If you missed the Republican debate last night on CNN, you essentially missed every Republican candidate telling us that the states and the private sector can do everything better than the federal government -- even though the federal government landed a man on the moon, defeated the Nazis and Imperial Japan at the same time, preserved the Union, provided a safety net for senior citizens, and has a pretty solid track record of making sure a Happy Meal doesn't contain asbestos.
The states? They can barely pave roads or avoid bankruptcy. And the private sector shoved us to the brink of the Second Great Depression and is currently responsible for nine percent unemployment. Let's hand them the keys to the economy!
Meanwhile, the moderator, CNN's John King, was as robotic as usual. Nothing overly challenging. No real insight into the issues. And he asked the candidates various "this or that" questions. For example, he asked Newt whether he liked American Idol or Dancing with the Stars (Newt prefers Idol). He asked Herman Cain, the founder of Godfather's Pizza, whether he preferred thin crust or thick crust. Very serious.
We're facing some of the most critical times in the history of the United States and the world -- much of this due to the policies of the Republican Party, and we're asking them whether they like iPhones or Blackberries? Unfeakingbelievable. They all stood up there repeating the same myopic conservative bumper sticker solutions that created the recession -- Reaganomics, supply side, deregulation, tax cuts, and all the rest of it. And CNN treated it like a game show.
Now, in CNN's defense, when Fox News Channel hosts a debate, the theatrics will be more ridiculous and the topics a thousand times more silly.