The one thing everybody can agree on about last night’s GOP schoolyard rumble is how Wolf Blitzer utterly failed as moderator. Via Politico:
There were many dramatic, finger-wagging encounters. But often they devolved into cross talk and bickering as Blitzer, or his co-panelists, tried to call out “Gentlemen, gentlemen,” to calm them down.
“Wolf, you said I got a response,” Cruz demanded at one point, when Blitzer tried to pivot to questions from Arraras on ISIS. Blitzer interjected that he’d have a chance later.
“You’re saying I can’t respond to being called a liar?” Cruz asked incredulously. The moderator relented, leading to a five-minute exchange that devolved at one point into Trump and Cruz squabbling uncontrollably.
“This debate could have used a moderator,” tweeted The Atlantic national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg. “Very intrigued by Wolf Blitzer’s moderating strategy of ‘do absolutely nothing at any time’ ” tweeted New York Times reporter Dave Itzikoff.