I am too depressed to give a recap of last night’s debate. This is not just because Rick Santorum did poorly, but because the debate itself was a travesty.
Frankly, no one really cares about Arlen Specter, NCLB, or any number of the issues bandied about. Seriously. America is being pushed over a cliff. Meanwhile, the candidates were bickering about whether Rick Santorum’s shoelaces were untied.
Mitt Romney’s flip-flopping and the offenses that he has committed against conservatism are serious enough that any attack that he might make against Rick Santorum on consistency and conservative principles is just an exercise in utter hypocrisy.
But what of Ron Paul? He being the “only principled conservative”, he dared to stand there and call the most principled, consistent conservative on the stage a fake. In pointing the finger of accusation against Santorum, he ignored Mitt Romney’s flip-flops and Romneycare, he ignored Newt Gingrich’s serial hypocrisy, backstabbing, and flip-flops, and he ignored the four fingers pointing back at himself because he is in fact guilty of some of the same offenses that he accused Santorum of.
A pox on both their houses.
Santorum’s big mistake was temperamental and tactical in nature. He got bogged down and defensive, failing to pivot to his opponent’s weaknesses and then on to the real issue of the day: Obama. Essentially, Santorum forgot what he was there for.
This election is not about whether one man wins or loses for the sake of his own ego. It is about something much larger than that–the fate of a nation. Santorum made a very human mistake in the debate, by letting it be about him. However, while he may have momentarily forgotten this truth that the debate was about the American people, his opponents never knew this truth to begin with. Are we to fault Santorum for this momentary lapse? Or, shouldn’t we instead turn our backs on his opponents, based upon how they have spent lifetimes consumed in vainglorious political ambition, only for themselves? Political positions, principles, supporters, friends, and even wives are just baggage to these men, to be sloughed off as they sprint to the finish line in an effort to be first.
Is this just a reality show, where we send a contestant home, back to anonymity and failure, because he was “pitchy” on one song? Or, are we as voters to take the full measure of a man and decide whether he is fit to rule?
So, yes, Santorum was hurt by this debate, but only because he failed to cry foul on the whole event. Only because he did poorly at playing the game. For this, he bears some reproach. Yet, how can his opponents bear any less reproach? They were all there, feeding the fire. None of them really focused on Obama or on the state of the nation. Not one.
To sum up, here is Stephen Green’s assessment of the debate:
There was one candidate sorely missing from tonight’s debate. And that man’s name is: Barack Obama.
There are two reasons for Obama’s omission.
First, we’re in the endgame of the GOP nomination process, so they’re going to go after each other like a cage full of male baboons with just one female in the cage with them.
Second, CNN and the rest of the MSM doesn’t want to hold an honest debate on the single most important issue at hand: Has Obama governed well?
While Obama maintains some nice likability numbers, pretty much everybody hates every little thing he’s actually done. But you wouldn’t know that from anything John King (not Anderson Cooper!) asked tonight.
My friend and coworker Bill Whittle maintains that the GOP is suicidal to uphold the pretense that the MSM is neutral in this contest, and should grant them their fatal pretense. Twenty debates later, I’m forced to conclude that Bill, for once, is overly optimistic. Panglossian, even. Tonight’s debate had as much to do with selecting a nominee — and directing that nominee towards November — as a Bourbon Street Mardi Gras flasher has to do with actual Catholicism.
I am glad the debate season is over. It has been nothing but an embarrassment for the GOP and the candidates.
Related articles
- Santorum Flops in the Debate Spotlight (commentarymagazine.com)
- Arizona…The Final Debate (Thank God!) (yidwithlid.blogspot.com)
- Rush Limbaugh: I ‘Cringed’ At Rick Santorum’s Team Player Comment At GOP Debate (huffingtonpost.com)
- Did Rick Santorum Blow the Arizona Debate? (usnews.com)
I agree with your assessment, although I will say that Rick got some real zingers. I loved it when he told Mittens a balanced budget didn’t earn him bragging rights because he was required by law to do so, and that Michael Dukakis had balanced the budget for 10 years.