Politics & Government

Is Iowa Debate With Trump Really 'One of the Stupidest Ideas in the History of Presidential Politics'?

CNN's Roland Martin says so. The National Review applauds the candidates bypassing the event for 'declining to step in the clown car.' It's all part of the reaction to the predictable political posturing during a series of great debates about debates.

 

The national punditry is torn about Donald Trump's alleged Iowa debate, and Trump is miffed at Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman, whose contempt for him is undebatable.

Mitt Romney apparently was on the fence before declining to face The Donald, and Rick Santorum is ready to debate Newt Gingrich, but the former Speaker wants nothing to do with him. Instead, he's been tussling with Huntsman about where in New Hampshire they should do their Lincoln-Douglas thing.

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Put all that together and you get this: The slightly irreverent, mostly irrelevant, all-American spectacle of presidential candidates debating about debates.

For now, Romney, Paul and Huntsman say they won't attend a December 27 debate moderated by the immoderate Trump. And, for now, Gingrich says he won't debate Santorum one-on-one.

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What do you think? Should the GOP candidates take part in a debate with Donald Trump as moderator? Tell us in the comments section below.

But that's not all that's being said. Others have weighed in, heavily, about all this political, and celebrity, posturing.

The magazine "The Week" compiled a sampling of responses to the proposed Trump debate. The magazine leads off with Ron Paul deriding the prospect of Trump taking center ring in what would surely become an Iowa debate circus. The magazine continues:

Jon Huntsman similarly declined, saying of Trump: "I'm not going to kiss his ring and I'm not going to kiss any other part of his anatomy." (Trump shot back that Paul and Hunstman are "joke candidates.") GOP über-strategist Karl Rove even asked the Republican National Committee to cancel the debate. But frontrunner Newt Gingrich is in, as is former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Must the show go on?

Then the magazine's website compiled these gems:

The GOP should cancel this embarrassment: The Trump debate is a demeaning sideshow, and Paul and Huntsman deserve credit for "declining to step into the clown car," says National Review in an editorial. It's not too late for Gingrich and Santorum to change their minds — and they should. Gingrich in particular "lowers himself" by participating in this ridiculous event. But if Gingrich and Co. don't opt out, we hope Mitt Romney braves the ire of "the pro-Trump rump of GOP voters by refusing" to make it a real debate.

Actually, a Donald debate will be refreshing: Trump's "bullish, brazen, no-nonsense reality TV style should make for fun viewing," and what's wrong with that? says Raakhee Mirchandani in the Boston Herald. Will the "impressively coiffed real estate mogul" find some way to make the debate about himself? Of course. But he's also promising to make his "pals" running for office tackle some "important but thus-far largely neglected issues."

Why not just make it a reality show? This "debate" is "one of the stupidest ideas in the history of presidential politics," says Roland Martin at CNN. If the RNC won't "quickly denounce this madness" and pull the plug, let's at least have Trump the "political chump" make it a real, "Survivor-style" showdown: "For every candidate that shows up to get quizzed by Trump, we would immediately vote them off the GOP presidential island."

The candidates will take a break from debating debates on Saturday, when they come to Des Moines to ... debate. Patch will have full coverage before, during and after the ABC News debate at Drake University. Don't forget those comments below.


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