Saturday, October 22, 2011

Republicans Help Obama

Leave to the CNN guys to bait the trap that led to one of the most divisive and bitter debates among the Republicans to date.
What a shame. For most of the debate, the Republican candidates stepped into the traps set for them by Anderson Cooper, beating each other up, getting angry, and showing little inclination to dissect the policies of the President that want to unseat.
It is okay to want power if you are running for president, but it is not okay to be so power hungry that you would ratehr savage your fellow party members than the philosophy and record of a sitting president you claim to oppose.
For the past few debates, Newt Gingrich had it right -- let's not allow the media to push us to demean one another. Instead, the Republicans came out knifing one another, often with cheap shots (such as Perry's attack on Romney for hiring illegals) and Romney's attack on Perry on the grounds that his experience was like that of a football coach wanting to go to the NFL after losing 40 games. Really? Likewise, they all ganged up on Herman Cain and his 999 plan, which, whatever its merits, is surely superior to the ideas being floated by then Democrats. If Santorum had half as much passion for attacking the Democrats as he did in going after Romney and Perry, well, he might be a serious candidate.
Too often they sound like sixth graders running for class president -- I did this, I did that, I was this, I was that, my plan does this, my plan does that. You did this, no I didn't, etc. They seem to have forgotten everything they might have learned from Ronald Reagan. The American people need a vision, not a resume and certainly not bickering that would embarrass most high schoolers. If the defeat of Obama is their goal, the Republicans did themselves little good in the Las Vegas debate. Instead, they became petty and small and that is not the way to beat a sitting president.

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