The next dog and pony show will take place tomorrow night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. When the Associated Press announced the final lineup, they made a big deal out of saying that “the field will be smaller.” But by that, they simply meant “smaller by one” since Asa Hutchinson didn’t qualify, but otherwise, it’s the same crowd we saw at the first debate, once again without the frontrunner being in attendance. (Trump will be in Michigan holding counterprogramming events.) Losing Hutchinson isn’t really newsworthy because his poll numbers suggest that nobody will be voting for him except his immediate family members and some of them may not be entirely sure at this point. But hey… it’s on the calendar so we’ll probably have to go through with it anyway.
The field for the second Republican presidential debate will be smaller than the first.
Seven candidates have qualified for Wednesday night’s debate at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library in California, the Republican National Committee said, confirming that former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson did not make the cut this time.
Former President Donald Trump, the early Republican presidential front-runner who skipped the first debate, will also be missing from the stage and will instead hold events in the battleground state of Michigan.
I’m not seriously suggesting that we should just skip the rest of the debates. After all, debates are an established tradition and they give us and the rest of the media something to talk about if nothing else. And it’s still hypothetically possible that something could take Donald Trump out of the race before January, and then the GOP primary voters would probably have to pick one of these folks.
But with all of that said, it’s kind of hard to see the point in all of this at the moment. We’ve had one debate already and with the exception of one face, we’ll be hearing from the same people. None of them are likely to offer any startling revelation that would suddenly give them an edge out of the blue. The first debate really didn’t move the needle significantly for any of these candidates, though it did manage to raise the profiles of Ramaswamy and Haley a bit. None of that moved any of them any closer to having a realistic chance at dethroning Trump as far as I could tell.
Of course, there’s always the argument that these debates are really more about determining who will be Trump’s running mate or at least wind up in his Cabinet if he wins. (With the exception of Christie, of course.) It’s also an opportunity for some of them – at least the younger ones – to elevate their national profile and name recognition among the non-political junkies around the country. Most of them aside from Pence are young enough that they could easily be looking at another shot at the brass ring in four or even eight years.
In an attempt to stick to the positive aspects of this, the debates are giving us a better, deeper look at the other candidates which may prove useful in the future even if you have no intention of voting for any of them this cycle. For example, I was quite impressed with Vivek Ramaswamy when he first tossed his hat in the ring. I liked his life story, his youth, his energy, and his quite conservative policy outlines. But after many more interviews and the last debate, my confidence waned a bit. He seems to be inconsistent at times, offering openings to potential Democratic opponents. And he’s made a few of what could only be described as rookie mistakes. Understandable, since he is a political rookie, but still worth keeping an eye on.
Similarly, I’ve always liked Nikki Haley. (I have a Nikki 2024 hat that I picked up at CPAC in 2020.) I like the strength of her resume and her confidence when speaking. But it’s only recently that I’ve noticed that she really has drifted toward the neocons. Either that or she was always there and I just hadn’t noticed. Don’t get me wrong… I’d still vote for her against Joe Biden in a heartbeat if she somehow wound up as the nominee. But I’m no longer sure if she’s really in step with where most of the base is today on some important issues.
As far as Ron DeSantis goes, there has never been any doubt in my mind that he pulled off what looked like a miracle in Florida and is somebody who can deliver. He didn’t do a great job of building a national campaign outside of his home state, however. That may just be a sign of inexperience in national races combined with the fact that he was seen as the leading contender to the 800-pound gorilla in the room, so he was always going to be facing a headwind. Even if he doesn’t make it this time, I’m betting we’ll see him again. And really, I would gladly vote for any of them when the other choice is Biden or almost any nationally known Democrat today. (Okay… if it was Christie, I might vote for the Libertarian.) But if it’s Trump, as all the polls suggest, I will show up with equal enthusiasm also. Enjoy the debate, assuming you stay up to watch it. I may be in bed recovering from my vacation.
