by B. R. GOWANI
Republican presidential candidates arrive on stage for the Republican presidential debate on August 6, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. From left are: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; real estate magnate Donald Trump; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images/The Blaze
Republican presidential candidates from left, Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, and George Pataki take the stage for a pre-debate forum at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. The seven candidates did not qualify for the primetime debate PHOTO/Andrew Harnik/AP/Daily News
It’s always nice to have more candidates running for president so that people have more choices to choose from – provided there is a real diversity of opinions among the contenders. As they say: the more the democracier.
This time there are, at this moment, 17 Republican candidates. Yesterday was the first of the many debates to come. Ten of the candidates made it to the top and thus were permitted to appear during the prime time. The other seven debated earlier. Most of them anti-common person. There was Jeb Bush, a son and a brother of mass murderers; a repugnant billionaire; anti-Cuba fanatic; a tech multi-millionaire who after a merger of her company fired 18,000 workers; and so on. God was not very far. The Fox TV people had to bring in God. It seemed like every other candidate or his father was/is a preacher or something.
Because of the presence of a real estate tycoon Donald Trump the debate became a little lively. As I wrote three weeks back, the Republican machine is going to gradually oust Trump because of his criticism of fellow candidates and overt racism. Even though he was defiant in answering the questions, one can sense that this is not the Trump you usually see.
Trump didn’t say what he got in return for donating money to the Clinton Foundation. He also said that he has given money to many of the fellow Republicans gathered on the stage. None of them denied the charges. Now that was an honest moment!
As was expected, no one was interested in bettering relations with Iran. Which meant that the Israel Lobby‘s influence was prominent on the stage. Nobody was critical of Israel.
Carly Fiorina wants government to work with private corporations to spy on people. Why not? Corporations can mint money and can keep an eye on people, including its own employees.
Three good things
Ohio Governor John Kasich’s acceptance of the gays during the debate is a sign that the Republican Party has accepted the rights granted to the gays by the Supreme Court.
US Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul’s suggestion to stop arming the regimes from where the arms end up in the hands of ISIS was right on target. Of course, the death merchants selling weapons are not going to be affected till the time they keep on bribing the Congress persons.
Another thing Paul said, of course, without naming Israel, was not to give money to Israel when the United States itself is borrowing money from outside.
Besides that, there was nothing new. Poverty and income disparity were off the debate radar.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com