I was curious to watch the first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign to get a better feel of whom the Republicans might conceivably nominate besides Donald Trump.
Although Trump’s self-imposed absence from the stage made the event less compelling to watch, it was helpful to not have the former president there. The eight challengers didn’t have to compete with the spotlight-hogging former president for attention, and thus got more camera time than they otherwise would have.
You can’t judge too much based on two hours of sometimes scripted remarks, but my takeaway is that the Republicans have several reasonable alternatives to Trump, if the party will just come to its senses.
An unreasonable alternative is the one who got probably the most camera time and led the next day’s headlines: Vivek Ramaswamy.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who six months ago seemed like a vanity candidate, is now running third in the polls. Beats me why.
I found him tiresome. Smug and immature, he’s the kind of person who believes he’s the smartest person in the room and wants everybody to know it. His denial of climate change and his stance on Ukraine — essentially to let the Russians take the country — were almost as appalling as his hero worship of Trump.
If Ramaswamy truly believes that a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted Trump “was the best president of the 21st century,” then why should America replace the real thing with a 38-year-old wannabe?
Not much better was Ron DeSantis, who going into the race was supposed to be Trump’s main challenger but has been slipping further and further behind.
DeSantis also would sacrifice Ukraine, ignoring how that would endanger other American allies in Europe and potentially lead to an escalating war that would require the U.S. to send in troops to challenge Vladimir Putin’s ambitions and his barbarism.
The Florida governor dodged several questions, and at a couple crucial moments in the debate waited to see what others did or said before responding. He seemed particularly uncomfortable about saying anything that might set off Trump or the former president’s diehard supporters. Although the Fox moderators also went lightly on Trump, waiting halfway into the program before asking their first question about him, DeSantis acted as if that was too much.
Of the remaining six on stage, I’d rate their performance in this order:
Nikki Haley: The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador did come across as truly the smartest person in the room.
She was right on target about the global imperative of supporting Ukraine, was even-handed in her blame for the nation’s onerous debt, and was realistic about the chances of Congress passing a law that would restrict abortion nationwide.
She made her arguments forcefully but without being obnoxious.
Mike Pence: Most of the former vice president’s aggression was directed at the wrong person, the brash Ramaswamy. The target should have been his former boss, who thought lynching the vice president might not be such a bad idea.
Pence can’t seem to make up his mind whether to criticize Trump or still be deferential to him.
Pence has the experience and the temperament to be a reasonably good president, but he can’t shake the devil’s bargain he made when he decided that his best route to the White House was by hitching on to Trump’s chaotic and unprincipled wagon.
Chris Christie: The former New Jersey governor has distinguished himself during the early stages of the campaign as being the most willing to say that Trump, by his behavior following the 2020 loss, has shown himself unworthy of a second term.
Christie kept that line up during the debate, even when the pro-Trump audience in Milwaukee tried to drown him out with boos.
But what was that flinch when Christie halfway raised his hand to the question of whether he would support a convicted Trump as the GOP nominee?
Asa Hutchinson: In a stage crowded with six current or former governors, the former chief executive of Arkansas came across as one of the most reasoned and dignified. He also showed the most backbone, being the only one to say unequivocally that he would not support Trump as the nominee if convicted of a felony.
A former federal prosecutor, Hutchinson spoke up for respecting the rule of law, including the laws that apply to a former president. Republicans could use a tutorial on that point.
Hutchinson, though, is the wrong age. This country has gotten in a bad pattern of electing presidents who are past their physical and cognitive prime. Replacing an 80-year-old Biden or a 77-year-old Trump with a 72-year-old Hutchinson would not be generational change.
Tim Scott: The South Carolina senator should have stood out as the only African American on stage, but he didn’t. Haley, the lone woman, and Ramaswamy, the lone political novice, won the novelty prizes.
Maybe Scott was too polite to barge in and throw elbows, but it left him as an afterthought.
Doug Burgum: The North Dakota governor is not long for this race. He and Hutchinson were on the opposite wings of the stage for a reason: Their candidacies have not caught on.
Burgum, though, did make a good argument against federal overreach. He said that even though he comes from a state with a strict abortion ban, Congress should let each state decide its own abortion policy. After all, he asked, wasn’t that the goal of the 50-year fight to overturn Roe v. Wade?
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
