Maybe the Debates Have Taught Us All They Can
Thursday night's debate was a four-car pile-up. Do you think any undecided voters who tuned in were inspired or reassured by the shout-fest and allusions to male genitalia? Having said that, this was probably Ted Cruz's best debate. I know some people love Ted Cruz's we-gaze-to-the-horizon-with-dreams-of-better-tomorrows inspirational or optimistic talk, but that doesn't strike me as his most natural role. Give me cross-examination Ted Cruz any day of the week. Can you imagine being a lawyer facing Ted Cruz? The man is prepped. He never forgets a detail. He's already thought through every counter-argument, every excuse, every dodge, and every attempt at spin. He knows the details his opponents want to hide or obscure and the fine print that they themselves probably aren't thinking about. Look what happened when Trump did his usual boasting about his high poll numbers: TRUMP: CNN spent a lot of money on a poll, just came out. I'm at 49. He's at 15. He tells me about 65 percent of the people. It's not 65 percent of the people. If you go by that, 85 percent of the people (don't want Cruz) . . . CRUZ: All right, well, Donald lives by the polls every day. He tweets about the polls. TRUMP: No, I don't. No, I don't. CRUZ: He's told us to look to the CNN poll. Well, that's a very good poll to look to, because that CNN poll showed that head to head Donald Trump loses to Hillary Clinton by 8 points. He doesn't just lose close; he loses by 8 points. That same poll he told you to look at shows me beating Hillary Clinton. Marco Rubio is apparently fighting a cold and losing his voice. If you account for that, he had a good enough night -- obviously he wasn't at his peak performance -- he looked and sounded exhausted most of the evening. But he and Cruz continued to tag-team Trump, and maybe the night's best moment came here, a little while after Trump insisted he could be flexible as president and reach compromises: CRUZ: But, Donald, please, I know it's hard not to interrupt. But try. TRUMP: Yeah, I know it is. But it's not what you said in the op-ed. CRUZ: Breathe, breathe, breathe. TRUMP: Lyin' Ted. CRUZ: You can do it. You can breathe. I know it's hard. I know it's hard. But just . . . RUBIO: When they're done with the yoga, can I answer a question? CRUZ: You cannot. (LAUGHTER) RUBIO: Unbelievable. CRUZ: I really hope that we don't -- we don't see yoga on this stage. RUBIO: Well, he's very flexible, so you never know. I'm not generally a fan of John Kasich, but he had one of the best moments of his campaign last night, wearing his heart on his sleeve and talking about a national crisis of confidence that has been building for years: KASICH: All right, look, honestly, when I see people at these meetings, these town halls, where we take massive questions, and I get to spend time with them. Last night, there was a woman that came to tell me about the loss of her 15-year-old son, who took his own life. See, there's people in this country -- and Ted's right -- their wages haven't gone up for so long, they see the rich get richer, they believe, and they're not moving. And they put their money in the bank, and they got no interest on their money. They receive none. And their sons or daughters are living in the basement because they can't get a good job after they rang up so much college debt. What people are hungry for is, who can fix this? People want to know who -- what can you do to solve the problems in Washington, to make sure that we have stronger job growth and better wages? But you know what else they're yearning for? They want to believe that they have the power to fix things where they live, and they want the power back, so they can begin to do things in their community. Now, listen, this has been going on for a long time here. And I appreciate the discussion back and forth. But there are a lot of people out there yearning for somebody who's going to bring America back, both at the leadership level and in the neighborhood, where we can begin to reignite the spirit of the United States of America. And let's stop fighting. Psst! Donald Trump Doesn't Really Know What He Thinks About H-1B Visas! Immigration hawks are among those insisting that they're not going to Trump University, that they're not suckers, and that Trump would never betray them. Oh, and he'll respect them in the morning. KELLY: Mr. Trump, your campaign website to this day argues that more visas for highly skilled workers would, quote, "decimate American workers". However, at the CNBC debate, you spoke enthusiastically in favor of these visas. So, which is it? TRUMP: I'm changing. I'm changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can't do it, we'll get them in. But, and we do need in Silicon Valley, we absolutely have to have. So, we do need highly skilled, and one of the biggest problems we have is people go to the best colleges. They'll go to Harvard, they'll go to Stanford, they'll go to Wharton, as soon as they're finished they'll get shoved out. They want to stay in this country. They want to stay here desperately, they're not able to stay here. For that purpose, we absolutely have to be able to keep the brain power in this country. KELLY: So you're abandoning the position on your website . . . TRUMP: . . . I'm changing