I apologize this was going to be my lead post of the day but events in Russia made it less important.

The first debate of the announced GOP candidates, all but one, his royal highness Lord Donald, who decided to skip the first debate.

Although I am not now or have I ever supported a GOP candidate I had to watch the Show of Shows, theater of the absurd if for nothing else to see where the tone of the campaigns will be in the upcoming dash to the nomination.

I watched so my readers did not have to bother themselves. (You are welcome)

Sit back and enjoy the silliness…..

Eight Republican candidates not named Trump were trying to break out in the first Republican debate Wednesday night in Milwaukee. In the early going, 38-year-old entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took flak a number of times. Details:

• “Let me just address a question that is on everybody’s mind at home tonight,” Ramaswamy said in his introduction, per the AP. “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?” He defended being inexperienced politically and said an “outsider” was needed, as opposed to “professional politicians,” per the Washington Post.
• Mike Pence: “Now is not the time for on-the-job training,” he said during an exchange with Ramaswamy, per the New York Times. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in people without experience.”

The first hour of the Wednesday night Republican debate was largely devoid of the topic of Donald Trump. That changed in hour two, however, as the Fox News moderators asked about the absent frontrunner. At one point, the specific question was posed: Did Mike Pence do the right thing when he refused to go along with Trump’s request to refuse to certify the election results? Some highlights:

• Ron DeSantis: He would not initially answer the question and said the focus should be on 2024, not 2020. When pressed by Pence himself, DeSantis said, “Mike did his duty, I’ve got no beef with him,” per the New York Times.
• Chris Christie: “Mike Pence stood for the Constitution,” he said, offering the strongest praise. “And he deserves, not grudging credit, he deserves our thanks as Americans for putting his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States before personal, political, and unfair pressure.”
• Tim Scott: “Absolutely, he did the right thing,” said Scott, per CNN.
• Nikki Haley: “I do think he did the right thing. We need to give him credit for that. But she added, “We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”
• Doug Burgum: “Mike Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6.”
• Pence: Trump “asked me to put him over the Constitution,” the former vice president said. “I chose the Constitution and I always will.”

When the topic of Donald Trump emerged in the second hour of the first GOP debate, the Fox News moderators asked the eight candidates on stage to raise their hands if they would support Trump as the nominee even if he is convicted of a crime. Only Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson opted not to do so, reports Politico. (Christie did actually seem to raise his hand, but he explained he was wagging his fist.) That prompted some fireworks between Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy:

• Ramaswamy: “Let’s just speak the truth. President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. It’s a fact.” He said the campaign of Christie is based solely on “vengeance and grievance” against the former president.
• Christie: He said Trump’s “conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.” When he was met by loud boos (including when he said Ramaswamy made him laugh), he told the crowd: “This is the great thing about this country; booing is allowed, but it doesn’t change the truth.” He also said of Trump: “Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” per CNN.
• Hutchinson: Though he said he couldn’t pledge to support Trump, Hutchinson cited a somewhat technical reason: that Republican National Committee rules would prohibit backing Trump should he be convicted, per the New York Times. He also noted that some conservative scholars have suggested that Trump already is disqualified from running again. The crowd booed his answer.
• Pardon? Ramaswamy challenged Mike Pence to pledge to pardon Trump on day one of his presidency, as he would. Pence said only that as president, he would give fair consideration to any pardon requests, per the Washington Post.

As usual this was not a debate but rather a verbal slugfest and as usual no signs of anyone with guts or a spine was on the stage.

With that said we Americans need winners and losers…..so who did…..

Without former President Trump on stage, the eight “underdogs” taking part in the first Republican presidential primary debate Wednesday in Milwaukee had the opportunity to “differentiate themselves in the field,” reports the New York Times. Many seized on the chance and “at certain points, you could see a flash of an old kind of pre-Trump Republican Party debate, deliberating over government spending, illegal immigration, and foreign policy,” per Vox. Still, “the debate had the feel of an undercard,” per CNN. Indeed, many pundits see the former president and frontrunner as the clear winner of the night. Views on four key candidates:

• Ron DeSantis: A strong early candidate who has lately floundered, the Florida governor had “the most to prove and the most to lose” and in the end “seemed like the apparent leader,” having touted his successes while largely evading attacks from his rivals, per the Times. However, “his monotonous responses didn’t inspire much of a response from the audience either,” per Vox. According to the Washington Post, DeSantis needed to make a splash, but didn’t and “ceded center stage to [Vivek] Ramaswamy for most of the night.”
• Vivek Ramaswamy: Much criticism was directed at the political newbie who’s risen to third place in recent polls, but he was “unfazed,” per the Post. He actually seemed “to enjoy being attacked as much as he appeared to relish going after experienced candidates over their records,” per the Times. He was highly visible and spoke often, which made him a “big winner” in the eyes of Republican lobbyist David Urban. But his “Trump-lite grenade-slinging schtick grew tedious” and “he started to get booed with more frequency after he declared that climate change was a ‘hoax,'” per Vox.
• Nikki Haley: The former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the UN “stood out … as a voice of reason,” particularly when she challenged Ramaswamy’s lack of foreign policy experience, per the Times. She spoke up on abortion, stressing the effect political decisions have on women, which made her deserving of “a second look,” according to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. She was also “first to criticize Trump by name” and “one of the few candidates to acknowledge that climate change is real,” per CNN. She “presented the most compelling vision of an alternative Republican politics, at least for a general election,” per the Economist.
• Trump: “It could scarcely have turned out better for [Trump],” per the Post. The big risk in not participating was being unable to defend himself against attacks. But the candidates largely ignored him and Ramaswamy frequently defended him. The biggest shots came when former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claimed Trump’s conduct was “beneath the office of the president” and Haley criticized nearly $8 trillion of federal spending during his presidency. Still, “no candidate emerged as a clear alternative,” making Trump “the clear winner,” per Vox.
• Others: In attacking Trump and sparring with Trump’s defender Ramaswamy, Christie ran afoul of the crowd of 4,000, who drowned him out with boos, per CNN. Neither former Vice President Mike Pence nor South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott “really showed much,” per the Post. Scott “was largely a spectator,” while “Pence tried to make the case that he is the tried-and-true conservative in the race, but he seemed to be making a case to a Republican Party that doesn’t really exist anymore.”

This whole process was about as thrilling as watching flies mate.

Now aren’t you glad that there is a politics nerd to help you in this time of comic reactions?

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