Last month in a post entitled ”Where Have You Gone Joe Dimaggio,” I discussed the civility that Senator Bernie Sanders has displayed in his contest with Hillary Clinton. That same characteristic is on display in the Republican match-up in the way in which Governor John Kasich has conducted himself.
The Republican candidates have had twelve debates. Despite being an admitted political junkie, I stopped watching them after the seventh one. My curiosity got the better of me before the eleventh and final one so tuned in. The reason why I missed debates eight through ten immediately reoccurred to me as the dialogue degenerated into a discussion of the size of Donald Trump’s hands and other anatomical appendages. Rubio became “Little Marco” and Cruz became “Lying Ted.” Alone on the stage attempting to inject some intelligent discourse into the event was the Governor of Ohio, John Kasich.
Kasich refused to engage in the name-calling and shouting that Trump, Cruz and Rubio incessantly resorted to. At one point, moderator, Chris Wallace, aired a somewhat humorous political ad that Kasich’s super PAC had run comparing Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin and asked Kasich if he really thought the comparison had merit. Kasich responded by telling Wallace that he “wouldn’t bite “on that question.
Reflecting on that debate, I was struck by how little time or attention that Kasich received from the moderators. Almost the entire debate was focused on the mud-wrestling Trump, Cruz and Rubio were engaged in. That mirrored what had occurred in the first seven debates that I watched. Those who received little attention inevitably sank in the polls and withdrew from the race. Most of them were far more experienced and credentialed than the three who received the time and attention.
It is clear that the various networks sponsoring the debates have committed an extraordinary amount of time and money to covering the 2016 race for the White House. They have a vested interest in insuring that they obtain the highest ratings for these debates in order to boost advertising revenue and recoup their investment. In doing so, they have skewered the outcome of the nominating contest on the Republican side by driving the adults in the room from the race.