The big winner of the night was Donald Trump.  He didn’t show up, so he didn’t have to be part of the fiasco.

There were many losers, but perhaps the biggest losers were the “moderators” of the debate.  Don’t get me wrong; they were put in a tough situation with a bunch of obnoxious candidates trying to talk over each other.

There were a couple of times I was stunned at just how long it lasted.  When Vivek was trying to respond to criticisms from Tim Scott, Scott would not shut up.  Others were trying to chime in as well.  It seemed like this went on for 15 seconds or more, and it happened several times throughout the debate.

The so-called moderators lost complete control.  They probably should have threatened to cut off people’s microphones earlier.  I know they like arguing for the ratings, but I couldn’t understand what was being said by anybody.  It was just silly.

Doug Burgum was obnoxious as well, trying to interject when not asked.  It is understandable that he is the one with low name recognition and would probably be asked the least number of questions.  Still, there were 7 candidates on stage, and he didn’t just need to interject so often, especially when he had nothing really useful to say.

The Evil Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley was especially obnoxious.  She said that she gets dumber every time she listens to Vivek Ramaswamy speak.  Her role as a blood-thirsty war hawk showed up on stage and showed her true colors as a despicable human being.

Vivek defended his engagement with Tik Tok in trying to reach younger voters, and Haley thought it was so horrible that Tik Tok can gain access to people’s names and email addresses.  Even if the Chinese government was obtaining all of this information from Tik Tok, what would they do with it?  How does that compare to the NSA spying on all electronic communications of Americans?

The Chinese didn’t threaten to fire 100 million Americans if they didn’t get jabbed.  The Chinese government hasn’t declared parents as terrorists for speaking out at school board meetings.  The Chinese government hasn’t declared a large segment of the American population as potential terrorists for supporting a particular candidate.

Ron DeSantis

DeSantis was not horrible, but he didn’t exactly shine either.  From a libertarian standpoint, he was horrible when he talked about sending the military after Mexican drug cartels.  That seems to be the default position of these Republican candidates.

DeSantis had one good moment early on when he pointed out that the reckless spending from Trump in 2020 helped lead to our higher prices and economic problems of today.  That subject and COVID are the only two subjects where he can really beat Trump.

While DeSantis has not been one of the worst governors on economics, he hasn’t been great either.  It’s not as if DeSantis is slashing spending Florida.  Still, it isn’t hard to go after Trump on spending.

DeSantis has just not been an effective presidential candidate.  He never should have challenged Donald Trump.  He should have concentrated on being governor and waited until 2027.

Vivek

Vivek Ramaswamy was the least bad on the stage.  He was attacked by many people on the stage.  The fact that the evil people on the stage despise Vivek makes me like him a little more.

Vivek certainly has his problems.  He is not a libertarian.  But I appreciate the fact that he is there and speaking from a somewhat libertarian perspective on several issues.  It just shows that even when you get someone who mildly suggests peace and less foreign intervention, the war hawks get furious and their fangs come out.

Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, and Tim Scott are all despicable human beings.  Sometimes they say some things that are rhetorically correct on economic issues, but it doesn’t matter.  They could never cut spending because they would always be building up the U.S. empire and creating more war.

The Winner

Congratulations to Donald Trump.  While Trump has many faults, at least he isn’t as horrific as many of these other candidates.  If Trump is alive and healthy and able to run, he will be the Republican nominee.  We should hope that he picks Vivek as his running mate and not any of these terrible people.

Trump was right in not showing up for the debate. He shouldn’t have to show up until someone proves that they are a formidable challenger.