August 24th 2023
My Dear America:
August 23rd, 2023 was not exactly a slow news day prior to the Fox News sponsored Republican Debate that was broadcast from Milwaukee, Wisconsin last night.
My afternoon yesterday started off with an announcement on MSNBC that a plane had dropped like a rock from Russian skies with Yevgeny Prigozhin thought to be inside. Of course it wasn't really a mystery how this had happened. Prigozhin had challenged Russian Military leaders, as well as Vladimir Putin and seemed to be continuing to be a pain in the ass to Putin in the past few months. Prigozhin's days had been numbered since his revolt along with his Wagner Group Comrades and his number just happened to come up yesterday.
Another important story yesterday was the surrender of Rudy Giuliani and others at the Fulton County Georgia Court House.
But the Main Story of the Evening was the First Fox News sponsored Republican Candidates Debate that was being held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Certainly the fact that Donald Trump had chosen to skip this debate probably meant that not as many people would probably watch it. After all, Donald Trump seemed to be already running away with the Republican Party Nomination to be the party's Nominee for President in 2024. What did he have to gain by participating in the debate. Besides, he had other things to do. Namely, to prepare for turning himself in at the Fulton County Jail today.
Despite the fact that Indictments and arraignments have been stacking up recently, Trump's popularity in the Republican Party strangely enough seems to continue to improve with each passing indictment and arraignment.
Although I was playing music online with my friends during the debate I was able to watch a rebroadcast of the show on a Fox News channel later on in the evening.
I have to say that I think that all of the participants in the debate were lucky that Trump wasn't there to suck up all the political oxygen in the room. Trump's absence might have been a mistake on his part because without him there the other Candidates on the debate stage actually had a chance to introduce themselves to the American voters watching the debate.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida led things off by talking about such things as eliminating the United States Department of Education. Unfortunately, he was not the only debater on stage willing to deep six the Education Department. He also talked about how Florida got rid of "Critical Race Theory" and AP Courses in Black Studies in Florida High Schools despite the fact that Critical Race Theory has not been taught in Florida High Schools or in High Schools anywhere. I was pleased to see that the fact that Desantis revealed that he would not support the War in Ukraine caused most of his Debate stage opponents to push back hard on this.
Desantis seemed to be joined in his opinion regarding Ukraine with Vivek Ramaswamy, a 38 year old businessman with virtually no political experience but certainly a lot of moxie who was prepared to insult and provoke his way to the front of the debate line in the Milwaukee debate. Ramaswamy was ballsy and articulate and unafraid of mixing it up with his debate stage opponents. When those opponents reacted to his arrogance and obnoxiousness, Ramaswamy smiled a phony smile broadly. Clearly Ramaswamy made it clear in all his positions taken in the debate that he was a strong and willing Trump Ass Kisser and would gladly pardon Trump, whether or not Trump was or was not convicted in any of his pending state or Federal cases.
Ramaswamy was not the only Republican Debater willing to pardon Trump even if he was convicted of a crime. In a show of hands of who would pardon Trump regardless of his conviction of a crime or crimes, only Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie, Two former Federal Prosecutors, did not raise their hands.
Hutchinson, who was also an Arkansas Governor did not have much of a chance to say very much during the debate.
Christie, however, had quite a bit to say about why he is running and how he feels about Donald Trump. Christie bragged about running a Blue state of New Jersey as Governor. He also bragged about socking it to the Teachers Unions in New Jersey. Christie also seemed to be very annoyed with the Debate moderators when they asked him a question about UFO's.
Tim Scott also seemed to have it in for the Teacher's Unions. He also seemed to have it in for Attorney General, Merrick Garland and FBI Director, Christopher Wray, Both of whom he stated he would fire if he was Elected.
Doug Burgum was the Governor of North Dakota who, when he was finally allowed to get a word in edgewise, talked about Small town Values. I doubt whether his candidacy will get much traction although he seems to be a nice guy.
In my opinion I thought that former South Carolina Governor and Former United Nations Representative Nikki Haley was the person on the stage that I was most impressed with. When other Republicans onstage were bashing Joe Biden for blowing up the debt Nikki Haley pointed out that Republicans had blown up the debt worse than Democrats with tax cuts for the wealthy during the Trump Administration. Although Nikki Haley was clearly Pro Life she also seemed to have a more reasonable and realistic attitude about abortion complaining about extreme positions of other Republicans like wanting to lock up women who have abortions.
Mike Pence seemed to have a pretty good night on the debate stage. He promoted his well deserved Conservative credentials and didn't let anyone on the stage push him around. Mike stated clearly and most people on the stage agreed with him that on January Sixth of 2021 Mike Pence did the right thing in conducting the Congress to certify the election even though Donald Trump pressured him not to do so.
All in all, I was glad that I watched the First Republican Debate and got to see that not every Candidate on the Republican Ticket was terrible.
I would never vote for any of them but I could live with a couple of them if, God Forbid, they might be elected. I actually would be willing to take any of them over Donald Trump except for Robot Ron DeSantis and Egomaniac Vivek Ramaswamy.
I feel, however, convinced that the winner of the 2024 Election will be Joe Biden and deservedly so. I would not want any of the characters I saw on the stage last night to be in charge of the country dealing with all that Joe Biden has had to deal with.
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
