By: Jack Armstrong Copy Editor
The third major GOP presidential debate took place on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015 at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
The broadcast, hosted by CNBC, lasted the better part of two hours and featured the two current front runners Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, as well as the eight other leading candidates.
This debate was widely labeled as the “economic policy” debate, especially since CNBC is NBC News’ financial outlet, but the discourse only turned briefly to taxes in-between jabs at the media, fellow republican candidates, and democratic opponents.
With Carson recently surging past Trump in the polls, the chance was there for the doctor to really take control of the race, but both Carson and Trump put in relatively subdued performances compared to the first debate.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Preibus released a statement after the debates claiming that, “CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled.”
Ted Cruz (R-TX) even went so far as to refer to the debate as “a cage match,” and the heckling raining down from a majority of the 1,200 audience members seemed to agree with him.
Many of the candidates accused CNBC of intentionally derailing the debate with hidden agendas, Cruz saying, “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media.”
With the bulk of the focus still centering on in-fighting and taking swipes at opponents across the aisle and at the media, what little policy talk that occurred was still vague.
Carly Fiorina suggested that she could cut the entire tax code down to three concise pages, but she was unable to expound on exactly how she planned to achieve this. Similarly, Cruz promised that if he was elected, he would cut the tax code to the point where Americans could file their taxes on a postcard, also with little explanation about how this plan would come to be.
Overall, the end notes for the debate seem to all be ones of confusion and anger. An event that should have seen two clear front runners stretch their leads through clear policy discussion quickly degraded into name calling and finger pointing.
The post-debate polls have yet to show any serious fluctuation, and we are still no closer to knowing who will clinch the GOP nomination in the lead up to November 2016.
Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, this debate continued to highlight a problem that permeates our current system of elections.
The talking points were of little consequence, and the focus of the debate shifted from policy and procedure, to personal gain and jabs at the moderators.
Nothing was really discussed, nothing was really clarified, and all we really learned about the candidates is that they don’t like being asked difficult questions – or at least questions that aren’t framed in a pleasing manner.
Hopefully as we approach the one-year mark on the presidential countdown, the field will begin to thin and we will have a better idea of who our choices are without all of the noise and pointless in fighting from both sides.
The next debate is scheduled for Nov. 10, 2015, broadcasting on the Fox Business Network from the Milwaukee Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
