The Debates

[D-train]

Can't wait. Who else is watching?

[maoling]

I'll watch. More than anything, the Republicans need a candidate who can get that POS Biden and the Democrat clown car out of office. In a way, I don't care which candidate or ticket that is. But this shit-show of the most corrupt and inept administration I've ever seen has to end.

I'm not sure Trump can carry the freight in this election given how divisive he is and how disgracefully Biden has weaponized the legal system to keep him tied up and under fire during the campaign. But I don't think his ego will allow him to fall on his sword and endorse another Republican who can defeat Biden, particularly in a close election, which the Dems know how to steal and will make every effort to do imho.

I like Vivek, nice to see someone with brains. I also like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott. No fan of Pence, Christie...

Right now, I'm just praying that whoever it is, it is anybody but fucking Joe Biden, who to me is guilty of treason.

[D-train]

The thing that struck me is that everyone on the debate stage was about 17 trillion x more impressive the than dipshit shit scum bag brain dead Biden.

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

I did watch them.
Still like Viveck and Desantis. Nikki performed pretty well too.

Scott still says the exact same thing he has for the last 4 years....nothing new.
Christie is a fat bloated dislikable piece of shit.
Pence is trying to act like Trump and failing.
The rest need to drop out.

[maoling]

Yup, Christie is like the fat kid in school who was the obnoxious asshole everyone shot spitwads at or put Bengay in his jockstrap in gym class.

[maoling]

He has no chance, but I liked Doug Burgum also last night.

Vivek came off a little glib to me, a little too slick, but they were beating on him lol. Pence is a corpse, DeSantis does nothing for me, Christie is a pig, Tim Scott is likeable but not much substance. I like Nikki, and thought Asa Hutchinson wasn't bad also.

[D-train]

He has no chance, but I liked Doug Burgum also last night.

Vivek came off a little glib to me, a little too slick, but they were beating on him lol. Pence is a corpse, DeSantis does nothing for me, Christie is a pig, Tim Scott is likeable but not much substance. I like Nikki, and thought Asa Hutchinson wasn't bad also.

Good description of Vivek. My opinion of him declined a bit. Not a lot but it did go down. Just too over the top and I hated that his close was just reciting his commandments. Talk to the American people, don't read a list they can all read later because you think it is clever.

Pence had a good night but is WAY too religious citing Bible verses is insane even in a GOP primary situation. He also doesn't get that being an outsider or a "rookie" is a good thing.

I actually thought DeSantis did well. For me he is a happy medium between an outsider and a guy with experience turning a Blue state red and and taking on the Woke clowns. As a Governor he has executive experience but no connection to the DC swamp. Military service as well. Strong presence and presidential looking.

Agree on Christie. Sorry, appearances count, especially his weight. If you can't manage your weight, how are you going to manage the country. Also he is WAY too anti Trump and came off sounding self righteous and preachy.

Scott was pretty good but can't believe he said he was going to break the backs of the Teacher's union. I actually totally agree with him but there are tens of millions of people that are either teachers, have friends or relatives that are teacher or are people that loved their teachers when they were students. People will take that as anti teacher and he can't win with that stance.

Haley was good but again, and I fully admit being insanely superficial, she looked like hell. I don't know if it was the lighting or her makeup or I have set the bar as my sweet hot angel Kristi. I liked that she pointed out they were virtue signaling and full of shit promising a national ban on abortion. Will never be one and that is a good thing.

Biggest thing I didn't like was her Margaret Thatcher quote about getting men if you want things said and getting women if you want things done. So lame and complete nonsense. But then like 15 minutes later she talks about dropping her husband off for a military Tour of duty. So is he not going to get anything done and will just be saying stuff the whole time he is on active duty???

I like Burgum as well and he had a few nice little moments but if you are at 1% you have to stand out or drop out. He should do the latter.

Asa was fine but is just a cookie cutter Politician spewing out canned stuff and him focusing on how Trump will likely be ineligible to run was just dumb.

All in all a good debate and I would rank them like this atm:

DeSantis
Vivek
Scott
Haley
Pence
Burgum
Asa
Christie

[Cascade Kid]

This is a much better field of candidates than what was rolled out in 2016.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a great debater and he loved to debate during his time at Harvard. He was amazing at being prompt about his position with supporting and pardoning Trump, showing that, right or wrong, he is confident in his own opinions. Meanwhile the others on the panel literally waiting to hear the audience's response before either pledging support or speaking about Trump and Jan. 6th.

What I liked most about Vivek Ramaswamy is how the Libertarian still shines out of him. He is willing to significantly cut the size of government including shutting down three letter agencies that are designed to control Americans.

