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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Snooze Fest

Snooze Fest

by | 96 Comments

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Buzzard in a tree
The GOP debate is mercifully almost over, but God, what a snooze fest so far!

Random impressions:

  • Christie was disappointingly low key — he didn’t club anyone, not even once!
  • DeSantis is thrumming with manic serial killer energy — no big mistakes (damn it), but he reminded me of Blake Masters in that weird ad where he’s fondling a rifle.
  • Ramaswamy is a smarmy prick.
  • Pence is an insufferable pompous ass.
  • All of these assholes are shameless liars, including the moderators and audience.
  • Burgum is on Vicodin.
  • Tim Scott is a fanatic.
  • Nikki Haley is delusional.
  • Hutchinson is a sleazy hypocrite who almost certainly has a secret perversion.

That’s all I have to say about that. Now I can go back to watching Ina — woohoo!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    Fake Irishman

    Let us never speak of this again.

    Edit: you can tell how lame the topic is if I, the king of commenting on dead, fossilized threads can call FIRST!

  3. 3.

    Alison Rose

    I didn’t watch, but I trust your assessments, BC. Someone in the earlier thread said that DeSantis made it sound like he was a Navy SEAL? Definitely seems like a big no-no, although I’m sure the SUPPORT TEH TROOPS!!! people won’t really care.

  4. 4.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Hutchinson is a sleazy hypocrite who almost certainly has a secret perversion.

    If anything could move me to take a Republican ballot this cycle…

  5. 5.

    Ken

    You missed a marvelous opportunity for a game, where you give us a list of names and a list of descriptions, and ask us to match them. Though “is delusional” would have been tricky.

  6. 6.

    lgerard

    From Meagan McArdle of all people:

    “I see a bunch of people saying that DeSantis is having a good debate, including respected colleagues here! I’m afraid I don’t see it. He’s coming off like an irritated high school principal trying to browbeat the kids behind the gym into joining Junior ROTC.”

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    DeSantis is angry all the time, and when he’s not angry he’s exasperated and that makes him angry.

    None of these people will earn one vote over Trump.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Wonkette has been live blogging this clown show, Evan Hurst providing lots of snark and the non-commenters chiming in.   DeathSentence isn’t even making a splash, Ramalamadingdong is dominating the snarkmob’s reactions.

  11. 11.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    On CNN, Republicans Alyssa Farrah Griffin and Scott Jennings thought Nikki Haley had the best night.

  13. 13.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Hutchinson is a sleazy hypocrite who almost certainly has a secret perversion.

    Not far off. He voted to impeach Clenis while he was having an affair with his secretary

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    DeSantis didn’t have a good debate. He was a total non-presence.

    Burgum reminded me of Admiral Stockdale, where am I going and why I am in a hand basket?

    Pence did better than I thought he would.

    Vivek is a cokehead.

    Christie was disappointing, he’s usually good for a shiv. And he looked bad.

    Scott is boring.

    Hutchinson is boring.

    Haley didn’t embarrass herself.

    ETA: Vivek’s teeth are so white that they look like he bought them at the Spirit Halloween store.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    @lgerard:  I’m only reading the Washington Post live stream, but McArdle has come up with some nice descriptions early on:

    Trump: “the nation’s premier chaos muppet”

    Ramaswamy: “But his intro tonight was a little too slick. I half-expected him to tell me the number to call to order my ShamWow!”

    DeSantis: “He’s coming off like an irritated high school principal trying to browbeat the kids behind the gym into joining Junior ROTC.”

  17. 17.

    OGLiberal

    Pence won.  He won’t win the nomination, they’ll never like him and he is horrible but I think he won, maybe simply by not being them.  Burgum…OK but will never be trusted.  Ditto Hutchinson.  Tim Scott’s entire appeal seemed to he to conservative blacks…not going to win you the nomination.  Christie is solely there to wage revenge porn.

  19. 19.

    RedDirtGirl

    I watched more than I thought I would. Was surprised to see that Pence and Vivek went at it on numerous occasions.

  21. 21.

    Fake Irishman

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    It was better than that: he not even only voted to impeach Clinton, he was one of the House prosecutors.

    (In his favor, he kept the Medicaid expansion in Arkansas. It was the first big indicator that expansion might be durable even under GOP state governments.)

  22. 22.

    Trivia Man

    @Alison Rose:

    “DeSantis made it sound like he was a Navy SEAL?”

    I caught at least twice where he name dropped them and implied he was a SEAL. But he actually said “I served with SEALs” and other sneaky phrasings.

  24. 24.

    RedDirtGirl

    @OGLiberal: I sort of agree. I hate Pence with a burning intensity, and have always agreed with the MockPaperScissors.com description of him as a walking termite buffet. But he had an unexpected gravitas tonight that I was not expecting. I mean, don’t get me wrong, all the Bible crap had me gagging, but he sounded more presidential than I thought possible.

