The Republican presidential campaign is in full swing or low swing?
After Vivek Ramaswamy ended his run for the presidency last week, I felt a twinge of regret. For me, it had been a source of amusement watching how his popularity plummeted in inverse proportion to the amount of exposure he got.
The more people saw him, the less people seemed to like him.
So he dropped out.
As soon as he dropped out, he threw his support behind Donald Trump. He didn’t waste a full day before he ran and leaped into Mr. Trump’s arms.
That’s despite Trump claiming that “a vote for Vivek is a vote for the ‘other side.'”
Ramaswamy had only been one part of the Kabuki Dance that now serves as the Republican presidential campaign season.
An exercise in which just about everybody knows the outcome (that Trump would be the winner by a landslide) – but none of the participants acknowledge that.
They just spend their time and lots of campaign money going through the motions.
So, candidates Trump, Haley, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Christie spent a total of $123.4 million on TV ads in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses.
That’s $123.4 million smackers paid by candidates who swear they know how to wisely spend the people’s money – if they ever got their hands on it.
For the record: ex-President Trump did get his hands on the people’s money for four years.
For the record again: He added $7 trillion to the national debt during those four years.
Nikki Haley claims she was a “big” winner on Iowa caucus night, despite only winning one county out of Iowa’s 99.
Trump won the other 98.
There’s Asa Hutchinson.
A sign that you’ve not made much of an impression on potential voters is when you drop out of the race – but everybody thought you’d already dropped out months ago.
That’s ex-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson’s problem. He simply never picked up much of any support along the way.
Last Tuesday morning, when Hutchinson made his official announcement that he was dropping out of the race, many Americans must’ve said, “Say what?”
Ex-New Jersey governor Chris Christie proclaimed he wasn’t prepared to drop out of the race on Jan. 5. On Jan. 10, he dropped out of the race. It’s unclear what he would have seen on Jan. 10, that he hadn’t seen on Jan. 5. But he’s gone.
Tomorrow, the folks in New Hampshire get to make their Republican choice for president (Trump).
Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are doing their best to act as if Trump isn’t about to bounce one or both of them out of the race.
Meanwhile, there will always be a need for a “clean-up on Aisle Trump.”
As long as Trump ad libs during his campaign speeches, there will be some head-scratching moments.
At one campaign stop, he mocked President Biden’s stutter. Trump’s adoring crowds delight in watching their man make fun of somebody with a lifelong speech disorder – the way that a third grader might pick on a classmate with crutches.
But third graders grow up. The jury is still out on Trump.
In another speech, he remarked that he would have negotiated an end to the Civil War.
I suppose Trump thinks Abe Lincoln wasn’t as good at being a wartime president as he would have been.
I shudder to think what would have happened if he could determine the consequence of slavery.
Give him a chance, and he’ll reveal his true feelings. Like hoping the stock market will crash before the 2024 presidential election – to increase his chances of winning.
Trump’s penchant for attacking his opponents has no bounds. He recently initiated one of his patented birtherism attacks against Nikki Haley.
He made a post on his Truth Social about her not being eligible to become president because her parents weren’t U.S. citizens when she was born in 1972.
That’s a bogus claim. Just as bogus as when he tried to disqualify Barack Obama with questions about his birthplace.
Trump has no shame.
Al Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 50-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.