whoever comes out of the process is very likely to kick the crap out of Obama in the election.

It's hard to accurately gauge how much defense the mainstream media is playing on Obama's behalf right now. There are several major stories that would have made headlines for a month in a Republican administration, and their "Destroy All Republicans" mission is getting pretty obvious. The good news is that the mainstream media is becoming less relevant every year. I've noticed some attacks that would have been deadly ten years ago falling flat.

And it's not like Democratic primaries are any better. I think that the Republicans should discard media-run debates altogether and just run them themselves. Let the candidates bounce off each other, not a "moderator" whose prime mission is to see them all fail.