The Traveling Political Circus Came To The Reagan Library
Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy: winners by not losing? Fit To Speak Host Eugene Obah answers and offers unsolicited advice to Haley and Ramaswamy
Amid the specter of a no-good, very bad circus of a government shutdown, which has been averted (well, for the next 45 days), the traveling circus of candidates—who have very little in common with the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan—came to California at the library that bears his name last week for the second debate (which was, just to point out, held the day before the September edition of Fit To Speak, which you can watch here).
It was not exactly mind-blowing television in the way that the first debate was in providing a sense of who could emerge as the alternative ringmaster to former U.S. President Donald Trump for the nomination—though it was mind-blowing in the sense that perhaps stand-up comedy should not be a viable career path for any of them.
Anyway, because the debate was, with some exceptions, coasted on neutral, by default, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy remain, as I mentioned in the August edition after the first debate, the candidates who have the best chance to emerge from the field. For both, they won the debate by not losing—they maintained their strong performances from the first debate. While Ramaswamy’s campaign is counterproductive—he was exposed on his business dealings in China, and further, if he really believed that Trump was the best president, he would not be running against him—I find that he, in a bit of a toned-down way (perhaps he was told between the first and second debates to take half a chill pill), continued to made his presence known, even if, like much of his fellow competitors, his views are unappealing to the general electorate.
Much hay has been made about him merely running to be Trump’s Vice President or being Trump 2.0, but that assumes that Trump will even be the nominee, of which there is no doubt that much of the media relishes a Trump/Biden rematch; after all, ratings is the primary motive for some as former CBS head honcho Les Moonves so aptly put it in 2016 (and, as an aside, when I pointed out as much, especially on last summer’s Fit To Speak: From The Archives, much of the mainstream media being complicit in Trump’s rise to the presidency, and dare I say even more so than Russia and the pariah that was RT America, a couple of folks looked at me as if I was a science exhibit with five heads). There is a hyper-focus on polls, but I am reminded of 2008, which, had the early polls held, the showdown would have been Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Giuliani.
We all know what happened.
Even Jeb(!) Bush was the frontrunner in 2016!
We all know what happened.
And remarkably, there was, unlike the last debate, applause when some of the other candidates, notably Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, attacked Trump for not being present at the debate, which gives greater credence to the notion that there are some, and perhaps a growing chorus, in the party looking for alternatives.
Tim Scott—if grading on a curve as I mentioned in August—did well in the first debate. This time, no curve necessary: not only did he get the first question, he also was much more present and was not afraid to engage some of the other candidates, notably fellow South Carolinian Haley (even if it was about curtains). The others were average to forgettable: Gov. Doug Burgum, who, to be fair, was not done any favors by the moderators—they directed very few questions to him and would not let him answer an energy policy question—deserves credit for getting himself in the conversations, as he probably realizes given the higher thresholds for the November 8 debate, he has a tough hill to climb to even be on that stage. Christie, as I have seen pointed out by some, is running for his legacy, not the presidency. And DeSantis, while he stopped yelling in this debate, he is still very much lost in the crowd—he really was supposed to be Trump without the baggage, but I saw nothing here that will reverse his seemingly diminishing fortunes.
Just as the recently-maligned Drew Barrymore benefited from Ellen DeGenereres’ departure from the daytime talk show genre, Haley and Ramaswamy stand to gain when the other circus participants exit stage left, and there will be pressure. If I were to advise either of their campaigns (perish the thought), they would gently pressure the others to drop out, and given that the Iowa Caucuses are coming in a little over three months, maybe, perhaps maybe, they will come to that realization.
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