Charles Pierce is a national treasure..

[Fumesucker]

:rofl:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/cbs-debate-november-12-6556209

Another one? Saturday night in South Carolina? Two debates in four days? What is this, the 2012 Republican presidential field, or the Edmonton Oilers on a 10-day road trip? ("Penalty on Cain. Two minutes, high-sticking. Time of the penalty: 9:99 of the first period.")

I'm not kidding. This is getting exhausting. Once again, in anticipation of what will surely be a virtual Mardi Gras of hackneyed talking points, predictable quasi-conflicts, revolving eyeballs, and Newt Gingrich's ego performing on the flying trapeze, I have to pretend that any of these various unemployables should be working the Fry-O-Later at Grover's Bar and Grille in Reagan's Balls, California, let alone that they're qualified to be allowed near the nuclear launch codes for a living. It would be easier if I were a famous conservative pundit, even one who predicted back in '08 that we would now be in the middle of President Romney's campaign for re-election; then I could blame the hubristic ignorance of this pack of vacuous bastards on The Lib'ral Media and their Jedi mind-tricks. CBS is hosting this one. They should bring Dan Rather back for one night just to watch some heads detonate. Or, I could write this:

What would be refreshing would be if the front-runner (a 70.6% probability of nomination at InTrade this morning) Mitt Romney and the two other plausible candidates, Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Speaker Newt Gingrich were to make a joint deal followed by a joint announcement that while they have no objection to the schedule, they will not be appearing unless (1) every answer in every situation be allowed at least three minutes in response from everyone called upon to speak, and (2) the candidates get to choose the individuals who will ask at least half of the questions to assure that issues of concern to Republican primary voters finally get an opportunity not to hear the prejudices and often hilarious biases of the MSM repackaged as questions but rather get to hear real questions about the serious problems the president has bequeathed his successor.

Apparently, the famous conservative pundit has neglected to notice that his longtime Mormon man-crush would have to be out of his slippery little mind to agree to this. Why should Romney agree to any format that would make it more difficult for his opponents to continue to make public jackasses of themselves? Because Mitt Romney is a selfless patriot less interested in his own personal political advantage than he is interested in educating the nation he hopes to lead?

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Read the rest of the article at the link..