1.
Carly Fiorina won the debate! Well, that's
the conservative establishment's line, and the traditional media is all too happy to play along.
With Jeb Bush and Scott Walker collapsing, and with Chris Christie failing to have any impact, the establishment is desperate to find an alternative to Donald Trump, and they've clearly settled on Fiorina. Thus, it was obvious they'd declare her the winner regardless of her performance. It was a narrative they'd decided on long before the debate took place.
2. Donald Trump lost! See #1 above, regarding pre-determined narratives. Now it's true that Trump looked and sounded like shit last night, but try and put yourself in the shoes of a Trump supporter. Did anything Trump do last night alienate those supporters?
Being a braggadocio asshole with poor command of the issues hasn't been a hindrance to his candidacy so far, so why would it hurt him after last night? If anything, having everyone gang up on him could fuel his feelings of victimhood, that everyone is out to get him. And they are! Thus making it an easy theme to use to rally his supporters.
More below the fold.
3. Ben Carson stumbled. That's me saying that, not the media. Politico wrote that Carson "floated like a butterfly - and didn't get stung by the bees." Yet his two most memorable exchanges (to me, at least) came when 1) he tried to stand up to Trump on vaccines, only to retreat in the end, meekly conceding that maybe kids could receive fewer vaccines, and 2) when he went head-to-head against Christie on the best response to 9-11. Carson argued that sometimes, the best response to such attacks require the use of intellect, while Christie ranted, spittle flying, that the only response was to kill Muslims.
Carson's was obviously the better answer, but he's running in the Republican primary, with an electorate more prone to Christie's approach than anything requiring intellect or nuance.
4. Enemies everywhere! The first hour of debate was all about those crazy Russians, the greatest threat facing America! I missed part of the next hour for parenting reasons. When I tuned back in, they were all ranting about those Muslims, the greatest threat facing America!
Then there was all the Iran talk, the greatest threat facing America too! Oh, and the MARIJUANA, which was also the greatest threat to our children. (Boy did Rand Paul sit out on a limb on that one! And on the Middle East wars stuff too.)
It's so sad to see conservatives so desperate to be afraid. Take away an external boogeyman and conservative ideology stumbles. That's why they work so hard at creating new ones. And yet their record on such matters is poor. Note Jeb Bush claiming that his brother "kept us safe", following that Republican tradition of forgetting who was in office during the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history. And yet, how many mass terrorist attacks have we suffered during the Obama years? Far fewer than right-wing terrorist attacks, that's for sure.
Also, it was interesting that not a single candidate, during the 9-11 discussion, had the balls to note that George Bush took the nation to war against the wrong enemy. Not a single one.
5. Jeb Bush is the dumb one. I used to be certain that of the Bush brothers, George was the dumb one. But the more we see of Jeb, the more we realize that idiocy is a family trait. Yet Jeb lacks the jovial frat-boy charm that his younger brother had (and appealed to the kind of people who are into frat-boy "charm"). So all the stupidity, and none of the social skills? That doesn't add up to much of a package. I'm finally starting to understand why his candidacy sits in the gutter.
6. Everyone else. Mike Huckabee is pathetically trying to ride a Kentucky county clerk to the White House. So did Rick Santorum in the kids table debate. Marco Rubio is trying to own national security as his issue, with none of the gravitas that pulling it off would require. Chris Christie certainly had no shortage of spittle, but neither do his opponents. I honestly can't remember if anyone else was on stage... let me look it up. Oh, Scott Walker! Try as I might, I can't remember a single line he delivered. Same with Kasich. Maybe there were more, but who cares?
7. I wish we had Democratic debates. They would likely be more fun to talk about than this shit.