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CNN’s Cast of Characters

In its film-trailer-style intro to tonight’s debate, CNN gave each of the candidates a nickname: Mitt Romney (“The Frontrunner”), Rick Perry (“The Newcomer”), Michele Bachmann (“The Firebrand”), Jon Huntsman (“The Diplomat”), Ron Paul (“The Libertarian”), Rick Santorum (“The Fighter”), Herman Cain (“The Businessman”), and Newt Gingrich (“The Big Thinker”).

New on The Corner. . .


COMMENTS   17

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   09/12/11 20:06

What's with the candidates walking on stage as if it's a game show? "And our returning champion!"

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 Jay
   09/12/11 20:14

"and also starring Max Von Sydow in the Role of King Osric"

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   09/12/11 20:23

All that's missing is "the professor and Mary-Anne."

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   09/12/11 20:23

Romney & Perry: the frontrunners

Gingrich & Paul: the gadflies

Cain & Huntsman: running for Veep

Bachmann & Santorum: taking up space

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   09/12/11 20:33

Remember the spoken word introduction to Donovan's "Atlantis", right before the drums kick in and he says "Hail Atlantis!"

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   09/12/11 20:34

Can we do the same thing with the CNN anchors and analysts? Most we can just lump together as "the wannabe journalists".

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   09/12/11 20:40

CNN: The Network of Clowns.

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   09/12/11 20:47

Except Romney's not the frontrunner; Perry is.

Romney is better labeled "The Leftover".

So much for "The Most Trusted Name in News".

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   09/12/11 20:48

With a special guest appearance by Barack Obama ("The Hack") . . .

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   09/12/11 20:48

Sounds like the intro to "Storage Wars".

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   09/12/11 21:00

So much of this debate has little technical and marketing swipes at the TEA party and the GOP candidates. Why do they center the camera on the stage when Bachman talks facing Blitzer who always is to the left of the stage? It's like they have to recreate the wrong camera debacle. They leave the "live questioners" on the big screen for five minutes and take wide angle shots of them staring into space with their mouths open. It's frustrating but expected.

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   09/12/11 21:05

Maybe they want to run this like an episode of "Survivor". At the end of the debate, perhaps one candidate will be voted off the island.

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   09/13/11 13:14

Interesting idea. Of course, it guarantees that the strongest candidate will be the first out the door, since the weaker ones will gang up against the guy who would otherwise knock them out of competition. The better the candidate, the sooner he leaves, until you got the two most marginal candidates left.

Whatever other system of eliminating candidates one might think of (drawing straws, spitting for distance, pistols at twenty paces, etc.) would have a better chance of putting forward the strongest candidate.

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   09/12/11 21:13

CNN: Clueless News Network?

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   09/12/11 21:50

that's a fairly accurate bunch of labels.. i'd use some more pejoratives, but that's me.

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   09/13/11 09:11

As an American youth, I always get chuckles out of cnn trying to pander to me, trying to look hip and technologically sophisticated when they just end up looking cheesy and lame, note to can I'm not impressed by your twitter stream and Facebook is old news. But i will say this, Wolf Blitzer was almost invisible, which is an improvement over the previous moderators.

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   09/13/11 09:25

Good point. When an organization tries to project hipness over seriousness, no one sees them as either hip or serious.

Just like when an "American youth" comes on a web sight and tries to say something serious without any attempt at using proper punctuation or correcting typos. Such a person appears, to a serious crowd made up of mostly his seniors, as neither hip nor serious.

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