PHOTO: Republican candidate Nikki Haley: “Ron has continued to lie because he is losing.”
I didn’t watch the fourth Republican debate on Wednesday evening, because I figured lots of other people were watching it and would be posting their reactions online. Hopefully, humorous reactions.
But also, because I had other things to do that were more important. Counting flowers on the wall; that don’t bother me at all. Playing solitaire ’til dawn, with a deck of 51.
According to the mainstream media, the two-hour debate had winners and losers.
I already knew who the losers are: The American taxpayers.
But that’s nothing new. We’ve been losing the elections on a regular basis, since at least 1909, when Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment, allowing the federal government to collect income tax. I hear a lot of arguing about the Second Amendment — but it seems to me, so far the Second Amendment hasn’t done anything to protect us from the Sixteenth Amendment.
Anyway, the mainstream media wants us to believe there were winners at the debate. Fox News seems to think Ron DeSantis was the winner. The New York Times thinks Nikki Haley won, or maybe Donald Trump won, by not being there at all.
Not sure how that works. Winning a debate that you didn’t even show up for? Maybe you need to be a Republican to pull off a trick like that.
I couldn’t find any media outlets that thought Chris Christie won. But I did see a one-minute video clip (after the debate was over) where Governor Christie courageously defended fellow candidate Nikki Haley against some mean-spirited personal attacks coming from candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
I saw this photo (after the debate was over) of Ramaswamy holding up a handwritten sign on his legal pad that read “NIKKI = CORRUPT.”
If I were in a debate, and someone held up a legal pad saying, “LOUIS = CORRUPT”, I would have to smile. Which is apparently what Nikki Haley did. I mean, how could anyone become a viable presidential candidate unless they were at least a little bit corrupt? Goes with the territory, right?
I came across one reporter (after the debate was over) who thought a two-hour debate was too long. I would tend to agree. I mean, it’s not like these people are going to be running the country; they’re just running for President.
As we all know, the important decisions are made in corporate board rooms.
Or in cocktail bars adjacent to corporate board rooms.
Like, if Ron DeSantis were running for CEO of Disney… now, that would be worth getting excited about.
Some commentators think this was the “semi-finals” for Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who are battling for a distant “second place” behind Donald Trump, who appears to have the first nominating contest — in Iowa — pretty much locked up. This Iowa contest will be held in January, well before Trump himself is locked up.
Back before he was a viable presidential candidate, Donald Trump had already transformed the tone of American politics — making name-calling, petty insults and personal attacks commonplace.
In other words, he’s just like the rest of us, and that’s one of the reasons Americans love him.
The real winners in the debate? Those of us in the news media, who struggle to find anything to write about, this time of year… what with Congress on vacation, and most of the criminals busy shopping for kids toys. Sure, we have wars going on, but who wants to read about war during a holiday season? Much more fun to cover the humorous antics of ambitious politicians — at least, the ones who showed up for the debate.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.