Trumpless Republican Debate is Tonight – I Think I’ll Just Watch the Clips Tomorrow


The debate is coming up here tonight.

I might be asleep. I’m not going to do a live thread about it even if I’m awake, and I might not even watch it. I’m not really too excited for Trump’s competing event with Tucker Carlson either (though it will be funny if that gets more views).

But I think it’s correct that DeSantis is going to be a punching bag.

I think – and hope, really – that Vivek is a surrogate for Trump. He has all of the same policies (though as I wrote recently, they are better articulated).

Reuters:

With a commanding lead in the Republican nomination race to take on Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump said this week he would not attend the debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday. Instead, he sat for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson set to air at the same time, potentially siphoning off debate viewers.

In Trump’s absence, candidates are expected to launch a fusillade of attacks on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as competitors try to displace him as Trump’s top challenger, according to strategists and aides to rival campaigns. DeSantis is seen as vulnerable after a summer slide in the polls, which have left him languishing more than 30 points behind Trump in the race.

He’s going to be a punching bag,” said Brian Darling, a Republican strategist and former senior aide to U.S. Senator Rand Paul. “DeSantis is considered a wounded candidate going the wrong way.”

The DeSantis campaign is anticipating particularly harsh broadsides from Ramaswamy and Christie, a person close to the governor said. The governor’s aides and allies see the debate as a potentially crucial moment that could help him breathe life back into his campaign.

Like other candidates, DeSantis needs to establish himself “as a good solid alternative to Trump,” said Christopher Wlezien, a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied the electoral impact of debates.

Wlezien said he was skeptical that any contender would achieve a breakout moment on Wednesday. Trump has a huge lead in the polls and won’t be on the stage to field any attacks.

“My expectations were low for big changes to begin with and it’s even more so because Trump is not there,” he said.

DeSantis is a slob and a complete mess.

It’s very likely that this debate could be the beginning of his entire program unraveling.

There are Republicans who do not want Trump again, but the competition here is between “Trump” and “Not Trump.”

Trump was against global war, he was against mass immigration, he was racist, he was jingoistic – these are all things that “true conservatives” oppose. They want war, immigration, anti-racism, gays – the entire Democrat platform, just slower.

So the “Not Trump” team has to decide who they want to represent them, and increasingly, it should be becoming obvious to them that DeSantis is not the guy.

Obviously, these “true conservative” people don’t want Vivek, who is just the Trumpier Trump (who also for some reason worships a talking elephant). I think Pence is just too lame, Nimrata Randhawa literally sucked dick to get to the top and gives off the vibes of a low-tier used up old hooker, everyone hates Chris Christie, so…

The obvious “true conservative” candidate is the black guy. I don’t make predictions, because I am not a wizard, but it seems to me very likely that the black guy is going to do the “true conservative” bit really well on the debate stage, while Vivek beats the shit out of DeSantis for being a total fraud.

Trump would rather run against the black guy than DeSantis, because the black guy is literally a joke, so if in fact Vivek is serving as a surrogate for Trump (I mean, what else would he be doing? He’s not going to win, and his whole campaign is about increasing his profile, and the best way to do that would be by helping Trump), he’s going to manipulate the situation into replacing DeSantis as the “Not Trump” frontrunner with the black guy.

Just thinking about all these dynamics now makes me want to watch the debate.

But I probably won’t.

Anyway, it starts at 9 PM EST. If you’re going to watch it, you should watch it on Rumble, and give them the views rather than giving them to Fox News. (Rumble has exclusive internet broadcasting rights.)

I can’t find the link, so it’s probably not up yet, but if you just go to Rumble.com at the time, it will obviously be at the top of the page.