Towards the end of the Vietnam war certain people were saying, “Let's just leave and say we won.” It's pretty clear these days that we didn't. Ironically, Vietnam is now our ally, despite their communist government. I saw this sort of behavior again during the Bush/Gore debates. Gore waxed Bush thoroughly, but when the commentators talked to GOP (Why do they talk to activists when you know what they're going to say?) spin doctors, they insisted Bush won. The media seemed more interested in Gore's sigh when Bush said something stupid than whether the man actually had a point, the idea being that it's dirty pool to disrespect your opponent. Somebody ought to tell that to Rush Limbaugh.

Yesterday I was confronted with a similar Republican ploy, Mona Charen a conservative columnist who works for the Gannet syndicate. She portrayed Marco Rubio as a hero for parrying Jeb Bush attacks on his finances and inability to show up for Senate votes. Mona ignored a couple of Rubio statements that either stretched the truth or were downright lies. Obama missed 70% of the Senate votes when he ran for president in 2008. The fact checkers for the Minneapolis Star Tribune caught that one. Obama missed 27% of the votes; Rubio has missed 26%, but give him time. He also lied about his financial difficulties, which are a matter of public record. Of course he blamed these accusations on the democrats. What would the GOP do without the DFL to blame for every fumble they make; yet they keep trying to destroy them (see the declining union membership and the attacks on teachers, who tend to support democrats and even knock on doors during elections.

Here's my principal gripe about what Charon said. “(CNBC) demonstrated a number of traits people loathe about the press---and the candidates, most of them anyway, came out smelling like roses.” Hardly, they sounded like petulant little crybabies. I mean, this is right after “Howdy Gowdy” and his so-called oversight committee put Hillary Clinton through eleven grueling hours of indoctrination; she just looked amused, while Howdy resembled someone who'd just gone fifteen rounds with George Foreman. Also, during the last democratic debate, Anderson Cooper, hardly a conservative, ignored the other two candidates and went right for Hillary's jugular. She swatted him away like a gnat. Caron then said, “This is an object lesson in letting liberals run things.” CNBC is hardly a liberal network. They were the first news network to provide a forum for the Tea Party.

Heck they tried to help the clown car out. During the debate the TV viewer is not supposed to hear audience reactions. It sounded like the whole John Birch society was out there every time Cruz or some other schmuck asked them to address “substantive issues.” Would a substantive issue be Benghazi? How many investigations have we had now, nine? I've actually lost track. The democrats didn't do that to Cheney when he outed a CIA agent and let that “good soldier” Scooter Libby take the blame.

She also said, “The moderators demonstrated that they are not up to the task of discussing the great challenges that face our nation”. Were John Boehner and Senator McConnell up to the challenges that face our nation when they agreed to “just say 'no'” in response to every program Obama tried to pass, including one he got from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. It was called the Alternative Health Care Act.

She thought debating the flat tax was a legitimate topic. The flat tax has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. It defeats to purpose of a progressive income tax. Warren Buffett said it best when he argued it wasn't fair for his secretary to pay a higher percentage in taxes than he was.

A few days ago, front runner Ben Carson said that the American voter was really stupid. I don't think he meant it was an outrage that the Republican party would run a man who believes the world is about to end. They ran Sarah Palin for Vice President; if elected, she was only a heart beat away from having her finger on the button. I just worry that voters, many of whom couldn't be bothered to vote in 2014, won't be able to tell the difference between an opinion piece and actual news. Many of them like to hear what they already think confirmed by a journalist hack. Mona didn't even bother to be fair; she knew about Anderson Cooper. It wouldn't have hurt to put a little balance in her piece; it would have made her sound more credible.

Dave Schwinghammer's Fargo-esque novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available on Authorsden and at Amazon.com, new and used.