Here’s something to think about for the weekend.
If you were one of the 23 million people who watched the Republican debate Wednesday night, for future reference I invite you to consider some reasons why you wasted three plus hours of your time.
(1) None of the participants will be elected president in 2016.
Our nation has many, many problems, but we are not desperate enough yet to choose for president someone who will do for 99% of Americans what Republicans in Congress have done – NOTHING.
(2) Ten of the sixteen will be gone in a few months.
And I would add, hopefully they will never to be heard of again, so what they think about anything doesn’t matter to anyone but themselves.
(3) You already know the ones who have no chance.
Christie, Carson, Cruz, Rubio, Huckabee, Walker, Paul, Graham, Jindal, Pataki, Santorum, Gilmore can all pack it in now just as Rick Perry has done. The others will soon enough, including The Donald.
(4) You knew what they were going to say before they said it.
I didn’t watch the debate, but I bet money I know what they said. Let me guess. They oppose the Iran deal, are ready to bomb Syria and put troops back on the ground in Iraq, support defunding Planned Parenthood, insist the economy is worst now than it was when Obama took office, claim there’s too much government regulation, want to cut taxes for the wealthy, and in general oppose everything Obama has done and/or is trying to do. How am I doing so far?
And you watched to hear this stuff?
(5) Most of these candidates would have been considered the lunatic fringe only a few years ago.
They are negative voices without anything constructive to offer the nation in regard to serious policy because they are too extreme to be taken seriously. Bluster is their only game.
(6) Their records in government and business are abysmal.
They talk as if the record of their deeds have been sealed. They haven’t, and those deeds tell the story of incompetence, greed, corruption, helping the rich, railing against social programs, refusing to take climate change seriously, forgetting about the well being of the vast majority of Americans, just to name a few things. And this record, by the way, is why none of them will become president.
(7) They make us look bad in the eyes of the world.
I have no doubt the rest of the world is laughing at our country right now. If these pretenders to the throne weren’t so sad I would be, too. They spew forth venom and absurdities while presenting themselves as super patriots and economic geniuses.
(8) It was bad entertainment.
Some of my friends have said they watched the debate for entertainment. I can’t figure that one out. After all, it only takes Three Stooges to be funny. More than that is a crowd.
I suppose it’s clear that I cannot imagine why anyone would want to waste their time listening to people talk about being president who do not have the good sense to know they cannot and should not be.
But I suppose it cannot be otherwise when you have a year and half long presidential campaign, opening the door to fools rushing in where even angels fear to tread.
linnposts.com 
Fool that I am, I watched the entire 3 hour circus. Somewhere P.T. Barnum is smiling. Unlike you and Bernie Sanders (who said he had to turn it off), I tortured myself for the sake of one more firsthand look at the clowns.
Only Christie, Paul and Rubio seemed to have brains that were working. Bush was flaccid. Santorum is deranged. Trump is an ego-maniacal bully. Not one is qualified to be our president.
Your guesses in item # 4 above were good, but the reality Wednesday night was even more grim.
Yes, they opposed the Iran deal, but no one was willing to recommend any action re Syria — they simply blamed Obama for not intervening stronger. Most supported defunding Planned Parenthood, with Huckabee pre-empting the others with his evangelical fervor from the opening statement on.
Yes, they all took shots at opposing everything Obama has done. In the process, several told outright lies about him and their onstage opponents.
So, you missed nothing that you/we didn’t already know about this group of feckless, bereft-of-ideas-and-solutions Republican candidates. You were smart not to waste the 3 hours!
I really did figure as much, Bill. Sorry for your time wasted.
Sorry, Jan, we watched the debate. I was curious as to how it would play out. So, where do you place Carly Fiorina in the race or did I miss her name? I know she lied about Planned Parenthood. Personally, I felt she came on as an angry person when answering her questions. I do understand her feeling angry/hurt when Trump remarked about her face, but I didn’t care for her demeanor during the entire time. The rest of the pack were what I anticipated.
Kay, I don’t think what any of them thinks matters. None of them will be president. I just cannot believe the majority of voters will support the craziness, cynicism, and political expediency they all represent.
Hope you are correct, Jan.
Kay McGee,
Since I did watch the debate, I can say I agree with you 100% about Carly Fiorina’s demeanor (ooops, that’s the word Trump used when first “called-out”!)
She not only lied about PP, she also lied about her business failures.
She is clearly at the bottom of the list as far as being qualified to be president.
She has plenty of company at the bottom.
Indeed she does! “Bottom feeders” is a cliché, but somehow apt here…..
The problem with the whole bunch is that even though some are fairly bright, they all seem to lack the vision and wisdom to understand the basic problems facing our nation and world, let alone having constructive solutions for them. In revolutionary America they would have all been Tories.
I did not watch the debate, because, like your list, I knew pretty much what was going to be said. The only reason I can think of for so many people watching is the obsession that the American people have with entertainment. They are desperate for it, this was evidence of that.
Besides a would much rather read a good book than listen to babble.
From my part of the World, it seems as though Shakespeare could have summed up the proceedings at the debate of the Republican Party in the title of one of his plays: “Much ado about nothing”.
That does, indeed, sum it up, Nigel.
Oh, so interesting, after bashing all of the candidates, maybe someone would like to go for an alternative on the dem side, oh yes, Hillary, the one who said to the families of the Benghazi attach, we will catch this guy who made this film and make him pay, she who was using private emails against ALL policy.
please tell me has the Obama socialist policy helped, are we better off. standard of living has gone down and this economy has NOT recovered.
Stephen,
If you learn to write grammatically correct, properly punctuated, capital letters where required, logical and coherent sentences and paragraphs, then someone might take you seriously.
Then again, if you are still hung-up on Benghazi (it was an “attack,” not an “attach”), chances are you have little to offer in the way of meaningful discussion of real, substantive issues.