Tonight we have the forum and then the main event in Republican “debates” on Fox: given the number of participants in each, they both should be a zoo.
But there\’s plenty going on already.
We have Martin O\’Malley, who has gotten nowhere since declaring for the presidency, on a warpath, because the Democrat Party – clearly committed (as of now) to making Hillary Clinton its candidate (at least until Joe Biden gives them a viable alternative), has declared there will be a total of 6 debates between the candidates….but the first one will not be until October, and only four will be prior to the Iowa primary.
O\’Malley wants more debates and sooner – certainly understandable, given that it appears to be his only shot at making any kind of run for the gold. And I assume that other candidates not getting anywhere, like Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, feel the same way.
And we have this fascinating situation, detailed by politico.com\’s Glenn Thrush and Alex Isenstadt, between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump:
Like everyone else, Bush soon found Trump impossible to ignore. When Trump reposted a nasty tweet a couple of weeks after his contentious announcement speech – “Bush has to like Mexican illegals because of his wife” -the former Florida governor was forced to respond. “You can love your Mexican-American wife,” he told one interviewer before telling another that Trump was “preying on people\’s fears.”
The half-dozen conservative senators and governors who had planned to run before Bush brought out his shock-and-awe fundraising campaign, had to laugh: They viewed Bush himself as an intruder, a political semi-retiree who sat on the sidelines for eight years while they fought Barack Obama. Now it was Bush\’s turn to rage at an outsider.
“Seriously, what\’s this guy\’s problem?” he asked one party donor he ran into recently, according to accounts provided by several sources close to Bush – and he went on to describe the publicity-seeking real estate developer now surging in public polls far ahead of Bush and all the 15 others in the Republican field as “a buffoon,” “clown” and “asshole.”
Think that might produce a few fireworks tonight?
Yep, this is an interesting political day. And the day ain\’t over yet.
Stay tuned…
