by Sandy » Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:42 am
Honestly, until the first couple of primaries thins the field down to the serious contenders, it is going to be a circus, because the serious candidates are going to be compelled to keep responding to, and stepping around the piles left by the clowns. You can't have a "debate" with 10 candidates, and moderators who are basically their personal cheerleaders, allowing them to bypass serious questions and go to their talking points.
So let's be honest, and have a discussion.
1. There was nothing of substance brought out in the debate. There was no time, and the questions weren't geared toward asking questions to get a response with substance.
2. The only real distinction between eight of the ten candidates that I observed was that Rand Paul is sincerely and genuinely a libertarian, and his views certainly put him in the same category as his father. The end result will be similar, though I don't know if he will be content being the perpetual fringe Republican every four years.
3. Trump certainly distinguished himself. If the GOP leadership gets anything out of this debate, they need to pay careful attention to this, and consider this debate performance by Trump as a code red warning. Donald is running for President, and he will either run on their ticket, or he will run on his own. Personal opinion, but I think his aim is to weaken the field by knocking down any other Republican who has a shot at the nomination, and then either taking the spot himself, or if they won't hand it over to him, he will have made sure there is no viable candidate on the right.
4. Warning number 2. The campaign theme better improve and be different than "Obama bad, bad, bad." Yeah, it grinds on their nerves that he doesn't think like they do on social policy, but 70% of the electorate these days doesn't give a tinker's dam about social policy. The under 35 voting block that only shows up for Presidential elections, and gave Obama almost 70% of their votes last time around, won't take kindly to that, they'll want to see some substance, and not the same old themes that have given the Democrats a majority of the vote in five out of the last six elections. Trump has achieved one goal. The Republicans needed to motivate Latino voters, and he certainly has motivated them for the Democrats. So politics as usual isn't going to cut it. Kasich seemed to be the only candidate last night that got that message.
I would welcome a discussion that would include valid reasons why I would want to elect a Republican to the presidency in 2016, that is not based on the political rhetoric the right has been harping on since before the 2012 election.