The CNN-Tea Party Debate

Yes, I actually watched most of it. There was no one on stage that should be the President of the United States.

For commentary by Live blog, try Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish from a perspective of someone who desparately wants the GOP to behave itself, the Dailykos from a persective this is really wacked out amusement, Talkingpointsmemo for an accurate blow by blow, Huffingtonpost and Thinkprogress. Andrew Sullivan used the word surreal and said he was throwing up in his mouth.

From the sports analogy point of view, Bachmann, Paul and Romney gang tackled Perry. Perry basically survived because later in the debate on questions about how he handled tuition for illegal immigrants he seemed to talk from reality,which was sadly missing in the debate. All of them thought they could score against Perry on Social Security but all of them looked absolutely ignorant about it as did Perry. P.S. there is no problem with Social Security, which should make all viewers suspicious about all of them.

Newt is now unchained because he knows he is a loser so he just lectures. He even drops titles of his books you can get.

Jon Huntsman coming off a strong debate performance was absent tonight and goofy. No teabaggers know who Kurt Cobain was. And he thougtht he would be snarky about Perry making a "treasonous" remark about the border. He was alluding to Perry's remarks about the FED chairman but the joke fell flat.

The audiences at these events are bizarre. Last event, any time someone viciously attacked President Obama's personal character there were cheers and when Governor Perry mentioned how he executed people in Texas there was a roar. Tonight, Ron Paul was asked what should happen if a 30-year old male without health insurance had a dreadful accident and went into a coma. The audience yelled out, "Let him die!."

Neo-isolationism is now back in the GOP in force. The neoconservatives are dead. Everyone wants to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq. There will be no more nation building. Defense spending may or may not be cut. Frothy Mix almost cried about Al Qaeda attacking us for our freedom and American exceptionalism. Newt channelled Dick Cheney on steroids b y warning about even greater threats against America than ever before. The front-runners just brushed that off.

Michelle Bachmann came to fight and ,of course, she won the hearts of the teabag audience. From a political professional point of view, Mitt held his own and remained the establishment choice. Rick Perry stepped up his game a bit and is clearly in the top. No one can explain what the others are doing there.

GOP strategist Mike Murphy tweeted that the howling laughter you heard was coming from the President watching this spectacle.

And Mitt Romney--called Mitch by Perry--acted weird and looked old-ish. There was a strange frail quality to him. He tried to take over by couldn't pull it off.

Barack Obama is clearly running against the weight of the economy. There was no one here who knew anything about the economy, what Obamacare really does, or the nature of the new jobs bill. It was the spectacle of ignorance which was alarming.

There are dozens more of these planned. I can't say they have any chance of improving. There is simply no there there.