Dec.06

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Get Ready for another GOP Candidates' Debate

Tonight, a bunch of Republicans who have little to no chance of becoming president will meet in Tuscaloosa, AL, for yet another debate in which they are likely to say nothing of note.

The list of participants keeps shrinking, so at least that's something. Nikki Haley, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Vivek Ramaswamy qualified several weeks ago. Chris Christie got a couple of miracle polls at the last minute, and so he qualified, too. What this means is that we have the cast of Debate #3 minus Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Scott wasn't going to make the cut, anyhow, and, of course, he dropped out of the race rather than face the indignity of being told he was out of the debate lineup.

Naturally, Donald Trump also qualified to be on stage and, naturally, he won't be there. This time, he's counter-programming with a fundraiser in Florida. (Z) recalls, back in high school, that he was told that someone who makes a point of avoiding popular music and movies and other such things, simply because they are popular, is not the iconoclast they think they are, and is still allowing their behavior to be shaped by what is trendy. This may be relevant here; the fact that Trump always schedules some sort of high-profile event to take place at the same time as the candidates' debates would seem to undermine his argument that they're not important and he doesn't care about them.

The fun (assuming you're someone who's into pain) begins at 8:00 ET. The moderators are NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas, who's tolerable, Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson, who isn't, and SiriusXM's Megyn Kelly, who really, really isn't. NewsNation is the lead broadcaster, so you can watch the debate on that channel if you have it... and you can find it in your channel lineup. It's also going to be streamed on NewsNation's website, and will be broadcast on many local CW affiliates (though tape-delayed west of the Mississippi). Alternatively, if you are really a glutton for punishment, you can watch it on the far-right social media platform Rumble.

Also, we need to pay off the third debate contest before the fourth debate happens. So, to start, here are the order in which the various phrases showed up:

An exercise like this really does throw into relief the various candidates' brands, doesn't it? Haley is the conservative from generations past, DeSantis is the attack dog, Ramaswamy is the conspiracy theorist, Scott is the evangelical who loves Jesus and hates the gays, and Christie is the wallpaper.

And here are the top 10 scorers (the tiebreaker, recall, was guessing how much speaking time Vivek Ramaswamy would have; he checked in at exactly 17.5 minutes):

1. P.L. in Los Angeles, CA and R.S. in Falmouth, KY (tie): 42 points; 2.5 minutes off on Ramaswamy's speaking time
   
   
2. J.M. in Los Angeles, CA: 42 points; 0.5 minutes
   
   
3. A.C. in Kingston, MA: 44 points; 7.5 minutes
   
   
4. D.R. in Ewing, NJ: 44 points; 2.5 minutes
   
   
5. G.M.L. in Alexandria, VA: 44 points; 1.5 minutes
   
   
6. E.K. in Brignoles, France: 44 points; 0.5 minutes
   
   
7. M.M. in Manahawkin, NJ: 46 points; 13.5 minutes
   
   
8. A.C.W. in Las Vegas, NV: 46 points; 10.5 minutes
   
   
9. M.C. in DeWitt, MI: 48 points; 8.5 minutes
   
   
10. S.A. in Clinton, WA: 48 points; 1.5 minutes

Congrats to S.A. and to all of the Top 10! Oh, and in case you are wondering, the average score was 28.9 points and the average margin of error on Ramaswamy was 10.96 minutes.

We will do something like this again for a future debate; there just wasn't time to pull something together for tonight's affair. (Z)