  25. 25.

    marcopolo

    @OGLiberal: Well, all I can say is the target audience for this debate were the listless vessels that are R primary voters.  YOU think Pence won (and for normies he did give a decent performance), but honestly I don’t think anyone on this blog has he ability to totally understand the MAGA cognitive dissonance & nuttiness.  As awful as Vivek appeared to me, I could see him being the winner with those folks (shudders).

  26. 26.

    lgerard

    @RSA:

    Did you notice how Thiessen DOES NOT LIKE Ramaswarmy.

    He criticized him nonstop.  Maybe he is just not Xtian enough

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Didn’t see the debate, but on MSNBC just now they played a clip of Christie supposedly pwning Ramaswamy with a line comparing him to Barack Obama. And all I could think was, Barack Obama won a very tough primary, and two full presidential terms. So Chris, maybe not the best comparison if you’re trying to diss someone.

    Or to put it another way: “Please continue, Governor.”

    ETA: The above comment is in no way meant as a support or defence of Ramaswamy.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cathie from Canada:

    I honestly didn’t learn much about the debate, the issues, or the candidates from Evan’s Wonkette liveblog, but I most certainly laughed out loud at several points.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: Christie seems to go after Obama a lot, more than he does Biden. Maybe the podcast with Springsteen was just more than he could cope with

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    @Honus: I was surprised by how little DeSantis talked. He didn’t seem to ever want to jump in. Even Burgum seemed more energetic.

    ETA: There was also a moment at the beginning where you could see DeSantis reminding himself to smile. And it looked fake and bad.

  35. 35.

    Alison Rose

    Caption on an MSNBC clip on YT: Maddow: I was shocked by how bad Ron DeSantis is at playing politician

    But he’s been this bad forever. Come on, Rachel.

  40. 40.

    West of the Rockies

    Tim Scott, I gather, was an utter nothing tonight?  He’s barely been mentioned thus far.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Suzanne:

    I was surprised by how little DeSantis talked. He didn’t seem to ever want to jump in. Even Burgum seemed more energetic.

    Maybe DeSantis should do the next debate with a broken ankle.

  43. 43.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @West of the Rockies: just caught the never-trumpers of the Bulwark (Tim Miller, Tom Nichols, etc) saying that Scott looked nervous and unsure of himself and Larry Ellison is gonna want his money back. They think Nikki Haley had the best night and the big donors are going to start sending her cash

    ETA:

    Richard M. Nixon @dick_nixon 2h
    I have never heard Ramaswamy speak, because I don’t care. He talks like Wink Martindale on diet pills.

  47. 47.

    Bill

    @Trivia Man: I think what he meant to say was “I was a Harvard lawyer posted to forcefeed prisoners at Guantanamo” but that didn’t poll quite as well with the testers

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    @SiubhanDuinne: Orange County CA

    As many as 10 shot, several dead, at famed Cook’s Corner biker bar in Orange County

    As many as 10 people were shot, some fatally, Wednesday night at a landmark biker bar in Trabuco Canyon, law enforcement sources said.

    Authorities descended on Cook’s Corner on Santiago Canyon Road after the shooting was reported around 7:30 p.m.

    Two sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the gunman was a retired law enforcement officer.

    Sources said the gunman was targeting his estranged wife. It is unclear whether the shooter followed her to the location before opening fire on the crowd, they said.

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    the Bulwark crew all in agreement that Rupert had his thumb on the scales for DeSantis tonight

  56. 56.

    Trivia Man

    @Bill: Truth is punished!

    @Jay: It should be clear to anyone that he was never a SEAL – but he sure likes the implication that he was somehow “with” them. I really hope that his involvement with torture gets ore play. Even if he drops out of the race tomorrow – he needs to have that stain permanently attached to his hide. to this day he still defends his work there. (But quietly)

  59. 59.

    Jackie

    ”Moments after the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday, Greene told RSBN host Brian Glenn that Fox News refused to let her enter the so-called spin room as a surrogate for Trump because he boycotted the event. Fox News made it clear ahead of time that Trump surrogates would not be admitted if he did not participate.”

    ””And I just want to go ahead and let you know, and for the audience listening, they just blocked us out,” she complained. “They would not allow myself, Matt Gaetz, any other Trump surrogates to go into the spin room… So this is censorship from Fox News. This is censorship, not allowing surrogates for President Trump to go into the spin room.””

    “Glenn tried to move on to another subject, but Greene said she was too angry.”

    “I’m sorry,” the lawmaker fumed. “I’m still so mad that we just were blocked out. I literally am furious.”“

    More at the link:

    https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-fox-news-debate/

    I have to say, I’m impressed that FAUX News actually stood by their word to not let any TIFG surrogates participate in the Spin Room.

  60. 60.

    cain

    reviewed Tom Nichol’s twitter thread on it – I’m caught up. Tom declares it a shitshow. Good enough for me!

