Opinion: A Fox News fumble

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It wasn’t as bad a call as the bosses at the Des Moines Register made, when at the newspaper’s debate in December, immigration was barred as a topic. And the bosses at Fox News probably thought that, by saving a discussion of the contentious issue for the very end of the network’s debate tonight in South Carolina, it might help keep viewers glued to their tubes.

The upshot was that, pressed for time, each of the Republican presidential contenders was asked to address aspects of the ongoing controversy over dealing with illegal immigration, but there was no give-and-take, no chance for one candidate to press or zing another over his position.

That was a particular break for John McCain, who used the time he had to stress his commitment to securing the borders (‘I know how to do that,’ he said, in a nod to his military background) and didn’t have to absorb direct shots over his support for ‘amnesty’ for illegal immigrants.

-- Don Frederick