By Steve Rhodes
This transcript has been edited for sanity, clarity and comedy.
CNN: Tonight, eight candidates, one stage, one chance to take part in a groundbreaking debate. The Tea Party support and the Republican nomination, on the line right now.
RHODES: Seven candidates go home!
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WOLF BLITZER: And welcome to the Florida State Fairgrounds here in Tampa , the site of the first ever Tea Party/Republican presidential debate.
One year from now, right here in Tampa, the Republican National Convention will nominate the Republican candidate for president of the United States.
Candidates, please take your podiums. And while you do, I want to tell all of our viewers, everyone here a little bit more about how this debate will work.
RHODES: I will ask the most obvious questions that have been asked many times before and will be again. You will respond by repeating the rehearsed statements you and your advisors have been working on regardless of the question. I will fail to follow-up and you will pretend this is a real debate. Later, my news colleagues and peers will write and produce news stories and segments that also pretend something important happened here tonight, as if this wasn’t a staged pseudo-event designed for TV for the benefit of select interests.
Of course, if you say something that could be interpreted as a “gaffe,” no matter how inconsequential, we will blow it out of proportion in order to develop a narrative reflecting what we secretly think about you but are unwilling to report as news. True or not, you will then have to live with it. Is everyone ready?
BLITZER: Governor Huntsman, we’ll begin with you.
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Posted on September 14, 2011