Posted on 08/24/2023 11:02:56 AM PDT by conservative98
MILWAUKEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, once clearly shown by polls to be the top Republican alternative to former President Donald Trump in 2024, left the GOP debate stage here Wednesday night without a scratch on him.
That’s mainly because his rivals barely swiped at him — a somewhat surprising development that observers were quick to cite as evidence of his diminished standing in the race.
“It speaks volumes that just months after being the co-front-runner of this race, Ron DeSantis has fallen so far that none of his seven opponents onstage felt the need to attack him but instead went after a first-time upstart,” said GOP strategist Matt Mowers, who attended the debate.
A longtime DeSantis bundler said that coming into the debate, “major donors” were watching to see how he performed.
“I think we will continue to kick the can,” the bundler said afterward.
DeSantis still regularly polls in second place behind Trump, but it’s a distant second. These days he’s much closer to mid-tier candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old businessman from Ohio whom most GOP voters knew little to nothing about at the beginning of the year.
And it was Ramaswamy, not DeSantis, who found himself the night’s biggest target, taking the arrows normally reserved for the front-runner — or, in this case, the biggest target onstage, with Trump having decided to skip the debate. The two-hour showdown was punctuated by one-on-one fights between Ramaswamy and former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
DeSantis made few, if any, obvious mistakes Wednesday. But even at center stage — next to Ramaswamy, because of their respective poll numbers — he was often on the sidelines
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
I think with the exception of pence, everyone other than DeSantis is running for VP. They want to be DeSantis’s VP.
From the article...co-front-runner of this race
That is some awesome abuse of the English language.
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Co-front-runner as in Sham was a co-front-runner to Secretariat.
He also had little of substance to say.
Why divide the Party?
The election will be either DeSantis or Trump against a younger, more dynamic, well-spoken Dem (not JB IMO). Whoever wins the GOP nom will need everyone on board.
Nobody attacks him except the Freepers who don’t like him.
Dude looked outclassed by this group of retards..... what can he do on the big stage... yikes.
And what exactly should they attack?
The betting markets like PredictIt have him moving up significantly.
Zero people thought Ramaswampy won.
And Romenyu and McCain and Oz.
And Ronna. Even whipped votes for her.
But everyone else is a RINO.
He chooses bulldogs like Christina Pushaw.
Nope.
“Oh. Ron...Hey, didn’t know you were there.”
Washington Post poll from last night and this morning shows among those who watched the debate DeSantis gained slightly, Trump dropped slightly, Haley’s favorables went up significantly, Ramaswamy and Scott had higher favorables but their negatives, particularly for Ramaswamy, spiked. Pence and Christie saw their favorables go up a bit, more in Christie’s case, but their unfavorables are still over 50. All Burgum and Hutchinson did was double their favorables and double their unfavorables. Hutchinson, like Pence and Christie, is a net negative.
Vivek’s unfavorables went from 13 to 32. The only ones higher are Trump (35), Burgum (35), Hutchinson (47), Pence (54) and Christie (60).
The best numbers belong to DeSantis (72-25), Haley (65-27) and Scott (65-23). Trump is 59-35 favorable with debate watchers.
Will that A-hole from Reno chime in????
You NNEED a frIEND!
That was no debate it was a debacle it looked like a democrat event.
I didn’t watch any of the debate but from every report I read this morning it seems like Vivek Ramaswamy came away as the winner.
Not that it matters because President Trump will be the nominee. These others are just a distraction and a waste of time and funds that should be used to defeat Democrats.
Exactly. And they know if they repeated Trump’s lies he’s globalist funded, which is all they have, they know it will actually be looked into and refuted. Trump is obviously the international businessman with actual WEF buddies, and a child who’s an official WEF Globalist Leader, not DeSantis.
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