Off the Editor’s Desk 8-30-2023
Who won the debate
I could not watch the First Republican Debate last week as we lost the Fox News channel when our local cable company got out of the cable television business. So I have to rely on reports from other television network accounts of the debate and what I could pick up from accounts that I have access to on my computer.
I was able to listen to bits and pieces of the debate and from that I will go with Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, and Vivek Ramaswamy as the possible winners. But, who is Vivek Ramaswamy? I cannot even pronounce his name and he may be a force in the Republican Party in the future.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has seen his run faltering and now it is Ramaswamy in the lead, all well behind former President Donald Trump.
But, it was Haley that took top honors at the debate in my opinion, but time will tell and we have only 420 some days before the election.
Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government had some really interesting views of the debate, which I would like to relay to you.
“Winners: Fox News’ firing of Tucker Carlson was the best thing that happened to his career as he is now firmly established as more important politically than the establishment which rejected him. With more than 100 million views, Carlson’s interview on X with Trump swamped the official Republican National Committee debate on Fox. What’s more his interview earlier in the month with the second place GOP contender Ramaswamy propelled the relatively unknown contender past other challengers into second place in many polls.”
According to Manning other winners of the debate were Streaming Services. He says, “Streaming is officially king and cable is in deep trouble as a business model.”
Another winner is Donald Trump, who was not in the debate. “The GOP needs Trump more than he needs them. And those who think the establishment’s political prosecution of the former president will take him down are undoubtedly even more desperate today than yesterday as The Donald remains the single most compelling personality on the political landscape and it is not even close.” Manning wrote.
The Trump campaign raised $7.1 million after the Fulton County, Georgia mug shot.
The other winner, according to Manning is Elon Musk. “The iconoclastic entrepreneurs opening up of Twitter (now X) to Carlson and others who have been cancelled is turning his bet on X seem like a no-brainer as he attempts to transform the platform into the multi-purpose must-go-destination.”
As for losers at the debate, one is the Republican National Committee. “The RNC hoped that Trump would be hurt by his decision to go it alone without them and take his case directly to the people. He wasn’t. They have just lost control of their own nomination process. Oops.”
“Fox News: The establishment takeover of Fox News leadership is officially a disaster. Cable is dying and Fox went to war with the dominant ratings driver on the right.”
And, the biggest loser, Chris Christie: “Whoever thought that making a racial slur against Vivek Ramaswamy was a good idea should be immediately fired. Christie’s cringy attempt to put down Ramaswamy due to his last name equating it to Obama disqualifies him. And Ramaswamy’s invitation for Christie to come give him a hug the way the former New Jersey Governor did with Obama reminded everyone why Chris Christie should never have been on the stage in the first place.
“The election season is a long one and there will be many twists and turns, but the biggest story of the 2024 election season happened in the first presidential debate: the dominant establishment communications mediums have been usurped. This makes the battle to ensure that they become free of censorship even more important.
“A free country demands a free exchange of ideas, and as the Biden administration continues to push censorship on health care, climate and government corruption, it becomes even more important that Americans demand that Congress act to pass Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) and anti-censorship legislation, the Free Speech Protection Act. We must not allow the CIA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security to determine who becomes president and similarly, the Silicon Valley lords of the internet cannot be allowed to break the law and become censor proxies for whatever masters they serve,” Manning concluded.
It looks like we have a lot of work to do between now and November 5, 2024. Good Luck.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton