My favorite tweet about Vivek Ramaswamy’s performance at tonight’s GOP debate came from conservatvie William Kristol:
Vivek Ramaswamy has no political experience. Tonight it showed:
Ramaswamy’s schtick works well on cable news, but tonight he made every candidate on the stage look presidential. At times he sounded like a Trump mouthpiece. When Ramaswamy started talking about “dark moments” I had flashbacks to Trump’s inaugural address with its references to American “carnage.” Yet the crowd loved him. Welcome to the 2023 GOP.
Here are tonight’s winners:
Mike Pence: I thought Pence won his exchanges with Ramaswamy. Now I hope he gets a chance to go after Trump on the stage. The discussion about Pence’s decision to obey the Constitution on January 6th revealed, once again, that he is a man of integrity (at least on the Jan. 6 issue–I still think a man of integrity does not stand dutifully behind Donald Trump for four years.) But integrity is not enough to win the presidency in 2024. Pence was open about accepting “Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior” tonight. Back in 2000, when George W. Bush said in an early debate that Jesus was his favorite philosopher he all but sealed the support of conservative evangelicals. Pence was a GOP congressman, governor, and vice-president. He has much more political experience than Bush had in 2000. But when Pence says Jesus is his savior he polls at 5%. Times have changed.
Nikki Haley: She took on Trump tonight more than Chris Christie did. Her exchange with Ramaswamy on foriegn policy and Putin scored points. I think her and Christie are in the same lane right now. Haley would make a competitive general election candidate, but she has no real chance of getting the nomination.
Doug Burgum: He came across as the most sensible candidate on the stage and at times he sounded like he was speaking a different kind of political language with his appeals to small town values. Moreover, anybody who can debate on one leg deserves respect. I don’t think we will see Burgum again on the debate stage unless he buys a lot more gift cards.
Here are tonight’s losers:
Tim Scott: He seemed invisible for most of the debate. The Fox News moderators threw him a softball when they asked him to talk about the role of faith in America, but he used the opportunity to talk about education. This was a missed opportunity.
Ron DeSantis: He did fine, but he just too stiff and robotic. We will not be talking much about him tomorrow.