Rand Paul Got the Least Talk Time of Any Debate Candidate

The libertarian gets shafted.

Gage Skidmore

Which candidate was most shafted by the structure of the Fox News Republican presidential debate on Thursday night? That would be Sen. Rand Paul, who was given vastly less talking time than the rest of the candidates.

Paul received just under 5 minutes of talking time, the least of any of the 10 participants in the debate. According to NPR's Domenico Montanaro, the time totals were as follows:

1 Trump 10:30

2 Bush 8:33

3 Huck 6:32

4 Carsn/Crz 6:28

6 Kasch 6:25

7 Rubio 6:22

8 Chrste 6:03

9 Walkr 5:43

10 Paul 4:51

I thought Paul represented his libertarian views well during his short, testy argument with Chris Christie about NSA snooping. But it must be difficult for the libertarian-leaning senator to fully explain why his dissenting opinions are more intelligent, broadly popular, and in keeping with the Constitution than his opponents realize when he is only given a meager four minutes to make his case. There isn't much difference—policy-wise, at least—between Huckabee, Carson, Cruz, Rubio, and Walker; why give them all significantly more screen-time than Paul?

Comments

[Coup d'oeil]

Meh, he's in 8th place in the polls, so what do you expect. Scott Walker is the one who really got screwed considering he's a frontrunner. How Kasich got so much time I have no idea.

[JeremyR]

It's almost like he worked at Fox News or something.

[Cyto]

I was rather surprised to see that number. It sure felt like Paul was dominating the floor for a couple of stretches. And it felt like Bush was in a closet somewhere for most of the second half of the debate. But maybe that's because he was so old-school politician in his presentation. Seriously boring most of the time.

I definitely think there was some establishment politician support at play in the form and content of the questioning. Lots of questions in the form of "here's something negative about you... comments?" Also a great deal of attention to abortion as an issue - something that team D surely was happy about. And something that the next President will have almost nothing to say about, save perhaps a supreme court nomination that would be unlikely to swing the court against Roe v Wade.

I was a little surprised that Fox went so far into fringe issues that play so well into the DNC's spin machine. In addition to pushing a few "war on women" questions, they had the most bizarre setup question ever with "What do you think God is telling you to do first when you get elected?" They pushed this question at several candidates, trying really hard to get one of the religious conservatives to say something on the lines of "God told me..." or "God wants me to..." It was really weird that such a line of questioning would come from presumably team-red moderators.

Notably, neither Trump nor Bush were prodded with that setup.

[Chaucer]

With how hard FNC is selling Trump, I am not at all surprised. It almost seems they want a Bush or Clinton Presidency which I think they do.

[MC Guru]

Having an evil TEAM BLUE president in the white house is the Fox News business plan because they can stroke the fires of hysteria 24/7.

A TEAM RED pres could be every bit as evil, but they'd have to restrain their frothing "political analysis" or risk alienating viewers

[MC Guru]

STOKE the fires... fucking squirrels

[Migrant Log Chipper]

you are fucking stupid, get back to the dnc

[Paul.]

nd it felt like Bush was in a closet somewhere for most of the second half of the debate. But maybe that's because he was so old-school politician in his presentation. Seriously boring most of the time.

Clinton strategy? As the presumptive nominee, you just sit quietly in the back, and as long as you don't fuck up too bad, you're a shoo-in?

I can't speak for republicans, but for the hamsters that make up the Democratic party, all Clinton has to do is wait five minutes between scandals and her base forgets what everyone was talking about because they have no larger sense of time or lingering memory.

[Just say Nikki]

Also a great deal of attention to abortion as an issue - something that team D surely was happy about. And something that the next President will have almost nothing to say about, save perhaps a supreme court nomination that would be unlikely to swing the court against Roe v Wade.

But Planned Parenthood! Lol

[Tman]

August 8th, 2015.

Seriously, calm down. Way too early.

[Paul.]

The crazy candidates are vastly more interesting to the media, because they provide good copy.

[Ken Shultz]

Not having enough time isn't Rand Paul's problem.

He doesn't generate as much excitement as his father did because his father had an ongoing war to oppose--that Americans were genuinely sick of.

