Fox News is now running the Republican Party. I am no fan of Donald Trump but it was clear from the first minute of the debate that Fox News had decided that Trump must go. From the attempt at public shaming for not supporting a future nominee to hardball questions throughout, Fox gave up any pretext that it would be a fair debate. In so doing, they moved from being the messenger to becoming the creator of the message. Yeah, "fair and balanced."

At the other extreme, I thought that Kasich and Rubio got mostly softball questions.

I find it ironic that Fox is now going after Trump who has often mirrored some of the racism, sexism and misogyny that frequently passes for commentary on the Fox channel.
The anti-Trump campaign took another bizarro step yesterday after Trump escalated his comments about Megyn Kelly. (I guess for conservatives attacking Rosie O'Donnell is one thing, attacking Megyn -- hey, that's serious. As a commenter online wondered: what would have been the reaction if Trump had made equally sexist comments about Hillary Clinton?) As a result of Trump's escalation, famed Wheeling Intelligencer columnist and RedState blogger, Erick Erickson banned Trump from a RedState get-together later tonight in Atlanta. Yes, it's the same Erick Erickson who defended Trump in an attack on Rosie O'Donnell a couple of years ago: "How awesome is Fox for letting Trump come on and bash Rosie!!" It also ought to be noted that Erickson has had his own "issues" with Megyn. (see previous link) (See here for a much more complete list of Erickson's Trump-like sexist remarks.) What a world -- Erick Erickson is banning Donald Trump for sexist comments.

Finally, I wonder what our local "newspapers" will make of this? While they did chastise Trump in an editorial for questioning John McCain's service record on July 21, there have been no other editorials that commented on his other outlandish comments. And while they have published columnists critical of Trump, they have also printed columnists who have praised Trump for raising important issues. (For example, Diane Dimond's "Trump May Be a Bully, But He Makes a Good Point" on July 22.) Additionally, the "newspapers" look to be in the Kasich camp and Mike Myer loves to go after liberals for their supposed political correctness -- this should be interesting.