A Republican Friend has asked for Liberals and Non-Republicans to give their opinion on the Republican Debates and the Candidates- I am a bit of a political junkie and I figured I'd give him my fair (and what will try to be unbiased) assessment of the 2nd Presidential Debate tonight and I told Dallas I'd try to give it before watching any punditry or web assessments of the candidates so as not to cloud my judgment.
Just to give u an idea where I'm coming from
until 2004 I voted Republican. After 2004 I consider myself a left of Center who wants more Democratic policies put into place. I think the pendulum has swung too far to the right (as it sometimes does) and needs a course correction
I tend to stick to NPR, Fareed Zakaria, and some of the CNN Pundit shows as well as PBS for most of my news sources - I recognize the bias in MSNBC and Fox and don't waste too much time there.
I was a Broadcasting Major in College (where is where I met Dallas) and I have a pretty high B.S. detector - but I'll try to leave it turned off during the debate :D
I also have a general idea on elections that I'm looking for tonight. I believe that to win a presidential election you have to be FOR something. I believe both parties (Kerry in 2004, Romney in 2012) tried the "Vote for me, cause I'm not that other guy"" hey, that'll get you 40-45% of the way there for sure. Inspiration on the other hand will drive it over the edge - I think this is why if Saunders gets the nomination, he actually has a shot to drive voter turnout on the D side to new levels of involvement.
I'm looking for someone similar on the Republican side who inspires. It seems the best they've been able to do the last few cycles is drag out the bones of Ronald Reagan and say "vote for us, and we'll be like him" Chris Christie had an open door and the Koch's/Kissinger were trying to push him thru it in 2012 and he snoozed and I think he'll regret that till the end of his days in office.
I think Trump is trying to tap into that Tea Party Populist anger to get elected but has no clear definable purpose other than self-glorification. I hope someone hands his hair to him tonight, quite frankly. So if I have immediate bias on the candidates, it is against Donald Trump - should he be elected, every bad and cynical thought I've had about the intelligence of humanity gets validated - so let's not let that happen, R's
Interested in Rubio and Carly even though the narrative of the last 8 years has been that Obama is too inexperienced as just a one term Senator. Hard to see how Rubio and Carly overcome that hump but no one seems to care past the Primaries anyways. At least Romney had real Governor Executive experience, which I believe is different than CEO experience but some skillsets transfer and Carly is here because of her last debate performance so let's see if she shines.
Ben Carson....he probably won't get it but I trust his evangelical credentials over anyone else on the stage. Curious if he renews his attacks against Trump's faith or lack thereof.
Jeb Bush - what happened? What will u do and how will u fix it?
More to follow and if I can I will try to catch the early debate as well
RB