I'm not sure NSA surveillance is about to get him the kind of momentum he needs to change the trends either.

It has to be an issue that appeals to Republican primary voters in the South, too. So I don't think marijuana legalization is that issue yet.

[DJF]

We still have lots of wars going on, we just don't talk about them much.

[Inigo "Chip" DuBois]

Why did the libertarian get shafted in a FNC sponsored debate? Gee, I don't know, because a libertarian is the turd in the punchline among a bunch of neocons maybe!

Why any libertarian would ally with cons makes no sense. Not that they should ally with Dems either, of course.

They come from a completely different mindset than either major party! Dems are all about growing government, lots of "free" stuff paid for by others, and letting pols do your thinking. Repubs are all about "law and order" (ie, cop-sucking and war on drugs), building border fences, and starting more wars -- all of which also just happen to INCREASE the power and size of government.

Libertarians should get it that this 2-party thing is a con game. One party will protect you from those evil homophobes and misogynist racists! The other party will protect you from the marrying gays, dirty furriners and terrorists. But they BOTH are really about growing their own power and are way more alike than different.

The best way to defeat the two parties is to refuse to vote for either of them.

[*GILMORE*]

""neocons""

sigh

at least you didn't say, "Interventionism"

[Inigo "Chip" DuBois]

Fine...I'll call them conservatives.
My point remains, however. The overlap between them and libertarians is very small.

[JeremyR]

I wouldn't say that. Conservatives want to shrink the government except the military. Reduce regulations on business. Lower taxes.

And the military is actually in the constitution and we've basically been drawn into the Middle East since the 18th century thanks to the pirates there.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Hilarious that you actually believe that conservatives care about small government.

[Inigo "Chip" DuBois]

Conservatives want to shrink the size of government exactly like the Dems want to fight for the middle class.

These are slogans...and not especially truthful ones. Sadly, the voters always eat it up.

[ace_m82]

Many actually do. Most in government are either not conservatives or are really bad at being a conservative.

[MSimon]

I dunno. Is the Libertarian candidate field getting any TV time these days?

[Migrant Log Chipper]

You are an idiot, though I won't vote for either tribe.

[MichaelL]

Great contribution to an enlightening conversation! And, you call others idiots?!

[macsnafu]

"The best way to defeat the two parties is to refuse to vote for either of them."

Not really. Already, something like 75% of Americans don't bother to vote, and that doesn't seem to have stopped the 2 main parties one bit. Go Independent or 3rd Party? You're even more restricted or handicapped. No, the best way to defeat the two parties is to mess with them, and show them and the public how restrictive and tyrannical they really are.

What a libertarian candidate like Rand Paul should really do is run as a Democrat, not a Republican.

[AD-RtR/OS!]

TRANSLATION: It's the Jooooos!

[Robert]

Because having their own political party is poison to libertarian activists, at least in the USA.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Is there any point to these debates other than hoping you get out a clever one-liner which gets reported, and avoid any gaffes? I paid for this microphone, you're no Jack Kennedy, twirling, twirling twirling toward freedom.

[JeremyR]

I've always thought the early rounds of debates should instead be settled on Jeopardy, like a tournament of champions.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

Cosmo

[WoodchipsandDerp]

I support Rand Paul, but...
He didn't use the time he was allotted to answer a couple of the questions, like he could have. He looked nervous as hell, and let himself get berated on a couple of occasions without a retort of any substance.

When you're given a minute to talk...take a minute to talk, otherwise, it's really of no use to complain. I hope he gets better at this, because that was really disappointing.

[Mike A.]

He's not a very good candidate. His email campaigns are a sensationalist joke and he doesn't even pretend to act presidential.

He shouldn't have yelled at Christie. He should have been cold as ice and explained that we can't tell who the murderers or the rapists are either before they commit a crime, that doesn't mean we need to be monitoring everyone.

Even if he had said the same thing he had said word for word, it would have been better without the yelling. I guess this gets him headlines.

He needs to be better, I really wonder who is preparing him for these things.

