Fox Moderator Chris Wallace: Debates Are "Stupid," Shun Policy Issues

by Eric Hananoki/Media Matters

Though Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace has moderated four Republican debates, that doesn't mean he has a very high opinion of their value to voters. During an interview on today's The Mike Gallagher Show, Wallace denounced the nineteen debates as "stupid" and unnecessary.    

"Let's really get serious. It is ridiculous how many debates there have been," Wallace began. "This is the nineteenth debate. It is insane that there have been nineteen debates."

Wallace admitted that journalists gravitate toward questions about political horse racing at the expense of policy issues because policy questions "have been asked to death" and don't get as much headlines.

"I was a moderator on the panel of four of these debates, and they have been asked to death, 'What are you going -- What would you do to get the country working again? What would you do about Iran and the bomb? What would you do on immigration?" Wallace said.

"You're asked -- it's been asked, and answered, over and over again, so what you find yourself going to, because, one, it's new, and two, quite frankly, it'll make news, is, 'They've been saying terrible things about each other, their campaigns have been saying terrible things about each other on the trail, let's get them into a fight.'"

Wallace added: "Come on, if you were in that situation, would you really say, 'Well, tell me your tax policy?' I'm not saying it's a great moment in journalism, but on the other hand, they have been asked about almost everything a million times."

Wallace continued his criticism later, calling debates "stupid" and akin to "a car race. You really want to see if there's going to be a wreck or something like that." Wallace concluded, "They shouldn't be having these debates in the first place."

Wallace isn't alone in his feelings about the frequency of the debates. A former RNC chairman toldPolitico that the number of debates has gotten "out of hand" and Karl Rove recently wrote that "[d]ebates have nearly crippled campaigns." Conversely, The Huffington Post's Michael Calderonereported that CNN's Sam Feist and John King both "argue that numerous debates have been good for democracy."

Wallace's feelings aside, Fox News executives have used the debates as a way to highlight the purported difference between their "straight news" and opinion divisions. Fox News recently gave The New York Times -- a frequent recipient of the network's attacks -- access to its preparation for its last debate.

GOP Presidential Candidates Tell Florida Uninsured Woman: You’re On Your Own

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

At last night’s CNN presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida, the GOP candidates told an unemployed woman in need of health insurance that they would repeal the health reform law that could help her find coverage and giver her a tax deduction to go out and find her own insurance.

The woman — Lynn Frazier — said she found herself “unemployed for the first time in 10 years and unable to afford health benefits.” Under the Affordable Care Act, Frazier may qualify for temporary insurance in the state’s high-risk pool, which already provides coverage for 3,285 Floridianswho can’t find affordable coverage elsewhere. In two years, she’ll be able to pick out a health policy through the state’s Exchange. All private insurers will offer a comprehensive basic set of benefits and allow consumers like Frazier to compare and contrast different plans to find the coverage that works best for them and their family. Insurers won’t be able to deny insurance based on past illness or rescind coverage unexpectedly, as they often do in today’s health market, and Frazier will pay a “community” rate and may even qualify for tax credits to help her afford her premiums and out of pocket cost-sharing expenses.

The Republican candidates pledged to undo these benefits and instead encouraged her to find coverage “as an individual” — on her own — with the help of a government tax deduction:

– RON PAUL: And you should have an opportunity — medical care insurance should be given to you as an individual, so if you’re employed or not employed, you have — you just take care of that and you keep it up.

– NEWT GINGRICH: She ought to get the same tax break whether she buys personally or whether she buys through a economy. She should also be able to buy into an association so that she’s buying with lots of other people so it’s not single insurance, which is the most expensive kind.

– MITT ROMNEY: What we should do is allow individuals to own their own insurance and have the same tax treatment as companies get. You do that and people like this young woman would be able to own her insurance. The rates would be substantial lower for her buying it individually than if she had to buy it individually today.

– RICK SANTORUM: All three of these folks sound great and I agree with them. I would just add that health savings account, which I introduced 20 years ago with John Kasich, is really the fundamental reform of getting consumers back involved in the health care system.

