Deus ex Machina.
The GOP candidates have given up. They are waiting for God to ride in on a chariot and fix things.
The five candidates on stage last night were actors in a play with a script leading to an unsatisfactory conclusion. Each wants to replace the lead character. He has star power, but he has legal and character problems, and they are getting worse. The five are no longer rivals in competition with the star. Now they are jockeying to be the top understudy. Three weeks ago in New Hampshire I heard each of these candidates telling Republicans they would be better than Trump to lead the party and serve as president. They did not do that last night. They had every opportunity.
The first question from the debate hosts was for each candidate to say why them and not Trump.
No one -- not even Chris Christie -- mentioned that Trump sounds like a raving mad man full of revenge as he makes tweets in the middle of the night. No one mentioned his dividing the GOP by labeling "RINO" everyone but sycophants. No one mentioned Trump carried out a plot to overturn an election to stay in office, and is under indictment for it. No one mentioned Trump's lawyers and top confidantes admit they were guilty of felonies when they assisted Trump to carry out a seditious conspiracy.
There were brief moments last night that are relevant if the divine machine steps in. Nikki Haley seemed like a normal GOP candidate, a hawk on Ukraine and Israel. She was deft enough to hear Vivek Ramaswamy's gibe about her being Liz Cheney in three-inch heels, and to parry it. They are five-inch heels, she said, and they are weapons. Ramaswamy mentioned Haley's daughter; she called him "scum" for doing so. Haley probably won the award for "best understudy."
Ramaswamy was the uber-provocateur. He called the GOP a party of "losers;" he said Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, should resign; and he insulted the NBC debate moderators for being there.
This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk. We’d have 10 times the viewership asking questions GOP primary voters actually care about. . . . Would the Democrats hire Greg Gutfeld to host a debate?
That was in in his opening statement. His closing statement included this:
End this farce that Joe Biden is going to be your nominee. He’s not even president of the United States. He’s a puppet for the managerial class. Be honest about who you’re going to put up. Joe Biden should step aside now and end his candidacy, so we can see — if it’s going to be Newsom or Michelle Obama or whoever else — just tell us the truth so we can have an honest debate.
Whew.
(Marketing and branding tip for NBC: NBC News probably hoped they would gain brownie points with GOP audiences for doing a debate with "team-Trump" Hugh Hewitt on stage, and broadcasting in cooperation with Rumble. Apparently not.)
Ron DeSantis was an younger, angrier, version of Trump, but without the fixation on the 2020 election. Tim Scott referenced growing up poor once again, and cited scripture in two different answers. Chris Christie completely backed off criticism of Trump, and now appears to be running for president in 2028 as the can-do former governor of New Jersey.
The 2024 nomination fight is over. Trump's rivals have given up trying to wrest leadership from his hands. The rivals can read the room. The GOP primary electorate is in love with Trump. The understudies-in-waiting recognize that either Zeus will do it, or no one will. Maybe a court will serve. Or a heart attack. Lightning might strike.
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16 comments:
More cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs from the GQP. Thanks for watching so that I didn't need to waste my time and spoil my appetite.
We should all thank Peter for watching and taking notes on last night's debate so the rest of us didn't have to.
I do wonder if Trump would show up for a debate with the Democratic nominee. It would be interesting if he didn't. He might be afraid to. He might be afraid of the questions. He might insist at approving the questions. No mention of his legal troubles, of course. That would not be allowed.
At least they got one thing right last night...Biden should step aside. That could backfire. A new younger Democrat could crush Trump as all the court dates pile up.
I do wonder if Tuesday's big Democrat win means anything. A year away is a lifetime in politics.
This debate was a good bit more substantive because this time being named didn't entitle one to a riposte, followed by a counter, and so on pell mell. Haley and DeSantis were solid. No, the 2024 nomination fight is not over. Juris ex machina, perhaps?
