Republican debate, tea party, Blitzer

A few quick thoughts on the Republican debate on CNN Monday night.

I promise. They will be quick. It's way too early to be talking election politics.

It's a little troubling to me as a journalist that a fairly credible news organization like CNN would actually sponsor a debate with a political faction - the Tea Party Express in this case.

Would any independent voter view this as a slight crack in the network's credibility? I'll be interested to see if the smarmy Howard Kurtz or any other media critic takes them on in this issue or if this is the wave of the future.

 Scary if it is.

CNN was almost branding itself with Tea Party as a kind of combo meal you'd buy at McDonald's. The marketers went over the line.

I hope it troubles Wolf Blitzer, who is a solid, credible journalist and he did a solid job on running the debate and asking some tough questions.

I can't say the same for John King, who just softballed question after question to Michele Bachmann after the debate.

She's a bit desperate, taking off after Rick Perry on the "little girl forced vaccination" issue and John King did nothing to hold her accountable for the outrageous statements she was making.

She even got a little mean, saying even though Perry apologized, that wasn't good enough. Sheesh.

She knows there was an opt out, but kind of said, well, people should be told by government there's an opt out.
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Well, they kind of were told by the government. It seems Bachmann wanted government to get even more involved saying the opt out wasn't adequate and people need to be told (in my interpretation government needs to hold their hand). That's just contradictory to her usual schtick that people take responsibility for their own lives and not rely on government that she was advocating earlier in the debate

Again, no challenge from King. His interview with her could have been a campaign commercial.

Ron Paul was kind of the comic relief here, and, actually, he makes a lot of sense some times, despite the comedy.

Blitzer nailed on the health care issue. As a doctor, Paul said he was against health care mandates but would not throw people out on the street if they didn't have it and needed care. (thus all the rest of us paying for it, Blitzer said.)

Paul said, in his day, the churches handled it. Enough said there. Hope my pastor was listening.

Romney made few mistakes, and I liked his line about telling Perry that Texas was doing well because when you're "dealt four aces, you aren't necessarily a good poker player."

Perry tried to respond with equal witt, but it fell flat. That's what happens when you have an uppity East Coast politician, former CEO, make fun of the good 'ol boy from Texas.

I still haven't heard an economic theory from any of them that allows people to check it empirically  — did this ever happen and can cause and effect be established kind of stuff —  and doesn't require them to just have the "belief" about the way the economy works.

Milton Friedman is turning in his grave.