Debate #2: Debate me Cowards
Remember to vote Republican next spring.
I’ll keep this quick and dirty and also admit: I didn’t watch the debate last night. I caught up with it this morning and have watched everything except for the closing statements. I’ll give you a few takeaways and then rank the candidates by performance last night.
Takeaways
Everyone is finally realizing that they’re competing with Trump. I think every major player on the stage aside from Ramaswamy took a swipe at Trump. This is a good thing. If candidates can start actually attacking him, they may take some of his supporters. Not sure if that’s actually possible, but it’s our only hope.
Everyone pivoted except for Haley who has consistently performed in both debates. Ron did less culture warring and more talking about how he governed well, Tim Scott actually spoke. Vivek chilled out a bit. Overall, everyone performed better. I think multiple people could see bumps from this. Hopefully taking from Trump’s supporters and not Desantis’ or Haley’s.
Seems like the other candidates got together and decided that whenever Vivek speaks they will all pile on. It was incredible, the best thing to happen in a debate since:
Candidate Rankings
Remember, this is based on last night’s performance alone
Ron Desantis - Called out Trump, continually fell back on his record of governance, not fighting culture wars
Niki Haley - Look, I may be biased, but I think Haley is just consistently very good. She talks straight, has some good one liners, and just thinks differently about things
Tim Scott - There he is. Holy crap was he GREAT on slavery and racism. His whole American dream schtick gets a little old, but I think he’s sincere.
Chris Christie - Like Desantis continually fell back on his record, called out Trump. Shot straight.
Vivek - Look, I’m mad he’s this high too. But he did perform pretty well last night. He was respectful, asked for that respect from others, which was hysterical. And directly adjusted the things about him that make most people want to vomit.
Doug Burgum - I’d love to learn more about this guys, he seems like a smart governor, but doesn’t have much talking time and doesn’t do much more than say, “My tiny state is doing it right.” I’m sorry, I have the same issue when people compare the US and Sweden, one is a tiny, homogenous country, the other is a multicultural powerhouse. I just don’t think it’s hard to get things done somewhere where everyone thinks and looks the same.
Pence - Idk. Look I’ve gained a lot of respect for the guy and I certainly don’t think he’s a charisma black hole as some people suggest, but he’s not exciting. No good attacks last night to bolster him and his record is not a selling point for really anyone, I’d bet.
Closing thoughts
Again I’ll say, every. single. American. Should be planning to vote in the Republican primaries. The single most important thing we can do is prevent Trump from being on the ballot next November. If you were to ask me who to endorse, I’d say Niki. If you were to ask me who to donate to I’d say Niki or Ron. If you were to ask me who should drop out, I’d say anyone not on the stage last night as well as Doug Burgum. This truly is a critical election and we can’t have unserious people taking up the oxygen. Let’s go America.