Politics Is Not Sports. But If It Were . . .
Sure, some complain that the presidential debates get covered like a sporting event. I don't think that's fair . . . because if we did, they might be a lot more fun. Can you picture it? You remember the song . . . "Are you ready for some de-bates?! A Wednesday night par-tay!" 
"We've got Jake and Hugh and Dana, ready to get this thing kick-started!" 
"The whole crowd is here and ready to fight, it's Carly versus the Donald here on Wednesday night!" 
"Good evening everyone, I'm Brent Musburger, and you are looking LIVE at the capacity crowd here in the ReaganDome, in beautiful Simi Valley, California, for the second Republican presidential debate of the 2015 season!" 
"I'm tellin' ya, fellas, this guy Santorum, he is a debater. He just likes to debate. He's gonna go out there and just drop some Latin on a guy when he's not expecting it." 
"So what you're saying, Troy, is that the candidates want to make their points in a persuasive manner within the time allotted, correct?" "Yes, Joe. That's exactly what I just said."
"Isn't it terrific that for a little bit of history, a little salute to the days of yore, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore could be here for Old Timer's Night! . . . Wait, what do you mean they're running for president? President of what?" 
"Look at this crop of youngsters! Cruz, Rubio, Jindal, Walker, all diaper dandies under 50! Fresh legs, gonna make a difference in the second half! Some say they should have been red-shirted a year, but that's the trend these days, move 'em up fast!" 
"So far, guys, no sign that Jeb Bush is still nursing that hamstring -- a lot of questions about whether that had limited his energy in the last debate, but as of now, the trainers are giving him the green light." 
"I know, you're gonna say I'm crazy, you're say I've lost it, but I'm thinking Lindsey Graham goes in there Wednesday night and just blows the roof off the place. Just crushes it." 
"Guys, we're now getting an update on that child hit in the head by Rubio's pass. He's currently being checked for a concussion by the GOP team trainers and getting a second opinion from Dr. Ben Carson." 
"People are saying that John Kasich's got a better chance of winning a Republican primary because the mainstream media likes him? Have these people ever met any Republican primary voters? Come on, man!" 
"At 6'2" . . . starting center for the Manhattan Greatness Restorers . . . the power from the tower . . . Donald Trump!" 
"Golic, I'm just saying – and maybe this is my soft spot for underdogs from New York – that by the end of the night, we could be saying, 'this guy George Pataki made some noise.'" "Greenie, you're an idiot." 
I'm so jazzed for the debate tonight! I've been playing Madden GOP Debate 2015 on PlayStation all day. Playing Trump in this video game is like playing Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl -- if you don't like the moderator's question, you just blitz and knock her over. The Strange Fixation on Columba Bush's Accent and Comfort with English Here's Neil Munro, writing over at Breitbart: Gov. Jeb Bush has released a Spanish-language Internet ad, in which his Mexican-born wife makes her first appearance of the campaign to deliver a halting, accented and simple English pitch, while he speaks happily in confident Spanish. Columba Bush rarely speaks in public, and English is not her native language. She was born in Mexico, and moved to the United States with Jeb Bush. He helpfully adds, "In 2003, she gave a heavily-accented speech on anti-drug measures." Does Columba Bush's accent bother you? (Is the conservative movement anti-accent now? If so, has anyone told Charlie Cooke? Bobby Jindal? Henry Kissinger?) Is there some sort of unspoken rule that a legal immigrant isn't really an American until they lose their accent? Does it bother you that Jeb Bush says his family speaks more Spanish than English at home? If so, why? It's his house and his family. What business is it of yours? Here's VDare asking, "What evidence is there that [Columba Bush] even speaks conversational English, at least up to any reasonable minimum standard?" Take a look at Jeb's ad and judge for yourself. But suppose she's never become comfortable speaking at length in English in front of audiences, or fluent enough to do a televised interview. So what? Are you concerned Columba Bush didn't teach her children English? George P. Bush seems to have picked it up somewhere along the way, well enough to be elected Texas land commissioner with 60 percent of the vote. Here's this guy on Twitter with a PhotoShop of Columba Bush as the "Columbacabra," inspired by the urban legend of the Mexican Chupacabra beast. I can understand having a strong opinion about Jeb Bush. He's got eight years as governor and many years, speeches, and statements in the political spotlight. You might look at his record and statements and wonder if he's far too optimistic about the potential for immigration to solve America's problems. But I don't understand how you could possibly have a strong opinion about Columba Bush at this point, much less feel extreme animosity towards her. (I suppose if you want to give her grief about understating the value of purchases on her customs forms back in 1999, go ahead.) If you feel sufficiently enraged by her to PhotoShop her head onto a mythical goat-sucking beast from south of the border . . . call me crazy, but I start to think you hate her because she was born in Mexico. When you write a piece, even a parody, calling her "a mystical demon that drains the blood of men, appearing