FOX News got what it wanted and avoided the freak show that has become Donald Trump. Megyn Kelly alluded to the “missing elephant in the room,” however truth be told, it was the missing ass.
In what was a breath of fresh air, the last GOP debate before Iowa was actually informative. The candidates were less combatants, and managed to show America that Republicans are NOT monolithic, as the Democrats are.
None of our candidates are being investigated by the FBI or likely to go to jail, nor are any Republicans admitted socialists.
The debate showed the diversity of the party, and a lot of Americans got a better glimpse of the candidates without distraction.
While Donald Trump was off throwing his hissy fit, real leaders debated. Trump’s spin is that he was “helping veterans,” as if he is the only person who does this, and this is the ONLY day it could be done. Nice try.
I heard he raised $6 million for veterans, so it was likely closer to $1 million. Regardless, I suggest that Trump match the gift to the veterans with a gift in kind; after all, he is saving a fortune on his run for the presidency.
I’m not being hard on Trump, as the fact is most of his followers are being too easy. They boycotted the debate, and did all they could to take the spotlight off the other candidates. That is the quintessential Trumpian tactic: it’s all about ME!
To hell with the other candidates, as for Trumpettes: it’s Trump or nothing. Since when is Donald Trump the only man who can SAVE AMERICA?! Wait…I remember: since Liberals said the same thing about Barack Obama.
Our republic does not depend on ANY single man, and certainly not Donald Trump. He very well may be a good president, but he’s not the only choice, and it’s not bad if people question his credentials, motives, tactic, and so on.
This is the man when questioned about being a billionaire, and somebody estimated his billions at say, $2 billion, offered,
[pp] “No, I’m much richer than that, as I’m worth about $8 billion.”
WHO CARES how big his exorbitant wealth is. Trump the narcissist cares, that’s who.
Why be worth $2 billion, when he could be FOUR TIMES more the man?! When I had $100,000 in the bank, I stopped worrying about bouncing checks and had no idea of my net worth. I was just happy to pay my bills on time, and not have to worry about my credit card being declined at a client dinner. Trump, a billionaire, wants us to know just how VAST his fortune is. Can go diminishing one’s net worth, or it might impact how he feels about himself.
In skipping the debate, Trumpette were replete with excuses.
“He’s helping veterans!…He’s teaching FOX a lesson. He’s got better things to do. He’s setting a new paradigm in campaign strategy. Blah blah blah.”
None of that was true. Trump was just being Trump, a narcissistic baby, who wanted his way. He’s used to getting it, surrounding himself with suckups he purchased wholesale at Sam’s.
I was overjoyed to look at Twitter and not see Trump trending in ANY way, and I joked that he might want to get his money back from the Indian help center he hired to tweet for him during his absence. A Trumpette said to me, “Did you see the Google ratings for Trump’s event?!”
Uh no, and apparently nobody cares. The ratings are in however, and here is what CNN reported:
Donald Trump counter-programmed Thursday’s GOP primary debate on Fox with his own prime time event. So whose show scored a bigger audience?
Answer: Fox’s debate. But it was the second lowest rated debate of the season. So Trump is certain to take credit for hurting the channel’s total viewership.
Fox News Channel’s Trump-less debate had an 8.4 household rating, according to early Nielsen data from so-called metered markets.
This means 8.4% of American metered market homes with TV sets were watching the face-off.
By comparison, two of the cable channels that showed parts of Trump’s event, CNN and MSNBC, had about a quarter of Fox’s audience combined.
So Trump’s rivals clearly came out ahead in the raw ratings.
The most recent GOP debate, televised two weeks ago on the harder-to-find Fox Business Network, had a household rating of 7.4.
So Thursday’s debate was bigger — but not by much. The other five GOP debates of the cycle have had household ratings ranging from 8.9 to 15.9.
FOX won, pure and simple. Debates almost always lose steam at the end, so the fact that FOX still dominated proves who won this little game of “chicken.”
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski predicted that only “1 or 2 million people” would watch a Trump-free debate. He was just a bit off, as it was reported that though actual viewership numbers will be available later in the day on Friday, Fox News likely had 11 million to 13 million viewers for the debate.
Hmmm, perhaps it wasn’t just Trump everybody was interested in, in the previous debates. As for Trump’s event, here is how CNN spun it, given it was on their network. Note the vast amount of speculation (author’s highlights):
Some viewers were likely watching the debate on the big screen while keeping an eye on Trump’s event via their smart phones.
It will be difficult to measure the total reach for Trump’s event, since coverage was spread across multiple TV channels, web streams and social networks.
It was shown in full on C-SPAN, but that channel is not rated.
All this is “lipstick on the pig” for Trump got nothing, and FOX did exactly as expected.
CNN did ask one other question worth noting.
But one thing is ultimately unknowable: How many more viewers would have watched if Trump had been center stage?
I think the answer is, “Don’t know, don’t care.”
