CNBC’s Becky Quick has come in for some criticism for being unprepared during Wednesday’s debate. To refresh your memory, here’s what happened during an exchange with Donald Trump:
QUICK: You had talked a little bit about Marco Rubio. I think you called him “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator” because he was in favor of the H1B.
TRUMP: I never said that. I never said that.
….QUICK: My apologies. I’m sorry.
In fact, Trump had said that in his own immigration plan. Why didn’t Quick know this?
I think we all know what happened here. Someone on Quick’s staff prepared some notes that included the quote, but didn’t specify where it came from. So when Trump denied saying it, Quick was stuck.
…The real problem is that Quick was unprepared for bald-faced lying. She expected Trump to spin or tap dance or try to explain away what he said. She didn’t expect him to just flatly deny ever saying it. That’s the only circumstance that would require her to know exactly where the quote came from.
This was a real epidemic on Wednesday night.,,They can just baldly lie. Trump did it. Rubio did it. Carson did it. Fiorina did it. They know that time is short and they probably won’t get called on it. The worst that will happen is that fact checkers will correct them in the morning, but only a tiny fraction of the viewing audience will ever see it…
…Modern candidates understand that they don’t need to bother with spin and exaggeration any more. They can just lie, and etiquette limits how much debate moderators can push back. I don’t think debate etiquette is going to change, so this probably means that moderators are going to have to learn to ask questions a little differently. We live in a new era.
I wouldn’t say modern candidates – I would say mostly rightwing candidates. They’re accustomed to lying about damned near everything. They have to in order to sustain the pretense of value in ideology which as a fundamental rule rejects science, history and economics. This is what passes for conservatism in the years of Imperial America in global decline.
As it stands at the time of posting this – the Republican candidates are preparing to meet to end even the pretense of debate, leading questions. Three moderators from a conservative business network are considered too combative for the Republican softball team. Journalism be damned. Even in the age of news-as-entertainment.
The Tea Party is advancing their putsch, simply taking over the Republican Party. Bought and paid for by the Koch Brothers and scumbags like Dick Armey, they needn’t rely on beerhall drunks and déclassé unemployed workers — churchgoers with guns will do the job for them.