GOP debate: In African-American city, crowd was mostly white

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/195265-gop-debate-audience-was-predominately-white

Tuesday's Republican presidential debate was held in a city with a strong African-American population, but the audience was mostly white.

The crowd was predominantly guests of the Heritage Foundation and AEI, two conservative think tanks and co-sponsors of the debate with CNN.

In tailoring the debate to the think tank audiences, organizers were able to parlay the tradition of audience members asking questions into an opportunity for candidates to field harder and more policy-oriented inquiries. Prominent conservative figures like Mark Thiessen, a former Bush administration speechwriter; Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of Bush's Iraq policy who served in the Defense Department; and David Addington, former Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, all asked questions of the candidates.

(snip)
Officials at CNN did not respond to a request for comment about the audience makeup.

[pinto]

1. Noticed that, as well as the role former (R) gov't players held in presenting questions.

Didn't make it through the whole charade... :hi:

[tabatha]

2. And you can bet your bottom dollar

if the Democrats had debates and got only left-wing people to ask questions, it would have been un-American, disrespectful, etc.

[patrick t. cakes]

3. they've given up with the stage craft all together

was hoping for a 'mic check,' but that was a hand picked crowd of Washington's "finest"

:puke:

[RZM]

4. LOL. This has got to be the non-story of the year

'This just in. Audience at GOP debate largely white!'

What's more surprising is this:

http://www.ajc.com/news/occupy-atlanta-fights-white-1207519.html

I'm not posting that as a dig at Occupy Atlanta. Just noting that it's probably more interesting and newsworthy than this Hill piece (not knocking you for posting it either). :)

[Aerows]

7. I'm white

And these people have long since disgusted me, and many of us, of all races, creeds and religions have fought against these callous ideologues. They don't believe in God so much as they idol worship money.

I'm sure you are right along with me in thinking these people are disgusting.

[RZM]

8. LOL. I was just poking fun at the article

My point was more that I found it funny that somebody took the time and energy to write an article about how this GOP debate audience was so white. McCain won a whopping 4 percent of the black vote in 2008 and the debate guests were mostly hand-picked by organizations made up of the some of the nation's most esteemed conservative nerds. It's hard to imagine an event less likely to have black people in the audience, save of course an episode of 'A Prairie Home Companion' featuring Jimmy Buffett as the musical guest :)

Ironically, the only person who works for the AEI that I can name off of the top of my head is Ayaan Hirsi-Ali.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali

[999998th word]

5. Heritage foundation gets airtime and publicity they don't have to buy-outright

...and how many months do they pump the news full of these bullshit 'debates'.

The only reason those 'candidates' and their godawful outbursts are 'tolerated' in the first place is to soften up the public

and get people used to hearing the obscene. The more they hear this extreme garbage, the more they get used to it, accept it, even cheering it on.

Next thing you know, this shit becomes law.

We need to stay in the streets.

[Aerows]

6. I'm as white as they come

And the Heritage Foundation and their interference with the governance and politics of our country has LONG made me want to throw up. These parasites don't care about ANYBODY except enforcing their religion upon you, regardless of whether or not you are of their religion.

They sicken me and the horrible agenda they have for women and children in this nation, not to mention for homosexuals.

[starroute]

9. Thiessen, Wolfowitz, and Addington -- could you find three bigger creeps?

Uniformly pro-war and pro-torture. What a disaster area.