I wonder if people saved their yard signs. The rematch seems pretty certain.
This week’s Republican Party caucuses in Iowa came out just like the polls said they would. Donald Trump won easily. Despite the increasingly feeble efforts of Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to prove they’re still relevant, they aren’t. Trump is going to be the GOP nominee.
The beginning of this primary cycle is reminiscent of the last days of the 2016 race, when never-Trumpers tried to rally behind the last man who had not yet thrown in the towel — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz’s resistance was futile, even embarrassing, as he announced Carly Fiorina, a former corporate CEO who had earlier been dispatched by Trump, as his choice for vice president when it was clear he had no path to victory.
A political cartoon at the time had Cruz saying, “Next week, after we lose (whatever state it was), we’ll pick a cabinet.” I wish I could remember which cartoonist it was. I’d credit him or her.
Of course, shortly after, Cruz bended the knee and Trump, who had branded him “Lying Ted,” changed his moniker to “Beautiful Ted.”
Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.
Where Cruz was then is where DeSantis and Haley are now. And that’s too bad. They’re both smarter than Trump. Haley, at least, would make a better president. But that’s not going to happen this time. If the New Hampshire primary does not effectively end their campaigns, South Carolina will.
For some inexplicable reason, Trump’s act plays well in the Bible Belt.
Unless health or his many legal troubles intervene, Trump, then 78 years old, will be the oldest major party nominee in our nation’s history when he is crowned at the Republican National Committee Convention in July.
He’ll hold that distinction for about a month, until 81-year-old Joe Biden accepts the nomination of the Democratic Party at its convention. Again, health is a wild card here, but that’s true for all of us.
The last presidential race was, to be blunt about it, weird. It was during the early-to-mid days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The national conventions were virtual affairs, with some speakers playing to the cameras as if they were playing to a convention crowd and looking silly as a result.
Both conventions lacked the pageantry that we have long associated with events of such importance.
Campaign events were different, too, with efforts made at masking and social distancing — remember social distancing? — to try to stop the spread of the virus.
There was only one presidential debate in 2020, because Trump contracted COVID and was unable to appear in the second. There was also a vice presidential debate between candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.
Oddly, those two events produced a couple of the most memorable, if not terribly important, moments of the campaign.
One was when a fly, perched on Pence’s head, got more attention than anything he said. That was unfortunate, though it provided fodder for a lot of pretty good comedy in the days after.
The other was in the presidential debate, when Trump did what Trump does — ignored the moderator and his opponent and delivered a monologue until Biden brought him up short by expressing the frustration all of us watching were feeling. “Will you shut up, man?” he exclaimed.
I’m guessing there will be no debates this time. Trump has dodged all the GOP debates in favor of managed events where nobody questions him, and there’s no reason to believe he’ll veer away from that playbook. Biden, too, has little reason to share a debate stage. He has never been an electrifying speaker and, this time, he’s the president. He knows he’s not going to win over MAGA voters and he has no reason to let Trump take cheap shots at him for an hour or so.
All the polls indicate a race every bit as close as the last one. Regardless of what happens, Trump will claim he won.
It’s funny that so many polls say the nation doesn’t want a rematch of these two guys, and would rather have other candidates, but when it comes down to it, this is what we get.
Here we go again.