Thirty minutes after the conclusion of the debate Chris Matthews spoke to Rick Santorum and slammed him for not providing any answers on gay marriage.
“But you didn’t ask any,” Santorum replied.
Shorter Matthews: “How dare you not answer the questions we didn’t ask!”
I could end this post right here and you would have the gist of the debate.
MSNBC trotted out a reporter from Telemundo to stand at the side of the stage — not even give him a place at the moderators’ table — to ask about immigration. That’s not stereotypical at all.
Gingrich went after the media, condemning them for attempting to get Republicans to fight with each other instead of with Obama.
Brian Williams elicited gasps from the audience (since every question was framed as how poor and mean those people in Texas with their crappy low-paying jobs are) when he asked Perry how he could sleep at night over Texas’s death penalty and high number of those punished.
Shorter Perry response: I sleep pretty damn well, actually, knowing they’re off the streets. Perry responded that it’s a policy for which Texans voted and they’re happy with it. The room cheered.
More media analysis of tonight’s debate, including clips, forthcoming. Stay tuned.
*More:
This debate offered the network a golden opportunity to reintroduce themselves to many viewers (including me) who’ve come to ignore them for all the obvious reasons. Instead of offering something like an interesting, balanced, panel. They went with Al Sharpton, Lawrence O’Donnell, Eugene Robinson and Ed Schultz, moderated by Rachel Maddow — with extra commentary from a seemingly drooling Chris Matthews (I particularly liked Al Sharpton sharing his insights on what turns off moderates and independents). In other words they doubled-down on their MSNBCness. Anyone who was thinking that maybe they should give the network a second chance probably turned within 5 minutes. Liberals might respond that Fox does the same thing, except it really doesn’t. They always have at least one Democrat or liberal, particularly for something like a Democratic debate. MSNBC couldn’t even rustle up Joe Scarborough?