So on Newsmax the other night, there was former President Donald Trump starring in another Trump rally. The thousands in the Florida audience were self-evidently pumped. They listened to every word and loudly cheered on the former president.
Meanwhile, over there on NBC there was another show entirely. A decidedly pathetic show. Five seriously struggling candidates for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination were throwing sharp elbows and petty insults at each other in a veritable fog of words that was supposed to send a message that one of them had what it takes to run for — and be — president.
Suffice to say, they failed.
In fact, this third GOP debate reminded of the famous 1980 New Hampshire debate between candidates Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
RealClearPolitics recalls what happened at that debate:
In the 1980 primaries the Federal Elections Committee ruled that a newspaper-sponsored debate between just two candidates (Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) that excluded other contenders, constituted an improper campaign contribution. So Reagan’s campaign decided to foot the bill, but then switched gears on Bush and the Nashua Telegraph by inviting the other candidates to participate. The night of the debate, however, only two chairs were provided — for Bush and Reagan. Reagan marched on stage with Bob Dole, Howard Baker, John Anderson, and Phil Crane anyway and chaos ensued. Editor Jon Breen, the debate moderator, instructed the sound technician to cut off Reagan’s microphone. “I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!” thundered Reagan, as the audience roared its approval. The Gipper had mangled the editor’s name, but he’d scored a touchdown nonetheless.
In essence, Reagan not only won the debate, he so dominated the stage that he in essence sewed up the GOP nomination months before the actual GOP convention balloting in Detroit.
This comes to mind in comparing the five on-stage GOP debaters of this week with the not-on-stage Trump.
There were the five on-stage debaters. They bickered, they insulted each other, they sniped at each other. The biggest news to emerge had nothing to do with serious policy. No, the big news was — seriously — the size of former Gov. Nikki Haley’s high heels. And oh yes, that Vivek Ramaswamy was, according to Haley, “scum.”
The headline from the Trump rally? Here’s a sample:
Trump’s Hialeah rally draws thousands, upstages Republican debate in Miami
The WUSF story reported this:
On the other side of Miami-Dade, at Henry Milander Park, Trump supporters camped out more than a day in advance outside the 5,000-seat outdoor football stadium venue, waving at honking commuters passing by.
And right there was the message of the night.
As with Ronald Reagan dominating that long ago New Hampshire debate, so too did former President Trump dominate this debate — in Trump’s case without even stepping on the debate stage.
In short? Trump won.
As one poll after another indicates, he is winning this nomination fight big time.
One wonders whether any of the five others on that debate stage understand not just that Trump won — but why. Do they even grasp that there is a full-scale revolt in the GOP base against the dominant political class establishment that millions see as insufferably elitist, arrogant, and self-serving?
Based on what was seen on that stage this week, the answer is a resounding no.
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