It’s tough to take seriously the GOP lineup at presidential debates

The laughter and celebra- tion you hear in the background is not from the clubhouse of any winning baseball team. It’s coming from the the “clubhouse” of the Democratic National Committee following performances in Republican presidential debates.

Democrats nationwide must be positively giddy following the performance of the Republican’s top tier of presidential hopefuls. If this is the absolute best the Grand Old Party has to offer for the nation’s leader, the party could be in serious trouble. Who drafted this team? What standards were used to gain membership in this group? Certainly not intellect or polished debating skills. Doesn’t the party elite have someone who can whisper in an ear, “You may not exactly be ready for the big time yet.”

Watching a recent debate, I could not find one instance where a direct question was answered by a candidate. Each ended up repeating canned campaign talking points of less regulation, lower taxes and balanced budget. I will give credit for agility in that every candidate did somehow get in “repeal of Obama Care” regardless of the subject of the original question.

Seriously, this is the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Goldwater, Dole, Simpson and their iconic Reagan. Where is the GOP pride? Participants in this debate couldn’t qualify for a good high school debate team. The top three: a former governor who was born on third base and claims to have hit a triple; a shoot-from-the-lip Texas cowboy, and a pizza pie executive who saved a company by closing almost half its stores. This is the starting rotation? The rest stand around, either planning their attack on the previous speaker, or appearing like a deer caught in the headlights if directly questioned. I can’t wait to see who survives this supposed competition to debate Obama.

The one thing they might have going for them is that Obama could find it difficult to seriously debate any of these hopefuls without appearing condescending. If it were a prizefight it would be stopped in the first round.

Luckily for the GOP it still has over a year to choose a qualified presidential candidate and by continued inaction and obstruction in Congress it can prevent any improvement to the economy and blame Obama for all the nation’s problems.

As a Democrat I had a terrible thought concerning all this — what if it’s all a clever GOP ruse to lull the Obama camp into a false sense of well being — then, in the last minute they will spring another Hollywood actor or Eastern governor to oppose Obama? Given the GOP’s past performance, it either has a brilliant plan or it is completely clueless. So far, it appears the latter.

Tom Sedlock, Mineral Ridge