The Trump-Shaped Void at the GOP Debate
Potential Republican frontrunners Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz must have wished for this for ages. Two hours with the also-rans, with no Donald Trump. No Trumpian expatiation. No uncannily precise schoolyard needling. Breathing room for — if not the presence of — seriousness, where they could make their case for being the real leaders. They failed.
Donald Trump was gone. Four days before the Iowa caucuses, he was five minutes away in Des Moines, hosting an anemic quasi-fundraiser that for any other candidate would have been a fiasco. But it’s Trump, so, as is the case with all things about him this election, any claim to know what it portends is a joke. Best to leave the guesses to the analysts of 24-hour news, who ride confirmation bias and short memories on the way to wisdom on par with Smooth Jimmy Apollo.
If anyone had a good night in Trump’s absence, it was Jeb Bush. Like the kid with the inhaler who scuttles around the playground, waiting to be hit in the back of the head with a dirt clod, Bush has spent every debate since the first one almost wincing in anticipation of what Trump will do next. Without him, like that same kid experiencing a week of freedom while the class bully is out with chicken pox, he became a different person. Someone you might like.
Bush threw away his inhaler. His pectus excavatum popped out, and he started hitting the Charles Atlas bodybuilding kit. He burned Marco Rubio on immigration, corrected Ted Cruz and then stood his ground, and his call for the party to embrace Latinos, not discriminate against Muslim-Americans and reject mockery of people’s appearances garnered a robust cheer. He even joked about missing Trump and their friendly rapport and got a sincere laugh. The 100 Million Dollar Man looked viable enough that he might someday be worth it.
Marco Rubio, on the other hand, showed up and was still Marco Rubio.
The line coming out of all these debates has been stuck for months at, “Marco Rubio is a good debater.” You hear this again and again for two reasons. One, the Republican establishment and Beltway pundits share equal interest in a next-generation ethnic conservative candidate who is suitably not-insane enough that they can hang a “moderate” narrative on him without it being screwball absurd. Two, at this point in Republican Party evolution, the standards for “good at political debate” are about as rigorous as a teenage male’s are for oral sex: just show up, look OK and keep your mouth open.
To date, almost all of Rubio’s winning lines have been scripted down to the beat. Most are either targeted comments designed to win a debate point or rehearsed stump speech zingers, framed by segues. You can see him change posture and switch gears in his delivery as he gets onto the safe terrain of something he’s memorized. Every candidate does this, but it’s noticeable that these are the only moments when Rubio sounds knowledgeable and resolute.
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