Pages

Friday, December 18, 2015

NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS

Hillary Clinton's dream debate is one nobody watches

nypost.com

Busy Saturday night? Probably, what with the NCAA bowl games, the Jets’ must-win battle in Dallas and opening weekend for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” So you’ll skip the Democratic presidential debate — just as Hillary Clinton hoped.

Long, long ago, Clinton set out to ensure she wouldn’t be robbed of the nomination by some interloper, the way she lost to Barack Obama in 2008.

The party’s power-brokers played along, handing the Democratic National Committee to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a co-chair of Clinton’s ’08 campaign. Fix, in.

And so the DNC did its best to see nobody would watch the debates, lest voters dare think for themselves. Tomorrow’s is the second in a row on a Saturday night — easily the worst evening for TV viewership.

Over on the Republican side, they’ve delivered the three largest audiences ever for prez-primary debates. And seven more Republican debates are ahead; the Democrats have just three after Saturday.

The saddest thing about this “shield Hillary” approach is that it robs Democrats of a fair primary fight. Yes, it’s hard to see how socialist dinosaur Bernie Sanders or lightweight prettyboy Martin O’Malley is going to beat her — but they could at least push her to stand up for the party’s principles.

(Assuming it still has some.)

Worst of all is the message this sends about the frontrunner: Namely, that the last thing her supporters want is for the American public to hear what she has to say.


Debate memo to reporters: Bundle up
www.politico.com

the Saturday before Christmas, or that the localABC affiliate was pushed out over a labor dispute.

The media will be literally, on ice. A memo sent to reporters by host network ABC News warned that the media filing center is in an ice rink, and as such, reporters should bundle up.

"Please note in order to accommodate everyone, the media filing center is on St. Anselm’s hockey rink in the Sullivan Arena. Please remember to dress warmly," the memo reads.

Don't forget your skates!

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.

No comments:

Post a Comment