By John Corderman
In my humble opinion, Wednesday night’s first Republican Primary Debate demonstrated why the Republicans will not be able to field a winning Presidential candidate in 2024 and why they may also lose the House and more seats in the Senate.
Taking each candidate individually:
Ron DeSantis held his own for most of the debate but fell off the mark when he vowed to send American military across the southern border or into other countries to battle drug gangs. That’s not where the voters are and it’s a stupid and unnecessary idea. DeSantis also intimated that he looks at the world through the lens of a Navy Seal. I respect Navy Seals, but that’s not the overarching attitude that most people want in a President.
Asa Hutchinson represents the Old Order of the Republican Party which was successively beaten and banished in 2008 and 2012 with the resounding defeats of McCain and Romney. Hutchison represents an era that’s not coming back because so many of its fundamental policies have been discredited.
Doug Burgum seems like a nice man, but he’s an unknown. He’s also doesn’t have the ability to tell a compelling story and explain what he’s offering that’s any different from anybody else on the stage. He’s a head scratcher, and should just stay in North Dakota and do his best there.
Chris Christie is another throw-back to a previous era of discredited ideas — particularly the Bush-Cheney-John Bolton war-hawk foreign policy and Anything-for-Israel gang. He’s got a long record of being a shameless, spineless, say-or-do-anything kind of politician that a Republican in New Jersey has to have, to have a future. Therefore, everybody knows he’s phony-baloney. Even if you hate Donald Trump, to many people it’s not endearing to watch a so-called old friend shit on the other so openly. It’s ugly and a true indication and demonstration of Christie’s character. The other problem is that Christie is the only candidate in the field that makes President Biden look like a healthy physical specimen when you compare them side-by-side. He’s an unusually large windbag and won’t go much past New Hampshire, if he even gets that far.
Tim Scott is a good man and has a great story. But as the debate wore on, he seemed to recede. He seemed to lose his voice and his train of thought and had an odd fallback refrain of “God’s Green Earth” to sum up all his ill-connected thoughts and ideas. He began in the last half to remind me of Ben Carson in 2016 when he’d go off on these hard-to-follow riffs and just kind of drift off into the silent abyss. Scott has a future perhaps, but his time is not now. He should get the hell out, so he doesn’t get tainted by the embarrassment of participating in the Republican implosion that’s occurring in this cycle.
Nikki Haley is competent and proven in executive and diplomatic ability. She’s also one of the few people who worked in the Trump Administration whose reputation wasn’t stained and diminished by the association. The problem is that she’s a die-hard war zealot and graduate of the Bush-Cheney-John Bolton School of Aggressive Violent International Eye-Poking and Forever Wars. She’s happy to give 3% of our U.S. Defense Budget outlay to Ukraine with the implication that that’s just peanuts. She’s an Anything-for-Israel sycophant. And then to top it all off, if challenged by a dissenting view on same, she gets indignant, loud, and screechy about it — which is a bad look for her. She looked like Vivek Ramaswamy’s mother bitching him out about bad grades and being an irresponsible little truant, and she looked like a dope doing it.
Mike Pence, who oddly was given the most time (rope) to hang himself, was the Biggest Loser. If there’s an exemplar of sanctimonious bullshit in this election cycle, it’s Pence. The whole I’m-the-devoutest-Christian-and-Supreme Protector-of-the-Constitution rang hollow with almost everyone. Even though it wasn’t there this time, I felt like somebody should blurt out: “Hold still a second, Mike, and let me smack that fly off your goofy scull fleece.”
And then there’s Vivek Ramaswamy. The wide-eyed toothy young man from A.D. 1985 — who was just a little baby pooping his diaper when Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” hit the top of the charts along with Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Ah, the irony of it. He’s glib and obviously a fast-thinker — good on his feet, as they say. Like a young man with a thick wallet, he’s got the world by the nuts and is full of advice and revolutionary wisdom. He’s the Cock of the Walk. Hell, he won the debate. No doubt about it. Blew everybody else off the stage.
Here’s the problem: He’s an unapologetic suck-up to Donald Trump. Anybody who’s looked into him knows he’s a standard Ivy Leaguer with the ego to match, a Goldman Sachs alum, and a Big Pharma/Biotech spook. That says everything one needs to know. This guy is not “for the people.” This guy’s never got his hands or fingernails dirty in his life. (Of course, neither has Donald Trump). Ramaswamy is all about Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Top-Down Ideas to rule the little people. He’s as fake as fake can be. Not to be trusted.
Before the Republicans elevate him any further, they better put Vivek before the green-screen and make sure he doesn’t have a Bobby Jindal meltdown.
Remember Bobby Jindal? February 24, 2009? He was the smartest, most articulate, Next Big Thing, until he gave the Republican response to Obama’s speech. His complexion was off, along with the rest of him, and his delivery was garbage… and the bipartisan response was harsh and his political career was over. Kind of like driving along at 75 mph then throwing your transmission into Reverse. End of story… and he’s never been seen again. For all anybody knows, he’s so gone he may as well be in the Witness Protection Program.
The current Republican candidates are, to one degree or another, substantially out-of-sync with their voters.
Therefore, just like in 2008 and 2012, there will not be enough voters to put a Republican over the top for President in 2024.
John Corderman is a commercial real estate acquisition analyst and writer living in Phoenix, Arizona, and past contributor to the Pagosa Daily Post.