East TN Conservative

I was anxious to watch last night’s debate on FOX News. After all, FOX has a reputation among conservatives of being serious and fair, and they have a history of asking Republican candidates about Republican issues. Also, Saturday night’s debate was spectacular, so I assumed FOX would step up their game and deliver a nice debate with plenty of substance. I felt pretty cheated during the debate. I knew within the first five minutes that it was not going to be an easy night for my man Fred. During the initial round of questions about taxes, all I could think was, “Chris Wallace is going to have nothing to ask Fred, because Fred’s NEVER ONCE voted to increase taxes. There is no grey area with Fred, so Wallace can’t play gotcha.” I was hopeful Fred would say something to that effect, but Wallace deftly changed the subject to Social Security before he let Fred talk. My frustration continued as the debate turned into what seemed like a lot of this: 1. Wallace tells Candidate A what Candidate B has been saying about him on the trail. 2. Candidate A talks about it. 3. Candidate B responds. 4. They keep going. Or, 1. Wallace asks A a question. 2. A talks about B. 3. B rebuts A. 4. A rebuts B. 5. They keep going. I guess that’s not the worst way in the world to run a debate (see Des Moines Register), but if there are two candidates who are never A or B in the scenarios above, it makes for an uneven forum. My biggest gripe with the whole thing is that Chris Wallace was pretending all five were on FOX News Sunday. He tried playing his interview/gotcha game with them all. Problem is, Fred Thompson hasn’t fallen into too many traps in this campaign. Sure, there are the classic lazy and belly-fire memes, but he hasn’t said things on the trail that are inconsistent with the way he voted while in office. He’s not making as many attacks on his opponents as some of the other candidates. And the other men at the cramped desk aren’t able to point to inconsistencies on Fred’s part. Unfortunately, those were the three best ways to get rewarded with air time last night. During the entire debate, Fred Thompson was the only candidate asked about his own specific plans/proposals. Read that again. (Oddly enough, Rudy was asked about Huckabee’s Fair Tax Plan, but Huckabee wasn’t.) I was pretty mad at FOX News this morning, but I am a FredHead, so I thought I’d make sure I have some basis for my anger besides perception. I put together the following chart of responses during last night’s debate (click it for a full-size version). Fred was given fewer opportunities to speak than the other candidates, which didn’t surprise me. He was the only one, though, that was asked about a specific plan, and it happened three times (taxes, social security, immigration). Other than that, he got two pity questions, and a closing minute. That’s it! The most consistently conservative candidate with most detailed plans is shut out of the debate, evidently because he’s not controversial enough!"