I’m in Detroit for the opening of a pro-life women’s medical-care clinic. That’s so much more powerful than so much we talk about. We need more of these. Think creatively to change lives. To save lives. To transform lives.
Jim: There was decent range in the questions, but some of them were inartfully delivered, and the three-moderator format worked poorly. And things seemed to go off the rails at the end and many times in between. But I might be letting my anger about the Survivor nonsense discolor the whole thing for me.
As for ranking… it’s easy to make the case for Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley staying in this race, Maybe Chris Christie is worth it for the sheer combativeness he would bring to an on-stage showdown with Trump. Beyond that… it’s not that Mike Pence, Tim Scott or Doug Burgum are bad candidates. But they started way, way behind, they remain way, way behind, and nothing they did tonight appears likely to change that. As for Vivek Ramaswamy, he got knocked around like a pinata. If you want to be president, that’s bad news. If you want to be a celebrity in the world of politics and a long-term media presence in the conservative-populist-nationalist media world, that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all.
Jack, I don’t think the debate was necessarily poorly run, in the sense that the questions were good, pushed back against the easy assumptions of some of the candidates, and touched on a wide variety of topics. But one big problem – a persistent one in debates – is that not every candidate got to weigh in on every issue, which meant that candidates who felt they had missed out on one of their signature issues kept bringing up the topic from three to ten minutes ago. I think future debates may need to cut the microphones of candidates who get into the auditory chaos of crosstalk.
My verdict: Ron DeSantis has a strong finish, but it will only help him in the polls slowly. Because the effect was pick fights- most especially with Donald Trump over abortion. The media will stir that up that conflict over the coming days. And DeSantis will get a chance to make use of it in Iowa.
Nikki Haley: Hard to predict. I think she will come off as too anxious, and too out of control with Vivek. She lied about DeSantis record.
Vivek: I think he was most improved. I know all my colleagues are repulsed by him and can recite all his inconsistencies. I do think he came across as energetic, youthful, and his closing statement that MAGA is bigger than one man is really the most interesting political thesis anyone presented. He said that and I asked myself: Is it?
Doug Burgum: Honestly, the most emotionally intelligent and insightful answers the whole night. We could do a lot worse than Doug Burgum.
Tim Scott: One good answer on the 14th Amendment. Another one where he got to reintroduce himself. Smart. But the rest was a mess. He doesn’t have command of issues on foreign policy and it shows.
Mike Pence: Nope. Again he was the Veep for the most populist president in over a century and he is denouncing populism.
Chris Christie: Most consistent player. I don’t think he changed his fortunes.
I was pleasantly surprised by the relative quality of the first debate. This one lived down to expectations.
That debate was poorly run and mostly pointless, with frequent aimless crosstalk punctuated by occasional moments of interest.
You get the impression no one on that stage really gets the seriousness of the need for the nobility of public service. Even Pence, because he’s both stuck in another time and defending the administration he served in.
That was two hours of our lives. Congrats everyone.
Vivek wants to own the Trump presidency more than Pence.
What an odd end to a terrible debate.