The Crowley Agenda

Republicans should not expect anything sweet to come out of tomorrow's presidential debate, moderated by CNN's Candy Crowley...

Not buying to much into her remarks from August 12th, 2012,. where she referred to the Paul Ryan VP selection as some sort of "ticket death wish".  Many establishment Republicans were saying the same thing  and it is possible that Candy had consulted some of them before making her comments.  Or she may have been simply observing from her home - the liberal bubble - and been regurgitating the glee the Democratic party was feeling upon the Ryan selection, so confident were they that they owned the Medicare turf.

This is a bit more troublesome, though - the AP headline is This time, voters pose the debate questions, but as we see that is not exactly true:

Town halls have lost some of their spontaneity. The 80 or so undecided voters chosen for Tuesday's event must submit their questions in advance and moderator Candy Crowley of CNN will decide which people to call on. She can pose her own follow-up questions.


Bad on so many levels.  If you are truly undecided at this point, I question your intelligence, either way.  And your honesty.

If you wonder what type of questions Candy will choose, well...let history be your guide.  Here she is badgering Herman Cain about why he's not "angry black".  Here we have a clip of her defending Barack Obama's record in fighting terrorists; who wants to bet Benghazi questions will be kept to a minimum tomorrow night (what better what to protect Obama than to allow him to face no questions on the issue?  It's what Stephanie Cutter expected all along...)?

Some more bites of Candy:

“Usually you kind of give the President a pass on leaking confidential stuff.” – CNN’s Candy Crowley on Obama’s self-promoting national security leaks, June 10, 2012 State of the Union.

Virginia is doing very well under President Obama. – CNN’s Candy Crowley to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, June 3, 2012 State of the Union.

You are opposed to both raising the debt ceiling and that kind of (tax-hike) compromise. So doesn't that put you outside the mainstream?" – CNN’s Candy Crowley to Rep. Michele Bachmann, August 14, 2011 State of the Union.

“Do you have a problem with being inclusive, because most people do look at Republicans going ‘They’re a conservative bunch of white guys who want to protect Big Oil.’ And now you’re even hearing Republicans saying, ‘It’s not big enough. We haven’t opened up the tent door.’” – CNN’s Candy Crowley touting an Arnold Schwarzenegger op-ed to Newt Gingrich, May 6, 2012 State of the Union.

"So let's get down to the basic question, who's going to get hurt in this budget?...So you have said in an editorial you wrote that the budget is an expression of our values and aspirations. So if I look at this what we call discretionary spending, things we don't have to spend on, you want to cut back community development block programs. That creates jobs in communities; it helps them with infrastructure, that kind of thing. Home heating assistance; education, as you just mentioned. You're also going to do -- the Great Lakes Restoration Fund Initiative is getting a pretty healthy cut in what they get from the feds, eight states involved, in trying to keep the Great Lakes economically viable. What does that say about our values and aspirations?: – CNN’s Candy Crowley pressing Obama budget director Jack Lew from the left on State of the Union, February 13, 2011.


Based on the bias tilt of her questions, I would not be surprised to find her on Barack Obama's lap, arms around his neck, gazing lovingly into his eyes should the cameras come back a few seconds early from commercial break.

Remember the January debate between Republican candidates, moderated by George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer, which focused on gay rights, abortion access, and contraception, despite the dire state of the nation?  Expect more of the same tomorrow; save for the fact Ms. Crowley will be even less likely than Dirty George to keep the disdain out of her voice...