WHAT? NO LOVE FOR GROVER DILL?:

Everyone hates Vivek. That was the biggest takeaway from the Fox News debate on Wednesday night. And who can blame them? [...]

Out of the gate, he looked pompous and oleaginous, with what can only be described as a smarmy, s[***]-eating grin that belied his sharp elbows. Regarding the slickness, Christie observed that he sounded "like ChatGPT." And regarding the elbows, at one point, even Sen. Tim Scott--you know, the optimistic guy who has a reputation for being too nice--even accused him of "being childish."

Ramaswamy's first line--"I want to just address the question that is on everyone's mind at home tonight. Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?"--essentially plagiarized Barack Obama. Christie, who was on the ball, called him on it. (Ramaswamy responded by reminding us of the time Christie hugged the former president following Hurricane Sandy's devastation of large parts of New Jersey.)

During a later exchange, Ramaswamy took issue with Pence's anti-Putin stance, saying "The USSR doesn't exist anymore." It was reminiscent of Obama's 2012 debate line to Mitt Romney: "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back." Channeling Obama was, shall we say, an unusual move for a guy ostensibly seeking the Republican nomination.

Anyone who dared disagree with Ramaswamy wasn't just wrong, they had their motives questioned. Chris Christie, he said, was campaigning to get a paid MSNBC contributor gig. Christie's trip to Ukraine was to pay homage to his "pope," Volodymyr Zelensky. Of Nikki Haley's support of Ukraine, he averred, "I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon."

"You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows," Haley told him. Speaking of Vladimir Putin, she said, "This guy is a murderer, and you are choosing a murderer" over a pro-American country [Ukraine].

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