It’s a given that Democrats are better at governing than Republicans, though these days that’s not saying much. That has been the case at least throughout my lifetime, but it has not always been the case that Republicans were far better at playing politics than Democrats.
A couple of days ago the Republican Party told NBC it would not participate in an planned debate, because they didn’t like the questions they were asked during the CNBC sponsored debate. By any measure, the questions were reasonable. It is a fact that the media has been so often accused by the Republicans of liberal bias that it in fact has bent over backwards to be “fair and balanced”, thus the surplus number of Republicans on the Sunday talk shows and the media’s willingness to pretend that the Benghazi witch hunt was a straight investigation.
Now, let us imagine if Democrats did the unthinkable, and accused the press of bias at one of their debates. I say the unthinkable, because Democrats never attack the press, even when they have ample reason to do so. As a result, the press feels no compunction about, for instance, amplifying memes about Hillary Clinton’s dishonesty, while pretty much ignoring the blatant lies told by each and every Republican candidate.
But I digress.
If the Democrats did what the Republicans did, the first thing you’d hear is charges from every corner of right winglandia that the Democrats were afraid to answer tough questions. How, we’d hear, can we expect [candidate X] to stand up to Putin when he or she wilts before a tough question from the media. We’d also hear loud demands that the press not let up; that the Republicans will be watching, and that if the hard questions aren’t continued, it will be more evidence of liberal bias. The message would be coordinated and constant.
Do you hear this type of talk coming from Democrats today? Maybe, but I haven’t. The Democrats have this heart warming belief that they can count on people behaving rationally, and their faith cannot be shaken, no matter how many times they are proven wrong.
Now, there are two quite predictable results of this failure of pushback. First, the media will in fact start lobbing softballs at the Republicans. Second, in order to prove how fair and balanced they are, they will more aggressively question Hillary and Bernie. These things are almost certain to happen. The fact that the Democrats have not already pounced on this is proof of massive incompetence at the DNC.
UPDATE: Good News. Looks like Obama reads my blog.
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