August 27, 2023

The first GOP presidential debate was held on August 23 in Milwaukee.  Present were eight candidates whose combined polling was less than that of Donald Trump.  For two hours, they talked about being the future of the Republican Party: how they would boost the economy, lower inflation, secure the border, and improve education.

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Trump already did that.  And what he’s talking about now, in appearances that draw many times the number who attended the first debate, isn’t just undoing Biden’s mistakes and doing what he did before all over again, but even more.  Trump has a vision beyond anything the eight little voices are capable of: a vision of returning America to its citizens and unleashing growth and opportunity beyond anything seen before, anywhere. 

The eight little voices had their carefully prepared remarks on how to restore America, but they were only words without a great man’s forcefulness and will.  Vivek Ramaswamy did indeed sound a bit like ChatGPT, as Chris Christie charged.  Ramaswamy argued that climate change is a hoax, a point I agree with, but he failed to back up the claim with convincing detail.  Nikki Haley seemed to think she was entitled to the nomination because she was the only woman on the stage.  The day after the debate, no one could remember anything Tim Scott said.

For the most part, the candidates were just sniping at one another instead of presenting a compelling case for their nomination.  Pence thoughtlessly argued that Vivek is too young, others too old; he, Pence, is just right in terms of age.  By that logic, Reagan was too old, Kennedy too young, Nixon just right.

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Nikki Haley’s assertion that “if you want to get something done…ask a woman” was just silly, as was her attack on Ramaswamy for “no foreign policy experience.”  Haley’s foreign policy experience consists of a year or so of service as U.N. ambassador, not materially different from Ramaswamy’s. 

Doug Burgum and Tim Scott didn’t even have one memorable statement for me to rebut.

Ron DeSantis was the most convincing of the eight voices, establishing his position as second to Trump.  The left realizes that DeSantis offers a serious threat to Biden.  That’s why leftists are already mulling the idea of charges against DeSantis for bussing migrants out of Florida, “in violation of their civil rights” — when the migrants themselves requested to be bussed.

Every candidate spoke of securing the border, but Trump had done so, or was well on his way to, when Biden crept into office and reversed his policies and his wall-building.  Voices can talk, but only Trump eliminated two regulations for each new one signed.  Even with her clever performance, I can’t imagine Nikki Haley (or Asa Hutchinson) striking fear into the hearts of Putin and Chairman Xi.  Trump did.

Inevitably, abortion came up as a topic.  The eight little voices parsed their words, positioning themselves for the primaries to come.  When he said we cannot allow abortion “right up to the moment of birth,” DeSantis was right, but what about three or six or nine months before birth?  When Haley objected that “you can’t put a woman in jail” for having an abortion, she was reinforcing the idea that she is the only female candidate.  So what?  There’s no Eskimo candidate at all.

All in all, the debate was a big waste of time.  Approximately 20 million Americans watched the debate, or, more likely, slept through it.  According to Reuters, former president Trump attracted “more than 74 million views” to his “counter-debate” discussion with Tucker Carlson on platform X.