A DEBATE MODERATOR MORE TO REPUBLICANS' LIKING

Fox Business has announced the format for its November 10 Republican presidential debate (no opening statements, slightly more time to answer questions, yet another kiddie-table debate for the low-ranked candidates), as well as the team of moderators:

The main-stage debate will be moderated by Fox Business Managing Editor Neil Cavuto and Global Markets editor Maria Bartiromo, along with Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker.

Baker? I don't think we're going to hear any Ted Cruz rants about his anti-conservative bias. He's perhaps best known in America for a 2008 Times of London column in which he mocked then-candidate Barack Obama as a Messiah:

He Ventured Forth To Bring Light To The World

And it came to pass, in the eight year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical White person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: "Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?"

This goes on and on. The video version is six minutes long:



Read the complete text here.

That column went viral on the right, as did another column from the 2008 campaign, in which Baker compare Obama to Sarah Palin (guess who came out ahead):

Political experience

Obama: Worked his way to the top by cultivating, pandering to and stroking the most powerful interest groups in the all-pervasive Chicago political machine, ensuring his views were aligned with the power brokers there.

Palin: Worked her way to the top by challenging, attacking and actively undermining the Republican party establishment in her native Alaska. She ran against incumbent Republicans as a candidate willing and able to clean the Augean Stables of her state's government.

Political Biography

Obama: A classic, if unusually talented, greasy-pole climber. Held a succession of jobs that constitute the standard route to the top in his party's internal politics: "community organizer", law professor, state senator.

Palin: A woman with a wide range of interests in a well-variegated life. Held a succession of jobs - sports journalist, commercial fisherwoman, state oil and gas commissioner, before entering local politics. A resume that suggests something other than burning political ambition from the cradle but rather the sort of experience that enables her to understand the concerns of most Americans....

Appeal

Obama: A very attractive speaker whose celebrity has been compared to that of Britney Spears and who sends thrills up Chris Matthews' leg

Palin: A very attractive woman, much better-looking than Britney Spears who speaks rather well too. She sends thrills up the leg of Rush Limbaugh (and me).

Yes, and you can practically feel the leg tingle in this chat with Hugh Hewitt after Palin's 2008 convention speech:


Gerard Baker and Hugh Hewitt React to Sarah Palin by FORAtv

BAKER: ... that amazing way that she did it with -- going after [Obama] with, you know, with real, real vigor, but also with that smile on her face.... I don't think I have seen a -- and I've seen a lot of kind of national political arrivals, if you like. I mean, this was her arrival on the national political and the international political scene -- I don't think I've seen -- you know, Obama gave a great political speech at the 2004 Democratic convention -- I don't think I've seen an arrival, an emergence of someone like that on the international scene, you know, in twenty or thirty years. I thought it was just a remarkable performance.

Hewitt compares Palin to Margaret Thatcher -- a saint on the right. Baker says that Palin as a speechmaker was better than Thatcher, or at least the early Thatcher.

BAKER: ... to me, I think Sarah Palin -- you know, again, I'm saying she's a Margaret Thatcher, we've got a long way to go before we see what metal she's really made of, whether she is a real Iron Lady -- but again, in terms of coming onto the scene like that, she was, if anything, more impressive than Margaret Thatcher.

After that, Baker and Hewitt repaired to a private chamber for a cigarette, or something.

So no, I don't think he'll ruffle any conservative feathers. And hey, from that Palin gush we know what an excellent judge of political talent he is.