My Takeaways From The First Republican Debate

"Tropical Depression" 
by Patti Liszkay
available it on Amazon:
https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

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​MY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE FIRST REPUBLICAN DEBATE

        The first Republican Presidential candidates' primary debate is - in showbiz lingo - in the can, and for the past couple of days all the media commentators have been serving up their takeaways from Wednesday night's event. And so I figured I'd join the crowd and serve up mine.

​   1. Praise be that Donald Trump wasn't up on that stage. 
     Not that the candidates didn't get all up in each other's grilles from time to time - Vivek Ramaswamy  was most often on the receiving end of a smack-down from his fellow candidates,

​​…but then, in truth, young Master Ramaswamy had it coming, he was being such an annoying, yakkity little ChatGPTbot, as Chris Christie called him in one of Christie's finer moments.

       Still, in truth, it was kind of relief to see a group of Republicans on stage being mostly civil - or semi-civil - to each other (except to Ramaswamy who, again, had it coming), stating their cases, treating this as a serious endeavor, without Donald Trump up there sucking up all the oxygen, trash-talking and squashing everyone else on the stage, making a mockery of the whole event and turning into one big, ridiculous Trumpapalooza.
         Thank the Lord we were at least spared that spectacle.

          2. Not one Republican Presidential candidate cares anything about the climate crisis
          When asked about abortion, all of the Republican candidates spoke long and passionately, with heat and heart, on what is obviously their number one priority: banning abortions. They also went to town hot and heavy on the subject of Donald Trump. And barely a sentence was uttered the whole night that didn't contain the words "protect our southern border." 
         But when the debate moderator brought up the devastating Maui fire, the hurricanes and floods that ravaged California, and the deadly national heat wave, and when a young man chosen from the audience told the candidates that climate change was the biggest concern of young people and asked the candidates how they would calm young people's fears that the Republican Party doesn’t care about climate change, the response from all the candidates was...a shrugging group meh. It's China's fault. It's Biden's fault. Nothing we can do about it. Most of the candidates whiffed the question or changed the subject to the economy or our southern border. 
              None of the eight candidates had anything much to say about the most dangerous, pressing threat not only to this country but to the whole world. All except for Vivek Ramaswamy, who was the only one who did have something concrete to say about climate change:

            Which justified the fear of the young man from the  audience - and the fear of us all - that the Republican Party doesn't care about climate change.     
         
             If I absolutely had to vote for one of the Republican candidates...
             I came away from the debate feeling that if I absolutely had to vote for one of the candidates who was up on that stage, based on what I saw during this first debate, I'd vote for Nikki Haley.          

       It's not that I agreed with most of her platform. But at least she had a well-thought-out platform. I got the impression that she was more honest - and fearless - than the lot of them. She came across as savvy and well-spoken, but in no way a mouth-runner, unlike certain other high-profile members of her party, 

  ...too numerous to mention.
        But what most impressed me about Nikki Haley was her remark on the subject of abortion that, though she herself was pro-life, she would not pursue a federal ban on abortion, as she knew it would never pass in the Senate. Could we not, instead, she said, find issues that we could come to a consensus on? 
         For this suggestion she garnered the rebuke from perennially holier-than-thou Mike Pence that consensus is not leadership.
          But I, for one, believe it is.

           4. Ron Desantis pretty much fizzled
         Really, you hardly noticed the guy the whole time. Finally given a nationally televised platform, DeSantis seemed not to have much to say. This shot of him looking like he's trying to look like he belongs there while Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy duke it out on either side of him pretty much sums up his whole night.

           
​            5. All the guys wore blue suits, white shirts, and red ties.

         All I could think was that this had to be in homage to You-Know-Who, whose attire of choice is invariably that color combo,

...but who, during his debate-snub interview with Tucker Carlson, chose to wear a different outfit LOL.

      It likewise struck me that Nikki Haley did not feel the need to wear the Trumpian blue white and red, or, even more interesting, the requisite flag pin on her lapel.

            Bold sartorial move that, I thought.

           
​            6. Vivek Ramaswamy is a maniac

       He is a 38-year-old hyperkinetic ChatGPT-esque Donald Trump Mini-Me. I did not know this about Vivek Ramaswamy until I saw his performance (or mayhaps it was performance art) on the debate stage. The thought of him getting anywhere near the White House should give everyone the willies.
           But there were, thought I, seven other people up on that stage who came across looking more capable of running the country than Vivek Ramaswamy did. (Well, make hat six - Ron DeSantis didn't come across too well). 
        However, after the debate a CNN commentator polled a Republican focus group of people from Iowa who watched the event. 

      When the participants were asked who they thought won the debate, two thought DeSantis won, four thought Nikki Haley won, and seven chose as the winner...Vivek Ramaswamy.

Reference:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/08/24/voters-focus-group-republican-debate-vpx.cnn