Republican debate a total disaster

From the first dumb question to the abrupt ending that caught everyone by surprise, the GOP presidential primary debate produced by the Fox Business channel was a total disaster.

I know. I was there Wednesday night – in Row 5 of the Air Force One pavilion in the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

At the beginning of the debate it was a special treat to see and hear the praise that the Fox people bestowed on my father, his historic accomplishments and his strong and personable brand of conservatism.

But from then on it was all downhill.

Everything about the debate was dumb, wrong or poorly designed – the seven-candidate format, the trio of incompetent debate moderators, the high-speed stream of questions they asked and the rude behavior of the cross-talking candidates.

Unless something changes, it was a lineup of potential future losers to Donald Trump – Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman/commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and ex-VP Mike Pence.

They all tried to slip in their canned quips and pitches for their leadership abilities, but no one learned anything in two excruciating hours – except that it’s impossible to have a good political debate with seven people.

Other than Pence and professional Trump hitman Christie, the “Not-so Magnificent Seven” spent most of their time interrupting each other and beating up Joe Biden for all the problems his policies have brought America.

If I had to pick the top three “winners,” I’d go with the governors – Burgum, Christie and DeSantis. They should be in the next primary debate and the rest should go home.

Nikki Haley was very good at first. But then halfway through the debate she did her impression of a mad housewife.

She picked a fight with Kid Ramaswamy and hit Sen. Scott upside the face with a mean tirade that made no sense to any of us in Row 5.

At one point we were all confused because she and Scott were acting like a married couple having an argument over drapes.

The big winners, for sure, were the elephants who weren’t in the room – Trump and Biden.

By far the night’s biggest loser was Fox Business.

It proved it is no smarter or better than any of the liberal networks who’ve hosted previous presidential debates.

On paper it should not have been so awful.

Stuart Varney is great as the likable anchor of Fox Business’ morning show. And Dana Perino is the quiet star of Fox News’ deservedly popular show, “The Five.”

But neither of them had ever moderated a political debate – and it immediately showed.

They had no control over the cross-talking candidates and acted like they had a quota of 100 questions they had to ask.

Half the time they were more concerned with firing off the next question than allowing a real debate to get started on important issues like our support for Ukraine or parental rights in schools.

It almost seemed like the people in charge at Fox had never seen a multi-person political debate before.

Some friends who watched the debate on TV told me they turned it off after 20 minutes, but I was trapped there in Row 5.