Not to make light of the plight of too many young people in this country and the conditions
they find themselves in, if I'm a Republican presidential candidate, and I'm on the stage being televised over CNN, and Anderson Cooper introduces this video, there's no sufficient answer. If Santa, whose sole job is to grant wishes to children and make their life a little bit better at least one day a year, is asking the next president to help him do his job, how am I as a conservative presidential candidate going to answer that not only substantively, but how am I going to look trying to answer against that imagery? There's no quick answer to solve the problem Santa raises neatly, and Santa knows it.

If you answer by trying to out-Santa Santa, you're pandering. If you tell the truth and say what too many children in this country face has to stop, but there are plenty of private relief agencies, many of them faith-based, that are much better suited to help with the immediate problem, and that it's not up to the government to be the nanny state, you come off as sounding cold and heartless.

I'm with Hugh. This is exactly the kind of trap CNN won't be able to pass on if all the front-running GOP candidates appear. Their time would be much better suited in a debate format with serious questions asked by serious people, and leave the theatrics to a time when we're not at war. Republicans should leave the circus environment of this debate to the true political clowns, the Democratic Party.