Courtesy of the New York Magazine:
Senator Marco Rubio's attempt to claim the GOP establishment mantle and surge past Donald Trump and Ted Cruz to the Republican presidential nomination encountered a massive glitch in the early part of Saturday night’s debate. At first, Rubio’s strategy appeared to be to rehash his stump speech insinuating that President Obama is deliberately damaging America. Chris Christie, whose strategy for the debate was clearly to take out Rubio, repeatedly called attention to the senator’s canned speech and accused him of using memorized sound bits to cover up for his complete lack of executive experience. That strategy worked. The exchange became an instant classic in the history of political smackdowns, especially because, incredibly, a clearly rattled Rubio continued to use his canned speech, repeating his attack on Obama a total of four times over the first half of the debate.
This same response happened so often, I kid you not, that I thought at one point that CBS was simply playing an early Rubio response over and over.
Not only what he was doing obvious, it was just.....sad.
Speaking of obvious and sad CNN is royally pissed off that Ted Cruz accused THEM of reporting that Ben Carson was suspending his campaign:In a statement out Saturday night, CNN responded, "What Senator Cruz said tonight in the debate is categorically false. CNN never corrected its reporting because CNN never had anything to correct. The Cruz campaign's actions the night of the Iowa caucuses had nothing to do with CNN's reporting. The fact that Senator Cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing."
Gee a robot who repeats the same thing over and over, a blatant and clumsy liar, a Momma's boy, and a bunch of idiots who cannot find the debate stage.
You know I originally predicted that this debate would suffer by comparison to the Democratic debate, but I think it suffers when compared to pretty much ANY debate.
You know I imagine that SNL would LOVE to parody this debate, but seriously isn't it already kind of a parody of itself?
What's so funny is that, yes, Obama did change the United States. But that was what he was elected twice to do. (And I think he's done a pretty good job.)
ReplyDeletePresident Obama changed it for the better.
DeleteRubio-Robot has no personality, no energy, he is dull, boring, and his eyes are dead. How in the hell is he polling so high.
Think about the choices..you have the snake oil salesman who spanks his baby girls, thinks GOD has ordained that he is the savior of the US; the bully who closed down the bridge; the other bully who thinks cracking jokes about women is clever and a winning strategy; an ALEC Governor who made money on Wall Street during the recession; the braindead former surgeon; and Rubio, who knows nothing, is lazier than his dog, and is an immigrant, but gee, he's kind of cute, isn't he? The bar for the GOP candidate is so low that Sailor Palin could crawl over it.
DeleteSallyinMI
Add the TrusTED logo with its "trans-rectal ultrasound" definition (per Google) for "Tran."
Delete@7:09
DeleteAnd wasn't it Rubio who said he doesn't do his job because it's boring? I would LOVE to watch someone hit him with that in a debate!
SallyinMI, Rubio is NOT an immigrant! His parents? Yes. Him? No. He was born in Miami.
I agree with you, SallyinMI, except for the bit about Rubio being an immigrant. I'm sure you meant "child of" immigrants. Rubio's dimwittedness should make him totally unelectable. How could anyone think that the job of a US senator is boring? Isn't he there to help make things better for everyone, here and broad, and especially better for the people of Florida?
DeleteJust imagine if he understood that climate change is real and that it is already having a negative effect on Florida. As a senator on the majority side of the aisle (unfortunately), he could have a major impact on his brother and sister GOP senators. He could lead them to a recognition of a very real and very serious threat. But he's simply too dimwitted.
Beaglemom
Dimwitted but a pretty boy: many people failed to develop a personality & are easily bored, when they are born handsome or beautiful. Rubio looks like a soap-opera actor and shallow Americans, well, you know... we are dealing with part of America who'd vote for a cute cat if it could campaign.
DeleteThat was a headscratcher, for sure. Nothing explains why he kept going with it, even after being called on it.
ReplyDeleteRubio kept going with it because that is all he has. Even in previous debates, Rubio stuck to canned talking points and I'm so glad that Christie pointed it out. Rubio is able to speak clearly and can pronounce words correctly, but that is not enough to merit becoming President of the United States.
Delete"...and can pronounce words correctly, but that is not enough to merit becoming President of the United States."
DeleteThat's better than Bush could do!
In this case, I have to see Christie was useful. Never thought I'd see the day.
DeleteI just heard Rubio being interviewed about his debate performance. It sounds like his spin now is to call criticism from his opponents as "...just part of the process". I think he repeated that three times during the interview.
DeleteI just saw a segment of another of Rubio
Delete's stump speeches during which he repeated the same three or four sentences which were not these same lines about Obama.
The fact that Senator Cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing."
ReplyDelete-------------
What would be astonishing is Ted Cruz telling the truth about anything.
Guess his copy of the 10 commandments doesn't include the one about lying!!
Snark alert
DeleteSorry 7:21, but those ten do NOT preclude lying. IT merely says you will not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Since he seems to feel he HAS no neighbors in this, he can say almost anything.
"The fact that Senator Cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing."
ReplyDeleteHow about shameful? Oh that's right they have no shame also, too.
And can we add brilliant? Because Lord knows, there's no campaign strategy quite as effective as pissing off the media.
DeleteAlso in the debate, the brief thing about "emminent domain," to which Trump said "gotta have that to build schools, bridges, roads," and the other guy said "yeah, but you used it try to evict an old woman so you could build a parking lot for your casino," and Trump shouts "I did not do that!" which is correct because the courts PREVENTED him from doing it.
ReplyDeleteIt all just fits the Marx Brothers entrance.
Remember Palin mocking Obama's "hopey changey" stance? Well Obama changed us out of the national near-bankruptcy state Bush put us into.
ReplyDeleteRubio says rape victims should have the baby.
ReplyDeleteAnd does that make headlines around the world? No. Gee, I wonder why?
Ted Cruz's Latest Dirty Trick Is Almost Too Much To Be Believed
ReplyDeleteCheck out this mailer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-mailer-2016-election_us_56b7fa37e4b08069c7a7c48c
O/T Why Obamacare really can save lives, if these asshole right wingers in Montana would get a clue!
ReplyDeleteFinancial despair, addiction and the rise of suicide in white America
The death rate for white Americans aged 45 to 54 has risen sharply since 1999, but Montana officials wrestle to explain why the state has the highest rate of suicide in the US at nearly twice the national average – and it’s rising
...What has changed?
Karl Rosston, Montana’s suicide prevention coordinator, said there are a number of constants that contribute to a historically high suicide rate throughout the Rocky Mountain region from social isolation to the availability of guns and a reluctance to seek mental health care.
But all of those are longstanding issues in Montana. So what’s changed to drive up the rate of people taking their own lives in recent years?
“Probably the biggest reason is socio-economic. We have about 150,000 people in our state that don’t have access to any type of healthcare, which is a major issue. We have a lot of people living in poverty. Wages are not going up at the same pace as rising health costs, rising cost of living and inflation,” Rosston said.
“Definitely you see a lot of people that all of a sudden they hit 45 or 50 and they don’t see retirement as a bonus. They see something that they’re going to have struggle with and they’re not going to be able to retire.”
Sullivan sees that as tied up with “the expectation that as a middle-aged white person you would outdo your parents economically and socially, and that didn’t occur”.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/07/suicide-rates-rise-butte-montana-princeton-study
why post such a long extract on an off topic?
Deleteexcellent question 8:52
DeleteWhenever I need a good laugh, I just watch that intro over. Even when the stage manager kept peeking out and furiously waving at Carson to go out, he still wouldn't budge. Then Trump stopped too. And they forgot Kasich. Makes me laugh just thinking about it. They had to know when everyone else walked past them. ROFLMAO
ReplyDeleteI know, I watched it twice yesterday and was at working thinking I'd like to watch it again, like it's an SNL clip or something.
DeleteR in NC
Meant to add, there's something about the way Carson is standing, with his hands in front of his crotch, like a little boy at the swimming pool or something. It's hilarious!
DeleteR in NC
Carson's brain degeneration is at the stage where he is not sure when to come out of the rain or go onto the stage. Sad. Shame on the people around him, grifting. telling him he is smart enough to be president.
DeleteNo doubt Rubio is programmed to say and do whatever his programmers tell him. A bit like the Manchurian candidate, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteSo, I guess if Rubio is the President, he won't really be the President. The people who tell him what to do and what to say will have the power of the Presidency.
Seeing Chris Christie hand Rubio his ass on Saturday night was a thing of beauty.
At least now we know the definitive answer to the all-important question: "Who is the ABSOLUTE WORST Republican candidate for president.
ReplyDeleteUnsurprisingly, the answer is "any of them, all of them."
youbetcha
DeleteIt's kind of like answering the question, which are the best US airports. But you can in fact start with the worst and then you find out which ones sift down towards the bottom of the list, leaving them the least awful. I.e.,
DeleteCruz (as JC said: he actually means the sh*t he says).
Trump
Carson (brain dead brain surgeon)
Rubio (pretty boy)
Bush
Christie (bonus points for taking down Rubio)
Kasich
And THEN when Rubio was asked about his repetitiveness of that phrase in an interview on TV he defended it and repeated it again!
ReplyDeleteStepford Politician.
Rubio actually said he would pay for them to lay it again.
DeleteRubio is a chunky Ricky Ricardo. Bobba looo....is not cute!
ReplyDeleteThe Donald does the same stuff over and over and in triplicate.
CNN'a entire premise is bullcrap. I've watched the debates on all channels, and msnbc had them ALL beat by miles, journalism wise, integrity, questions and follow up questions, everything was well executed. Even FOX surprised me with Megyn Kelly, but nowhere close to Maddow.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe your lying eyes? Do they not know it's on you tube and every political site? I kind of felt bad for Rubio, he looked like he was thirsty enough to empty our in ground pool, and Bully Bridgeboy who met Obama AND Da Brooce because he did a belly flop in the Atlantic Ocean sat on poor Marco till he couldn't breathe. And who's in the lead now? Trump, Rubio, Cruz. Who's at the wrong end of the elephant? Chris Christie, of course.
What was funnier was that on Colbert tonight not only did Colbert play Rubio's broken record and Christie beating him up over it, but then Colbert played Christie repeating his pet phrases over and over.
ReplyDeleteThey all do it.
I'm sure we've all heard John McCain's little joke that he changes to fit whatever state and audience he's addressing.
What I love is that Rubio admits "Obama knows exactly what he'd doing."
Thank you Mr. Rubio, for admitting Obama is responsible for the unemployment rate dropping below 5%, the economic recovery, for people's lives being saved because they now have healthcare due to the ACA. That you for saying that Obama knows exactly what he's doing. Even though I'm sure that's not what you meant.