I think Reince's "competent national party" riff is more about convincing himself
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) December 16, 2015
This debate is unusually substantive. It's just that so much of the substance is so terrible.
— Popehat (@Popehat) December 16, 2015
"Nothing works in this country" Donald Trump tells an audience of well-fed people in large homes watching on high-definition televisions.
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) December 16, 2015
"You're not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency," says Bush, illustrating his point in the process.
— Jesse Walker (@notjessewalker) December 16, 2015
Source sends pic of scene at Jeb Miami debate-watching party: pic.twitter.com/RsZJpEVSuq
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) December 16, 2015
Republicans—and Cruz— really torn tonight between hating big government and loving massive government surveillance
— Tim Fernholz (@TimFernholz) December 16, 2015
Recall that Christie had to deal with the New Jersey intifada, when hundreds of millions of Muslims swam the Hudson in celebration of 9/11
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) December 16, 2015
Seize their treasure! Kill their families! Trump really loves war crimes
— John Tabin (@johntabin) December 16, 2015
Trump does seem to have a mobbed up realtor's vision of how the Internet works. "We'll just bulldoze the inconvenient bits. I know a guy."
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) December 16, 2015
Uh, @hughhewitt, you're not supposed to applaud a candidate's answer. You're a moderator, not a cheerleader
— Gen JC Xtian patriot (@JC_Christian) December 16, 2015
this Cruz "carpet bomb" explanation is nonsense — ISIS is in the cities
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) December 16, 2015
"I want to carpet bomb ISIS"
"so bomb cities?"
"no, ISIS"
"ISIS is in cities"
"I want to bomb ISIS"
"in the cities"
"no I want to bomb ISIS"
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) December 16, 2015
Hugh Hewitt is weirdly enthusiastic about the death of thousands of innocent children (by bombs, that is)
— Michael B Dougherty (@michaelbd) December 16, 2015
I'm finding myself agreeing with Jeb Bush the most during this debate, which is probably a sign that the GOP is f**ked.
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) December 16, 2015
Shorter Cruz to audience when asked to criticize Trump: These aren't the droids you're looking for….
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) December 16, 2015
Wow Cruz is just making shit up.
(Yes, this still surprises me.)
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) December 16, 2015
The media is better at selecting questions from social media than it is at asking questions.
— David Roberts (@drvox) December 16, 2015
We don't have an empire. It's just our job to decide who rules in every country in the world. #GOPDebate
— Aaron D. Wolf (@frogmorton) December 16, 2015
Hawks on stage disdain @realDonaldTrump when he says he'd sooner have spent money at home than on foreign wars. But I bet voters spiked up.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) December 16, 2015
One of Ted Cruz’s flaws on the trail is that he can come across as unlikeable if he is not careful. He did that tonight a few times.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 16, 2015
.@Rschooley "We're in the middle of a fucking reptile zoo! And somebody's giving booze to these goddamn things!" pic.twitter.com/KLyYWNukjL
— Billmon (@billmon1) December 16, 2015
Trump watched a nuclear triad on PPV once, hid the bill from Melania.
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) December 16, 2015
Ted Cruz's un-PC America is going to be so awesome. You'll be able to grab-ass anyone and that will defeat ISIS.
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) December 16, 2015
"we're not a country of idiots…Donald Trump doesn't understand that" –Jeb in spin room
(kill me, I'm watching the spin room)
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) December 16, 2015
GOP debate losers so far:
1) Neoconservatives
2) Immigrants
3) The future of American foreign policy.
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) December 16, 2015
I’ve watched these debates since 1976. We have hit rock bottom in info-content and common sense. Reagan-Mondale was like LIncon-Douglas.
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) December 16, 2015
This wasn’t a “foreign policy” debate, or even a “national security” debate. It was contest about who could tell the scariest story.
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) December 16, 2015
Don't know what people were expecting tonight. These are some of the dumbest pols in USA – dumbing down messages for an even dumber audience
— Billmon (@billmon1) December 16, 2015
"We want to wish you a Merry Christmas and to ISIS, you're welcome."
