Candidates bow their heads as singer Natalie Grant sings the National Anthem at the start of the first Republican candidates’ debate of the 2024 presidential campaign in Milwaukee, Wis., August 23, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Nikki Haley overperformed. She was on-topic and compelling without seeming too scripted. Her abortion answer was a standout moment, as was her exasperation with Ramaswamy.
Tim Scott underperformed. He seems so natural and smooth at campaign events but seemed to stumble over his words on the debate stage. The content he delivered was solid, but none of it stood out.
Chris Christie underperformed. He needed a knockout of someone, and he didn’t get one.
The one knocked out should have been Vivek Ramaswamy. He was annoying, and he was the primary cause of disruptions. If he wasn’t on the stage, the debate would have been more orderly, and more candidates would have gotten their time to speak. Someone should have pressed him on his weird comments about 9/11 — Christie especially, since he’s from New Jersey.
Mike Pence stood up for himself admirably, both against Trump in absentia and against Ramaswamy in person. He knows what he’s doing and would make a great president.
Doug Burgum came across as a pretty normal guy who talks common sense. He’s a very intelligent and successful man who doesn’t talk down to people, which is a very admirable trait in a leader. It’s too bad effective state-level politicians aren’t rewarded by presidential-primary voters. The country would be a lot better off if they were.
Asa Hutchinson shouldn’t have been on the stage, and it was awkward that he was.
Ron DeSantis was robotic. Everything that came out of his mouth was rehearsed. He was clearly told, “When they do the first raise-your-hand question, interrupt and refuse to do it.” During every answer it felt like he was going through a checklist rather than speaking to human beings.
Aside from Pence mentioning the need to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent in 2025, nobody talked about a tax plan. Scott and Burgum mentioned reversing Biden’s expansion of the IRS.
Despite self-appointed populists in Washington, D.C., who talk about Big Tech, tariffs, and antitrust as major conservative issues, not one candidate mentioned any of those topics.
“Unions” remains a dirty word among Republican primary voters: Both Scott and Christie mentioned the need to fight against the left-wing interests of organized labor.
None of these observations matter, because the front-runner wasn’t there, and nobody did anything to distinguish themselves from the field as an obvious alternative to Trump.
