Louisiana Gov. Bobbby Jindal (R) suggested that the that the fewer presidential debates in the 2016 cycle compared to the 2012 cycle may not actually help the GOP’s eventual nominee.
Jindal’s comments at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Monday come almost a month after the Republican National Committee announced about a dozen debates in the next cycle. That’s a reduction from 2012 when there were more than 27 debates.
Jindal said there’s a view among operatives and DC insiders that “that if we could just have fewer debates, if we could have a gentler, kinder nominating process that would be good for the party and good for the nominee,” Jindal said. “Well you know what? Democracy is messy and the donors, the political leaders, the establishment pundits, they don’t get to pick our nominee.”
Jindal added that “yes it’s messy, yes it’s tough but I think it’s better to have voters make the choice.”
“It’s better to have an open, honest debate and discussion,” Jindal said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work. And by the way a longer nominating process, a tougher nominating process didn’t seem to hurt then-Sen. Obama when he was running against then-Sen. Clinton.”
Photo credit: Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor
Or they could have no debates at all and refuse to give interviews except to Fox. Oh, and make sure they all have bendy straws–can’t forget those!
Governor Bobby ought to rethink that one. The less he says, the better his (non-existent) chance of success will be!
It certainly doesn’t help the democrats, who are provided with mountains of material used to hammer republicans every time the clowns “debate.”
I say bring them on!
For me, it comes down to the age-old [well, maybe just since I made it up] right-wing conundrum: Which is more important? Frequency of assholery or efficiency of assholery?
It’s not gonna help candidates like Santorum in 2012 who got a lotta free airtime from the debates. The ones without a good chunk of change are gonna get knocked out early no matter how well they may do in early primaries. The big money candidates’ negative ad barrage is gonna be even more effective.