I managed to last about an hour and a half on this one. My reactions are as follows:
- The moderators asked good, pointed questions that the candidates routinely ignored. They then did very little to keep order, which made the event largely unendurable.
- The MSM make the problem with candidates talking over each other worse by using speaking time as a metric of success.
- No one candidate really stood out. DeSantis and Scott were a little bit more effective than last time, but so what? Neither of them made any headway against Trump, and neither made meaningful gains against his opponents.
- You can’t beat Trump, or even the other candidates, if all you do is mouth standard GOP talking points. The others are doing that, too. If you want to look better, sound different–more thoughtful and innovative.
- If you believe these candidates, tax and spending cuts are the answer to all economic questions, even if that makes no sense. Will tax cuts reduce inequality? Will tax and spending cuts reduce the cost of child care? Maybe on the planet Zoltan, but not here.
The status quo of lots of equally matched candidates grasping for the Never Trumper and AAT votes will clearly continue for the next few months. The sorting process won’t begin until the primaries start.