I mostly like what Hugh Hewitt does, even if he is a massive fan of Mitt Romney (which I raise only to suggest there may be a wee bit of bias in his questions of Trump). I am generally not a fan of reporter "pop quiz" questions. Mainly out of the unfairness of this whole process. The media shields candidates they like from this and target those they don't. Many of us who closely follow terrorism could identify and answer most of the questions Hugh Hewitt asked, but I guarantee the vast majority of the politicians could not (let alone the public). Hugh (who is a lawyer) is treating Trump more as a witness on the stand to destroy rather than an interview subject.
If you want to present a hypothetical issue and ask the candidate what he would do, fair enough. I never thought of Donald Trump as an expert on the middle east, nor am I suggesting Trump is the best foreign policy candidate currently running. But if I had to guess if Trump would do a better job than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, I would say yes.
This reminds me of another tycoon, Henry Ford, who sued the Chicago Tribune for slander for calling him an "ignorant anarchist" after he disagreed with the Tribune over a foreign policy position involving the Mexico border (imagine that). Ford got grilled on the stand (which is why be careful about suing someone in civil court) and was asked all sorts of factual history questions which Ford got horribly wrong. After a series of humiliating answers, Ford responded with he did not know a lot of facts, if he needed to know a fact he could pick up a phone and have someone come tell him. Which is a pretty good answer.
Ford won the case. Both sides spent over a $1,000,000 on attorneys and costs Ford was awarded 6 cents in damages. Later on the editor of the Tribune and Ford made up, saying they never should have let their lawyers get them into such a dispute.
The next GOP debate should be fun since Hugh Hewitt is the moderator! At least Hugh his letting his bias be known.
Instapundit: Focus your attacks Hugh and Donald: Worst. President. Ever, Hillary is weird, How to fill Supreme Court vacancies, Larry McMurtry was right, the media needs to show its bias, is social media ruining politics?
AoSHQ: Hillary Clinton lies and Hillary Clinton can't do anything without help
Hot Air: Ed defends Hugh and Quds it matters!
Rush Limbaugh: Pop quiz won't hurt Trump
JWF: Trump tripped up by a 'third rate' interviewer
Legal Insurrection: Trump curious? Oh my!
Hot Air: Hugh defends his questions and if his show is third rate, why did Trump say it was an honor to be on it?
Fla Poll: Trump ahead but Carson surging? Jeb and Rubio not so much.
AoSHQ: Everyday is April 1 for Obama but Trump was Ambushed
Breitbart/Rush Limbaugh: Reagan's response to this sort of questioning was best: I don't need to know their names, they need to know mine...
As I noted elsewhere, these kind of gothchas are standard fare for somebody trying to prove candidate X isn't worthy to be Whatever.
ReplyDeleteTrump sounds like a whiner complaining about it, but I had to look up Quds just to be sure and I follow the news pretty closely.
Again, if you don't like The Donald, that's your thing, but he's getting a lot of issues up front now that otherwise wouldn't be addressed.
A lot of these people going after him remind me of Erick Erickson and seem more interested in seeing Rs they don't like lose than seeing Demos lose.