GOP Bailing on CNN/YouTube Debate

Sully: "Rudy won't bite, apparently. Romney's decidedly cool to the idea. The others are getting iffy. … Ducking YouTube after the Dems did so well will look like a party uncomfortable with the culture and uncomfortable with democracy. But then, we kind of knew that already, I guess, didn't we?"

I guess we did. I particularly like Romney's haughty sniff that "the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman," referring to a questioner during the Dem debate having used a silly animated snowman to ask a serious question about global warming. Quite a spectacular obfuscation when what he's actually saying is that he simply doesn't think Important Men like him should have to subject themselves to a rumble with the hoi polloi. And after his last fumbled excursion among the great unwashed, I can understand his hesitation. Answering questions asked by reg'ler folks about what an asshole you are can be uncomfortable, I suppose.

Josh notes that "GOP party functionary Hugh Hewitt is already laying down a line of covering fire for the retreat, arguing that CNN and YouTube are biased against Republicans." Hewitt is basing that argument in part on the partisan nature of the questions handed to the Dems and chalking that up to evidence of ever-presupposed liberal media bias. But of course CNN/YouTube would present a lot of conservatively biased questions to the GOP candidates (i.e. softballs) just like the Dems got, and then give them a bunch of questions about global warming and the war and other nonpartisan concerns that only seem partisan because Bush conservatism (to which all the current crop of GOP candidates subscribe to one degree or another) is intellectually bankrupt.

And, as Mustang Bobby said over at his place, "This reluctance to face questions from the people via the tubes tells you something about the Republicans. Whereas the Democrats not only took on the challenge, they seemed to enjoy themselves, even if the audience found that the questions were more pointed than the answers. But I imagine that the GOP candidates are afraid of having to field questions such as the ones the Democrats got about Iraq and gay marriage, and I'm sure there will be at least one questioner who will want to know why anyone should trust the Republicans after eight years of the Bush administration and twelve years of them in charge of Congress. And since the Republicans have a hard time working in an environment that isn't hermetically sealed with only their worshippers inside the biosphere, they can't allow themselves to be exposed to the real views of the American electorate."

To paraphrase our conservative friends, if they can't face Americans, how will they ever face the terrorists…?

[H/T for Sully link to Oddjob.]