POLITICS The LightWeights Debate The race for the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nomination officially kicked off last night with a Fox News-sponsored debate in Greenville, SC. Before the debate even began, however, the national media largely focused more on who wasn't there than who was. With the exception of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the GOP's top-tier candidates -- or at least the candidates perceived to be in the top-tier -- were absent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has emerged as an early front-runner in the primaries, declined to participate. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour decided last week not to run. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hasn't yet jumped into the race, though he is expected to do so soon. And other potential candidates -- like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Sarah Palin -- have yet to make up their minds regarding the race. The result was an event that will likely draw interest mainly from those in Washing ton political circles, organizations seeking to shape the GOP's agenda heading into the race, and the political media, but will go largely unnoticed by most Americans. The fact that two of the most revered organizations in the mainstream media didn't even bother to give the debate their full attention only increases that possibility, as the Associated Press and Reuters both declined to cover the event, citing Fox News' overreaching restrictions regarding photography during the debate. Nonetheless, the debate went on, with or without whomever may eventually become the GOP nominee. FRINGE EVENT: Aside from Pawlenty, who criticized other candidates for failing to show, the debate started as a spectacle of the GOP's extreme right wing, featuring representatives of nearly every position currently on the right wing's radar. Pizza magnate Herman Cain, notable for his infamous charge that he wouldn't hire a Muslim to serve in his cabinet, was there. So was former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a vehement social conservative who has recently made news for borrowing his campaign slogan from a gay, pro-labor poet and criticizing President Obama for not defending American freedom . Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a libertarian who believes America's race problems no longer exist because we have a black president, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the famous anti-tax advocate who thinks virtually every federal government program is unconstitutional and would like to return to the gold standard, rounded out the field. But it wasn't just the candidates who were extreme. The official pre-debate event attended by most of the participants was sponsored in part by the John Birch Society, a radical antigovernment group that has been in exile from American politics for decades and once attacked President Eisenhower for being a "communist infiltrator." Speakers at that event stood in front of a giant banner bearing the name of the Oath Keepers, another antigovernment group that, during the 2008 presidential primaries, compared Hillary Clinton to Adolf Hitler and preached that Democrats would turn America into a police state that executed all resisters. Former Gov. Buddy Roemer, who is running a campaign based on attacking the role of big money in American politics, was not invited to the debate. THE MISSING TOPIC: The debate lasted about 90 minutes, and given the major news events of the last week, it focused primarily on foreign policy. The candidates provided varying positions on Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, and other foreign policy topics, including torture -- which three of the five said they'd support as president. But specifics on the economy, the one topic currently weighing heavily on the minds of millions of Americans, were mysteriously absent for most of the debate. For the most part, the candidates glossed over their economic positions. Paul and Johnson, the libertarian candidates, advocated for market-based solutions. Cain and Pawlenty mentioned common-sense solutions. Paul hit President Obama for his lack of management experience outside politics, a familiar Republican attack. But the debate was largely devoid of any specifics on what the candidates would do to jumpstart the economy and put Americans back to work. The majority of the economic talk came during a lightning round near the end, and even then it focused primarily on why Obama was beatable, with Paul and Johnson focusing on the national debt and Pawlenty and Cain hitting him on gas prices . There were other moments that focused on secondary economic issues -- energy independence, labor relations, Pawlenty's budgets, and the GOP budget's Medicare overhaul -- but the debate's tone on the economy was struck by Santorum. Fox News' Chris Wallace asked Santorum a question about Daniels, a former budget director under President Bush, and Daniels' repeated calls for a truce on social issues in order to focus fully on the economy. Santorum didn't hesitate to throw Daniels under the bus, saying that any candidate who would diminish the role of social issues in a Republican primary "doesn't understand what America" is about -- a claim that earned him raucous cheers from the crowd. With Americans worried about the economy, it became clear in this debate that the GOP isn't quite ready to set aside its pet social issues in order to offer economic alternatives. RAISING CAIN: The general