Should Rush Limbaugh moderate the GOP presidential debates?
The Republican National Committee is reportedly considering employing the popular shock jock
The Republican National Committee is looking to shake up the party's next round of presidential debates.
In addition to threatening to deny CNN and NBC the chance to host any of the GOP's 2016 primary debates, the RNC is considering scrapping the old model in which journalists from middle-of-the-road networks act as moderators, reports Paul Bedard at The Washington Examiner.
Not everybody is convinced that putting stars of the right-wing infotainment world in the national spotlight is a good idea. For one, some potential candidates might object to facing off against such opinionated personalities. "Levin has been highly critical of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), while Limbaugh spent months ripping a Senate immigration plan backed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)," Cameron Joseph notes at The Hill.
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Ed Morrissey at Hot Air adds that candidates might follow button-pushers like Limbaugh and Hannity into perilous ideological territory "if they aren't disciplined enough to keep their balance, and that may produce some problems in a general election."
Still, Morrissey says, the idea has its merits.
Plus, media stars with obvious liberal biases have moderated presidential debates in the past. Here's Dylan Byers at Politico:
Of course, no debate about Rush Limbaugh would be complete without input from Rushbo himself. His verdict? He's "too famous" for the debates, and could "overshadow" the candidates themselves. Sorry, Reince.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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