Passion and petulance – a differing view of the debates

The Jake Tapper Show wouldn’t rival Jerry Springer’s style of instigating a brawl, but it did manage to bring the republican debates, particularly Segment B, into the realm of juvenile name-calling. As much as the moderator kept a level voice, consigning his colleagues to the outfield to lob only occasional questions at the candidates, the outcome was less substance and more face slapping. All that was needed was a Three Stooges’ “woo-woo-woo” to emanate from center stage to complete the scenario. Despite the debasing of a critical match-up to debate how candidates would respond to our nation’s precipitous future, a few of the participants rerouted the vacuous queries to supply real answers about what must be done. Unfortunately, Donald Trump was not among those. Halfway clever banter and facial plasticity does not substance make, and he was not the only one rising to the bait.