Debatin' or sloganeerin'?

A debate requires two opposing points of view, yet the seven Republican hopefuls on the stage, mindful that they must reach the lowest common denominator on policy in order to have a chance in the primaries, were in agreement on virtually everything – especially that Barack Obama must become a one-term president. Part of the problem was the format. CNN’s decision to allow participants only a half-minute to answer turned the whole event into a breathless political version of “Jeopardy,” with the difference that the game show is largely based on fact.

Darrell Delamaide has a better feel for politics than most anyone I know of, and he's a liberal. And he does not accept the theory being bandied about by others that Bachman succeeded in presenting herself well.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, for instance, blithely stated that the Congressional Budget Office determined that Obama’s healthcare reform would destroy 800,000 jobs. Politifact quickly pointed out that the actual finding by the CBO was that 800,000 people might leave the workforce because they no longer needed to have a job to get affordable healthcare – a totally different kind of number – and the fact-checker branded Bachmann’s statement misleading and “barely true.”

She does not let facts stand in her way. Yet media pundits declared that Bachmann had established her “credibility” as a presidential candidate and was one of the winners of the debate. Bill Maher, whom I usually don't have much use for, last night commented, on AC 360, that given her standards, and where she started from, well, yes, maybe she did do well. But, he asked, compared to what?

The combination of Republican presidential candidates attacking weakness in the economy and congressional Republicans insisting on budget cuts that will further weaken the economy lends credence to the Democratic suspicion that the whole deficit debate is a cynical ploy by GOP politicians to damage Obama’s reelection chances by sabotaging the economy, regardless of the pain that causes the American people.

Is that any way to choose a president?

Perhaps we get what we deserve.