(This caricature of Rush Limbaugh is by the wonderful DonkeyHotey.)This is hard to believe, but the Washington Times is reporting that the Republican Party is considering a change in the selection of moderators for their presidential candidate debates. Instead of selecting respected (and nonpartisan) journalists to moderate those debates, as has been done in the past, they are considering asking Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh to do the honors.
It seems that the national party believes they had too many debates in the last presidential election (probably true), and that the moderators of those debates were not always fair to their candidates. Evidently, they asked too many hard questions (which did not show those candidates in the best light). Party insiders say they plan to fix that by letting the purveyors of right-wing radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity) moderate the primary debates.
Personally, I think that's a great idea -- and I'm sure that most Democrats would agree. While the far right might enjoy watching their hate-radio heroes lob softball questions at the GOP candidates, I think it would just scare the hell out of most Americans. It would conclusively tie the party (and their eventual candidate) to Rush Limbaugh and his ultra-right-wing cohorts, and remove any remaining doubt as to who is really running the Republican Party.
The fact that this is even being considered by the Republican Party shows that they still don't understand the electorate (and why they lost bad in the last two national elections). They seem to think the electorate is as ultra-conservative as they are, and if they just present their ultra-right views in the right way, the public will come around and vote for them. They are wrong. Most Americans are moderates, and don't like the extreme views of the right or left.
I hope the Republican Party does this. It will appeal only to the voters they already have, and drive most voters further away from them.
