[jlisenbe]

Did the budget increase under Trump ? Of course it did . He had a built in excuse for doing it with the pandemic.

The budget increased under Trump all four of his years. He can't use COVID as an excuse.

He signed a bill to keep child mutilation requests confidential from parents .

Cali is becoming the newest communist state. The alarming aspect is that many Americans will approve of this.

[tomder55]

DeSantis was on his game last night. I hope he is when he debates Newsom.

As for the Repubs . If the frontrunner refuses to debate the debate should be cancelled . In this day of social media the only uniformed people are those who want to be. A debate doesn't change that . The Repubs agree with each other on almost everything, So the differences were inconsequential. What was the size of Nikki's gas tax increase or the color of her drapes?What a waste of time ! And that hot for the teacher stuff was creepy.

[jlisenbe]

The guy who made the best impression might have been Burgum. He came across as a thoughtful guy who wasn't interested in bickering and interrupting.

[tomder55]

Yes but to what end ? That worked to his disadvantage. He was almost an after thought to the moderators. I thought across the board those with gubernatorial experience out performed those who did not. And yes he sounded sober compared to the likes of Christie ;Vivek ;and Scott (who apparently is a one trick pony.)

I think his campaign is for national name recognition. He struggled to get the 3% to qualify for this debate He may pick up a point or two, But he most likely will be the next one" voted off the island ". Pence should go too. He has the problem of defending the Trump presidency while not condemning the indefensible part of the Trump era.

[jlisenbe]

Pence is coming across as tired and old. He probably has the best character of any of them, but has always been a rather dull candidate.

I know Burgum won't get very far. Vivek has likely topped out and will be declining from this point on. DeSantis strikes me as the only one with much of a chance.

[tomder55]

Through it all, DeSantis stayed above the fray and—shockingly—spoke when it was his turn. When Haley tried to ambush him, he didn’t even bother looking at her as he parried her false claim and explained his pro-energy policies.



But even here DeSantis came up on top, letting experience speak in lieu of hypotheticals. As someone who has worn a military uniform—the only one on stage to have done so—he spoke from authority about the need to conserve American national power and focus on the threat from China’s communist government. He alone also identified the China threat as not just economic and military, but political as well, noting he had shut down Chinese political warfare instruments like Confucius Institutes on Florida campuses.

DeSantis also had the clearest policy on using the U.S. military if necessary to confront Mexican cartels that in effect are running a parallel government in Mexico and waging war on America. Despite her neoconservative, pro-war credentials, all Haley could offer was a vague promise to use the magic of special forces against the cartels. DeSantis offered a comprehensive effort of defense-in-depth to defend the border and take the fight to the cartels. Our military brass may be more interested in flighting far-off conflicts in Ukraine and Syria (Haley and most of her colleagues on stage are too), but DeSantis will refocus the military on actual clear and present dangers.

The net outcome of the event was that DeSantis remains the ultimate alternative to Trump—one with the actual accomplishments and proven political acumen to take on Democrats who unfortunately won’t be dumb enough to renominate Biden.


CHRISTIAN WHITON: DeSantis Prevails In Noisy Second Debate | The Daily Caller

[tomder55]

He also took on Univision's Ilia Calderón who lied through her teeth about Florida's teachings about slavery ;spreading Kam the Sham's false charges. He also nailed the question about winning elections if you are pro-life. He said he is shamelessly pro-life and won in a landslide in Fla.

He smacked down Dana Perino when she asked the stupid question about voting off the island . He told her that question was not appropriate in a serious debate.

In the future a series of one on one Lincoln-Douglas type debates lasting about an hour would be a much better alternative to a free for all responding to questions from libs.

[jlisenbe]

Come January, Trump will stumble in Iowa and DeSantis will be there to carry the torch as the leader of a new generation who is long on accomplishment and skips the cute posturing and canned verbiage.

We can only hope.

He smacked down Dana Perino when she asked the stupid question about voting off the island . He told her that question was not appropriate in a serious debate.

Perino was a disappointment.

[tomder55]

Evidently the RNC does not like debates they don't control .

Why else would they threaten Vivek and Christe for daring to plan on going mano y mano on Fox ?

The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey Governor, lashed out at the Republican National Committee on Tuesday after the organization effectively squashed plans for the two presidential candidates to face off in an unofficial debate tonight on Fox News.
The Christie-Ramaswamy event was teased Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as an hourlong special segment called “Candidates Corner,” to unfold at 6 p.m. Tuesday with Fox News host Bret Baier.
But according to a person familiar with the discussions, the R.N.C. told the candidates that if they went through with the one-on-one event, they would not be allowed to participate in future R.N.C.-sanctioned debates. (The next official debate is set for Nov. 8 in Miami.)

RNC Thwarts Plans for Unofficial Ramaswamy-Christie Debate - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

If it were up to me all the debates would be set up in a sports playoff format with candidates going one on one ;with little moderator input. .A pre-approved polling organization would declare winner and loser .

There are plenty of venues that would gladly host them. But RNC would not have that monopoly they have and are determined to keep. Only pre-approved thoughts can be expressed. The moderators are quick to cut off debate that the RNC does not approve.

The administration and the Dems have had a major role in speech suppression in this country . Add the RNC to the list of thought suppressors.

