The debate on Wednesday debate involving the four remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination other than serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT), saw most of them trying hard to claim the title of the main challenger to SSAT. This article summarized the main points.
The explosive fourth Republican presidential debate Wednesday night made plain why former President Donald Trump has so far skipped the 2024 primary debate circuit.
The four contenders onstage — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — spent most of the two-hour debate hammering each other, overshadowing efforts to focus attention on the frontrunner in the race.
With the smallest debate field so far and with Iowa’s caucuses less than six weeks away, the candidates were better able to showcase their policy beliefs and explore major differences, but they followed the pattern of previous debates with a series of memorable personal shots.
Ramaswamy referred to Haley as “lipstick on a Dick Cheney.” Christie mocked Ramaswamy’s “smartass mouth.” DeSantis said Haley “caves every time the left comes after her.”
An AP article noted this interesting point: “By the end, moderators asked candidates which previous president inspired them. No one named Trump.” SSAT will not be pleased,
Will Saletan describes himself as a political moderate who now does not have a home because the Republican party is bonkers. He summarizes some of the evidence for this that he heard during the debate.
I’M A MODERATE. In 2018, I voted for Larry Hogan, Maryland’s Republican governor. Four years later, when Republicans nominated an election denier to replace him, I voted for the Democratic nominee, Wes Moore. Give me a sensible conservative party, and I’ll consider it. But that’s not what I’m seeing in Congress or in this year’s Republican presidential debates.
…THE REPUBLICAN PARTY’S INSANITY leaves a big hole in this country. When progressives jerk their knees on one issue or another—deriding religious parents, overdoing COVID restrictions, calling every border-control policy racist—I’d like to hear alternative ideas from a sane conservative party. Instead, what we have is an extremist, authoritarian party in which—as Kelly essentially acknowledged—the one presidential candidate who tells the truth and adheres to principle has no chance of being nominated.
On The Daily Show, this week’s guest host Charlamagne Tha God highlighted some of the points raised, focussing on the most bonkers of the four, Vivek Ramaswamy, who endorsed a whole list of wacky conspiracy theories.
Gotta love that monicker — rather informative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlamagne_tha_God
Yup. So, an entertainer.
Who might that be?
Rob, if you look at the citation provided it becomes evident their initials are CC.
I guessed that. Chris Christie might not be the looniest of the loons, but saying he adheres to principle is a ligament-tearing stretch.
Heh, Rob. I too personally think that’s a rather weirdly generous interpretation, but then, this is the personal view of a self-professed moderate in the USA.
If one restricts the domains of applicability for
--truth: The current state of the GOP, the tinpot nature of SSAT, the attendant sycophancy and serious policy vacuum
--principle: he is a politician as politicians used to be. At least pretends to care about norms and processes.
Deriding religious parents?? Like by teaching kids facts about biology, cosmology, etc.?
Matt, looking at the cited post, there are more suggestive quotations from this self-professed “moderate” (in the US context, of course):
For starters, it’s not a hot-button cultural issue except to the extent that a certain mob uses it as unprincipled political exploitation of the issue. This is indicative of the nous of the cited opinioneer.
5@ John Morales: Chris Christie isn’t an old school politician. He is a pre-Trump Trump. He was kicked out of New Jersey for being too blatantly mean and corrupt. He ordered a government shut down for budgetary reasons. Then on the 4th of July helicoptered into a shut down state beach and took in some sun protected by state police. Then tried to deny the whole thing until shown the pictures, then pretended it didn’t matter.
He just looks sorta reasonable right now because he is the only candidate willing to go on the offense vs Trump. I believe he is running just for the chance to attack Trump. In 2016 Christi was a significant part of the Trump campaign but he got nothing out of it and I believe he is attacking Trump just for revenge.
He has a bit more sense then Trump of what the law allows but within those limits will abuse anything and will push past them when he thinks he can get away with it. He would be a danger like Trump but doesn’t have the same populist charisma with the far right.
“It’s a shame they can’t all lose.” Oh, wait, they will.
JM, I’m not stating what I personally think about CC, but rather what I think the “moderate” thinks.
I certainly don’t dispute your own analysis.
I was thinking they were all there to audition for vice president but then I thought about that a bit. Christie definitely isn’t. Haley is going to walk out of it too tainted with anti-Trump factionism to be palatable to the likely Republican nominee. There’s really no point to nominating DeSantis. He’s spent years trying to be the slightly more hokey, slightly less bonkers Trump and very publicly failing at it. Ramaswamay sounds like he annoys everyone so he might rub Trump the wrong way. And on top of that, he sounds like he’s an actual businessman so he’d show up Trump in that regard. Trump’s ego couldn’t handle that.
So unless the GOP gets suddenly disillusioned with Trump as a result of his trials, I’m finding it hard to see any of these people having much to do with national politics a year from now.
The man is a liar then. He’s a conservative who wants less batshittery in the Republican party. If he was an actual political moderate then he’d happily find a home in the Democratic party. Yes, there are some progressive members, and a few more who are progressive in some areas, but as a whole? Corporate moderates.There are those who are damned well pretty much Reagan Republicans.
Of the 19 men involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 15 were Saudi citizens. So a piece of truth got stuck in there by Ramaswamy, golly.