Will The GOP Learn From This Year's Primary Mess?

Probably not.  There are lots of things that have hurt the GOP this year, and most are self-inflicted wounds.  National Review has some thoughts on the debate silliness that's gone on:

The semiotic search for the racism beneath Newt’s food-stamp line. The dismissal of “the Constitution” in haughty air quotes. The wasting of primetime minutes pondering which wife would make the best first lady. The obsessive deposing of Romney on the legality of condoms. The condescending identity politics of carting out a token Latino to ask an immigration question. The dings. The bells. The buzzers. The Google Chat notification tones. The frightful specter of Donald Trump’s coiffure lurking around the next corner.

These are just some of the lowlights of the umpteen Republican debates thus far. And with the exception of The Donald’s ill-fated quest to moderate, they were all brought to us by the mainstream media. That’s the same media that daily carry water for the Obama administration, approach the tea parties as anthropological curiosities, and persistently skew the public discourse leftward in ways large and small, conscious and unconscious. So why on earth should conservatives trust them to play any substantial role in the selection of our presidential standard-bearer?

The answer, of course, is that we should not. Not again.

As the piece goes on to explain, there were exceptions to the debate mess - those events with sponsorship from conservative organizations and the debates that were held on Fox. Bret Baier is a great debate moderator, though some of the other questioners such as liberal Juan Williams were not so good.

The GOP should never again agree to a debate moderated by anyone from ABC, NBC (or its affiliates like MSNBC), CBS, CNN, or any of the major lefty newspapers. There's simply no upside to letting these people set the narrative for our events. The GOP has the right to stage its own events with its own moderators, and if the mainstream media won't broadcast them they can buy the time themselves.  We can control our own message.

The second issue I have problems with are open primaries.  Many states have laws requiring open primaries, and that means voters in the GOP contests don't have to be Republicans.  That's just crazy and will give rise to shenanigans like what we'll see in Michigan next week as lefties are encouraged to go vote for Rick Santorum in order to sow chaos in the GOP race.

We don't have to allow this.  If a state has an open primary law the GOP doesn't have to participate.  In those states the GOP should set up a caucus system restricted to GOP voters only.  We should be picking our candidates, not independents and Democrats.

There is another debate tonight.  My guess is the word "contraception" will probably find its way into one of the first questions, and the GOP candidates are idiots if they answer it.  You can also expect Rick Santorum to be asked about Satan, another diversion from the important stuff.  I hope they go all "Newt" on the moderator and tell them to quit with the trivialities and let's start talking about gas prices, Keystone XL, taxes, the economy, Obamacare...the stuff that matters to voters.  We can't give the left ammunition to demagogue our candidates.

Wake up, GOP, because the party that will replace you in 2016 if you lose this year won't make these same mistakes.