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) December 16, 2015
Mary G
That picture of Jeb’s empty HQ makes me so happy.
Amir Khalid
@Mary G:
There’s also a picture taken slightly later, which shows a few more bottoms on those seats. But not a lot more excitement.
Mike J
@Amir Khalid: I saw the second pic, and got the idea that after the first one hit twitter somebody went out and rounded people up and made them sit for the picture. Perhaps they actually were all in the room earlier, just over at the buffet table. Perhaps they were homeless people dragged in to counter a bad twitpic. I guess we’ll never know.
Even if they were all real Bush supporters, pretty telling that they weren’t interested in actually watching the debate at a debate watching party. That would have been very, very unusual on any campaign I’ve ever worked on.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: jeb? is really low energy.
Rashi
I thought Bush took it to Trump and revealed him for the clown he is. Watching Trump make 13 year old girl “gag me” faces while Bush did so was priceless and depressing at the same time.
David Koch
War on Xmas
23,812 words during the debate and not one candidate mentioned Christmas.
Shocking! Shocking!!
Baud
I love this.
So understated. And I’m not used to Erick² saying something that comes that close to reality.
Baud
Josh Marshall with Jeb’s new talking point.
Baud
BTW, I’m glad to see the internet is still open. I was worried I wouldn’t see you guys again.
Zinsky
I didn’t see a minute of it, but it sounds horrific. We have become so partisanized (is there such a word?), that people are unable to see real evil (Cruz) and incompetence (Carson, et al) in evaluating future leaders. It’s all about my team vs. your team. This does not bode well for our collective future….
Sherparick
@Zinsky: I did not have enough booze in the house to watch the thing. Between them and moderating panel with Hugh “Happy Face when more torture and bombing thousands is promised” Hewitt on the panel.
All the cable news networks currently have a pro-war (or at least pro-start the war/invasion) bias. However, once the first few weeks of shock and awe are done and the guerrilla war of convoys, ambushes, and IEDs blowing up settles in, they move on to other shiny objects. I don’t think Fox had a correspondent in either Iraq or Afghanistan the last 10 years, and Richard Engle was doing “independent” stories that got picked up by MSNBC’s by Olbermann and Maddow.
debbie
@Baud:
Was there a moment in the debate that you would consider Hammertime? I haven’t heard anything about anything decisive this morning.
D58826
I gave up after Christie said he would shoot down Russian jets (didn’t comment on what happens if they shoot down one of ours) and one of the other Goopers wanted to punch Putin in the nose. Other than Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan , and Russia are there any other countries that the GOP wants to go to war with?
debbie
@D58826:
Obama’s America.
danielx
@D58826:
Let’s see: China, North Korea, Mexico….
Bobby Thomson
@Baud: now with 50% fewer swirlies!
D58826
@danielx: @danielx: hmmm. Maybe we should list the countries that we are not going to war with?
Chyron HR
@debbie:
No, Hammer Time was a flop. That’s why the mendaciously fanatical Jeb Bush supporter disappeared around 10 PM last night and the mendaciously fanatical Bernie Sanders supporter mysteriously returned from his hiatus a few minutes later.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@danielx:
Canada, all parts of France outside of Paris,….
scav
@Rashi: I somehow assume the “gag me” faces will be greeted with giddy screams of glee as devestating riposts of anti-pc revolt by the faithful base. Only pointy headed intellectual elites use their ‘words’ let alone logic.
Citizen_X
Oh, Erick-of-Erick. “One of Ted Cruz’s flaws on the trail is that he can come across as unlikeable” …if he shows up, or speaks, or does anything at all, really.
feebog
Did not watch, and could not stomach watching Tweety sum it up on MSNBC. I assume they all sucked. Still waiting for the Graham surge.
skjellyfetti
Ah… nothing like a “blog post” consisting of nothing but a bunch of tweets.
Way to phone it in.
mclaren
@Zinsky:
Alas, this works equally well for the 1980 presidential election:
The rot has been going on for a long loooooooooooong time…
Peale
@danielx: Before the Embassy is actually completed, Republicans are planning on burning down Cuba.