RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/09/28/gop-debate-ii-deja-vu-all-under-again/

EXCERPT

Who, as it happens, was the second challenger regressing from a widely hailed performance. In these parleys, participants – particularly women – must take care not to cross the fine line between strong and strident, and assertive versus annoying. The not-so-gentlelady from the Palmetto State all but obliterated it, coming across as weirdly bellicose even in otherwise well-considered asseverations on key issues, and outright boorish in continuously interrupting and attempting to drown out fellow candidates.

As for beleaguered erstwhile veep Mike Pence, two (admittedly borrowed) words suffice: “low energy.”

Which brings us to the similar outcome referenced above: the night’s winner, and by a wider margin than in the initial wrangle, was again Florida’s Ron DeSantis. The Sunshine State’s chief executive succeeded in his campaign’s priority: turning every opportunity into paeans to his splendid record at home – even three questions, on health insurance, education curricula and abortion, intended by the mostly overmatched moderators to knock him on his heels.

DeSantis made good use of a “veto pen” as a prop in promoting his fiscal record in Florida, and pointed out to applause that he would be the first president since 1988 to have served overseas.

He played peacemaker in various fracases, and took the pressure off the field in turning back the initial question on who should be “voted off the island” as “disrespectful.”

He boasted a pair of those dreamy “defining moments.” One was his triumphal – and all-too-true – pronouncement that his success in having “gotten into big fights and delivered big victories for the people of Florida” has left “the Democratic Party … in ruins” in his state.

But the evening’s climax came in a flurry of world-class counterpunching in response to a planned knockout punch on abortion. Instead of cowering, the governor seized the opportunity to tout his blowout reelection victory due to leading “with purpose and conviction.” Rejected the premise that pro-lifers were responsible for mid-term losses. Offered a full-throated defense of the pro-life position that included a quote engraved on The Gipper’s grave. And suggested that Republicans should hold Democrats accountable for their “extremism” on late-term abortion.

Then, knowing that the GOP’s foundation, not least in the all-important Hawkeye State, is its evangelical base, DeSantis probed deeply the former president’s emerging vulnerability on the issue. Not satisfied with castigating Trump for comments that “pro-life protections” (specifically, Florida’s new six-week heartbeat bill) “are somehow a terrible thing,” the Guv delivered the coup de grâce: “I want him to look into the eyes and tell people who’ve been fighting this fight for a long time.”

With more nights – and bulls-eyes – like this, the Floridian may just remain in the fight for a long time too.