[guest post by Dana]

CRUZ: “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate, illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match. And if you look at the questions, Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do the math? John Kasich, can you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues — “

QUINTANILLA: “Does this count? Do we get credit for this one?”

CRUZ: “And Carl, I’m not finished yet. The contrast with the Democratic debate, where every fawning question from the media was, which of you is more handsome and wise?”

CNBC: “Let me say, you have 30 seconds left to answer should you choose to do so.”

CRUZ: “Let me be clear. The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense, than every participant in the Democratic debate. That debate reflected a debate between the Bolsheviks and the Menchavicks. Nobody watching at home believes that any of the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primer. The questions being asked shouldn’t be trying to get people to tear into each other, it should be what are your substantive — “

CNBC: “I asked you about the debt limit and got no answer.”

It’s unsurprising that those who are a part of the media that Cruz neatly nailed to the wall are hellbent on denying that any evisceration took place.

–Dana

UPDATE: Last night’s biggest loser, moderator John Harwood’s post-debate observation:

John Harwood
✔
@JohnJHarwood

moderating GOP debate in 2015 enriched my understanding of challenges @SpeakerBoehner has faced and @RepPaulRyan will face
5:34 AM – 29 Oct 2015

[guest post by Dana]

The top-tier debate starts at 8:00 pm ET from the University of Colorado’s Coors Events Center, where 10,000 of the 11,000 seats will be empty . It will air on CNBC.

Debating in the top-tier will be: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, and Chris Christie.

And to add some amusement to this tragicomedy, Rand Paul and Chris Christie’s campaigns are complaining about their greenrooms being dominated by toilets. Also, let’s not forget that this debate will be moderated by the ever-impartial and unbiased John Harwood of CNBC.

–Dana

More spending for all? Hey, supporting that is all about being a team player!

After sharply criticizing how it came together, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan announced he would support the budget deal Wednesday.

“What I’ve heard from members over the last two weeks is a desire to wipe the slate clean, put in place a process that builds trust, and start focusing on big ideas,” Ryan said in a statement. “What has been produced will go a long way toward relieving the uncertainty hanging over us, and that’s why I intend to support it. It’s time for us to turn the page on the last few years and get to work on a bold agenda that we can take to the American people.”

Look for more of this “bold agenda” of business as usual going forward.

UPDATE: The New York Times says the budget deal is a win for Obama, since the tiny sequestration caps are history:

The deal is the policy equivalent of keeping the lights on — hardly the stuff of a bold fiscal legacy. But it achieves the main objective of his 2016 budget: to break free of the spending shackles he agreed to when he signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, an outcome, the president allowed Tuesday, that he could be “pretty happy” about. . . . The result was a deal that would raise spending $80 billion, or about 1 percent, over the next two years while enacting an array of cuts that Democrats found palatable.

. . . .

“This shouldn’t be mistaken for some overarching grand bargain, but there’s a lot in here the White House likes and not much they don’t,” said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. “Most importantly, if the deal prevails, they won’t have to deal with budget nonsense for the rest of the term, which has got to look pretty sweet.”

I think our new Speaker should definitely be on board for something the Democrats think is “pretty sweet.” As long as Barack Obama is “pretty happy” then what more can we ask for?