Most Ridiculous Moment – February 21, 2016

"Win"

It was a very busy day on the Sunday talk shows, with Presidential candidates seemingly everywhere, but very few questions of substance or policy. Pundits 
had a chance to ask possible future Presidents anything they wanted, but stuck with pointless horse race questions.

On ABC, George Stephanopoulos interviewed Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz.

Donald Trump got eleven questions. Zero were about policy. Marco Rubio got six questions. Zero were about policy. Ted Cruz got four questions. Zero were about policy.

Trump got questions like, 'Do you think you have this nomination in hand?, 'who is your toughest competition?,' 'You're really not sure that Marco Rubio is eligible to run for president?,' 'Are you going to have to be more careful about the kind of things you say and tweet?,' 'Will you release your tax returns,' Will you run as an independent,' and 'is this a hostile takeover of the GOP?'

Rubio was asked if he was eligible to run for president, if Mitt Romney would endorse him, if Donald Trump is qualified to be President, and where he is going to win?

Cruz was asked if he is going to have make tougher case against Donald Trump, and 
'isn't he giving Donald Trump a clear path?'

On Face the Nation, Host Jon Dickerson interviewed Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, 
Ted Cruz, Jon Kasich and Bernie Sanders.

Trump got six questions. None were about policy. Rubio got five questions. None were about policy. Sanders got four questions. None were about policy. Cruz got five questions. One was about policy. Kasich got four questions. One was about policy.

To Ted Cruz, Dickerson said, “Let me ask you about the substance of immigration and building a wall. Both you and Donald Trump want the same thing. But he's had a lot of experience in the business world executing, getting things done as a businessman. 
What would you say to a voter who says, okay, you may share the same goals with Donald Trump on this, but you lack that experience of having executed the way he has in the private sector?”

Kasich got the usual questions, such as “Where do you have to do well, and win, to still have a shot at this thing?” and “why aren't you just continuing to split the vote with Marco Rubio? Address those concerns.”

Dickerson also asked Kasich, “Let me ask you a policy question. When we debated, or discussed, Donald Trump's effort stop Muslim immigration, you said 'that's not who we are as a country'. In the exit polls in New Hampshire, 65 percent supported a Muslim immigration ban. And now in South Carolina, 74 percent supported that policy.”

On Meet The Press, Marco Rubio got four questions. None were about policy. Bernie Sanders got six questions. None were about policy. Ted Cruz got six questions. None were about policy. Of the six questions Cruz got, half were Chuck Todd asking him three times if he had to win in Texas.

After asking Rubio “How do you look at this as a positive and not a negative?,' “How do you ever win over Trump voters?,” and “What part of Ted Cruz's ad is not true?”

Chuck Todd segued to, “All right, I've got to talk process.”

Sanders was asked about the role of culinary union, Where he is going to win next, and whether he had to win in Texas or Virginia 
or Tennessee.

To be fair, Todd's interview with Donald Trump was a bit different.

Todd began by asking about Trump's recent flip flops on issues such as a health insurance mandate, Planned Parenthood, and whether George W. Bush is a liar. Trump said he was against a mandate, and gave a confusing answer on Planned Parenthood. Todd also asked about his support for the Iraq war, and whether he would be neutral during negotiations for a Palestinian state.

So our media has the opportunity to grill politicians contending to be commander-in-chief and architect of the foreign policy of the most powerful nation on earth, to question office-seekers hoping to direct domestic policy with regard to the U.S. budget, taxes, criminal justice, health, the environment, education, civil rights and more. 

With this at stake, they ask “where do you win?,” “where do you have to do well?,” “where is a must win,” and “how do you win?” Treating politics as sport, a game, as entertainment, and then they wonder 
how a reality game show host could be 
doing so well.

And that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.

Link to audio