Last night’s debate was a poorly moderated farce wherein the two moderators attempted to debate the candidates themselves over their own Tupperware fresh economic theories. They failed at baiting any of the candidates (a first for the candidates) and Newt Gingrich seemed to take personal joy in taunting the media.
This was the best exchange of the debate:
Bartiromo took umbrage after Gingrich’s asserted, “What is amazing to me is the inability of much of our academic world and much of our news media and most of the people on Occupy Wall Street to have a clue about history.” The CNBC journalist responded by huffing, “I’m sorry, but what is the media reporting inaccurately about the economy?” An incredulous Gingrich mocked, “I love humor disguised as a question. That’s terrific.”
Regardless how one feels about Gingrich, he won last night’s debate. Huntsman proved that he can stand on stage, Santorum toned it down to 9 from 11, Herman Cain gracefully side-stepped the loaded harassment question, Perry had one of the worst moments in debate history (he recovered decently from it but now he must learn to live in the media spotlight to make up for it), reporters couldn’t verify from which side of his mouth Romney was speaking on the mandate, Paul performed fantastically because there were no foreign policy questions, and Gingrich removed the varnish of objectivity on the moderators’ bias.
I haven’t yet made up my mind about Gingrich; he and I were at odds, mildly speaking, over NY23 and I railed about it with every television appearance. I was not a fan of his Nancy Pelosi PSA, both things he has walked back. He has personal baggage. But I like him better than Romney — I like anyone better than Romney (except maybe Huntsman) and we’ve still got a lot of primary to go.
Friendly tip for Bartiromo in the future: it helps when you don’t appear to be visibly rolling your eyes at audience applause throughout the broadcast.
Tip for CNBC: next time, just leave the moderating to Rick Santelli, the best questioner of the night.