The First Republican Debate

Random debate thoughts.

1) Wow. Republicans are very confident and very conservative. They were falling all over themselves to take the most extreme positions. (Which made the debate very entertaining.) Politicians used to whip up a slavering mob; now they ARE a slavering mob.

2) Not everyone slavers equally well. Trump hangs around because he's got great off speed stuff; when he admitted he was kind of a jerk and that Bush was a gentleman, it really cut against expectations. Kasich, Carson, and Rubio all managed a bit of this. Cruz and Walker went down in flames.

3) The media is giving Rubio and Kasich the win, with an acknowledgement that Trump is not going anywhere. But I wonder whether the GOP base will warm to Kasich. He is by far the biggest threat in the general. An impressive, real guy. Carson's a wild card, too.

4) Huckabee has gotten very sour and is a total goner. His big thing was likeability, the happy warrior thing, and now he's just nasty. Walker is not ready for prime time. He could survive in a year like 2012 against Newt and Santorum, but not in this field. The media absolutely despises Christie. I thought he was doing all right, but the news will be that he crashed. And that news, though wrong, will come true. Rand is also done.

5) Jeb, Jeb, Jeb. I think he's in big trouble. He's not ready to defend his positions nor his family, and he's not a good enough politician to bluff his way through. He looked weak and equivocal. The money will keep him around, but he's taking on a lot of water fast.

6) At some point, the GOP is going to have to deal with actual foreign policy. Puffing out your chest and saying "strong" and "Reagan" is not a foreign policy. It's middle school idiocy. That was the truly embarrassing part of the debate, and revealed most of these men as unserious candidates.