Do you care who won and who lost in that debate last night? I don’t and I bet you don’t, either. If you’re a Republican (poor soul), you already have your mind made up. If you’re anyone else, you probably didn’t even tune in to Fox Business News (yes, there is such a channel).
CNN had a focus group assigned to listen to the debaters and give their opinions later. When they were asked if the debate had changed anyone’s preference for presidential candidate, not one hand was raised.
I dutifully endured the entire thing to report to you, my faithful readers. And what struck me was how much misinformation and disinformation was produced.
Ted Cruz, for example, would have you believe his “natural born” citizenship is a done deal – even though he was born in Canada. The moderators and the other debaters (except for Donald Trump, of course) let that pass. Ben Carson even said his son, who was born in Australia, is a natural born American.
(As you probably know, only a “natural born” US citizen can be President.)
The Constitution provides that any child of US “citizens” – even if born abroad – is a “natural born” American. But does that mean both parents?
It still has not been established that someone born in Canada, whose father was a Cuban-born Canadian citizen and whose American mother reportedly voted in Canada, is a “natural born” citizen of the USA.
I await with interest the lawsuit that Congressman Alan Grayson has promised to file if Cruz gets the Republican nomination.
But such arguments might be too complex for those debaters to grasp. The average intellect on the stage seemed to be about the fourth grade level – a failing class at that.
For example, the candidates persisted in lumping the Kurds and the Indians in with Mideast Muslims, when that’s quite inaccurate. Most Kurds who aren’t Yazidi practice a mystical religion that Sunnis and Shia would not even recognize.
And the vast majority of India’s population are Hindu, not Muslim.
Then there was Ben Carson’s depiction of Islamic terrorists “smoking their cigars, sitting in their comfortable chairs in Raqqa.” Really? Doesn’t the renowned brain surgeon know ISIs inflicts harsh penalties on anyone caught smoking or peddling tobacco?
Of course, some of the falsehoods that came from the candidates were intentional. They’re infamous for making stuff up. Donald Trump, for example, declared that most Syrian immigrants entering Europe are “strong, powerful men.” That’s a lie, pure and simple, but it sounds scary and that’s all he cares about.
Not to be outdone, Marco Rubio concocted a report that ISIS is recruiting doctors and engineers to infiltrate the US. Where did he get that information? I guess he made it up.
These guys don’t care if you know they’re lying. They will look you in the eye and flat out lie. Trump, for example, denied he had told the New York Times he would impose a 45 percent tax on goods from China when anyone can check the record and find out the Times was right.
And, of course, the debaters vigorously invented the most absurd fantasies about the Obama presidency, claiming that he has “gutted the military” and a whole raft of other bad things – not one word of which was true.
Click for a legal opinion on Cruz.
