Saul Alinsky?

Yep, that's who we saw rear his ugly head in the last debate. No, Saul wasn't there, he's dead, but his spirit was masterfully disguised in Wolf Blitzer. He was relentless and unfortunately effective. He caught all the candidates off guard and then began his assault. Surprisingly even Newt fell for Blitzers imitation of Alinsky.

If you're not familiar with Saul Alinsky, you should be. He was a community organizer that Obama studied and used his teachings during his days as a community organizer in Chicago. As a son of Russian and Jewish immigrants, Alinsky grew up in Chicago. He dropped out of grad-school archeology during the Depression and after a few different career attempts found his calling as an organizer of the powerless. Chicago was his home but his influence was spread to other large urban areas around the country.

He claimed he never belonged to any political party or organization, not even his own. Regardless of his self-proclaimed neutrality, he was a far-left radical. His ideologies can best be described as Marxist and at worst, Communist. He was deeply critical of capitalism and his agenda couldn't be closer to Marxism when he stated in the first line of the first chapter of his book, "Rules for Radicals":

"What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away."

Eerily similar to, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". It should also be of interest that In 1969, Hillary Clinton's Political Science Thesis, "There is Only the Fight" refers to an earlier version of Alinsky's training manual "Reveille for radicals". In his book, Rules for Radicals", he outlines 13 power tactics to be used by the Have-Nots to take power away from the Haves.

Rule number 4 was used by Blitzer often. As Alinsky described it:

4. "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

The constant way Blitzer kept returning to the talking points of the candidates kept them on the defensive most of the night. Once this was established he just let each one dissect each other. Very effective. No offense, just turnover after turnover and defensive posturing.

Once he had turned the debate into a "you said he said" battle, the rest was history. Blitzer’s prolific use of Alinsky’s tactic number 13 was masterful.

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.  In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and 'frozen.'...

     "...any target can always say, 'Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?' When you 'freeze the target,' you disregard these [rational but distracting] arguments.... Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all the 'others' come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target...'

How many times did we see this used? I believe Newt caught this when he made an attempt, after Santorum’s plea for a return to topics of concern, to forgo the finger-pointing and bashing but Romney wouldn't let it rest. The few times we saw Newt seem to regress and shrink from the direction of the debate was obvious he saw what Blitzer was doing. The rest of the quorum unfortunately didn't.

We spent 2 hours watching pillow fights of insignificance. We spent an evening we could have been doing something more productive, like changing the air in our cars tires, than listen to the buffoonery we were subjected to. I don't know about anyone else but after last night’s debate I felt like the principal in "Billy Madison" when he told Billy (Adam Sandler), after his long illiterate debate rant, that,,,

Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

I walked away from the debate with no more than that and a headache.

Wolf Blitzer/Saul Alinsky --- 1

Candidates --- 0

The candidates would do well to brush up on Saul Alinsky.

They should also write in bold black magic marker on the front page of their notes:

DO NOT FALL FOR WOLF ALINSKY EVER AGAIN!