Bemused, sounds like a similar set up.

Ellen; when I was in Paris during the late ’60s, students like myself could get free tickets to cultural events on condition of helping enliven the audience. We were seated in an area close to the stage, with a good view of the “chef de claque” whose job it was to cue us for laughter, applause, gasps, groans, etc. It was actually a lot of fun and it was a lot warmer in the venues than in our rooms.

Bemused, I agree the audience reaction was weird. But I am pretty sure they were there, live. They were a bunch of donors and guests of the candidates so the audience was performative, not just a group of random Republicans.

I don’t think Fox would have edited taped audience reactions to have shown so little respect to the moderators. The loosely bridled audience added to the time wasted by candidates’ talking over each other. It’s the democrats that Fox wants portrays as a mob.

I didn’t watch the debate, but I listened to most of it and was surprised by the amount of cheering (along with boos) for statements critical of Trump, in defense of aid to Ukraine, or in relative moderation on abortion. I think Haley gained the most with Ramaswamy and Pence as foils.

There was an archetypal moment when Haley aspired to “consensus” and Pence snapped “that’s not leadership” in a way he probably heard in a sermon somewhere. Pence’s sweeping point only applies in SOME circumstances.

From what I can gather from the post-debate coverage on CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, France24 and the Italian channels, this event wasn’t much to write home about.

With two exceptions (Christie and Hutchinson as expected), participants reportedly performed just like those “listless vessels” DeSantis referred to, repeating the tried and true talking points,carefully avoiding any topic that would fuss Trumpy feathers and trying desperately to land a linguistic blow. Even Christie was “flat” and Nimrata’s gentle digs at the Dear Leader are not viewed as “serious”. Nobody on the channels I’ve watched seems even to consider anybody else to be worth mentioning.

A query: is it possible that the crowd reaction was taped? I’m wondering because it doesn’t seem to be coming from the body of the audience captured in the broad shows, and the shouts and clapping didn’t last long enough to delay the next question. Reminded me of the canned laughter they put on TV comedy shows.

I actually set my alarm as this aired at 2-4 am in Europe. After 15 minutes of the usual talking points, I fell asleep in my chair. When I woke up it was over.

Best sleep I’ve had in months.

Also this, which may not have been published yet.

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/08/hutchinson-and-christie-booed-putting

Sorry, I had to stop watching in order to do a C&L post.

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/08/vivek-ramaswamy-burned-plagiarizing-obama

Martha MacCallum just called the"Fox’s it candidate," the nauseating Ramaswamy a very successful entrepreneur. I guess that depends on what you call “successful.”
https://www.newshounds.us/vivek_ramaswamy_is_the_new_fox_it_candidate_082223

I’m watching on a 5 minute delay,

Christie just boasted about cutting pensions.

DeSantis sounds wooden.

Fox used selected individuals to “answer” the question whether or not Bidenomics is working. Of course, they said no. Fox knows otherwise.

I will not be watching this drivel. I will be watching Ashoka premier on Disney. Unashamed Star Wars geek here.