Nothing Was Revealed

Others here at National Review have already passed judgment on last night’s final GOP debate between Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley before the first primary results in the 2024 Republican nomination roll in with next Monday’s Iowa caucuses. Rich Lowry awarded the night to DeSantis on points; Noah Rothman felt that both candidates came away from the turgid and bitterly argued affair diminished. Both are correct, and yet I think it is Audrey Fahlberg who comes closest in many ways to the core truth of this debate: Donald Trump won, simply because he was not (and did not have to be) there.

If you want to be the Man, you have to beat the Man, and the Man in this case is obviously Donald Trump, who is by all lights cruising toward renomination. So I have no idea what either Haley (who must look ahead to South Carolina even if she pulls an upset in New Hampshire) or DeSantis (who has staked it all on Iowa) were doing criticizing each other rather than the leading candidate in the race. I want to lecture both of them like Alec Baldwin on his “mission of mercy” in Glengarry Glen Ross, except in this case, second prize isn’t a set of steak knives — second prize for either Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley as notorious “betrayers” of Donald Trump is “you’re fired.” There is no road to power after this, whether in a Trump administration or as forgotten relics during the next four years of Democratic misrule.