Just finished watching Mike Huckabee's forum with the three Republican Candidates who have won, and have any chance of winning the office of President. ( Sorry Pauleestas I ticked you off again.) Of course I watched on my DVR, since I missed the original airing Saturday Night.
DVRs are a wonderful thing. They allow you to access content, and make sure you heard something right.
A couple of the questions, raised questions with me, that I would like to have answered. Keep in mind, I have been a Huckabee supporter for a long time, and think the world of him. But many of us have been Fox News people for years, and have seen the changes in what is going on there. They have foresaken the Fair and Balanced agenda in an out, and out pursuit to make the choices for President next fall, between Romney and Obama.
The first question that raised a flag was the question from David MacArthur. The topic of the Forum was JOBS. Let me make this clear. I think Mr McArthur is a Great American, and may not have done this on purpose. But Mitt Romney was asked a question by a sobbing Mr McArthur, about Veterans Benefits. The crux of which was about Veterans Health Care. Gov. Romney gave a very compassionate response to the question. Mr McArthur's son has Post Dramatic Stress Syndrome, having served in Iraq. The main focus of the question was, are you going to cut veterans benefits? Question: How can a question such as this, which makes no reference to retraining of veterans, since the Topic of the Forum was Jobs, be considered as nothing more than an attempt to give Gov. Romney a sympathy moment on national tv? Was it designed to create emotional attachment to Romney, since it is obvious Obama's personal likability numbers are still solid? Further complicating the situation. At the start of the show Mr McArthur a small business owner from St Louis told Mike that he has told his son who has returned from Iraq that there is no future for the son in the Family Business. That he needs to look elswhere for work. But at the start of his questioning to Gov Romney, Mr McArthur says that his son is not employable because of his PDSS. So there can be no doubt the question had nothing to do with the TOPIC of the forum which was JOBS.Furthur making the situation worse for the Huckabee forum was when the next panel of three people after Mr McArthur's panel, had a Gold Star Parent on it, who when he was questioning Newt Gingerich, it was rather obvious the fellow did not like Newt. Asked Gov. Romney again about veterans benefits, and the line of the questioning had nothing to do with veteran job training again.
Raising furthur questions about this, was the opportunity for Gingerich and Santorum to show their abilities to be a compassionate Comander in Chief, never materialized since they were never asked any questions about Veterans at all.
But the culmination of the night came at the end with the panel of David Mc Arthur, Elaine Chao ( married to Mitch McConnell a big Romney supporter), Charlie Gasparino, and Mike. They were discussing what they had just seen and Mike asked if anything had stuck out about the candidates. Which resulted in Elaine Chao hitting a massive Home Run that only a Major League Star on Steroids could hit. Chao's praised Mitt's handling of Mr McArthur's question. It looked like Ralphie's dream of getting an A+ on his theme from Christmas Story. It was a side of Mitt she had never seen before,it was powerful she said, and Mike agreed. Mike said Mitt blew it out of the water. One problem Mike. The question was off topic.
On the whole I thought it was a good forum. But the veteran's questions were asked in such a way that leads one to believe that they were there for the intent of helping Romney's likability problem, rather than about veterans themselves. They stuck out so much and was commented on so much that Charlie Gasparino's disaproval was rather eminent at the end of the show. If the questions were about veterans. The question should have been specifically about educational, and training benefits for veterans to stay on topic. But you can't create emotional responses, out of people for candidates you are trying to push on the American Public on those issues. Veteran's Heathcare? Yes.
The fact that Newt and Santorum were not asked any veterans questions at all. Makes this an even more noticable attempt to use this as an opportunity to bolster Romney's image. Hardly Fair and Balanced.
8 months ago