Not to completely discount the serious issues that are being brought up during the primary season, but that's what it's all about right now - entertainment. The Republican primary in particular is its own poorly produced reality show with the press providing the cameras and the candidates trying to distinguish themselves with ever more ridiculous stunts and statements; all in the hope of unseating the ultimate reality star and Republican front-running presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
That was all just a mouthful of 'ugh.'
However, if this crazy Republican primary's goal is in fact to entertain us, here are a few suggestions to make it so. First, since there are 16 candidates, there should be a debate tournament where the candidate highest in the polls faces off against the person with the lowest number. As Chuck Todd pointed though, the lowest polling person will have to be drawn at lottery since more than a few have under one percent. (What's interesting is that all these candidates under one percent are suffering from the Citizens United decision because they're not the ones getting the big checks. If Citizens United were to be overturned, all the candidates would be on more equal footing and you'd hear more from people like Ohio governor John Kasich (R).)
Another way is that all the candidates have to submit a video like Rand Paul did - showing the candidate putting the tax code through a wood chipper. Lindsey Graham could just re-edit his 'phone antics' video to make it about NSA surveillance. And Marco Rubio could make an instructional video on how to stay classy. (Marco Rubio saying that the President of United States has 'no class' is just stupid because unless you make the distinction of saying 'professionally without class,' calling someone classless is a personal attack. That's how it comes off when Mr. Rubio has been using these terms and it just sounds petty. It's something that Mr. Rubio and Mr. Walker for that matter both suffer from, pettiness.)
Lastly, all the Republican candidates have to say something particularly derogatory about another Republican, not running for president. Donald Trump implied (said, until he tried to take it back) that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was not a war hero, and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a 'liar.' Supposedly the majority leader told his fellow Republicans that he wouldn't add amendments (controversial ones - the repeal of the AFA and the re-authorization of the Export-Import Bank) to a transportation bill. And again, we refer you to Senator Rubio calling the president 'classless.' They all have to do this because it seems like our politicians are incapable of restraining themselves from dishing out personal attacks on others. So now you have to be original because we love the fireworks! (As we've said before, if Senator McCain isn't a war hero then who is? And to say that he is not a 'hero' given how he conducted himself while captured, is to what.. suggest that he's the antithesis of that, a coward? As for Mr. Cruz, it seems like he violated the Senate's code of conduct as that term of discourse is forbidden when referring to other senators. Bottom line is that it was a cheap shot for a grab of attention and he should be censured for it. This continued prying off of any reasonable hold on serious political discourse, lead by Mr. Trump, is going to cause real damage to the Republican party in general.)
This 'entertainment factor' in the Republican primary is fostering of an overall distrust of the Republican party's ability to seriously lead, a distrust that eclipses the trust issues people have with Hillary Clinton, and that's saying something.
Ron Fournier, columnist for the National Journal, said that it basically comes down to the level of distrust voters have for Hillary Clinton, Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report agreed, and neither of them are wrong. What tires us, and everyone else, about the Clintons in general is the perpetual flow of shenanigans constantly surrounding them. Whether it's something that Sec. Clinton says or Pres. Clinton says or something that one of their friends did or said it continually begs the question - what now?
What Mrs. Clinton benefits from is that her campaign challenges are just the cutaway scenes in the broader show that is "Reality President." You can't say it hasn't been entertaining.
Panel: Amy Walter, Cook Political Report; Sara Fagen, fmr. political director, Bush White House; Jose Diaz-Balart, NBC News; Ron Fournier, The National Journal
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