Nov.10

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

The Day After: The Third Republican Debate

Even if it's not going to move the needle much, or at all, presidential candidates' debates are still big events. And so, we offer our usual wrap-up piece. To start, here are 10 tidbits we thought were interesting as we perused the post-debate commentaries, reports, op-eds, thought pieces, etc.:

1. The Real Winner: There were approximately 1 million pieces yesterday (estimate courtesy of staff mathematician) observing that the true winner of the debate was Donald Trump, most obviously because he's avoiding any withering fire while his opponents hammer each other.
   
   
2. Bomb, Bomb, Bomb... Bomb, Bomb Iran: Anyone who watched the debate could not help but notice, as we did, that the candidates' solution to most foreign policy problems is the use (or the threat) of violent force. Paul Musgrave, writing for Politico, suggests that at least a couple of the folks on stage are more isolationist than they are interventionist (specifically, Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-FL), but that, in the end, all of the candidates "adopted belligerent rhetoric with calls sprinkled in to 'finish the job' against Hamas, 'take out' the Mexican cartels and 'cut off the head of the snake' (Iran)."
   
   It's worth noting that even the isolationists (a group that includes Donald Trump) would ultimately unleash vast violence upon the world if they had their way. First, because even the isolationists want to use U.S. troops to "secure" the Mexican border. Second, because they would turn their backs on Ukraine, Gaza, and, very possibly, Taiwan, leaving those peoples' adversaries to act without restraint.
   
   
3. The Odd Couple: Politico also has an interesting piece, from Curt Mills, about why Nikki Haley and Ramaswamy dislike each other so much. They share a political affiliation, as well as Indian heritage, but they are otherwise oil and vinegar. One is Sikh/Christian and the other is Hindu, one grew up a rural Southerner while the other grew up an urban Midwesterner, one earned her spurs and the other is a Vivek-come-lately, one is a Reagan Republican and the other is a paleoconservative, one knows how to behave in polite company and the other is Ramaswamy.
   
   
4. He's a Panderer: Scaachi Koul, who is herself South Asian, writes that she knows "a thousand" South Asian (mostly) men like Ramaswamy. In short, her argument is that because they comport to Republican ideas of how non-white Americans should behave (and assimilate), they gain acceptance in right-wing circles and then double- and triple-down on their efforts to live up to the "model minority" notion.
   
   
5. He's a Phony: Meanwhile, even the right-wing media has noticed that whatever Ramaswamy is doing, it's not running for president. Newsmax had the candidate on for an interview, and host Rob Schmitt told Ramaswamy: "You're not trying to take this [nomination] from him then. You sound like a surrogate right now." The folks on Fox aren't impressed, either; host Tammy Bruce slammed Ramaswamy as "a frat boy who's perhaps auditioning for a television show."
   
   
6. He's a Di**, Eh: We didn't comment on it, because it's so obviously stupid, and there were so very many stupid Ramaswamy utterances to talk about, but the "candidate" went beyond calling for an armed, walled border with Mexico and also said the U.S. should construct an armed, walled border with... Canada. Yep, the same guy who says the U.S. government needs to cut spending wants to build a 5,525-mile wall. It costs roughly $20 million per mile to build border walls (that's $27.6 million Canadian), so Ramaswamy's project would have a price tag of roughly $110.5 billion.
   
   People in Canada took notice of Ramaswamy's plans and they are not happy. Do you know how big a jerk you have to be to piss off Canadians?
   
   
7. De-Flat-is: Ron DeSantis is also being panned by the right-wing media. On Fox, for example, they said "he's not good at this" and he's got "no sizzle." Truer words were never spoken.
   
   
8. Blackbeard: Recall that the fundamental notion behind meme theory is that the memes that spread widely/quickly, and thus avoid being part of the 99.999% that disappear into the void, do so for some reason. We note that as prelude to pointing out that Sen. Tim Scott introduced his mysterious girlfriend at the debate last night (though she only stayed for a short while). And yesterday, this meme spread like wildfire:
   
   
   
   At very least, it suggests that many people find Scott to be untrustworthy. At most, it suggests that many people think Scott is... well, you can figure that out for yourself.
   
   
9. Doug Who?: Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) wants everyone to know that he might not be at the debates anymore, but he's still in this thing. And to get that message out to as many people as possible, he published an op-ed in a newspaper located in the ninth-most-populous city (Jamestown; pop. 15,754) in America's 47th-most-populous state (North Dakota, pop. 779,261). Undoubtedly, it will be read by tens of people. Anyhow, one begins to understand why Burgum is struggling to break the 2% barrier in polls; he's apparently running for president of North Dakota.
   
   
10. Ratings Decline Even Further: The first two debates were fiascos, and the candidates are all known quantities who keep saying the same things over and over. And so, people are tuning out. The first debate this year drew 12.8 million viewers. The second drew 9.3 million. And the latest round drew just 7.5 million.
    
    In a somewhat amusing sidebar, the Country Music Association Awards, which was up against the debate, drew its second-worst ratings ever, attracting 6.8 million viewers. Guess there are only so many good ol' boy eyeballs to go around. Whatever NBC employee did not notice that the CMA awards were scheduled for Wednesday night should be fired. That's like scheduling the Democratic debate against The Masked Singer or RuPaul's Drag Race.

Moving along, here's our usual rundown of the "winners" and "losers," as judged by media outlets of various stripes:

So, Haley had the best night, DeSantis' results were mixed, people are barely noticing Chris Christie unless they are just lumping him in with "everyone on stage was a loser" assessments, and Ramaswamy and Scott had the worst nights.

And there you have it. We'll have to reveal the winners of the contest next week, because we're running late in terms of getting today's post up. (Z)