The polls may not predict the future, but they do make it clear that none of those people have a chance. Republicans have already decided the traitor with 91 felony counts against him better represents their values. Maybe the folks on stage last night are jockeying to be VP. Except for Christie, of course. He’s probably one of the first Trump would try to have arrested by “his” DOJ.
"If you are a Democrat that wants to criticize and go after Joe Biden, our president, go ahead and write a check for Trump." U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), Nov. 5, 2023, in Iowa at a Democratic fundraiser
I predict that Fetterman will be a contender for president in the future, if he can avoid any more serious health problems.
Isn't it interesting how the haters fail to give President Biden, leader of the Democratic Party, CREDIT when he (We) wins and when Democrats win (the D nomination, 2020, 2022 and 2023)? No matter what, haters gonna hate. They are as sick in their minds as the GQP. They need help.
Correction: John Fetterman made his comments on Saturday, November 4, 2023. He was speaking at the Iowa Democratic Party's annual Liberty and Justice Celebration fundraiser.
Other comments by Senator Fetterman:
"We have to come together and re-elect Joe Biden. He is your president, he's my president. He is our guy."
"...I'm here to tell you, you know, he is a strong, decent, committed dude."
Regarding James Carville, "Respectfully, respectfully, from one ugly bald guy to another, shut the eff up!"
President Biden "deserves another chance to make sure to take Trump out with the trash for good."
Source: The Gazette, November 5, 2023 (online)
Meanwhile, as the runners-up jockey for position, the Nov. 17 deadline looms for our next government shutdown. And what are House Republicans doing about it? They’re busy passing legislation that cuts the salaries of people they don’t like to $1. Nothing will come of it, of course. but it makes a statement: “Yes, folks, we’re as crazy as Trump and if you expect us to govern, so are you.”
It will clearly be Nikki Haley if a miracle happens and it turns out not to be Trump.
🤞
CLAIM: Nikki Haley claimed Ukraine is a “democracy” during the GOP primary debate on Wednesday.
VERDICT: Misleading. Although Ukraine emerged after the dissolution of the Soviet Union as an unstable democracy, since the Ukrainian war began in 2022, Ukraine took steps away from operating as a democracy.
Those steps taken by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky include five measures:
Canceling elections
Censoring non-state media
Suspending opposition parties
Effectively banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Placing priests under house arrest
I have a better quote than Fetterman's about James Carville: Someone I forget said "Carville looks like the love child from the rape scene in 'Deliverance.'"
Brilliant.
They also found time to trash the 1st Amendment Rights of Representative Rashida Tlaib (D, Michigan) by censureing her for her remarks in the Israeli/Hamas war going in. Anything to deflect from their inability to Govern. Oh, Comer of Kentucky has issued a Subpoena of Hunter Biden, still trying to find a crime the President may have committed.
DeSepsis was trying out his different approach to appearing human
Closer, but still no cigar.
I heard something interesting about this debate on the 538 podcast:
During the previous debate, every time Vivek Ramaswamy was speaking, there was a peak in searches for his name on Google. During this debate, there was no such peak.
They interpreted this to mean that during the previous debate people were getting acquainted with Ramaswamy, but by now everyone who cared knew what they needed to know. Combined with Ramaswamy‘s recent drop in the polls, they concluded that he only had novelty appeal, and was not going to make any progress going forward.
Given how obnoxious and dumb* Ramaswamy is, I was very glad to hear this analysis.
* Ramaswamy may be smart in some other areas, but he is clearly as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to politics and appealing to people.
Ramaswami is a dark-skinned Hindu, which has to appeal to the GOP's White Christian Nationalist base, no matter how crazy he is.
Wish I could post cool memes on this blog,
I have one that shows Biden with his dark glasses and his fist up.
It says "I may be old, but I get shit done"!
Haley clearly loathes him, and I think most everybody on yhat stage is following her lead. I can't figure out why her has enough followers tocqualify for these high school food fights.
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