As far as entertaining prime time T.V. is concerned, the GOP Debates of this season have been smashing successes. When it comes to honest debate, or merely identifying candidate beliefs, they have been utterly useless. These debates have been nothing but a circus, a three ring game show meant to entertain, but not inform. While this seems to have gone unnoticed by all but one of the candidates, it has not gone unnoticed by many rank and file conservative consumers.

The format of both Fox and CNN debates are so far flawed that by very definition these spectacles shouldn’t be called debates at all. Since when is it proper to ask different participants different questions in a multi-person debate? In true debate, all participants would be asked the same questions and allowed the same time to respond. Take notes Fox and CNN, because that is how an honest debate is run. How else is the consumer going to be able to tell the differences and similarities of the candidates? The purpose of posing a question to one candidate, or a couple select candidates is obvious. It’s meant to push an agenda and we, your customers know it. The questions and who will respond to them are chosen to portray specific candidates in a specific light. The producers and executives who pair questions and respondents aim to make sure their viewers see only the agenda of the question choosers. This practice is egotistical, underhanded, and outright corrupt.

Republicans should be furious at these networks. Last night CNN producers used these weighted and selected questions to goad two Republican front runners into an adolescent pissing contest on national T.V.! Perhaps one question chooser favored Romney and another Guilliani or maybe they favored Democrats and wished to make the Republicans look silly? It doesn’t really matter, both Romney and Guilliani ended up acting the fool while dancing to CNN’s orchestra. How about candidates, like Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter who didn’t get a single serious question all night? On his few chances to speak, Ron Paul was asked about conspiracy theories and the possibility of a third party run! Republicans, even if they disagree with him, wanted to hear him speak on foreign policy, trade and the role of government. We are lucky he and Hunter were wily enough to get their points across in spite of this.

Ron Paul, Hunter and Tancredo stood in that debate for an hour and half while receiving less than 20 minutes of talk time combined. The rest of the time was spent on Guillianni, McCain, Romney and Huckabee as they constantly continued to speak well past their alloted time with no consequences or interruptions. This time deficit is another obvious and blatant example of a few CNN producers trying to control American opinion and push their own agendas. How is a Republican supposed to make a decision when CNN won’t allow candidates with opposing or interesting views to speak except to quickly answer frivolous questions? It’s an outrage and Republicans should be up in arms.

I’m genuinely surprised the moderator himself didn’t jump into the debate to push the network’s agenda. How long are we Republicans going to take this nonsense? How long are we going to allow these networks to actively tell people what to think? How can a constitutional republic survive with a propaganda machine blatantly trying to assert dominance over the mind of the voters?

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