A few comments on the Republican debate last night. 

1. Only two of the candidates, Romney or Huntsman, could bluff the rest of the world as President. If any of the others were elected it would be even more disastrous than Bush II. Most of them are appallingly bad. 

2. Why do people think Gingrich is so smart? I spent some time studying this. He uses flowery academic-like language. I think this impresses people. 

3. Gingrich, Cain, Perry, Santorum, Bachmann -- these people could run for president of a banana republic. They talk like people trying out to run a military junta, not to become the president of a constitutional republic.  

4. Most interesting idea of the night goes to Huntsman, who said change will come from Chinese bloggers. Good point and he's right. But he's overlooking American bloggers. And Wikileaks is part of that. If there was a Chinese Wikileaks presumably he'd be cheering. We can't keep our oligarchy if there really is a sea change underway. And of course I believe there is. 

4a. Huntsman is an idiot in every other regard. 

4b. Most interesting idea? No, it was the only interesting idea. 

4c. Herman Cain is accused of doing more or less what Julian Assange is accused of. At least they're very similar. But if I want to give $100 to Cain, no problemmo. But the banks won't let me give money to Assange. Neither one of them has been convicted of anything. What's wrong with this picture.  

5. There ought to be a rule if you're going to run a debate, you must broadcast the whole thing, and make it available online to anyone, in realtime. On WCBS in New York, they only carried the first hour. They said go to the Internet for the rest. I did. But the website wasn't streaming. Presumably they weren't prepared for the load. This is better than the debate in 2008 where ABC broadcast a debate three hours later on the west coast. But progress is happening too slowly. 

6. Perhaps debates should all originate from the Internet and be available to any broadcaster who wants to carry it.  

7. I thought the moderator's challenges to the speakers were right on. We know what due process is Newt. Thanks for pointing that out to him, Scott. The last debate was great in this way too. The CNBC moderators didn't play the never-never-land game with these guys. Unfortunately the candidates stuck to their nonsense talking points both times. 

Final note. It's sad beyond belief that this is the best the Republicans can do. Their process is broken. That Rick Santorum is considered a "serious" candidate for President is ridiculous. Any of them would be a total disaster. Maybe it was always this way. But I seem to remember having a bit more respect for the people we were considering for this job.  

I watched a video of the Rolling Stones performing Beast of Burden in 1978 during one of the commercial breaks. Any of those guys would have made a more credible candidate. Even if they were stoned. Even if they sang their responses to debate questions. Even if they're musicians and not politicians. For crying out loud, Herman Cain is a Rush Limbaugh clone. Bet Sarah Palin is kicking herself for not running. I bet Rush is kicking himself too! He'd fit right in there.