consensus post-debate was that former pizza CEO Herman Cain, who has thus far garnered little support, was the clear winner. A focus group led by conservative pollster Frank Luntz voted overwhelmingly in favor of Cain, and conservative blogs were roundly impressed. New York Times polling guru Nate Silver noted Cain's immediate jump on Intrade, a presidential predictor that offers odds on the primaries. Cain's share on Intrade was just 0.3 percent before the debate. Immediately after, it jumped to 1.5 percent, and by this morning, he had reached 2 percent. Pawlenty, viewed as the front-runner among the debate's participants, received mixed reviews . While RedState considered his performance solid, others weren't so impressed. The Luntz focus group placed him in a tie for third, behind Cain and Santorum, criticizing him for dodging too many questions. With Cain and Santorum receiving high marks, the right's reaction only highlighted the debates fringe qualities. Cain has taken numerous fringe positions since jumping into the race, declaring his distaste for Muslims and joining real estate mogul Donald Trump (who also skipped the debate) as a birther. Santorum's bump from the focus group came mainly from on e answer, in which he was harshly critical of Obamacare and claimed that health reform was robbing Americans of essential freedoms. Indeed, the focus group wasn't exactly representative of mainstream voters -- when asked if Obama had "socialist tendencies," it voted nearly unanimously "yes."  The new unemployment report released by the Labor Department this morning finds that 244,000 jobs were added last month , the third straight solid month of job growth. But, the unemployment rate ticked up to 9 percent. Jobs gains for February and March were also revised upwards. The Associated Press reports that CEO pay at the nation's largest companies actually now exceeds that of pre-recession levels. The "typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 was $9 million in 2010." Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the GOP Medicare privatization proposal might make seniors "die sooner" because many more who can't afford it would likely go without needed health care. Seniors "will run out of money very quickly," she told a Congressional hearing yesterday. According to a set of handwritten notes picked up by the Navy SEALs, Al Qaeda planned to attack the U.S. train network "possibly on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks." A Department of Homeland Security bulletin yesterday said it isn't clear if there's been further planning since early 2010 as the notes offered "vague" and "aspirational" rather than concrete information. After suspending them in March, Fox News officially terminated its contracts with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Sen. Rick Santorum this week as the two Republicans weigh presidential bids. The termination "ratchets up pressure" on Fox host and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) to announce his decision, but Fox News is denying reports that it's given him a deadline of the end of May to decide. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and fifteen other Republican senators introduced a resolution that would merge the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency into one government agency. Burr's office claims the merger would net "$3 billion in savings in 2012 alone." On Thursday, 44 Republican senators stood together to oppose a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and vowed to block any presidential nominee to the new agency unless their demands are met. Republicans were careful not to attack the popular mission of the CFPB, instead focusing their attacks on its "unfettered authority." Yesterday's first debt limit meeting between Vice President Biden and Republican and Democratic House leaders produced many pledges of good will, but no specifics. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Assistant Leader James Clyburn (D-SC) both expressed optimism about the prospects for striking a deal, but did not identify any possible areas of compromise. Last night during the GOP presidential debate in South Carolina, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said that states should have the right to legalize gay marriage . "I think the government should just be out of it," he said, adding, "if we want to have something to say about marriage it should be at the state level and not at the federal government." And finally: Perhaps in a bid to outdo Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker in hands-on constituent services, a German mayor rescued a man trapped in a women's prison. The man "became trapped" in the prison "after mistaking it for a shortcut to a nearby park." Hildesheim Mayor Henning Blum heard the man's cries for help while passing and notified his police. |
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 "[Jeffrey S.] Wiesenfeld is the City University of New York trustee who rose this week at a board meeting to block an honorary degree to the playwright Tony Kushner, declaring him an 'extremist' opponent and critic of Israel."
-- The New York Times, 5/5/11
VERSUS
"[There is no equivalence] between the Palestinians and Israelis. People who worship death for their children are not human. [The Palestinians] have developed a culture which is unprecedented in human history."
-- Wiesenfeld, showing his own extremist views, 5/5/11
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Keep a civil tongue.