[Rich]

State Department request for Huma Abedin's records waylaid for 2 months

It's unclear why State Department officials had so much trouble tracking down Abedin.... The State Department declined to comment on the delay.

Oh, FFS! Cronyism, incompetence, or (probably) both.

[SamDod598]

Lets roll it over dude.

http://www.Goin-Anon.tk

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

But it must be difficult for the libertarian-leaning senator to fully explain why his dissenting opinions are more intelligent, broadly popular, and in keeping with the Constitution than his opponents realize when he is only given a meager four minutes to make his case.

Change "four minutes" to "140 characters" and you have a starting point of why many of us (well, mainly me but I figure some others share the sentiment) avoid debates altogether because modern politics has come down to signaling and bumper sticker activism. If it can't fit on a bumper sticker/Tweet/hashtag/etc, then it's not worth remembering. You get called "long winded" or you "love the sound of your own voice." Hey, you asked.... My fucking bad for explaining my answer to a question.

(OT: got a big kid job with a big kid paycheck. Feels good to finally be in the middle class.)

[UnCivilServant]

got a big kid job with a big kid paycheck.

Doing what?

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

Paint department engineer at a major car company that is not based in Detroit...

Considering I graduated college 5 years ago, I can attest that the economic recovery isn't as great as the White House is claiming.

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

Yeah, I felt like Kasich was incredibly clued in to the concept of retail politics like that. The moderators would ask him a question and he'd just spit back what was clearly a memorized list of bullet points. It's tough to explain to someone how government regulation stifles small business growth and entrepreneurship through both regulatory capture and the imposition of artificial costs and then outline a set of policies you'd pursue to remedy the problem in 30 seconds. The group debate format is just a beauty pageant, really.

And congrats on the big boy money! My wife just got back to work after four years in grad school so I can sympathize.

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

beauty pageant

Glorious metaphor. I'm using that in future conversations.

Thank you, thank you. I'm only on week #2 and still getting settled, but it feels good to be employed again and actually in a field that I love/went to school for.

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

Forgot to mention: LOOOOVE the handle

Attn Reason Staff: A fucking edit button, please!!

[AD-RtR/OS!]

Interestingly, Dr. Carson had no problem using his allotted time exactly, with complete thoughts that stated what he wished to convey.
Of course, he's not a "professional politician", but just a neurosurgeon.

[UnCivilServant]

So your guy repeatly stopped talking short of his buzzer when the others kept talking at least a few seconds after it, and I'm supposed to be upset about this?

Nope, not gonna happen.

[eyeroller]

The libertarian gets shafted.

Rand Paul is not a libertarian.

[Loki]

I'm surprised they gave him even that much time. I would have expected them to have abducted Paul prior to the debate and replaced him with a cardboard cutout, and hope no one notices.

Then on the morning talk shows talk about how Paul seemed so "stiff and non-committal during the debate. Such a poor showing. Welp, I guess we can all stick a fork in the loony libertarian's campaign, with his crazy radical ideas about 'freedom' and 'liberty'. Whew, dodged that bullet!"

[AD-RtR/OS!]

stiff and non-committal...
So, they did replace him with a cardboard cutout.

[Tony]

Ailes wants to take both Paul and Trump out. Paul by ignoring him and Trump by making him speak. I'll wait for the next round of polls but I don't think the Trump thing worked.

[ace_m82]

That may be the smartest thing you've ever said. Congrats.

[kimbererick]

Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is wha- I do...... ?????? http://www.Money-Hours.com

[AD-RtR/OS!]

Rand Paul Got the Least Talk Time of Any Debate Candidate...

I'm sure he'll make up for it on the floor of the Senate, to the everlasting regret of his colleagues.

[RockLibertyWarrior]

Of course their going to not give Rand time, what did you expect? This is the bull shit, police state loving, aggressive war pushing, crony capitalist piece of shit Republican Party. They ask "Freedom? Whats that?" Yeah fuck the Republican Party and their incestuous butt fuck partner the Democratic Party.

[William Pilgrim]

Paul is not a libertarian, and his fixation on Planned Parenthood is a mistake. Kasich is the most electable Republican by far. Kasich/Fiorina would be a tough duo to beat.