[jlisenbe]

The whole idea of debate is to compare/contrast ideas, to force candidates to explain their positions. That's really hard to do with six people on one stage. Then it becomes more of a beauty pageant with candidates jockeying to make a favorable impression and get the best sound-bite without saying something stupid or controversial. It becomes less and less about ideas and more about appearances.

Did DeSantis and Newsome ever debate? I somehow missed it if they did.

[tomder55]

Not until November

[tomder55]

I'm sure violent crime will be a topic for the debate

The facts .....

FBI released stats on violent crime . The good news is that violent crime is back below pandemic levels.

FBI Releases 2022 Crime in the Nation Statistics — FBI

But that does not tell the whole story

California violent crime went up since 2019 . Florida's went down.

Violent Crime Spikes In CA While Falling Nationwide: FBI Report | Across California, CA Patch

California 499.5 per 1000 people.
CDE (cjis.gov)

The same difference is noted in property crime.

Florida 258.9 per 1000 people .
CDE (cjis.gov)

[jlisenbe]

He should also point to NAEP testing scores. Florida smokes Cali in both reading and math. For that matter, my own state (MS) generally beats Cali by a significant margin. Newsom's state is shockingly low in the scores.

[tomder55]

Newsom is acting like the nominee in waiting. Fueled by his great success at governing California< / scarc> ;he has taken his show on the international road to bolster his foreign policy bona fides ..

First he went to Israel because in the middle of a war the Israeli's have the time to entertain a US state governor who's concerns are climate change.

After his one day junket he released an I...I...I statement .

Governor Newsom Travels to Israel | California Governor

Then he was off to China where at the Great Wall ,he told Xi to tear down that wall
Newsom Visits Great Wall of China - YouTube

(hey that line worked for another former California Guv)

He managed to keep his hair coiffed for a week while discussing climate change for a week.

Now that's Presidential !!!

[jlisenbe]

He's the biggest loser of all of em. How he gets any serious consideration is a real puzzle.

[tomder55]

They should've did the debate when they were peaking .

DeSantis is losing his mojo .
Trump wins Texas governor Abbott's endorsement at US-Mexico border | Reuters

Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorses Trump for president | CNN Politics

Haley surges in NH as DeSantis slips to single digits: polls (nypost.com)


Newsom is sinking in the polls.

Gov. Gavin Newsom Approval Ratings Have Sunk to an All-Time Low; ‘Hated by Younger People’ – California Globe

He can carry his state .....maybe But can he carry swing states ?

He is touting infrastructure achievements of highways and trains to nowhere

Road to nowhere: How California has spent billions but failed to keep roads up to standard (washingtonexaminer.com)

California’s High Speed Swindle – California Globe

Newsom’s popularity recently sank to an all-time low in California, an across-the-board drop that has an unclear origin. Perhaps his cosplaying as a national spokesperson for the Democratic Party rather than attending to the state’s needs or his vetoes of a number of popular bills played a role. But now he has a crisis in his backyard that could either push the public toward or away, depending on the outcome. High-minded speeches about the values of Democrats now take a back seat to whether Newsom can act. The former has been more of his comfort zone.

Freeway Disaster Presents Hurdle for Newsom’s National Ambitions - The American Prospect

[jlisenbe]

Newsom might have some problems presenting himself as the law and order candidate. It's really amazing that these kinds of incidents are becoming routine in Cali while they are rare in Florida.

Police are searching for more than a dozen suspects who ransacked a Nike Store in Los Angeles, stealing roughly $12,000 in merchandise.
Video of the incident shows masked and hooded people running through the store on Sunday, stuffing boxes of shoes into trash bags and ripping clothes off the rack before fleeing.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, on Sunday at around 5:50 p.m., a total of 17 suspects in five vehicles pulled up to the shopping center on the 9800 block of South Alameda Street.
"The suspects, whose faces were concealed by medical masks or other material, ran into a retail store with trash bags in hand," police said in a statement. "They placed clothing and boxes of shoes in the trash bags and fled from the location without paying for the merchandise."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/flash-mob...0-merch-police

[tomder55]

The debate is tonight on Fox . I don't have Fox as I have cut off all cable television in a cost cutting effort (tough choices must be made) . But I will watch replays and listen to the radio broadcast .

Next week there will be ANOTHER Repub debate which I'm sure that will be missed by Trump as Megyn Kelly will be a moderator . It will be on NewsNation a surprising balanced news network . She is looking for redemption after the fall out from her unbalanced attacks on Trump during the 2016 debates .
Megyn Kelly’s New Media Moment | RealClearPolitics

[tomder55]

I hope they debate in great detail the implications of their covid policies . I am not sure the fallout in the education system can ever be recovered from . A whole generation of students are behind ;and so called back to normal is not normal.

Study finds the school absenteeism rate is double what it was before COVID : NPR

[jlisenbe]

I hope DeSantis will go on the offensive in this debate, and the subject you noted is a good place to start. There is so much disinformation out there on the subject of schooling. It was even stated on this board that just completely missing a year of school was no big deal since, after all, the students will just make that material up the next year. The results we've gathered in the past few years have shown that to be completely untrue.

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/03/his...-covid-schools