Senseless Brawling at the Second Presidential Debate – The American Spectator

On Wednesday night, seven GOP presidential candidates met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, for a shouting match in which none emerged as a clear contender for Donald Trump’s top spot in the polls. The stage was too crowded for a real debate on policy, and what started as a momentarily civil discussion on economics and the autoworker’s strike quickly collapsed into a brawl of desperate candidates unable to rise above their opponents.

The format of the debate was partly to blame. The moderator’s questions were all over the map. They were either lowball questions all of the candidates agreed on or so difficult to respond to in the allotted one-minute time frame that candidates didn’t even try, instead choosing to hit Joe Biden on the border or Bidenomics. (READ MORE: The GOP Debate and Presidential Race: Dov Fischer’s Take)

And, of course, hovering over the candidates was the specter of Trump’s overwhelming poll numbers. If there is one takeaway from the debate, it is that candidates will have to begin dropping from the race if any are going to make any headway.

Those Who Could Stay

There is no denying that Florida’s governor managed to keep his head above water — but just barely. Ron DeSantis’ performance in the GOP debate is unlikely to reverse his slowly declining poll numbers. Although he managed to hold his own, nothing he said made him truly stand out from the rest. DeSantis’ campaign has been cursed from the beginning, and — short of something dramatic — it seems the curse is unlikely to be lifted any time soon.

Just before the debate, Nikki Haley passed up Vivek Ramaswamy in the national polls, which undoubtedly influenced her debate strategy. She clearly understands her battle with Ramaswamy isn’t over and landed some heavy punches regarding his use of TikTok and his former business dealings in China. The former he defended; the latter would have required more than the 30 seconds allotted for rebuttals. On the other hand, Haley knew she needed to go after DeSantis and chose to challenge him to a shouting match on fracking — an issue that probably won’t result in her overtaking him in the polls. (READ MORE: Whither Foreign Policy at the Debate?)

Ramaswamy seems to have taken some lessons to heart from the first debate, after which about half of those who discovered his existence also discovered they didn’t like him. Standing in the Reagan Library, he chose to become the champion of the former president’s 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. His oft-repeated refrain was, “These are all good people,” referring to his opponents on stage. Those “good people” did not get the memo, instead dogpiling him for his former business dealings in China. Somehow, he managed to get away with the most speaking time of any candidate but did so while appearing less contentious than before.

Those Who Should Leave

Mike Pence arrived on stage, guns blazing, to attack populism — hardly a winning strategy when the leading candidates in the Republican party are populists. While Pence certainly stood out as a measured and slow speaker, those words failed to make the impact he wanted them to.

Tim Scott’s performance in the debate began strong; he made good arguments and spoke in language voters could understand. Sometime just before the second half, that ceased to be true. When he came out swinging against Nikki Haley for her funding decisions in South Carolina, he lost badly to her quicker tongue. The argument devolved into a shouting match in which the word “curtain” appeared repeatedly — although how curtains were involved remains a mystery. (RELATED: What Should Conservatives Demand From the Republican Party?)

Chris Christie had the right idea but failed to execute it. He recognized that the debate of the night wasn’t against his opponents in the room necessarily — although he took the opportunity to land plenty of punches — but against the man in Detroit, Donald Trump. Although he repeatedly tried to paint Trump as a coward for failing to engage in the GOP debate and, in the end, even voted him off the Republican ticket when asked which candidate should drop out of the race, he came across as desperate.

Doug Burgum was present.

What perhaps Fox, its moderators — who were pretty terrible — and the candidates on stage failed to recognize were the biggest questions of the night: Is the debate relevant, and does it matter? No candidate emerged as a clear winner, and the answer, as a result, seems to be no on both accounts. As candidates regroup with their campaign teams, they should ask themselves why they, over any other candidate, should stay in the race.