure of these individuals.

I’ll have the popcorn ready.

national news, political news

GOP plans fewer debates in 2016

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Even though I generally like to see candidates for high office mix it up in public, I have to applaud the Republican National Committee’s decision to scale back the number of debates its presidential candidates will wage in 2016.

It’s down to just nine of them, about half the number of debates that took place prior to the 2012 GOP convention.

The 2012 GOP primary campaign was an exercise in ridiculousness as the field kept showing up weekly prior to elections in states. The field was winnowed down as candidates dropped out from the previous primary voting.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/01/16/rnc_announces_nine_presidential_debates_125285.html

Even stranger was the stagecraft associated with many of these joint appearances. The candidates would stride onto the stage to applause from the audience, and to shrieks and shouts from their particular fans in the crowd.

They’d wave and point to people they recognize — which always is an odd sort of gesture that politicians do to “connect” with voters.

The GOP is expecting a large field of candidates. RealClearPolitics indicates as many as two dozen Republicans currently are considering a run for the White House. Holy cow! What if all of them declare their candidacies?

The field will narrow quickly, although I’m quite certain it’s going to be a stronger field of contenders than the gaggle of goofballs that ran for the presidency in 2012. Yes, there were serious candidates among the field, but Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann? C’mon.

I’m happy to see the RNC coming to its senses on the number of debates. Now it has to figure out how to lend seriousness and decorum to each of them.

Let’s start by eliminating the show-biz entrance.