Opinion | Winners and losers of the 5th Republican debate in Iowa

Welcome to opinion commentary on the 5th Republican presidential debate held Wednesday night in Des Moines, Iowa. In this feature, Times Opinion writers and contributors rate candidates on his 0 to 10 scale. 0 means the candidate is unfit for the stage and should have withdrawn before the debate started, like Chris Christie. 10 means candidates can enter the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary with their backs to the wind.

Here’s what columnists and contributors thought about this debate.

nikki haley

Average: 5.1/10

It’s gotten better →

jamel bouye If you compare Nikki Haley to Ron DeSantis, she looks like a class-A national politician. She is someone who is competitive and can even win under the right circumstances. But if she ignores the other candidates on stage and listens only to Haley, she will quickly realize how much she lacks an important quality: a reason to be there.

Other than the fact that Haley has ambitions to be president, why exactly does she want to be president? What are the driving themes of her campaign? What is the problem? What is the problem?

To be fair to Haley, I’m not sure any of the people running for the Republican presidential nomination have an answer to that last question. One of the things that struck me most about this discussion was that while it was more substantive than previous episodes, it still wasn’t all that substantive. No matter how much you listen to Haley or DeSantis, there are real, material problems facing tens of millions of Americans, and that’s why they’re using the potential scapegoat Lazy Susan to blame one group for another. It doesn’t make sense that it can’t be solved by demagogueing.

Gail Collins It was expected that she would outperform DeSantis, but the two were about evenly matched. So I think she will lose. In general, their opinions were similar, and their theories about global warming were quite depressing.

Michelle Cottle All things considered, it was probably a smart move to have a desantislies.com site that she could call on whenever she wanted to accuse DeSantis of falsifying her record or his own — certainly in the nick of time. It was a huge savings — but it was still quite a nuisance. Haley spoke more and answered more difficult questions than DeSantis. (She may end up wishing she hadn’t been so honest about the need to raise the Social Security eligibility age.) She also repeatedly tried to put Trump in the spotlight… “He should be here!” — and his failures as president.

Ross Douthat She had some good moments criticizing Trump long after her pattern of mutual destruction with DeSantis was established. She’s still smoother than him, and always will be, but after a while her campaign’s persistent references to anti-DeSantis websites become self-parodic and even “SNL” worthy. I did. She would have been much better off replacing nearly all of her accusations against DeSantis with a sentence that begins, “Here’s why you should choose me over Donald Trump.”

robert leonard Haley owned the stage. She’s smart, she’s resourceful, she’s knowledgeable, and her foreign policy expertise will serve us well. She is also good in front of an Iowan audience. Haley wants conservative solutions to our problems. She believes DeSantis wants to impose his will on her. Among the Republicans, Haley has the best chance of defeating President Biden. Sadly, she may not be “Christian” enough for some Iowa Evangelical Republican Caucus attendees. Haley grew up in a Sikh household, a world in which a kind of purity test was always being conducted not only on her neighbors, friends, and family, but also on presidential candidates of questionable faith. Remember, she won Ted Cruz in Iowa. Not Trump.

Katherine Mang-Ward This discussion was like a dinner party for a couple on the verge of divorce. It was painful and unhelpfully repetitive. Haley once again outperformed DeSantis as the more principled adult in the room. Asked about the proper role of government, DeSantis said: “The proper role of government, if it means anything at all, is to protect children, and I have always defended their innocence.” He continued to defend the fight. And he’s a favorite in a series of culture war battles. Asked the same question, Haley said, “The purpose of government is to ensure the rights and freedoms of its people.”

daniel mccarthy Haley relied too much on the gimmick of her anti-DeSantis website, wasting its useful impact. She started off full of her confidence, but as the night progressed she became more vague and more prone to overusing her words. She appears to be displeased not only with President Trump but also with the Republican Party, and while independents in New Hampshire may remind them of John McCain, Republicans in Iowa and other parts of the country see her as an all-rounder. I wouldn’t take him on my side.

Ron DeSantis

Average: 4.4/10

It’s gotten better →

jamel bouye It’s often forgotten that Ron DeSantis announced his presidential campaign in an audio chat with Elon Musk, who was still on Twitter at the time. Not the scenic beaches of Florida, not the state capitol building in Tallahassee, not the backdrop of a major Florida university, but all options would have reinforced his campaign themes in some way.

I mention this because it encapsulates DeSantis’ fundamental flaw as a candidate for national office. In other words, he has no idea what ordinary people want. Not at all. This was evident throughout the discussion. There was his extensive rant about “woke people.” There was his accusation that Disney is in the “transgender kids” business (which is one of the most outrageous things I’ve heard from a candidate other than Donald Trump). And there was also his bizarre decision to not only say he shot her in the leg, but also to accuse his on-stage opponent of “ballistic foot sickness.”

That’s strange! He’s weird! He has many other problems–an unpleasant tone and intonation, a penchant for canned lines, a refusal to answer direct questions–all of which compare favorably with his fundamental strangeness. It looks inferior. Obviously this is good enough for Florida, but I say this as a native Floridian, but come on, this is Florida.

Gail Collins It’s clearer than expected, so he might win. Iowans must be tired of being reminded that they visited all 99 counties.

Michelle Cottle With only two candidates on stage, Mr. DeSantis had more time and space to let his strong personality shine. Both candidates wasted too much energy sniping at each other, but DeSantis on offense was very cheerful, meow meow, and very smart. He can’t help it. That’s him. He has been armed with a slew of platitudes and cheap insults, including a recurring theme about Nikki Haley flying the “pale pastel” flag of corporatism. And he shamelessly deflected any awkward questions. He clearly knows how to play the basics, bashing Anthony Fauci, boasting about flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, and warning against evil leftists and elites. That might be a problem if Trump wasn’t running.

Ross Douthat There were several moments towards the end of the debate when Mr. DeSantis directly criticized Mr. Trump for his record and for disrespecting Iowa voters by not actually campaigning, a discussion that should have spread throughout the night. there were. DeSantis and Haley will need to win a significant number of votes from Republicans who currently support Trump. Instead, the candidates spent the entire night tearing each other down. In real terms, Mr. DeSantis had a slight edge, largely because his record was actually closer to the preferences of Republican primary voters. But even if she were to pull a few voters away from Haley, she would still be a distant second in Iowa, making it a strategic failure even if she won by points.

robert leonard I’ve been to many DeSantis caucuses in Iowa, and he’s better at talking to Iowans on the ground than he is on TV, more relaxed, comfortable, and less formal. You could tell by the positive response he received from the studio audience. That being said, he seemed like an old-fashioned, dissatisfied, little guy. His knowledge of the issues was shallow and his foreign policy seemed weak. A man this vile and cruel should not be anywhere near the Oval Office, especially behind a desk. we already tried it.

Katherine Mang-Ward Last night, Trump answered a question about abortion on Fox News, shocking and confusing many Republicans by (again) being a crazy pro-choice guy. The reason I’m answering questions about DeSantis’ nomination prospects with news about Trump is because, in fact, that’s the answer to every question about DeSantis.

daniel mccarthy After a slow start, this was one of DeSantis’ best performances. He sounded confident and in command of the issue, and his comments about veterans’ mental health resonated. Emphasizing that Wall Street and other local elites have betrayed Main Street sends a powerful final message to the Republican Party.