  62. 62.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: i think it was his brother Tim who was having an affair with his secretary not Asa. I wouldn’t vote for Asa but Asa sounds like the most normal GOPr on that stage. That’s how crazy the GOP has become. BTW Asa’s nephew(pretty sure its Tim’s kid) was a state legislator is in trouble over some corruption  scandal and is probably going to be doing some time.

  64. 64.

    dmsilev

    @Jay: I guess someone decided it was time to let a bit of opposition research on him ‘leak’ out. For normal people this would be utterly irrelevant, but the GOP primary electorate are …not normal.

  65. 65.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    @Jay: i saw a blurb about Ramalamadingdong’s company  never actually has  made any money. I am waiting for the media to hit that whenever his fall starts.

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mai Naem mobileI:i think it was his brother Tim who was having an affair with his secretary not Asa.

    I think I missed that one in real time. Good lord. Newtie, Livingston, Hyde, anybody else remember crazy Helen Chenoweth? So many frauds hoist with their own petard

  69. 69.

    Misterpuff

    From downstairs:

    I want a clip of the Pence/Vivek set-to with Beavis and Butthead’s voices dubbed in.

    Assholio FTW and Dense is such a Butthead.

  72. 72.

    ArchTeryx

    Frankly the evening would have been far more entertaining if a megalodon crashed the party and ate them all. It certainly would have been more fun than an actual debate.

  73. 73.

    ArchTeryx

    @Alison Rose: Human enough to get elected governor twice in Florida. Shows just how far the majority of the state’s voters have fallen, doesn’t it, that they’d elect a lizard man as governor? Twice?

  74. 74.

    wjca

    @Suzanne:

    I was surprised by how little DeSantis talked.

    Maybe his latest campaign advisors got thru with the obvious advice: “Every time you shoot your mouth off, you shoot yourself in the foot.  So just shut up.”

  75. 75.

    Jay

    @Mai Naem mobileI:

    He made money, his companies made money, mostly by ripping off other investors, not from sales of actual products.

    Hype, smooze, bring in the VC and pension funds as the stocks climbed, sell out before the fall, rinse, repeat,…..

  76. 76.

    Kristine

    Just wanted to say thanks for the post about Ina’s program. I didn’t know about and I don’t have cable anymore but it looks like it’s on Apple TV and Amazon Prime and the fee isn’t bad.

    I love Ina. She’s my Cookie Sensei.

  80. 80.

    RaflW

    Thanks for the recap and details, all. Seems like the guy in Milwaukee who walked around with the “VP Debate tonight!” sign was right, and I don’t regret missing it.

    Good night!

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @Nettoyeur:

    kinda, but not.

    Kinda reminds me of what happened at 3M Thin Films. They bought a Boston publically traded Corp that according to Wall Street was the #1 Thin Films Corp in the world.

    2 years in 3M Corporate finally figured out that their entire value was based on getting new investment from stock sales and VC investments, not product shipped.

    Pump and Dump is technically when you or a collection of other’s buy “your” stocks, (and control the majority of shares) at ever increasing prices, creating a rapid rise which you and partners sell off when you think the price has peaked.

    Those who buy in near the peak, quickly discovered they paid real money for a worthless penny stock.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @Alison Rose:

    I don’t think anyone would allow him to clean the bilges of a USN ship. And no I don’t think he has ever been any better at any time in his life than he is now.

  84. 84.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’ve never really heard Sandtits speak much until today. His voice sounds like he fakes a tough guy voice, like it’s too high pitched and he’s forcing it to be lower to sound tough.

    He sounds like wimp trying to be tough. I suppose that passes for tough on the right…lol

  85. 85.

    Jay

    Speaking of not trying to hide it any more, the RNC chose Rumble to be their streaming service, and Rumble wants to make sure that their target audience know about the debate tonight:

    GOP debate streaming partner Rumble placed RNC ads on numerous pro-Hitler videos
    Rumble has been placing ads for the Republican National Committee on pro-Hitler and neo-Nazi videos on its streaming site ahead of the Republican presidential debate tonight. The existence of those virulently antisemitic videos are further confirmation of how the Republicans’ debate partner has trafficked in extreme and toxic content for profit.

    https://mockpaperscissors.com/2023/08/23/news-that-will-drive-you-to-drink-1946/

  89. 89.

    Death Panel Truck

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I met Helen Chenoweth in a receiving line after her appearance at a public hearing in Nampa on the day JFK Jr’s plane went down. Her hand was so cold, it was like shaking hands with death.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    Reddit comment

    Vivek Ramaswamy came off as the highschool debate team kid who got enlightened by Ayn Rand and preferred The Fountainhead because Atlas Shrugged was too mainstream.

  92. 92.

    Shalimar

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: If you hunt around online, you can find clips of DeSantis speaking in his natural range.  The tough guy voice is a big improvement, which is why he has clearly been training with a voice coach to use it.

  93. 93.

    Rebel’s Dad

    That poor buzzard (?) looks like he ate a Republican politician and just realized how badly he f’ed up.

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