Former President Donald Trump likely will be absent during the first GOP primary debate next month – is that a mistake?
It means that his characteristic insults will not be hurled from the debate stage and that voters will hear where his competitors stand on key issues.
Considering Trump’s lock on better than 50% of the GOP electorate it is fair to ask if Republican voters care about issues that set them apart from President Joe Biden. The Real Clear Politics Average shows Trump with a 53.1% lock on the Republican vote, up from a low of 43% in February.
Only a tiny fraction of the American electorate lacks a strong opinion of the ex-president. Trump’s negatives among Republicans have risen to 32% and his favorability has fallen nine points to 66%.
Voters Want Someone Other Than Trump
Most voters want someone other than Biden and Trump in the general election; however, party activists control the primary nomination process. Polls show that those not named Trump have a better shot at beating Biden. Trump’s legal woes and the circling of the wagons around him have made getting to the issues of the campaign more difficult.
The New York Post Editorial Board laid the issues that are missing in the circus surrounding Trump’s legal woes to the fore.
“Bidenomics has added trillions to the national debt, sent prices soaring, eroded take-home pay and savings, and forced the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates, making homeownership less affordable and risking an economic slowdown. What will each candidate do about that?,” the Post said. “The border’s a national nightmare, with millions having crossed during Biden’s tenure. How will the next president fix that?
The Post Editorial Board continued: “What can be done about threats from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran?”
Biden’s corruption, age, and unpopular governance ought to be a golden shot for the Republicans to win despite their tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Debate Gives Republicans Opportunity To Distract From Trump Circus
Democrats are counting on the circus surrounding the Trump indictments and lawfare suits to dominate the electoral cycle and give Biden air cover to claim another four years.
“If Trump does not want to debate, that is his decision alone. But if he doesn’t, it is an opportunity for the American people to judge his rivals without it descending into a grievance session that falls into the same trap,” The Post Editorial Board wrote.
It offers his rivals an opportunity to argue why America needs to move on from the disputed 2020 election and to argue why America needs an alternative to an election in which Trump’s personality is on trial. Millions of swing voters don’t like Biden but they like Trump even less.
His chief rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis makes his case to voters why he is not the flagging candidate that people see him as. If he does well it could re-energize his campaign that just had to lay off 1/3 of its staffers because he has not been connecting with voters as has been shown by his failure to collect smaller donations.
It also could give businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who has surged as of late in the polls, a chance to say why he should take the top job.
Above all the debate should give the other candidates an opportunity to argue why Trump’s legal circus is bad for the party and for the country and how it could give Biden another four years, and how they would be different.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
From 19FortyFive
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