WHAT TED CRUZ DID LAST NIGHT WAS SO MUCH MORE THAN AN APPLAUSE LINE, Walter Hudson writes at the PJ Tatler, noting that most reports so far have focused on his brilliant soundbite moment pushing back against the horrid CNBC moderators. But as Hudson adds:

However, the reaction from moderator Carlos Quintanilla proves just as significant. After laughing indignantly at both Cruz and the audience, Quintanilla comes back with the tried-and-true tactic of accusing Cruz of avoiding the question.

This is a question about the debt, which you have thirty seconds to answer if you choose to do so.

Quintanilla proceeds from an unspoken premise that candidates must answer any question posed no matter how it is presented and no matter what premise it is based on. That’s utter nonsense.

More candidates need to take their lead from Cruz and start objecting to the questions asked by media. By accepting questions as asked, candidates concede the premises upon which those questions are based. In this way, the media is able to make statements in the guise of questions, and thus offer a biased political narrative in the guise of an interview. Such rhetorical subterfuge is unacceptable and needs to be called out and countered, as Cruz did Wednesday night.

Exactly. Why aren’t more GOP candidates — at every level — better at not accepting their would-be interrogator’s premise and challenging their assumptions?