rarely and never to gringos," and declare, "She's been in America for 40 years and speaks English like the banditos in 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre'," then yes, I think you hate her because she was born in another country. For the Remainder of This Newsletter in English, Press One . . . A lot of people will insist that the anger over Columba Bush has nothing to do with where she was born -- she's a naturalized U.S. citizen -- and everything to do with immigration policy, or national language policy. How much does "press one for English, press two for Spanish" anger you? How much does it anger you compared to, say, getting a recording and limited list of options at the other end of the line instead of an actual human being who can answer your questions? Back in 2000, Pat Buchanan, running on the Reform-party ticket, ran a television ad depicting a not-so-distant future where an unnamed president issues an executive order declaring English is no longer "America's national language." (We don't actually have an official national language.) He chokes on a meatball upon hearing the news and dials 911. The record voice responds, "Thank you for calling 911. Please listen for your language. For Spanish, press one. For Korean, press two. For Dari, press three," and continues for quite a few options, never getting to English. The announcer asks, "Do you ever miss English? Immigration is out of control. Bush and Gore are writing English off for good. What can you do? Vote for the third party that puts Americans first. Vote Buchanan for president." (Note that even in this apocalyptic future envisioned by the Buchanan campaign, the 911 recording is in English.) Sixty million Americans speak a language besides English in their homes, according to the Census Bureau. It may surprise you that only 37 million of those are Spanish. The Census found 2.8 million speak Chinese, 1.5 million Tagalog, 1.4 million Vietnamese, 1.3 million French, 1.1 million Korean, and 1 million German. The survey found 7 percent of those households said they spoke English "not at all" and 15.4 percent said they spoke English "not well." Just over 58 percent said they spoke English "very well." About 75 percent of those who spoke Spanish in their homes spoke English either "very well" or "well." Immigrants should assimilate and learn to speak English. But that doesn't mean there's something wrong with them if they still speak their original language in their home. There's something bafflingly insecure about our culture if we genuinely feel threatened by foreign languages spoken in the private sphere of the family home. On a related note, I notice that lot of the folks most furious the current state of immigration and assimilation don't seem to mind that Donald Trump denounced the GOP's position on the issue in 2012 as "mean-spirited" or that he told pro–DREAM Act activists, "You've convinced me!" in a 2013 meeting or that he plans to have some sort of expedited system to bring back "the good ones" after deporting them all. His companies employed illegal immigrants back in the 1980s and continues to employ them now. This is a group of voters that won't give Bobby Jindal the time of day, but they hand-wave away all of this. Scott Walker is persona non grata because of past comments made as county executive, Rick Perry was considered Benedict Arnold for in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants, and of course Marco Rubio has the mark of Cain because of the Gang of Eight. But Donald, he gets a pass. (Somehow Ted Cruz never gets as much grief, even though he wants to increase the number of H-1B visas by 500 percent.) The disconnect between the volume of "amnesty!" cries hurled at a candidate and the candidate's actual policies makes me think that these voters aren't actually evaluating the candidates based on the policies. The disregard of policy makes me suspect that their assessment of candidates is primarily aesthetic . . . and the aesthetic is awful. Whatever you want to call it, it ain't conservatism. Robert Tracinski: The thing about a movement based on big ideas like individual rights, the rule of law, constitutional government, and so on, is that these big ideas are universal. If free markets are good for white people, they are good for black people, for Asians (as Pacific Rim countries have demonstrated definitively over the past few decades), and for everybody else. The big ideas that make up the intellectual canon of the right are universal ideas about human nature that apply to everyone. But if you've decided that's just for book nerds who like to ponder, what do you base a movement on other than ideas, reason, and evidence? You base it on blind appeal to emotion. In politics, this is also known as prejudice: the idea that political power should only be held by people "like me," while people who aren't like you are the cause of all problems and should be pushed down or kept out. In politics, the opposite of ideology is tribalism. ADDENDA: Crazed radical Charles Krauthammer wonders why Senate Republicans aren't getting rid of the filibuster for the vote on the Iran deal . . . Booked my flight to Dallas for the 2015 National Review Institute William F. Buckley Prize Dinner. If you're interested in attending this special event, check it out here. If you're a fan of Victor Davis Hanson, you'll want to be there. I'm also scheduled to catch an early flight and give a luncheon remarks at the Heritage Foundation's Legal Strategy Forum, held October 22 at noon. Details to come. | 
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