Yet more bullying, slander and sub-spats in South Carolina
By A.M.
THE new conventional wisdom about Donald Trump is that none of the old conventional wisdom applies to him. Have his gaffes, prejudices and profanities hurt him in the race for the Republican nomination? “Gimme a break”, as Mr Trump might put it in one of his more temperate asides. Last night’s debate in Greenville—a comic but also disgraceful evening for the Republican Party—may test that proposition to destruction. Then again, perhaps it won’t.
Ahead of the primary in South Carolina on February 20th, a do-or-die ballot for several of the six remaining candidates, the debate was billed as a knife-fight, and it became one. But it began as a wake for Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court justice whose death was announced earlier in the day. There was a moment of silence, and several of the candidates offered brief obsequies—before, for the most part, arguing that Barack Obama should disavow his constitutional responsibility to nominate a replacement to the bench. Subscribers to that view included Senator Ted Cruz, the devoted constitutionalist and avowed opponent of subjective readings of it. Only Jeb Bush stood out against that particular hypocrisy, while doubting that Mr Obama would come up with a candidate palatable to Congress.
Soon, though, Mr Trump took out his rhetorical machete and began whirling it above his head. He lambasted not only Mr Bush, the habitual target of his bullying, but his big brother, who will be campaigning for Jeb! on Monday. Mr Trump decried the Iraq war, accurately noting that no weapons of mass destruction were discovered after it; but he also accused George W.’s administration of lying about WMDs, and, still more controversially, blamed it for the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
That allowed Mr Bush to ride to his family’s rescue. “My mom is the strongest woman I know”, he said; “She should be running”, Mr Trump put in. Some of Mr Bush’s supporters saw this exchange as a knock-out, transformative vengeance against his tormentor—like the scene in “Back to the Future” in which George McFly decks the loathsome Biff (who, as internet photoshoppers have demonstrated, Mr Trump somewhat resembles). Mr Bush was certainly more combative and visible than in most of the prior debates, though it is unclear whether he did or can do enough to beat Senator Marco Rubio in South Carolina, as he managed to, just, in New Hampshire, and as some think he must if he is to stay in the contest. That one of the top internet searches his performance provoked was “How tall is Jeb Bush?” may not have been encouraging.
Cleverly, in Mr Trump’s onslaught Mr Rubio himself saw a chance to defend the most recent Republican president, and to blame Bill Clinton for September 11th (on the grounds that he didn’t kill Osama bin Laden earlier) instead of George W. Overall Mr Rubio made a much slicker showing than his robotronic malfunction in the previous debate, evincing the strongest grasp of foreign affairs, handily linking his plan for enlarged child tax credits to his reverence for the family and making the best-turned closing statement. Yet he, too, became embroiled in a nasty slanging match, in his case with Mr Cruz, as they revisited the allegations each has made regarding the other’s record on immigration. They had a bizarre sub-spat over whether Mr Cruz can speak Spanish; he duly did, a bit. Mr Bush pithily dismissed their immigration row as two senators bickering over amendments to laws that never actually passed.
The evening’s real heavyweight showdown, however, was between Mr Cruz and Mr Trump, victors of Iowa and New Hampshire respectively. ”I like Donald”, Mr Cruz declared ominously, before lacerating his rival’s record on more or less everything. Mr Trump took out his machete again. “You are the single biggest liar”, he told Mr Cruz: “Why do you lie?” (The charge chimed with Mr Rubio’s lament that “For a number of weeks now, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies”.) Unruffled, Mr Cruz managed to goad Mr Trump into saying that Planned Parenthood, the much-maligned women’s-healthcare provider, “does wonderful things.” “What are the wonderful things it does?” Mr Cruz asked, now channelling “The Wizard of Oz”. Amid his rants and rambles Mr Trump managed to praise Vladimir Putin, still apparently ignorant of the fact that, in Syria, Russia is pursuing an agenda and bombing targets of its own, as indeed Mr Bush pointed out. Considering Mr Trump’s lead in opinion polls, which naturally he touted, spreading his calumnies so wildly seems needlessly risky. Perhaps, beneath the bragging, he feels threatened. Or he may simply be unhinged.
As for the other, less irate candidates: as usual Ben Carson was somnolent, compulsively referring viewers to his website and coming across as unflatteringly grateful to be on the stage at all. There is no rational basis for him to remain in the race. Despite his second-place finish in New Hampshire, it is hard to see John Kasich continuing to prosper in this shouty company, and in the more conservative southern states through which the primary trail now runs.
Meanwhile, amid all the hypocrisies, slanders and lies, a few truths were uttered. “We’re in danger of driving this into the dirt”, CBS’s beleaguered moderator protested, somewhat belatedly. Another came from Mr Kasich, who in one of his outbursts of folksy reasonableness said: “I think we’re fixing to lose the election to Hillary Clinton.” Amen to that.
