FOX, Giuliani, Hannity Belittle Ron Paul

Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate saying we need to pull the troops out of Iraq, that the war is illegal, and that governmental bureaucracy is out of control. If I were a Republican, I'd be pulling for him. Then again, if I were a Republican, I would've gone mad and put a gun in my mouth long ago (thank God for the 2nd Amendment!). Either way, he was a refreshing voice at last night's FOX Republican Debate in New Hampshire.

Unfortunately, a complete lack of professionalism showed just how ruthless Republican wingnuts can be and how they can turn on each other and eat their own.

FOX and Giuliani
FOX - if confronted - will probably claim that it was fostering an environment of open debate, but when one candidate was speaking, other candidates' comments were sometimes audible. Most notably, each time a question was posed to Ron Paul - usually worded as an attack by Brit Hume or Chris Wallace - Rudy Giuliani could be heard laughing off camera with increasing vigor as the broadcast went on.

This is what FOX does, undermining those who don't tow the party line, clearly showing bias by allowing Giuliani's mic to remain open. But Giuliani? Regardless of what you think of "America's Mayor," and his 30 seconds of mistakes, his openly laughing at Ron Paul is the most telling characterization to date: Rudy Giuliani is an unprofessional, beat-up-the-underdog, smug, sad excuse for a human being; in a word - douchebag. I wouldn't vote for him with Karl Rove's arm sticking out of Rush Limbaugh's ass.

I don't think anything during the debate bothered me more.

Hannity's Lies
After the Republican Debate on FOX, a special, live Hannity & Colmes aired with a "Text the Winner of the Debate" poll. At first blush, Ron Paul had twice the votes of the second place runner with 34% of votes; he carried that lead through the end of the show, finishing with 33% of the votes.

Sean Hannity, on two or three separate occasions, made serious comments on how it was a couple of nutjobs dialing and redialing and screwing up the poll. Sean Hannity was wrong. After one vote, the return text message thanks you for voting. Attempting to vote again returns a text saying "You have already voted...thank you for participating." No one could vote more than once with each cell phone.

But if Sean can undermine anyone without the FOX brand as their tramp stamp and make all his loyal, blind followers believe that there isn't something notable or significant going on? Well, that's his job. And he does it well.

I feel badly that Ron Paul is the clear casualty of these asshats.

UPDATE: JL over at Laissez-faire (nice comments) posted found this Ron Paul loveliness. I don't feel so bad anymore when Hannity looks like such a choad:




Stay tuned. I have 3 pages of notes from last night's debate; I just thought this deserved its own post.