Watch the exchange:

In reality, sending off Americans to face health care insurers on their own without first reforming the individual health care market — so that companies can no longer deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, rescind insurance, or charge sicker and older people substantially more — is an inadequate solution that will do little to lower the number of uninsured or reduce health care costs.

Since insurers are hoping to attract the most profitable beneficiaries, individual plans offer “coverage so riddled with loopholes, limits, exclusions, and gotchas that it won’t come close to covering their expenses if they fall seriously ill.” As a Consumer Reports investigationconcluded, individual insurance policies are “more costly than the equivalent job-based coverage, and for those in less-than-perfect health, unaffordable at best and unavailable at worst.” The lack of effective consumer protections in most states also allows insurers to trick consumers by selling plans with “affordable” premiums “whose skimpy coverage can leave people who get very sick with the added burden of ruinous medical debt.”

Thus, if an individual falls ill under the GOP’s proposal, the cost of the medical episode and the inadequate insurance will outweigh any beneficial tax treatment and deplete any health savings account they may have.

Bachmann may have leaked classified information during GOP debate

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Americans probably had no idea that six of Pakistan’s nuclear sites had come under jihadist attack. That is, until Republican presidential candidate spilled the beans on national television Tuesday.

During the CNN-hosted Republican presidential debate on national security, Bachmann, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, revealed that 15 nuclear sites in Pakistan were vulnerable to attack, and attempts had already been made on six of them.

CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer asked the candidate if she agreed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s pledge that he would send no foreign aid to Pakistan.

“We have to recognize that 15 of the sites, nuclear sites, are available or are potentially penetrable by jihadist,” Bachmann explained. “Six attempts have already been made on nuclear sites. This is more than an existential threat.”

“At this point, I would continue that aid,” she added. “Pakistan is a nation that it’s kind of like, too nuclear to fail.”

A National Journal fact check found that the U.S. had never publicly admitted that 15 of Pakistan’s sites were vulnerable to attack, or that six of them had already been attacked.

“[H]er comments on Pakistan’s nuclear program represent either a news-making leak of previously unknown classified information or another in her recent series of seemingly-random, and highly inaccurate, public comments,” Yochi J. Dreazen wrote.

After all, the candidate also recently said that Hezbollah was working to create “missile sites” in Cuba — and there seems to be no truth to that.

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Sept. 21, 2011.

Assessing the Michigan debate

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Perry can’t name the 3 agencies he would eliminate

By David Edwards/Raw Story 

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he will eliminate three federal agencies if elected president, but he just isn’t sure what they are.

At Wednesday night’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, the candidate managed to remember the first two agencies but repeatedly failed to name the third.

“I will tell you, it’s three agencies when I get there that are gone,” Perry said while pointing three fingers at Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

“Commerce, Education and, uh, what’s the third one there?” he wondered to himself.

“You need five,” Paul interrupted.

“Commerce, Education and the, um…,” Perry tried again.

“The EPA?” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney volunteered.

“The EPA. There you go,” Perry agreed.

“Seriously?” CNBC debate moderator John Harwood asked. “Is EPA the one you were talking about?”

“No, sir. We’re talking about the agencies of government — the EPA needs to be rebuilt,” Perry said.

“But you can’t name the third one?” Harwood pressed.

“The third agency of government — I would do away with Education, the, um, Commerce and let’s see…,” Perry continued, glancing down at the podium. “I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”

After a commercial break, the candidate recalled that he wanted to also eliminate the Department of Energy.

“I’m glad I have my boots on because I sure stepped in it tonight,” Perry was quoted saying after the event ended.

Watch this video from CNBC, broadcast Nov. 9, 2011.

VIDEO: Protestors At Florida Tea Party Debate Defend Social Security Against GOP Attacks

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress

Before yesterday’s Republican presidential debate began, 75 to 100 Floridians gathered outside to protest the Tea Party’s goals and defend Social Security against constant GOP attacks.

Ever since Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) entered the race last month, dismantling Social Security has been a central topic of debate among Republican presidential hopefuls. Perry has not been shy about calling the popular retirement program a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.” In his own book, published 10 months ago, Perry even called Social Security unconstitutional.

