Sohn: The presidency is not an entry-level political job

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Book Release Party

A party held for the "Life-Onomics" wealth/stress management book release at Crowne Plaza in Little Rock, November 15.

Four days have passed since the last GOP debate - the one on the Fox Business channel that few could watch unless they had premium cable signups and the one that was least memorable anyway.

And while it's true that this one didn't leave people talking and joking at water coolers for days after, there were answers that should have left us shaking our heads over the sheer falseness of them.

Here's a laundry list of examples:

* "Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers." That was a great line from Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. And it's a rational sentiment (often shared on this page) about refocusing some of our education emphasis from all-college-track-all-the-time to lessons that equally value trades, technology and college.

But his example, as fact-checked by CNN, was wrong, wrong, wrong. According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for philosophy professors is $63,630, and the median salary for welders is $37,420.

* Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina like nothing better than name-dropping. So a highlight of the debate was her swipe at Trump involving Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes,' we were stable mates. We did well that night," Trump said. Fiorina, in her turn, responded: "One of the reasons I said that I would not be talking to Vladimir Putin right now, although I have met him as well, not in a green room for a show, but in a private meeting "

Cute, but lacking in telling details: For Trump, it must have been a long-distance meeting to the Putin stall because the CBS Putin interview was conducted in Putin's home in Russia, according to news reports. And Fiorina did meet Putin in 2001 at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference - and praised him. CNN found this in a copy of her speech posted on Hewlett Packard's website:

"I keep wondering how it is that I got positioned to speak in the slot before the President of the Russian Federation - on the subject of change, no less. Hewlett-Packard has been at the center of a lot of change in our 62-year history. But President Putin was elected president in the first democratic transition in Russia in 1,000 years. Talk about giving new meaning to the word 'invent.'"

* And Fiorina's characterization of the "crushing load" of the nation's "73,000-page tax code" on innovation and entrepreneurship is out-right false. Way false.

The actual tax-related statues passed by Congress, as published by the Government Printing Office, come out to 2,652 pages, according to the Tax Foundation. Perhaps she was thinking of an oft-cited report from CCH that is used by tax professionals that is more than 72,000 pages long. In addition to the actual tax code, it contains thousands of pages of regulations, legal analysis and explanations, according to CNN.

* Rand Paul claimed income inequality "seems to be worst in cities run by Democrats, states run by Democrats and counties currently run by Democrats."

False. U.S. Census data shows the five metropolitan areas with the greatest income gaps are Bridgeport, Conn.; New York City; Miami; McAllen, Texas; and New Orleans. Three of those cities are currently run by Democrats; the other two are led by Republicans. States with high income gaps show a similar pattern with plenty of party-in-power swaps in recent years.

* Ben Carson (where to start!) justified his resounding no to raising the minimum wage with this: "Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases."

How then would he explain, had he done his homework, why, in 1997 when the minimum wage increased from $4.75 an hour to $5.15 an hour, that the number of unemployed fell each month until late 2001? It wasn't an oddity. There have been other times when the number of jobless was lower a year after Congress raised the federal minimum wage: 1950, 1961, 1967, 1978 and 1996.

Running for president should not to be an entry-level political job. And given enough fact-checking (thanks, CNN) Americans will understand this.

Despite good questions and moderators who politely but persistently tried to get the candidates to drill down on real policy stances, the candidates largely threw up evidence-free, stump-speech lines.

Their focus remains one of talking down the resilience of our economy, taking away health security from 17 million Americans by repealing Obamacare and making sure they keep working Americans' and middle class families' wages down, while cutting taxes for the rich.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Jeb Bush bravely called out Trump's unrealistic plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants while Carson faded into the background trying to keep quiet because he was clearly lost on money and foreign policy questions. [We defy anyone to explain what he said when asked if he would break up big banks.]

The flash of the GOP "reality show" campaign circuit may be gone, but its fakeness lives on.