it, and I'm softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country. Mark Krikorian, probably the smartest, most thoroughly informed and uncompromising immigration hawk in the country, was not pleased: In Thursday's debate, Trump reiterated both anti-American-worker positions, favoring the importation of more high-skilled and low-skilled foreign workers. "I'm changing," Trump said, regarding his views on skilled visas. "I'm changing it and I'm softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country." True enough, except that we already have twice as many technical degree holders as there are tech jobs. What made Trump's "I'm changing" comment even more shameless than usual for him is that just on Sunday he held a rally featuring former Disney employees who were replaced by the very foreign worker program he's now praising. And then after the debate, Trump's campaign quickly issued this statement: Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions. Trump insists, "H-1B is not high-skilled" and I guess he just figures everyone will nod: To qualify for H1B Visa, the foreign professional must hold a bachelor's or higher degree from an accredited college or university in the specialty occupation. If the foreign professional holds a foreign degree, then that degree must be determined to be the educational equivalent of a U.S. bachelor's degree. The foreign professional may also obtain an educational equivalence through a combination of education, specialized training or progressive work experience. Three years of specialized experience is generally considered equivalent to one year of college education . . . Sixty-one percent of H-1B petitions approved in fiscal year 2012 were for workers in computer related occupations. Now, if Donald Trump is this uninformed, contradictory, slippery and confused on what's supposed to be his signature issue . . . how well do you think he knows, understands, or has a plan for all the other issues? 'If I Say Do It, They're Going To Do It. That's What Leadership Is All About.' A lot of people will be talking about this exchange, and with good reason: BAIER: Mr. Trump, just yesterday, almost 100 foreign policy experts signed on to an open letter refusing to support you, saying your embracing expansive use of torture is inexcusable. General Michael Hayden, former CIA director, NSA director, and other experts have said that when you asked the U.S. military to carry out some of your campaign promises, specifically targeting terrorists' families, and also the use of interrogation methods more extreme than waterboarding, the military will refuse because they've been trained to turn down and refuse illegal orders. So what would you do, as commander-in-chief, if the U.S. military refused to carry out those orders? TRUMP: They won't refuse. They're not going to refuse me. Believe me. BAIER: But they're illegal. TRUMP: Let me just tell you, you look at the Middle East. They're chopping off heads. They're chopping off the heads of Christians and anybody else that happens to be in the way. They're drowning people in steel cages. And he -- now we're talking about waterboarding. A few moments later: BAIER: But targeting terrorists' families? (APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And -- and -- and -- I'm a leader. I'm a leader. I've always been a leader. I've never had any problem leading people. If I say do it, they're going to do it. That's what leadership is all about. BAIER: Even targeting terrorists' families? If this argument feels familiar, it's because we've seen this before. It was on 24, season two: Jack Bauer held Asad, his younger brother Fareed, and his mother hostage and used them as leverage against Syed Ali to find the location of the nuclear weapon. Jack said he had no other choice but to use Syed Ali's family, as Ali willing to take his own life. Jack gave the order to kill Asad and a masked man was seen pushing over the boy's chair and firing on him. When Jack ordered Fareed to be killed also, Ali broke. It was later seen that the shooting was faked; the family was untied and Asad hugged his mother. 
The sudden reveal that Jack Bauer wasn't willing to kill an eleven-year-old in order to extract information was one of the most important moments of the show; to have the protagonist, who we're supposed to root for, kill a child would be passing the moral event horizon. Jack Bauer might be the most relentless and ruthless fictional federal agent in history, a man willing to behead a murderous child pornographer who's a federal witness -- "I'm gonna need a hacksaw" -- but he always has enough moral clarity to recognize that certain acts can never be morally justified. That's not what the heroes do, that's not what the good guys do. And, the show's creators were telling us, that's not what Americans do. Presumably, had Trump watched that episode, he would have been shouting at the screen, "Kill the kid!" ADDENDA: Oh look, here's Vox -- touted as "the smartest thinkers, the toughest questions" -- repackaging my piece from last year on Marco Rubio's years as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. I guess when the smartest thinkers ask the toughest questions, they find the answers in National Review.  | 
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