ThinkProgress spoke with a number of Floridians about these attacks on Social Security. We also asked how they thought Republicans’ plan for the retirement program would be received in the Sunshine State. Watch a compilation video of their responses here:

Though GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his staff have forcefully attacked Perry for wanting to abolish the treasured retirement program, it’s worth noting that the former Massachusetts governor’s support for privatizing Social Security is not much better. Protestors understood the threat, however, and implored Republicans not to cut or privatize Social Security but rather help keep it solvent by lifting the payroll tax cap.

VIDEO: GOP Candidates Call For Massive Deregulation, Dismantling Of Health, Worker and Consumer Protections

By Pat Garofalo

Last night, seven of the Republican 2012 presidential hopefuls participated in a debate in New Hampshire, and as the Wall Street Journal noted, the candidates used the occasion to “[press] for the dismantling of government regulations drawn up over 40 years.” Indeed, the candidates unveiled a deregulatory zeal, proposing to repeal everything from environmental and labor protections to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and regulations included in the Affordable Care Act. Here are some highlights:

NEWT GINGRICH: The Congress this year, this week, ought to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill, they ought to repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley bill.

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): What we need to do is pass the mother of all repeal bills…and I would begin with the EPA, because there is no other agency like the EPA. It should really be called the job-killing organization of America.

RICK SANTORUM: This president has put a stop sign against oil drilling, against any kind of exploration offshore or in Alaska and that is depressing. We need to drill.

GINGRICH: And one of the things Congress should do immediately is defund the National Labor Relations Board.

HERMAN CAIN: If the federal government continues to do the kind of things that this administration is trying to do through the backdoor, through the National Labor Relations Board, that’s killing our free-market system.

Watch a compilation:

Despite a financial crisis caused in large part by deregulation, climate change wreaking havoc on the country, and plummeting unionization coupled with plummeting incomes, the GOP still seems to believe that the government has no role in setting rules of the road or enforcing any sort of standard to guard against corporate greed or environmental devastation. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) even seemed to imply that the government should privatize disaster relief, responding to a question about FEMA by saying, “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”

But not every statement uttered by the candidates was anti-regulation. Cain replied to a question about whether the government has a role in food safety by saying, “The federal government should be doing food safety, yes.”

Tonight’s GOP Pre-Debate Rally Sponsored By Extremists: John Birch Society And The Oath Keepers

By Judd Legum

In Greenville, South Carolina tonight, five presidential contenders will meet for the first GOP presidential primary debate. According to the official program of the pre-debate “Freedom Rally,” is sponsored by several extremist groups, including the Oath Keepers militia group and the radical anti-communist John Birch Society. You can see a picture of the program here. Here’s the John Birch Society’s booth at the the pre-debate rally:

ABC News reports that The John Birch society, famous for its vocal opposition to the Civil Rights movement, represents “the far-right fringe of American politics.” The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the John Birch Society as a group that “advocates or adheres to extreme antigovernment doctrines.” The group was so radical — calling President Eisenhower a communist infiltrator and claiming that the Soviets used fluoridated water to control Americans’ mind — that they were effectivelyexiled by conservatives until 2010. They even recently called Nelson Mandela “a communist terrorist thug.”

Here is the Oath Keepers booth at the rally:

As ThinkProgress reported on the Oath Keepers:

The Oath Keepers’ website is riddled with paranoid rhetoric about government officials “disarm[ing] the American people,” “confiscat[ing] the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies,” and “blockad[ing] American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.” In early 2008, the Oath Keepers’ founder warned that a “dominatrix-in-chief” named “Hitlery Clinton” would impose a police state on America and shoot all resisters. After primary voters chose a different candidate, the Oath Keepers simply rewrote their paranoid fantasy to include a taller, African-American lead. At a Center for American Progress Action Fund event remembering the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, former President Clinton described the Oath Keepers as a “hatriot” group that embraces the same violent rhetoric that fueled Timothy McVeigh.

Are Tim Pawlenty and the other candidates at tonight’s debate aligning themselves with the extreme views of these groups?

UPDATEThis post has been updated to clarify the difference between the debate itself and the pre-debate rally.

UPDATESouth Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) speaking at the rally in front of an Oath Keepers banner: