<\/a>Maybe it was the format: Each of the 14 Republican candidates for President was questioned individually in 5- to 6-minute segments, with no audience reaction allowed and no opportunity to address the other candidates. Maybe it was the intelligent, non-gotcha questioning by clearly conservative, but very calm, radio talk-show host Jack Heath. Or maybe I\u2019m just going soft in my older age [nah!]. Whatever the reason, I came away from last night\u2019s New Hampshire Republican presidential forum with the impression that this year\u2019s array of Republican candidates is more intelligent and less wacko than I have been led to believe.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: I disagree with almost every policy espoused by almost every one of the candidates. Some of what they said is just plain not supported by facts [e.g., Scott Walker\u2019s Wisconsin economic miracle; Ted Cruz\u2019s statement that Jimmy Carter \u201cabandoned the hostages in Iran\u201d]. Much of what they said is not about helping people or doing constructive things: they all want to repeal Obamacare, cut back on Medicaid, cripple government\u2019s ability to function, and give corporations whatever they want whenever they want it. And some of what they said is downright dangerous [e.g., Lindsey Graham\u2019s saber-rattling abut Iran]. If I had to pick the one candidate whose ideas made any sense to me, it would have to be Rand Paul\u2014but I would never vote for him.<\/p>\n

I watched the whole thing, live on C-SPAN. I took notes. I scoffed and sniffed and snarked and talked back to the tv. The conservative moderator teed-up their answers with softball questions. And in a twist that I found rather humorous, a disembodied voice introduced each candidate\u2019s segment by reciting a bit of puffery [\u201cCarly Fiorina was CEO of the 11th biggest technology company in the world\u201d] that was rather obviously supplied by the candidates\u2019 own propaganda wings. And clearly, they had all been well-coached and prepped on issues that they\u2019ve probably never really thought about before deciding to run for President [Bobby Jindal on the Iran nuclear deal, to name just one].<\/p>\n

Maybe these candidates were just on their best behavior in a friendly environment. But none of them sounded like the idiots that I had expected [and, admittedly, hoped for]. I acknowledge that not drooling or going completely blank is a very low bar. But they all did better than that. Even Chris Christie was uncharacteristically subdued and rational.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the surprise. Judging from what I read and see, virtually daily in the media, I was expecting much more craziness and much less articulateness. We\u2019ve become accustomed to click-bait headlines [\u201cYou won\u2019t believe what Mike Huckabee said today about women!\u201d] and out-of-context quotes cherry-picked for shock value. Today, we\u2019re going to see and read a lot of morning-after analysis, replete with the funniest or the most outrageous or the most misinformed sound bites.<\/p>\n

We may get a clearer picture of the candidates\u2019 campaign personalities on Thursday [August 6, 2015], when Fox News hosts its candidate debate. I suspect that we\u2019ll see a lot more belligerence and right-wing pandering at that event. But for now, one of my takeaways from the first forum is that there\u2019s a disconnect between the selective narratives we see in media reports [on both sides] and the reality of who people actually are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it was the format: Each of the 14 Republican candidates for President was questioned individually in 5- to 6-minute segments, with no audience<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2119,77,202],"tags":[1269,2038,2468],"yoast_head":"\n