Had a great live show night with Tim, Tom Nichols, and Semafor’s Ben Smith. Tonight I’ll carry on the conversation here with Mona Charen and Bill Kristol at 8pm in the East.
Warning: I’m going full-Eeyore today.
1. About Last Night
I’m going to summarize the entire debate via gif in a minute, so you’ll have something to look forward to. But first some serious thoughts:
Three minutes into the debate I was already exhausted by this campaign. Fox actually opened by asking Ron DeSantis to expound on the deep truths of “Rich Men North of Richmond” and then challenged Tim Scott to prove how he had supported Oliver Anthony’s noble and wise policy agenda.1
We’ve got 15 months of playing make-believe about the need to return to small-government conservatism from a group of people pretending that their voters are something other than what they are.
But we have to bite down on a stick and do it, I guess. So let me explain to you why Vivek Ramaswamy won the night. (And it wasn’t close.)
Join Bulwark+ to unlock the rest
Become a paying member of The Bulwark to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
- Unlimited access to articles and newsletters including The Triad by JVL and Receipts by Catherine Rampell.
- Ad-free editions of our shows (with transcripts) and member-only shows like The Secret Podcast.
- Plus community chats and commenting features. Your support helps keep our work sustainable and available to those who cannot afford a membership. Cancel anytime.