Crazy idea for GOP debates: Let real people ask the questions
Republicans 2016 candidates are cowardly when it comes to debate questions, but it's also true that regular citizens tend to ask better questions than journalists.
There's a stench of phoniness and hypocrisy (nobody could have predicted, right) over this endless controversy over the CNBC Republican debate the other night -- which now has the GOP candidates trying to, ahem, collectively bargain for a better deal with different debate partners who'll ask easier ...excuse me I meant to say more substantive...questions. As 912 people have pointed out before me, nothing says that you'll stand up to Putin from the Oval Office better than confessing that you're afraid of policy questions from "flaming liberals" like the capitalism cheerleaders of CNBC (including, for cryin' out loud, the inventor of the Tea Party!)]
First of all, this is Politics 101, especially for Republicans -- when all else fails, run against the news media. It started with Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew (if not earlier) and has continued straight through to Newt Gingrich four years ago and Ted Cruz in this election. That said, I've read the CNBC debate questions (so can you -- they're compiled here) and while a few of them aren't what I would have asked, only one or two of them remotely resemble "gotcha questions." Unless your idea of a "gotcha question" is a fair, hard-hitting query about the seeming contradictions in one's policy positions or past statements. (For actual embarrassing "gotcha questions" about trivia like lapel flag pins, check out the 2008 Democratic primary debate in Philadelphia.)
That said, I actually agree that journalist debate moderators generally aren't great, and that they tend to ask questions that aren't what the typical American schlub on his living room couch would ask. You know who does ask really good questions about those kinds of issues (like college tuition or health care)? Actual citizens. Indeed, there was more of this in 2008 and 2012, including a mostly citizen-question debate run by YouTube that I recall as the best candidate event in a while. So if the GOP candidates really want to mix things up, this would be my solution -- give more power to the people.
I'm sure they would be utterly terrified.