Republican Candidates - 'None of them are presidential'

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Aug 18, 2015 - 12:11:24 PM

Analyst sees little in GOP ‘clown car’ candidates for White House

WASHINGTON - U.S. presidential politics has entered what can easily be described as a farcical stage in what is an otherwise deadly serious contest. All 17 Republican candidates participated in a pair of debates—the first of the 2016 season—both sponsored by Fox News.

The network presented the 10 candidates who scored highest in popularity polls to take part in a prime-time debate. Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Scott Walker participated in the discussion which drew the largest audience ever to a political debate—23.9 million viewers. The event was the largest in Fox cable history and the ninth largest event in the history of cable TV—the eight larger events were all college sports on ESPN.

But in all of their three hours of discussions, less than two minutes was spent discussing anything directly concerning Black people, or the out-of-control, wanton murder of innocent Black civilians by law enforcement authorities. That’s because both the pre-debate and post-debate headlines have been dominated by one character, real estate mogul and celebrity television host Donald Trump.

“It was like the clown cars at the circus, where all those clowns jump out,” Dr. Ray Winbush, professor and director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University told The Final Call. “I think right now it’s like a battle between substance and rhetoric, which is part of politics, but it seems like certain candidates like Donald Trump are pure rhetoric. I didn’t see any substantive answers at all.”

For his part Mr. Trump was bombastic, insulting, and light on specific policy proposals, yet he continued to dominate the Republican field, even after more insults on top of those already heaped on Mexican Americans, on 2008 GOP presidential nominee, U.S. Senator and Vietnam War prisoner John McCain, and on other Republican leaders.

“Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter,” Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked the real estate developer and television host. “However, that is not without its downsides, in particular when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ Your Twitter account has several…”

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Mr. Trump interjected.

“For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell,” Ms. Kelly continued. “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president? And how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?”

“I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been—I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China. We lose to Mexico, both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody. And frankly, what I say—and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding, we have a good time—what I say is what I say. And honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn’t do that.”

After the debate Mr. Trump insulted Ms. Kelly, suggesting that her questioning of him was related to a feminine hormonal mood. He said on CNN the next day that “you could see she had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” He later said he meant to say “what ever” and was referring to her nose.

When questioned about the remark, Mr. Trump refused to apologize. “I’ve had such an amazing relationship with women in business. They are amazing executives. They are killers. They are phenomenal,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” He told CNN later, “I cherish women.”

“All of them lied, which you expect politicians to do. All of them exaggerated, which you expect politicians to do. I think Trump did it more than anybody,” said Dr. Winbush.

Others compared Mr. Trump’s “carnival-barker-style” of campaign, to that of a “smack-down,” “in-your-face,” professional wrestling promoter. And true to form, former professional wrestler, turned former Minnesota Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura, endorsed Mr. Trump’s candidacy, and offered himself as a possible vice-presidential running mate.

“If Donald Trump were to ask me to be his running mate, I would give it very serious consideration because anything to break up the status quo of this country,” Mr. Ventura told CBS affiliate WCCO in Minneapolis, according to published reports. “This country needs to be shaken up. It needs to be shaken to its very core, and Donald Trump is doing that.”

Meanwhile, issues of interest to Black voters got short shrift in the debate and from Republican candidates in general until activists from the Black Lives Matter movement got involved, taking their concerns directly to the campaign trail.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was asked: “Many in the Black Lives Matter movement, and beyond, believe that overly-aggressive police officers targeting young African Americans is the civil rights issue of our time. Do you agree? And if so, how do you plan to address it? And if not, why not?”

“Well, I think the most important thing we can do when it comes to policing—it’s something you’ve had a guest on who’s a friend of mine Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clark, who’s talked to me about this many times in the past—it’s about training,” Gov. Walker replied.

“It’s about making sure that law enforcement professionals, not only in the way into their positions but all the way through their time, have the proper training, particularly when it comes to the use of force. And that we protect and stand up and support those men and women who are doing their jobs in law enforcement. And for the very few that don’t, that there are consequences to show that we treat everyone the same here in America.”

Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and the only Black candidate in the Republican field, sought to deflect the race issue, when asked. “Well, I think the bully pulpit is a wonderful place to start healing that (U.S. racial) divide. You know, we have the purveyors of hatred who take every single incident between people of two races and try to make a race war out of it, and drive wedges into people. And this does not need to be done.

“What we need to think about instead—you know, I was asked by an NPR reporter once, why don’t I talk about race that often. I said it’s because I’m a neurosurgeon. And she thought that was a strange response. And you say—I said, you see, when I take someone to the operating room, I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are. The hair doesn’t make them who they are. And it’s time for us to move beyond that,” he said as he was interrupted by applause. “Our strength as a nation comes in our unity. We are the United States of America, not the divided states. And those who want to divide us are trying to divide us, and we shouldn’t let them do it,” Dr. Carson concluded.

“What was disappointing to me, again as an African American is that only one minute was spent in that entire debate about the Black Lives Matter movement,” Dr. Winbush observed. “Nothing was said about police brutality. There was one question, and I guess it shows how racism is embedded in the political process, one question was directed towards Ben Carson about race, and of course he gave the ‘de-race-related answer’ of ‘I don’t see color,’ and everybody said ‘hip, hip hooray’ because that’s what the American people want to hear.”

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, whose father George H.W. Bush, and brother George were both president—and who was the presumed front-runner before Mr. Trump surged in popularity with his anti-establishment outbursts—had a campaign rally disrupted, as had Democrats Martin O’Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders before him.

Protesters disrupted a Jeb Bush campaign event, one of several instances in which Black Lives Matter activists have stolen a candidate’s thunder. According to an NBC report, protesters began chanting “Black lives matter!” after Mr. Bush gave the following response to a question about racial injustice:

“We have serious problems, and these problems have gotten worse in the last few years. Communities, people no longer trust the basic institutions in our society that they need to trust to create, to make things work.” Mr. Bush also emphasized his belief that education is crucial to reducing racial inequality. The chanting continued as he left the auditorium, offset by his supporters who chanted, “White lives matter!”

Earlier in the campaign season, at the Netroots Nation 2015 Presidential Town Hall, former Maryland Gov. O’Malley faltered, saying “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter,” before later apologizing, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders bristled and brushed off protesters he was supposed to meet with later. Then, in a second encounter for Sen. Sanders, protesters hit him at a rally in Seattle.

In addition, Democratic front-runner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with five Black Lives Matter members in New Hampshire after the group was not allowed into the presidential candidate’s forum on substance abuse.

The pressure on Sen. Sanders must have had some effect, because on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, the candidate from Vermont, with the help of a new Black press secretary, Symone Sanders, created a “racial justice” tab for his campaign-issues page, calling for de-militarizing police, and ending police brutality.

But as far as the GOP debate was concerned: “I wasn’t impressed with any of them. Just saw business as usual, the ignoring of racism, which is to me is the foundation of what this country is built on and nothing addressing that at all,” Dr. Winbush said. “And that includes what they called the ‘Happy Hour Debate.’ I looked at both of them. I wasn’t impressed with any of these guys. None of them. None of them are presidential.

“I kept asking myself as an African person: ‘Would I want any of these people to be president of the United States?’ And the answer without even hesitating is no.”

The Final Call