Grab a Drink and Join Us for the First GOP Presidential Primary Debate

Here's the Quick & Dirty VodkaPundit Summary.

Over-performed: Nikki Haley.

Performed: RDS.

Nuked themselves: Pence, Hutchinson.

Just there: Most everyone else.

???: Vivek.

I'll let others, who haven't been under the stress of live-blogging and decent scotch all evening, do the smarter, longer wraps.

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Thanks for being here. It's the readers who make all the election-year absurdity worthwhile, even after 20-plus years of making this craziness happen.

Cheers!

Fireworks are over now, we're into the closes.

Stick with me for one or two last sips off those cocktails.

I have a hypothesis on that.

There might be a misread of the campaign RDS has run. I don't think it's been very successful so far, but it also seems to be built for a marathon, not a sprint.

If -- and at this point, it might be a big if -- RDS's poll numbers start moving north again, the others might come out with the long knives. But tonight, RDS got to play his game, his way, while Pence and Vivek took most of the heat.

Off topic but I needed to post *something* during the commercial break.

Sorry in advance about the nightmares.

Remember when Fox called Arizona early in 2020?

#NeverForget

Whatever Vivek is on, I think I took something laced with it back in '98 or '99.

A lightning round? Oh, good. The hosting hadn't been stupid enough already.

"I'm gonna fight for girls all day long."

Nikki is on fire on the trans issue.

Mea culpa. I was a bit unfair to RDS a minute ago. Sometimes during a high-speed, high-proof drunkblog, I miss some details. I missed this detail and it was a big one.

Much more enjoying Vivek's answer on education.

I still don't trust him farther than I could throw him... although, come to think of it, skinny as he is, I might be able to throw him kinda far.

TBH, not loving RDS's answer on education. Abolish the DOE like he says? YES! But then he goes on to say it's a federal issue for the president to solve.

Trump usually isn't the guy you need to shout "READ THE ROOM!" at, but jeez.

I LOLed.

DeSantis has kept his head down and interjected when it suits him.

If you're an RDS supporter and were hoping for a breakout moment, I don't think it's going to happen tonight. Or maybe not any other night. I could be wrong about this, but he seems to be playing a long game.

Maybe that'll work, maybe it's suicide, but at least it plays up his strengths and plays down his weaknesses.

Again, I'd like to have seen more of this version of RDS over the last couple of months.

I'm still torn on this but mostly I'm just annoyed that the frontrunner doesn't think he needs to fight for my vote. 

Dear Asa,

Never mention you were part of the W Administration.

It doesn't help you.

Love,

-VodkaPundit

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I'd make this East Dakota guy my NatSec advisor.

#Vodka@024

"We're going to leave them stone-cold dead."

That's the DeSantis policy on drug smugglers on our southern border.

This is the comment of the night and it just popped up seconds ago: "The Fox hosts and the network didn't develop a nuanced set of questions to expose positions on policy, principles, etc., but instead went with the issues of the day, which prevents in-depth debate."