the 2nd Republican presidential candidate debate

[earendel]

I watched this and was not surprised to find out that it was much more heat than light. The candidates talked over each other repeatedly and dodged the questions in favor of their talking points. No one really stood out, but several candidates disappointed. Fentanyl was the big buzz word of the night, with every candidate (I think), using it on several occasions. There were jabs at President Biden, and a few even at Donald Trump, although those were more along the lines of saying that he should have been at the debate. The one good line of the night was Chris Christie saying he was going to start calling the former president "Donald Duck". There wasn't really anything to set one of the candidates apart from the others; i will say that DeSantis still didn't manage to look like the best choice to overtake Trump.

To be honest, though, I think the candidates should have been glad that Trump wasn't there. As Laura Ingraham pointed out afterward, all he would have done was to take air time away from the other candidates and "suck all the oxygen out of the room" as she put it. Trump decided to put on a speech in Michigan in support of the UAW workers, but, ironically, did so in a non-union workplace. Seems a little tone-deaf to me.

[Beebs52]

Dint watch

[Ritterskoop]

I read that Tim Scott and Nikki Haley didn't do too badly. I admit never having heard of Scott before this election cycle, even though he is from our neighboring SC (I work on several SC newspapers some days), but we heard more about Haley as their governor and then UN Ambassador.

[Pastor Fireball]

There was a second debate?