What I don't like about Vivek is that he supports further limitations on voting age unless young voters either serve in the military or take an exam similar to the immigration exam. This is shows that he is also the opposite of being Libertarian, which makes me question if he's for more government control or eliminating governement control. Additionally, his position on foreign policies is complacent and he's simplifying very dynamic situations that could further embolden Russia and China. And about his position on police support... I like that he's all for supporting law enforcement, but I do believe sworn officers of the law should be held accountable for violating the rights of the People. So police officers should be 'looking over their shoulders' and know that they have to not only enforce laws but are sworn to follow them themselves.

And lastly, Vivek is a vegetarian and is a strongly against the killing of animals for "culinary pleasure". Since I eat a 100% carnivore diet, I find it personally dangerous to have someone like Vivek in the executive office and possibly handfeeding the food industry on policies to support ways that could replacement meat and push a vegan agenda. I'm sure this seems silly to most that will read this remark, but if researched more about human carnivores it would share some perspective.

I think Vivek Ramaswamy is positioning himself moreso as a VP running mate for Trump in a faceoff against DeSantis, but only if DeSantis can step it up against Ramaswamy. Otherwise it would make an interesting primary seeing Ramaswamy v Trump or if Ramaswamy would just rollover and bow to Trump.

Ron DeSantis was strong everywhere he needed to be. He didn't do anything outstanding to gap the candidate field, but he showed his strength through his resume of actually facing and succeeding against matters that concern American's most. He did hold a couple reservations when it came to Trump, but I don't think it is because he's indecisive or trying to hurt Trump politically. I think there are many questionable antics by Trump that do have many Americans holding their reservations about the former President.

Though I was hoping to come away with more, what I liked about DeSantis is his track record in Florida and that his track record got him reelected in a landslide victory. He was great at handling Covid and lowering crime in Florida. He is more in touch with his constituents than any current leader in our country holding a government position. I also liked that he is willing to take on extreme liberal Judge's that sit on a bench and release dangerous criminals. The Florida governor didn't seem very extreme on foreign policy either way, and this is likely due to the fact that he understands how dynamic the situation is in Europe and Asia. However, he's willing to pullback on our financial support of Ukraine and put more of the burden on Europe to step it up and protect its territorial interests better than it currently does.

What I didn't like about DeSantis was that he didn't do much to take any additional steps forward as a top candidate. Yet, otherwise, he didn't do much to hurt himself in the debate either.

Nikki Haley was pretty good and strong at times. But she got caught around the axel a bit with trying to bash Ramaswamy over policy. Thought I think Haley wasn't wrong when it comes to her opinion on foreign policy, she should've been better prepared to rebut her opinions on foreign policy, especially since she served as the US ambassador to the UN. Unfortunately she came in with pull up jump shots when it came to foreign matters, rather than being prepared enough to completely posterize the candidate field.

The former VP Pence was what I expected, just a talking head honed by decades of government exposure. He projected himself as a "business as usual" politician. It's obvious to me why Trump took him in as his VP running mate since Pence is well versed in the political process. I do think Pence would give the incumbent Biden a run for his money, but I don't think his business as usual approach is going to sway the breadth of the voting share to absolute win a general election. Unless Pence changes his approach in the next debate I don't think he should keep mudding the field in the 3rd debate. I do really like that Pence stood his ground against Trump when Trump asked him to invalidate votes.

I was largely impressed with the rest of the field. They are all very smart candidates and were great with how they handled their debate points. I think Burgum projected himeself as a little bit of dark horse candidate. He seemed very prepared and well spoken. Christie was good at keeping his composure during the debate even when he was met with boos when opposing Ramaswamy or Trump. The problem with Christie is that he will aways eventually revert with whichever way the wind blows; just not a good trait for the strong leader America needs. The rest of the field may as well pack it up, call it a day, and go write a book or something. Though I think most candidates had more hits than misses on the questions asked during the debate, none of them stood out, with Tim Scott being the front runner in this tier IMO.

In the coming debates I'd like to hear more about candidate's positions on the 2nd Amendment and the proposed Balanced Budget Amendment.

It will be interesting how well the field of candidates will hold up in a less friendly hosted forum of debate. I suspect DeSantis and Ramaswamy will continue to accelerate and handle the curvy path into the primaries. And unless Trump is lawfully disqualified to hold a seat in office, IMO it will be DeSantis or Ramaswamy v Trump in nearly all primaries aside from some likely home state winners.

It should be an exciting 14 months if you enjoy following politics.

[maoling]

Haley was good but again, and I fully admit being insanely superficial, she looked like hell. I don't know if it was the lighting or her makeup or I have set the bar as my sweet hot angel Kristi. I liked that she pointed out they were virtue signaling and full of shit promising a national ban on abortion. Will never be one and that is a good thing.


Yeah, they grow them hot in SoDak. That's why I married one.

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news ... popup=true

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

Personally, I thought the worst thing said was by Vivek:
I'm up here with a bunch of "Paid For Politicians".

That implies that everyone except his is dirty.

I felt that comment was a little low-brow. He needs to act better than that the next debate.