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 ...
Deep State hypothesis:
Ok, the rest of you losers get to keep any/all campaign donations but you don't lay a glove on our annointed anti-Trump guy. got it ?!
Trump crashed your fox sponsored party!
Too bad for you and fox!
Ron is plenty touched, makes himself more a tool and fool every chance he gets. Who cares if no one attacked him, the public increasingly sees how hollow and self focused and out of touch with every day people Ron is.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Trump, who campaigns with Lindsay Graham and who endorsed Paul Ryan
And Romenyu and McCain and Oz.
And Ronna. Even whipped votes for her.
But everyone else is a RINO.
You left one off your list - DeSantis.
Weak arguments need to rely on elaborate graphics.
The trump people have become the cancel culture of the right. If you support anyone else you are cancelled
Not at all. Just don't support folks who are ok with voter fraud, suppressing fredom of speach or indicting Trump. Unfortunately, with the exception of Vereswamy none of the also rans pass muster there.
“The trump people have become the cancel culture of the right. If you support anyone else you are cancelled”
Not really. We just are tired of dummies that don’t understand what is going on here.
The best fighters know not to walk into an ambush. Doing so is not a sign of courage but stupidity.
He is not a RINO. He’s the conservative in the race.
Interesting analysis.
If raising your profile was a goal then I’d say Gov. Burgum was the winner since he seemed likeable and spoke well.
Vivek also won (on my scorecard) because of his willingness to ‘go there’ on a number of issues and his ability to get under the skin of the phony neoliberals (Pence, Christie, Haley, Hutchison).
I still fail to see the appeal of Gov. Scott who is a political milquetoast imho.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.