Roy Lehman assesses the performance of the 11 main-stage candidates.
To the Editor:
Well, the traveling carnival came to the Ronald Reagan Library Sept. 16 in the form of the second Republican presidential debate. As far as circuses go, this three-hour one lost me after about an hour.
It's sad to report that CNN carnival barker Jake Tapper turned into "The Jerry Springer Show" what could have been a useful exercise on policy prescriptions to help choose which Republican would best serve the nation.
The takeaway? Donald Trump will indeed owe nothing to special interests if he funds his own campaign, which is a plus. Jeb Bush pulled out the George W. Bush campaign slogan "He Kept Us Safe," in a dust up with Trump over Jeb's brother's mismanagement of the nation - which led to President Barack Obama's election.
You could visualize the wheels spinning in Trump's brain: "Do I reply with the comment 'Yeah, George W. kept us safe, except for that one day' or let it slide?" He let it slide.
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The tea party wants an outsider with no experience in governing or corruption. According to candidate Scott Walker, that's what we have now - an "Apprentice" president, in a dig at current poll leader Trump and his reality TV show. This This makes you wonder about the Tea Party logic in supporting Ben Carson.
Rand Paul made sense on avoiding foreign entanglements. Except for him and Trump, the candidates said the biggest, baddest military on earth needs to be bigger and badder.
The rest of the crowd was standard-issue Republican, with the standard advice that more tax cuts are the magical elixir that will grow the economy and pay down the debt. The problem with this is that it is doomed to failure, as the Baby Boomers buy into the nonsense these candidates are selling. In so doing, this generation transfers the public debt accumulated on their watch to their children and grandchildren.
This shirking of responsibility qualifies us Baby Boomers as the "Worst Generation."
Roy Lehman
Woolwich Township
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