No, no fisking. No point in that! This is the Republican debate.
But it is weird to watch two very smart politicians, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, have this big long debate about bank bailouts without recognizing that there is in fact this thing called deposit insurance.
The reason that it is weird is that both could score points by mentioning it. Senator Cruz, after Neil Cavuto said that he would let small depositors go hang if he did not bail out the banks: “Mr. Cavuto, I would not bail out the bankers! But your premise is wrong, as you should know! Those depositors are protected by insurance and they would not be harmed.”
Or John Kasich, once Cruz screwed up: “Philosophy, shilosophy.” I paraphrase my favorite Republican. “Senator Cruz, why would you take away the deposit insurance that Americans have counted on to protect them from the government subsidized bankers? That would be crazy!”
It is a little weird and more than a little surprising.
Everyone seems tired, not just Governor Bush. Were they all out late last night?
Oh IDK. Jeb felt like he had more energy than he has in any of the other debates. I don't think it'll help though.
Posted by: Will Baird | November 11, 2015 at 09:43 AM
Maybe. Or maybe not! As you say, it doesn't matter.
What weirds me out is that there is this well-known thing out there called deposit insurance, which Cruz or Kasich (or Jeb!) could have mentioned during their answers to their political benefit.
Will, tell me if I'm being clear. I'm not commenting that they missed some wonky thing that policy-types will care about. I'm commenting that they missing a very obvious thing that would have helped them in the crassest political terms had they mentioned it.
So either (1) deposit insurance has become verboten in the GOP, which is frightening, (2) I'm missing something obvious, or (3) these guys were not on their A-game.
Posted by: Noel Maurer | November 11, 2015 at 04:29 PM
You are being very clear. No worries.
I was equally perplexed about what they were saying and couldn't dwell on it when I was live blogging. I barely had time to snark when doing so.
Posted by: Will Baird | November 11, 2015 at 05:40 PM