Who Won the Debate Last Night?

 "Nikki Haley is a shrill, establishment harridan who kept playing the woman card. Speaking as a woman, I was not impressed. When she ridiculed Vivek Ramaswamy’s lack of foreign policy chops, all I could think of was that she’s someone who supports Biden’s foreign policy. What’s that say about her chops?"  Andrea Widberg

Some thoughts, all cynical and sour, about the Republican debate - Andrea Widberg  "So, I sat through all two hours of the debate amongst the Republican primary candidates, although I was very irked by Larry Elder’s absence. Having said that, he didn’t miss much. It was like watching a junior high school debate, complete with the cool kids asking stupid questions and the geeks fighting on the stage. I hated every minute of it, thought it was embarrassing for all involved, and found it insulting to the American voters.

"If you want details about questions and answers, you’ll find them elsewhere. These are just my impressions."

"As is the case every election cycle, the format is appalling. It caters to the media’s assumption that voters cannot hold anything in their brains for more than a minute or two. They think we’re stupid, and the format is set up to cater to that. It’s cruel to legitimate candidates to force them to address complex issues in one-minute soundbites, and it deprives the American people of important information. It’s such a degradation of real political debate." . . .  

Most importantly, every person on that stage other than Vivek believes that you just need to take the government and steer it correctly to fix things. They remind me of American communists who promise we’ll be nothing like the Soviet Union. “Communism,” they insist, “was just never done right.” Every candidate essentially said, “Big government can be done right.” Vivek is the only one who understands that it can’t, that it is fundamentally antithetical to liberty.

Who Won the Debate Last Night? (townhall.com)    . . ."Just left a debate watch event with a few hundred conservative Wisconsin voters. I asked for some show-of-hands responses, then worked the room for more context and color. A few takeaways:

- Notable positive response for Nikki Haley, especially from women

- DeSantis helped himself, particularly by highlighting his record of getting things done. Still lacks a lighter touch, but that’s just him

- Vivek polarizing. Some loved much of what he said, but also thought he was too glib and too cocky at times 

- People like Tim Scott, but thought he was flat 

- Some grudging respect for Pence and Christie on certain things, but no support 

- Burgum/Asa not a factor

- Trump fans in the house were unmoved from supporting him

"My bottom line: DeSantis & Haley may have gained some momentum, but the primary’s overall trajectory wasn’t noticeably altered, which is a win for the status quo…and therefore the far-ahead, no-show frontrunner.". . .

 DeSantis: High stakes, solid performance.  He steered nearly every question to his record, taking command on certain questions (his handling of the climate change raise-your-hand moment was intriguing) and accentuating his strengths.  Multiple good answers, no bad ones.  If I recall correctly, despite some needling and provocations, he never 'punched down' at anyone else, only attacking the Left.  That showed discipline.