The next president of the United States was onstage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Wednesday night; and if the Republican Party wants that individual to be someone other than Donald Trump, it had better find a passing gear. I tuned to the second Republican presidential debate and settled in for what I wrongly presumed would be a spirited and informative discussion involving a vastly diverse group of people. And then all Trump broke loose.
CNN’s panel (radio host Hugh Hewitt and pundit Dana Bash, led by Jake Tapper), having either allowed or encouraged the undercard debate to become a Trump-themed free-for-all, repeated the formula. After some perfunctory introductions of varying quality — Huckabee seemed comfortable and engaging; Rubio choked on a bit about his infamous “water battle” moment from the 2013 Republican response to the State of the Union — the Trump Show got underway. The opening questions were literally about Trump and later questions were designed to force the other candidates to address Trump. “I’m the only candidate on this stage who Trumpety-Trumpety-Trumpety-Trump-Trump-Trump.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush knows what I mean. Whatever else you might think about Bush, there is no doubt that Trump knows precisely how to press his buttons and delights in doing so. Bush attacked Trump early, setting off a bizarre exchange in which Trump actually began barking orders at Bush — with which Bush actually complied. From there, the candidates essentially threw CNN’s moderators out the window and peeled out of the parking lot. All roads led to Trump. Some legitimate discussion about Iran and Planned Parenthood’s baby-parts racket popped up before Trump and Bush got back into it over Trump’s ungentlemanly remarks about Bush’s wife. That exchange touched off another spat in which Bush demanded an apology from Trump, an apology that Trump pointedly refused to grant. Bush didn’t seem to notice that he was personally turning the spotlight on Trump; nor did he seem aware that the spotlight is to Trump what spinach is to Popeye.
Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina pushed hard out of the gate, but got sidetracked by Tapper’s reminder of Trump’s “look at that face” remark. Even her crowd-pleasing “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” possibly the top applause line of the night, filtered through the Trump prism. A discussion about President Obama’s ham-fisted mishandling of the situation in the Middle East, itself prompted by Tapper’s attempts to force Rubio to assess Trump’s foreign policy acumen, became a buddy-buddy back-slapping session between Trump and Hewitt. The panel even allowed Trump to publicly belittle Sen. Rand Paul: “I don’t even know why he’s here.” When the debate managed to swing away from Trump-centric topics, the panel worked hard to swing it back. Nearly three hours into the debate, Tapper even framed a vaccine-related question to Carson, one of the premier medical minds on the planet, around his assessment of Trump’s prior remarks on the topic.
From time to time, someone would pipe up and tick off a few resume bullet points before one of the CNN talking heads would begin intoning: “Thank you very much. Your time is up. Thank you very much.” Everyone worked in condemnations of Islamic terrorism. Everyone promised to appoint brilliant, conservative jurists to the Supreme Court. Everyone supported the Bill of Rights. And everyone was running against Trump.
After the smoke cleared, Rubio gained some ground, mostly because he did the best job of staying out of Trump’s enormous gravity well. Fiorina staked a claim in “the conversation.” Christie did a decent job of hanging on to some relevance. And Carson either appeared nervous and awkward or soft-spoken and reflective, depending on the audience. Paul’s increasingly long-shot campaign remained a long shot, although he did manage to introduce a reassessment of our interminably wasteful war on drugs. Cruz seemed out of sorts and stilted; Bush floundered; and Huckabee, Walker and Kasich proved that the next debate should feature at least three fewer podiums.
I don’t begrudge Trump his success, but I do remain outside his expansive circle of fans. I still suspect that “Trump 2016” is merely his latest — and most magnificent — ego trip. But even in a performance that was generally less well-received than his previous efforts, Trump “won” merely by showing up. The Democrats are in electoral free fall; meaning the next president of the United States is probably a Republican. From what I saw of Wednesday night’s gabfest, the next president of the United States may well be Donald Trump.
–Ben Crystal
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