Hah! My father has been irritatingly obsessed with Deflategate being just about haters who can't stand that Brady is happy. I can taunt him with this.
People aren't commenting because they're watching the debate, right?
If so, holy cow. These people are practically advocating genocide.
Jindal was asked about the kid with the not-remotely-a-bomb and immediately starts talking about how we're at war with Islamic extremists and we need to something-something bombs something-something war real discrimination is about christians who believe in traditional marriage!
It was a pretty hilarious segue. The moderators look pretty annoyed.
Also Lindsey Graham says we're at war right now and the courts need to understand that war is different from crime and something-something.
Pataki just came out in favor of rule of law, and Kim Davis should be fired/in jail/etc. I'm not sure that's really a winning strategy.
I just turned it on for about 15 seconds of Bobby Jindal defending transfats and praising Ronald Reagan, and that was all I could take.
So far the best bit of the debate is from right before it.
CNN Commenters: In many ways this debate is the more exciting one and we should see a lot of interes... hold on.. I'm getting reports that Donald Trumps car has pulled up outside so we'll cut to that and, yes, yes I think I can see him there inside...
Jindal looks like he's actually having fun just running around attacking things like a piranha. Everyone else looks bland or sad.
I'm wondering if he isn't earning some future favors by acting as an attacking spoiler.
Lindsey Graham - I've got a better chance of beating Clinton because I've said nice things about her. Now he's talking about how Tip O'Neil was the most liberal member of the house and Reagan used to sit down with him. I'll put country ahead of party. [crowd reacts with shock]
This debate probably is more fun than the next one will be.
Why is Pataki here? I'm not sure even he knows.
Now he's attacking Wall Street Fat Cats. I think he's trying to court the "sensible moderate" vote that made Huntsman such a potent political force.
Speaking of sports-related things, actor who plays character from the League engages in hilarious, over-the-top lying that could be the plot of an episode of the League.
Oh how can any of your stand it!
I didn't even realize Pataki was still around.
I think Pataki may have been surprised when someone reminded him to show up.
Actually the debate is giving me hope for America because despite the fact that these people are, literally, insane evil people they're still proposing weirdly progressive economic policies every so often. (I mean, not often, but way more than you'd ever expect. Lots of hate for hedge fund managers.)
Lindsey Graham: the middle class is one broken down car from not going on vacation.
Dude, no. No that's really not what people are scared of.
Right now Santorum is coming out really angrily and aggressively in favor of the minimum wage. It's shocking. He seems genuinely angry.
He's proposing a pointlessly tiny increase, sure, but wow.
He's talking about how workers are more important than small business owners.
I'm afraid of that. My previous neighbor didn't replace his tires until he was driving on the steel belts. What if he crashed into my house?
14: As far as I can tell in this case "any" means "MHPH". And the answer is "btocked".
Weirdly CNN's stream cuts off during commercial breaks to show a "you're watching a free preview to sign up go here" message. Guys, seriously. I would have watched the commercials. Anyone watching this would, either because they're btocked too or because they're gullible enough to think that voting Republican is good and that these people are worth considering, which means that you could sell them anything.
Santorum: Iran is a DEATH CULT. That's why we should start a WAR WITH THEM.
Bizarrely he's saying "these people think the end times are coming! within our lifetimes!" which, I'm pretty sure, is what he believes.
I dunno - Santorum is weird and creepy enough that I think he's a true believer of some sort. He's the Catholic kind, I think, not the Evangelical one. But still...
Jindal, who continues to be the fun one, is attacking the Republican party on grounds that it isn't stopping Obama from doing whatever he wants. Obama loses every negotiation except the ones with the Republican legislatures!
Graham is trying to reason with him about actual political possibilities, for some reason.
Lindsey Graham has been to the middle east many times in the last ten years trying to figure out how we got in this mess.
I feel like there's an obvious answer there just outside his reach.
CNN is loving Lindsey Graham's performance which, they openly admit, was purely just ignoring the questions and saying that we need to kill all the muslims every single time he could.
Jeb Bush already looks like he doesn't want to be here.
Rubio looks scared.
Huckabee: "..None us are under investigation.."
[Christie looks uncomfortable]
I'm tracking against the Taibbi drinking game. First Hillary email reference within 30 seconds!
Oh, and Reagan in 90. Taibbi knew what to expect.
Why can't Fiorina stop blinking? It's really distracting!
"... Oh I'm John Kasich..."
Kasich gets caught off guard by being in a debate.
"Carly Fiorina, your first question is what is bad about Donald Trump?"
All of us will be revealed over time and under pressure. We will be revealed over time and under pressure.
Fiorina really doesn't want to start shit with Trump.
"First of all Rand Paul shouldn't be up here on this stage..."
Yaayyy! Trump is talking! That really was the first thing he said.
OK, MHPH, I had to figure out what channel CNN is. I tuned in to trump saying "Pataki couldn't be elected dog catcher." Jeb looks deeply uncomfortable, too.
Man, everyone is out for Trump right now.
I don't think it's working though.
I enjoyed watching Walker try to pretend that Trump was not, actually, accurately describing the state of things in Wisconsin.
Trump seems to be getting lots of applause. "I will be the vessel through which we can fix this country" from Christie. Ewwww.
Why can't Fiorina keep her eyes open!? Why??
I just clicked over to the Trump twitter feed, which is pretty funny, and learned that aside from Brady known supporters include Mike Ditka AND Bobby Knight. Asshole coach demographic wrapped up with a bow on it.
Ha! Bush actually does make an attack there, but I think Trump manages to win it in the end, narrowly.
Oh NICE. Trump shuts Bush down with the energy line as Bush is trying to interrupt him.
This is great theater. Great theater that will destroy the world.
And Mark Cuban! Finally, the loud voiced have a voice.
"Let's move to Russia."
Yes, please. All of you.
I actually do believe that Trump would get along with Putin.
I think Fiorina just proposed a new Cold War.
Boy, she certainly doesn't sound like someone who has memorized a long speech to get out there as fast as possible.
I bet she wins the CNN vote though.
Cruz decides to get out there for once, which is neat, but who is he trying to steal votes from? Kasich?
"Governor Kasich did Cruz just play to the crowd" in this public debate where people are trying to convince people to vote for them?
This is horrifying. I mean, I knew these people were nuts, but it's quite different to see it rather than read about it.
Rubio actually gets a good line for the first time.
You should have seen the losers debate...
Huckabee is deeply offended by beards.
Anyone who talks shit about beards, this is the company you keep.
Man, Planned Parenthood is the devil.
I can't wait to see how the upcoming government shutdown goes after this.
They actually directly quoted Trump's insult of Fiorina while they were on stage together? Is this the awkward-off? I had to turn it off before any candidate said anything.
I think that one mostly ended with no harm done. She had a good line, and he did the shrug-and-I-think-you're-pretty asshole thing that makes people like him.
It's hilarious watching Tapper trying to start fights, though. "Now Mr Trump, what do you think of Mr Paul's suit. Is it as nice as yours?"
If CNN wanted to convince me that their reporters are as appallingly, recklessly, contemptuously incompetent as Fox's, this debate has done it.
So does Carson remind anyone else of the Dormouse? Every so often the Mad Tapper pokes him and he says something.
Trump is, in point of fact, right that his immigration comments changed the focus of the public debate.
I don't think Bush is helping himself the way he thinks he is here.
I find Ted Cruz more personally terrifying than any politician of my entire lifetime.
13: I was wondering if you had heard about that!
65: He's probably doing the most to pull himself into the spotlight and attract votes right now too.
All I can think of is The Handmaid's Tale.
Rand Paul: ACTION CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR!
Paul is not insane on some of the foreign-policy stuff, but he doesn't understand the 14th amendment.
Um, Kasich that sounds nice but someone is probably going to point out you're talking about working for Clinton...
I feel kind of wistful about the fact that it's only candidates like Christie and Kascich, who are doing badly, who actually say the occasional humane thing about people and their livelihoods.
I didn't think Carson did so well in the last debate, but he's clearly doing well this time.
Jesus, was Walker off jogging when everyone else was talking?
When these guys go off on the flat tax, why doesn't anyone ever ask them why they want to take money away from American churches? Seriously, tax deductions for charitable donations are keeping thousands if not tens of thousands of organizations alive.
Walker apparently wants a United States that has no workers for entry level jobs? That's how his minimum-wage comments sound....
Trump is, in point of fact, right that his immigration comments changed the focus of the public debate.
I thought Kevin Drum's chart of "things Trump likes and dislikes" did a fairly good job of explaining why he's been able to be as successful as he had.
The extent to which the pre-selected Republican candidates are falling apart continues to amaze me. Bush and Walker are useless out there. Even without Trump they'd be hopeless.
Rubio is definitely auditioning for Secretary of State.
We have lots of trouble and we need to do better in government and that's why Rubio isn't doing any voting in the senate!
He could do well as VP, but I'm not sure who would pick him.
Trump is pointing out that he was right on Iraq. I honestly had no idea that he'd said anything about Iraq in 2003.
NickS in 78: That's very good, and accurate.
Rand Paul built his Creeer on opposing the Iraq war.
When on earth did this become a campaign issue? This is surreal.
I certainly haven't stopped wondering if Trump is a prank by the Clintons.
That was awesome. Jeb gets pissed on behalf of his brother. "He kept is safe. Do you remember 9/11? The rubble?"
Paul does understand that intervention is not a magic bullet, I'll give him that.
The rubble was a great touch. I was hoping he'd get to the Mission Accomplished photo but stopped right before then.
I seriously thought that bizarre plane backdrop was a Photoshop/meme thing when I first saw it on Twitter earlier tonight.
I can't believe they can all be in front of it with a straight face. I would have such a case of the giggles.
Trump and Carson are hilarious. They really do seem like friends.
Rubio comes out for more stupidity in our war with radical Islam.
Every time they cut back to Walker he looks worse. It's amazing. He went from "weird looking" to "was he jogging in place" to "forlorn child". I hope we get at least one or two more steps.
83: Yes, I think his critiques were primarily after a year or so. This article does mention one negative comment in March 2003--at an after-Oscars party.
Man, Bush gets mumbly and not in the charming-idiot way his brother does.
Also apparently Roberts is the devil in this debate as well. This has got to really be hurting his feelings if he's watching it. I hope he is.
Philosopher Kings: The Original Liberals!
the charming idiot way his brother does
Nope, not charming. They do seem to share a smirk, though. I think that comes from Barbara.
Whoa, did we just go straight to Tentherism? This is an interesting primary now.
"Interesting" can describe many different kinds of situations.
I dunno - W Bush was mumbly in a slow smirky way, but JEB is mumbly in a fast off-balance way, which doesn't work as well. I mean, both come off as idiots but 'take that smart guys ha ha' bossiness works when W does it and JEB couldn't pull it off.
Until you feel ok about one of these people being president.
Huh. Apparently "sure I smoked pot what of it?" is the standard line now.
"Kids who have privilege like you don't go to jail, and poor kids do." Paul to Bush on his high-school drug use.
My special just said: "I hate this broken clock. He's right on this and he's right on drones."
Wow, the drug war debate has shifted.
But in fairness Fiorina .... lost a kid? to .. pot?
Yeah this is weird.
Oh whew, we're back to 'if we outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns'. It was really freaky there for a while.
Huh I just caught a bit on the radio. Even Christie said something like "the drug war has failed" and touted leniency on first offenders. Seems like a total disconnect between where politics are on this now and where the criminal justice reality is. I guess even I have to give goddamn Rand Pail credit for making these points on thay stage, though his view of the 10th Amendment is way more dangerous than the drug war.
CNN claims they're asking about climate change because of social media. Shame on them for not having the guts to ask themselves.
But in fairness Fiorina .... lost a kid? to .. pot?
I just googled. One sketchy source so far, and it looks like it was her stepdaughter (whom she had known since age 10, and was apparently genuinely closely parenting) to prescription pill addiction.
I watched a bit and Fiorina was doing well. Has anyone made the obvious point: she sounds good, and that's why people made her CEO, and it was a disaster.
One of these people will be your nominee!
Oh, sure. It was just a bizarre jump from talking about state regulations of pot straight to that.
Christie's final comment on Climate Change was magnificent. I think he said that he took strong steps to addressing the problem; that there is no problem; that human beings aren't responsible for the problem; and that we need to address the ways in which we're causing it and switch to energy generation that doesn't have the problem.
Good to see everyone can agree on the principled position of "vaccines are important and you should have them but maybe not or something whatever do it on your own time."
Man, apparently everyone is into Rosa Parks these days. Is that some kind of dog whistle? Probably.
Also - hey! Now we know why Fiorina is there!
Is this still going on? Really enjoying the live blogging of the debate here (especially MHPH), now I don't have to go watch it.
There was some malice behind that whatever-a-high-five-is-when-it's-way-down-there, though. He was definitely using more force than necessary.
I really thought Christie was going to go with Morticia for a second there when he started talking about the Adams family on the $10 bill question.
I really, really did too. I was about to start loving him.
There's really something.. weird about Fiorina. She twitches around a lot and blinks too much? Who knows, it's really kind of disconcerting to watch her.
I think she's just had a lot of work done.
Oh yeah.. that was not friendly at all. Didn't work on Trump though.
Rosa Parks was of course just an ordinary citizen and not a clever, trained, awesome social activist.
120: Lizard people-ish. Like if a fly landed on her microphone, her tongue would dart way out.
That's actually a common misconception - Fiorinas are bird-people, not reptile-people.
124 Is that what you see when you put on the glasses? Thought that would be the case with all of them.
Bizarrely he's saying "these people think the end times are coming! within our lifetimes!"
ISIS does believe exactly that. Iran, not so much.
Mind you, so do a lot of the parachristian weirdos who form much of the base. I'm waiting for them to start learning strategy from ISIS,
Ugh, I don't think I've been hungover from a debate before, as opposed to what I was drinking during the debate.
I get why they made it three hours*, but seriously that is too much debate.
*Along with the carefully selected (small) audience it was something they were hoping to use to kneecap Trump by preventing him from being the center of attention. It kind of worked, but by the time it stopped being Trump-Fight! the impression had already been made and it happened early enough that people are going to remember it rather than whatever nonsense happened two and a half hours later.