A VOICE of BALTIMORE POLITICAL COMMENTARY

 

At Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate, The Donald effected a smirk when- ever any of his five opponents criticized him.

REPUBLICANS APPEAR ‘PRESIDENTIAL’
IN DEBATE — MINUS ONE HOWEVER:
TRUMP ACTS OUT THE BULLY ROLE

Smirking every time he lacked legitimate defense,
The Donald comes under almost universal criticism

INTERRUPTING, DENIGRATING & ATTACKING,
EVEN WHEN HE WASN’T BEING ATTACKED
BY ANY OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
When the six leading Republican candidates for President took the stage at Saturday night’s 9th GOP debate, five of them made a supreme effort to appear “presidential” — alternately tough, conciliatory, ready and willing to negotiate in a positive way for the good of America.

However one made it his primary business to run roughshod over whichever of the others he perceived as getting in his way — repeatedly interrupting and raising his voice to drown them out whenever it was their turn to speak — and smirking for the TV cameras at every legitimate criticism for which he had no defense.

A classic bully — but not the way Teddy Roosevelt intended the term. Donald Trump acted the way schoolkids do when other, more intelligent children criticize their actions and they aren’t capable of mounting a credible defense other than asserting themselves physically or in a verbally abusive/overpowering manner.

At one point, chief rival Ted Cruz reminded Trump that “adults learn not to interrupt” other speakers. To which Trump smirked, obviously having no appreciation for being compared to a child.

And when Jeb Bush declared, several times, that he was sick and tired of Trump’s denigration of his family — including personal attacks on his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush— Trump’s primary response was to smirk again.

Bush also defended his brother, former President George W. Bush, against what he termed Barack Obama’s penchant for blaming the second Bush President for all his problems, even more than seven years into the current presidency.

In addition Trump blamed Dubya Bush for the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and cost thousands of innocent lives, and also called him a liar.

The most “presidential” of all was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who reiterated his intent to run a positive campaign on the issues, and vowed not to backslide into personal attacks — or to give general election voters any reason to favor Democrats Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders over whoever the Republican standard bearer might ultimately turn out to be.

He then asserted that blue-collar Democrats of the Ronald Reagan coalition would “vote for us next fall” and not for the Democratic nominee.

However even Kasich found himself under attack for his record on expanding Medicaid, which was linked by his opponents to an alleged expansion of Obamacare.

At the 9th Republican presidential debate this campaign season, Ohio Gov. John Kasich called for positive campaigning by his 5 opponents.

Despite attempting to appear presidential, the candidates attacked each other without mercy, joining together to pile unanimously on Trump. In their collective view, The Donald could do nothing right.

No wonder the front-running businessman interrupted and smirked. He was without defense.

And was booed time and again by the partisan audience in Greenville, South Carolina, the state where the next presidential primary will take place, next Saturday.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Marco Rubio helped Jeb Bush defend his brother by declaring: “The World Trade Center went down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance”; and that he was happy Al Gore was not in the White House as President on that day.

Still, does the country want or need a President who orders murderous hits? even against the nation’s enemies? Since when did it become acceptable for the President to sit in the Oval Office and plan murder?

(OK, John Kennedy sat idly by in 1963 when Big Minh killed the President of South Vietnam, whose sister-in-law was a thorn in Kennedy’s side. Plus the assassination would never have taken place had Kennedy not condoned it.)

Regarding President Obama’s determination to appoint a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly in his sleep early Saturday while on a hunting trip in Texas, there was nearly universal agreement among the debaters that the next President should be the one to fill the vacancy, not Obama.

It seemed likely however that the conservative icon’s replacement will spark a nine-month election- year battle and could well lack confirmation before a new President gets sworn into office next January.

Scalia was the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court, having been appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1986.

He was highly regarded even by liberals, including two of the three women justices, who were friends with him socially despite their widely divergent political views.

Pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson also participated in the Saturday night free-for-all, typically steering clear of controversy and hawking his campaign website at every opportunity.

The debate was moderated by CBS Political News Director John Dickerson, who hosts the network’s Sunday morning political-interview show “Face the Nation.”

Assisted in Greenville by CBS correspondent Major Garrett and Wall Street Journal Editorial Board member Kimberley Strassel, both of whom directed several questions at the candidates, Dickerson is also a political correspondent for Slate magazine.

In Voice of Baltimore’s opinion he turned in a first-rate job — eminently fair and unbiased, in full control — as moderator.
 
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
 

The six Republican candidates invited by CBS News to participate in Saturday’s ninth GOP debate of the current campaign season take the stage beneath a banner of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in his sleep earlier in the day while on a hunting trip in Texas.  From left: Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), businessman/entrepreneur Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson.