Fox News Had Its Own GOP Debate Agenda: Narrow Down The Field
The Republican Party has famously missed most of the markers set out for it in the RNC’s so-called “autopsy report” in March of 2013. The party hasn’t gotten behind comprehensive immigration reform. It hasn’t modified its approach on issues of concern to minorities or millennials generally. The latest assault on Planned Parenthood is not exactly designed to help Republicans win over women. And the number of Obama initiatives GOPers are swearing to reverse hasn’t promoted a sunny, forward-looking perspective for the party, either.
Here’s one thing Republicans promised themselves to do after the last cycle that’s actually been implemented: partner with conservative media so that the GOP candidates weren’t being subjected to hostile questioning from “outsiders.”
So today we had the first official GOP presidential debate, and the seven-candidate “undercard” forum earlier in the day, both sponsored by Fox News. And they put their stamp on the events in a way that is almost certain to shape, if not winnow, the gigantic GOP field.
At the 5:00 p.m. “Happy Hour” debate, virtually all of the questions were framed from the point of view of a conservative movement vetting the candidates, beginning with a battery about electability and exploring potential ideological heresies like Lindsey Graham’s openness to compromise with Democrats and Rick Santorum’s strange interest in wage levels for working-class people.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/fox-news-control-over-gop-debates
