There were not a lot of fireworks. The only ones being when Vivek took a cheap shot at Nikki Haley. I don’t think they will be dining together soon.
It’s time for the herd to be culled.
Tim Scott and Chris Christie need to go take a seat. Leave Nikki Haley on the stage with Ron DeSantis. They are the only two serious candidates that can debate Trump. Both would be good VP candidates.
I’d keep Vivek on stage only for the entertainment value. He’s a bomb thrower and sometimes he’s right but sometimes he sounds right but he’s not. Many Republicans appreciate that he went after NBC news for spreading the lies on Trump. Many Republicans appreciate the fact that he called on the Democratic Party to show their cards regarding Biden. Paraphrasing, “We know it’s a bunch of managers running the White House and not Biden. Who is the candidate going to be? Newsome or Michelle Obama?” Lester Holt cut him off when the word Obama was spoken.
The foreign policy part of the debate was pretty boring. The only real disagreement between DeSantis and Haley is over Ukraine. This is an honest disagreement although there are some that characterize Haley as a neocon beholden to the Military Industrial Complex.
Biden totally screwed the pooch on Ukraine. His cajoling to get them to join NATO caused Putin to act though truth be told, Putin wanted to act anyway. Biden gave him a defendable excuse to his supporters.
Let’s lay the Ukriane thing out from both sides shall we:
It’s a stalemate right now. The “offensive” wasn’t really offensive.
Putin is a terrifically bad guy. Zelensky is not that much better, he just doesn’t have the firepower Putin does.
Russia was corrupt when it was run by the royals, the commies, and everyone since. There will be no unified Russian democratic republic if they were to lose. The best we can hope for is a leader that is similar to Lee Kuan Yew.
Ukraine is corrupt.
We do need to get rid of Putin somehow. He’s a really bad guy.
The money we are spending seems like a lot but relative to other things we spend money on, isn’t a lot. Fighting a proxy war is cheaper than actually fighting a war.
Keeping the Russians occupied in Ukraine might be strategically advantageous to the US given all that is going on in the world. If they take their eye off the ball and try to help China in Taiwan or Iran in Israel, they might see things break down and they will have problems.
We have no plans for Russia if Putin goes down. It is likely another leader will emerge that is just as corrupt. The US is shitty at nation-building anyway. There are no George C. Marshall’s or Winston Churchill’s around now who can think three steps ahead.
Probably what happens is a negotiated peace. Why not start now?
The truth is we won’t know for 67 days until the Iowa caucuses if anyone can lay a glove on Trump. If one of them are within 10 points of him in the Iowa primary, there is a reason for that candidate to stay in and the other to drop. Mano to mano. New Hampshire follows closely and then we will see.
For what it’s worth, polling in South Carolina shows Nikki Haley, the former two-term governor there, woefully behind Trump.
As a Ukrainian with family in country, I'm especially keen on and interested in what's going on there. Your analysis was very good. I would add, however, that we were at peace, as was Ukraine (generally speaking), while oil prices were substantially lower. When the old one (Biden) decided that the U.S. should no longer be energy independent and that Europe would be better off buying its energy from Russia, Putin was able to fund his invasion. Our embarrassing and unforgivable scamper from AFG gave him the confidence to invade. After all, he, as many here, was convinced that we had some really stupid people running our foreign and military policy.
Much as I wish it wasn't true, I think we're stuck with Trump as the nominee. I know you think he can't win the general, but I have to hope he can. Living in Minnesota my vote won't mean anything but I'll be giving it to him to make the popular vote closer. The country will be exponentially better off versus whoever the Dems run.