Swanky Conservative

Captain Ed brings us news that Fox News may have tweaked Sunday night’s Republican Presidential debate for game 7 of the American League Championship. Morrissey writes that Romney advisor Ben Ginsburg told him that Fox “cooked the first part of the show to highlight the four frontrunners.”

According to Ginsberg, Fox — which aired Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on its regular broadcast affiliates — set up the questions to maximize the airtime of the top-tier candidates. Knowing that the first pitch would come roughly 20 minutes into the debate, Ginsberg alleged that the FNC panel focused on questions that would generate sniping between the candidates, and deliberately shut out the second-tier candidates until after the game had started.

The transcript of the debate correlates with Ginsburg’s claim, as Romney, Thompson, McCain and Giuliani were the only ones asked questions during the first 20 minutes or so. After that, Ron Paul got the first question of the second round.

Morrissey thinks this, if true, may cause some Republicans grief with Fox News. I’m not so sure. We know there are tiers of candidates. Internet poll-stuffing aside, does anyone think Ron Paul has a chance of being the nominee? Tom Tancredo? The same holds true for Democrats. Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich may make interesting pundit-talk, but they’re not going to make a dent come primary season.

Fox News made a call and maximized the medium, capturing the largest audience possible before everyone flipped over to the ballgame. Do I like that it happened? Yeah, I have no beef with it. Hold “real” debate, and I’ll feel differently.