The Republican debate, round three

The third Republican presidential debate lacked the fireworks of the first two, thanks primarily to Donald Trump muzzling himself and, for the first time, sounding more like a politician than an outsider and that won't serve him well in the after-debate polls.

But there were two major things to be taken from the debate, one was during the debate, the other came afterwards. Those two things were the queries of the questioners and the honesty of the candidates.

It was a general after-the-fact consensus that the biggest loser of the debate was the panel asking the questions because they appeared to be hit-men after a 'gotcha' moment. But there can't be any 'gotcha' moments unless there were 'gotcha' behaviors and the panel managed to dig out several.

When did we develop the idea in this country that newspeople AREN'T supposed to ask tough questions? That's what we've always expected of them in the past so why not now? How are we ever going to find out the truth if we don't have an independent group who want ONLY the truth, regardless of who they're asking? We heard Senator Cruz imply that Hillary Clinton was in bed with the national media because of the soft-ball questions asked of her in the Democratic debate. I watched that debate but I'm not sure Cruz did because Anderson Cooper held Clinton's feet to the fire on several different occasions during it.

So even though a lot of the country was upset with the interviewing style of the panelists, I was upset with something else and that was the unpreparedness of the panel. They asked several pointed questions of candidates and when the candidates denied they had said or done that, the panelists had no proof that they did until later. If you're going to ask a question, you have to know the answer to that question before you ask it. In many cases, the panelists didn't because, according to factcheck.org, many lies were told during the debate.

But before we dig into the Republican debate, I want to speak to the Democratic debate as well. Hillary and Bill have long been political opportunists, ready to lie, conceal and cajole to get their way and they're at it again. Bill lied repeatedly about his extra-marital affairs from the time he was Governor of Arkansas right up through his Presidency and Hillary's hands aren't clean either. She has changed her story about the emails and the private server in her home several times, depending on what the situation and the questions were, to suit her own interests. Lying has been a way of life for the Clintons and we found out Wednesday night that Republicans aren't averse to doing the same thing.

According to factcheck.org,

*Carly Fiorina claimed that 92% of the job losses in President Obama's first term belonged to women but women AND men gained jobs by the end of his first term.

*Donald Trump disputed the idea that he had criticized Senator Marco Rubio and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for supporting H-1B visas when in fact his immigration plan posted on his own website, is critical of both of them and he called Rubio, "Zuckerberg's personal senator."

*Trump also claimed his campaign was fully self-funded and even though he has not taken any money from the so-called Super Pacs, more than half of the money his campaign has raised came from supporters' contributions.

*Fiorina blamed the Affordable Care Act for a large disparity in firm closings verses openings every year but closings outnumbered firm births by the widest margin in 2009, a year before the law was enacted.

*Ben Carson said it was "total propaganda" to say he was involved with a controversial nutritional supplement company, but he appeared in promotional videos for the company, touting its products in a very convincing and compelling way.

*Chris Christie said that Social Security would be insolent in seven to eight years but even after the trust funds are exhausted, estimated to be in 14 to 19 years, the program can still pay out 73% of benefits for several decades after that.

*Ted Cruz said women's wages have declined under Obama when in fact the latest figures show their wages have increased.

*Marco Rubio claimed CNBC's John Harwood was wrong that a Tax Foundation analysis of his tax plan found those in the top 1 percent of earners would get nearly twice the gain as those in the middle and Harwood was right.

*In the undercard debate, George Pataki claimed the Iranians, Russians and Chinese hacked the private server Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state and obtained state secrets. There's no evidence that ever happened.

So, who can you trust? Citizens used to demand that the people they elected be honest, straight-forward and trustworthy. They wanted people who could get things done. They wanted people who would look them in the eye and tell them the truth. They wanted people who would work across the aisle to make this a better country. But those kinds of folks are few and far between today. They are more likely to be self-serving, saying whatever the people like or want to hear, regardless of its veracity, just to get elected. This is a monster we've created and we're the only ones who can fix it.

And if we don't, instead of a commander-in-chief, we'll have a liar-in-chief and suffer dearly because we do.