Great Minds Think Alike?

 

Friends, yesterday was mighty eventful.  First, there was the initial Republican presidential debate (from which DJT courageously absented himself).  Polls say it was largely a draw, although arguably DeSantis performed well enough to solidify his status as a distant second to Trump.  Not all that many people watched, which will blunt the debate's impact.  A few things stood out to me: I expected the whole field to hammer away at DeSantis, since he's the obvious alternative to Trump, but no one did that.  On the contrary, Christie, Pence, and Haley all went after Ramaswamy.  Curious!  Have they decided that DeSantis is a has-been, and Ramaswamy is the flavor of the month?  I guess so.  In any case, it seemed counterintuitive to me.  I was also taken aback by Pence's aggressiveness, but I can see why he might think he needs to outperform to keep his campaign alive.  Christie and Hutchinson were placed on the far left of the debate stage, and, true to form, they laid into Trump.  Haley is reasonably effective, but her establishment, hawkish views do nothing for me.  Scott is okay, but I find it hard to imagine him as anything other than a candidate for V.P.  All in all, I expect Trump was reasonably happy with how the debate went, because no one stood out as a clear winner, or a clear loser, and thus the field will remain frozen in place (and in size), and he can pick off his enemies one by one.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/gop-debate-poll/2023/08/24/id/1131974/

 

https://www.newsmax.com/us/debate-viewers-donald-trump/2023/08/24/id/1131977/ 

Trump, true to form, undermined the debate by simultaneously releasing a taped conversation between him and Tucker Carlson, which naturally got way better ratings than the debate itself.  I was looking forward to this interview, because I have great respect for Tucker Carlson, and a clash between him and one of the great bloviators of our time seemed bound to be full of drama.  Alas, there was no clash, and there was no drama, as Tucker lobbed softballs at Trump, and Trump engaged in the usual mix of self-congratulation and excoriation of his enemies.  Other than an amusing diversion into the history of the Panama Canal, I learned little or nothing.  I wish Tucker had asked Trump what his plan is to deal with the growling list of criminal charges against him, or why, since he's been cheated out of the presidency once, he won't simply be scammed again, no matter how universally beloved he may be.  At one point Tucker asked Trump why, if election rigging and adversarial prosecutions come up short, the deep state wouldn't just kill him and be done with it.  Trump seemed genuinely taken aback.  Perhaps it hasn't crossed his mind that he could be assassinated, or jailed for real.  Well, Donny, I suspect the best case scenario for you is that you'll lose, because then the Left might lose interest and let you fade away.  If, however, you win, or even look like you could win, I expect they'll nip you in the bud, permanently.  Food for thought.

https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson

 

Speaking of nipping Trump in the bud, he was booked yet again today, this time in Fulton County, Georgia, where he is charged with masterminding a "criminal conspiracy" to negate the "free and fair" results of the 2020 election.  Let the games begin!  The variables to each of these upcoming trials are so numerous that no one can say how they'll turn out, but, as I've observed before, the outcome isn't really the point.  The purpose of these prosecutions is to ensure that, come November 2024, everyone is voting yea or nay on Trump, and Biden is a mere afterthought.  And it could easily work out that way, too.

 

https://www.newsmax.com/us/trump-atlanta-indictment/2023/08/24/id/1131981/