Anderson Cooper, CNN talking head and host of this week’s first Democratic Presidential Primary debate stated today that CNN will *not* be pitting the Democrat candidates against their on-stage opponents. He was clear in his explanation that the debate questions will simply help bring out each of the candidate’s positions on certain issues. Says Cooper:
“I’m always uncomfortable with that notion of setting people up in order to kind of promote some sort of a face off…look, these are all serious people. This is a serious debate. They want to talk about the issues and I want to give them an opportunity to do that.”
Juxtapose this with Jake Tapper’s (also a CNN talking head) approach to the second Republican debate and of course we see the double standard. There’s more to this than just a simple double standard, though.
First, Cooper is part and parcel with the liberal elite and is hosting a debate amongst friends, so he gives himself a pass to go easy on those candidates. The amiable approach and heartfelt camaraderie between Cooper and the Democrat candidates is evident in the statements such as the Democrats being called “serious candidates”, or this a “serious debate”, unlike those rube Republicans at the Reagan Library from a few weeks back. Cooper must be asking himself how can any of those Republican clowns be thought of as serious candidates, anyway? Hillary and the others–well, maybe just Hillary, the others are really not that consequential–are certainly the adults in the room and they will be afforded the time and respect to explore their positions on the issues. End of discussion, children.
Second, Tapper’s CNN Republican debate, “Round Two” as he affectionately named it, was intended to create a CNN ratings blitz, plus one or two knock-out punches, or even better, an extended battle leading to a technical KO to really damage those stupid Republican candidates. After all, there are so many of them, and they are so stupid and unserious. What fun it would be for the stupid Republicans to destroy themselves, while we look on and make money doing it. Says Tapper:
“What the team and I have been doing is trying to craft questions that, in most cases, pit candidates against the other — specific candidates on the stage — on issues where they disagree, whether it’s policy, or politics, or leadership.”
Yeah, right. Was it a “policy, a politics, or a leadership” question posed to Carly Fiorina about her reaction to Donald Trump’s statement about her face? Tapper thought the audience members (mostly Republican, eh?) were too stupid to see what was happening, but Cooper wants the viewers to pay no mind to the fact that Tapper specifically designed that second Republican debate to pugilistically demolish their fellow candidates on the stage. Readers on Granite Grok know this all too well, but Cooper wants to reiterate that this time, its serious!
Third, and this one’s important. If CNN won’t “pit the candidates” against each other at the Democrat’s debate, and they won’t have the excitement of Hillary and Bernie duking it out with “Eye of the Tiger” blasting in the background, what on earth will be the draw to keep eyeballs on the screen?
Here’s what I think: Cooper would simply prefer that no one bother to watch the show. After all, Cooper’s a liberal guy, part of the pundit class, and Hillary’s the Democrat go-to girl. We’ve been hearing reports that as her campaign progresses, Hillary’s numbers continue to tank. Better to quietly hum Soft Kitty right at the start of this very serious debate, featuring a boring discussion about boring policy issues among serious, boring adults. Good night, children.
If all else fails, just start asking questions about Trump.