The Republican National Committee debates are not polling well as we approach the Republican nominating convention for a 2024 presidential candidate. The RNC debates have worsened as they progress: too many debates, viewing in decline after a weak debut; the candidates have bickered more than debated. Overall, the debate moderators have been chosen, it would seem, by Democrat and/or RINO and MSM interests:

“You can’t put your head in the sand and pretend these debates are going to result in someone other than Donald Trump getting the nomination,” said Patti Lyman, the RNC’s national committeewoman from Virginia, who called the debates “embarrassing” and said they “reflected very poorly on our party.”

Louis Gurvich, chair of the Republican Party of Louisiana, said that the debates “have demeaned every candidate who participated in them,” while Roger Villere, Louisiana’s national committeeman, said he didn’t “really see what we’re gaining from having a debate without having the main participant.”

Yet, the RNC pledges to go forward with, or double down on, its misjudgments by holding a planned early November debate (how many, now?), despite this sort of feedback:

A major conservative group is calling on the Republican National Committee (RNC) to abandon plans for NBC to moderate the next presidential debate.

On Friday, Restoration of America Founder and President Doug Truax sent a letter to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel demanding the Republican Party “immediately switch gears and retract your offer allowing NBC to moderate the upcoming debate.

“It is amazing this letter is necessary,” Truax wrote. “It is beyond comprehension that the RNC would give a conservative smearing, round-the-clock misinformation network like NBC the right to host a Republican presidential debate.”

In the debates thus far, we have had a fair showing of the RINO factor. The RINO factor is in part characterized by an unseemly disaffection for ‘Republican” as what it used to be -- with Reagan anyway: a shared conservative orthodoxy. The RINO factor is a big negative for the Republican Party, recently exemplified in the Speaker of the House and Federal Shutdown fiascoes. The Republicans’ divisions did at last emerge whole from a tortuous gleaning. The final Speaker vote was more than the luck of the draw. It was a profoundly serious war that brought a conservative response to the Speaker post. After decades, that vote may have pulled the House RINOs back into the Republican harness and ready for battle:

"We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations," Johnson, 51, said shortly after winning the speaker's gavel.”

The RNC has not been so fortunate, or wise, in its vetting of Republican candidates to present to the voter. As with the recent U.S. House spectacles, the RNC debates challenge each participant to prove competency in and allegiance to Republican values and concerns. And, as with lately in the House quarrels, that proof isn’t apparent. Some blame falls to the debate moderators, but each candidate has failed to present an unbreakable case, and the polls show it.

Trump is far ahead, as we all know. While blame is laid, de regueur, on Trump’s no-shows at the debates, that’s not really the point. The point is, do/will we have a winning candidate other than Trump?

The RINO factor means voters spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether any candidate on stage bears resemblance to the same person’s public remarks, actions, and convictions at other times and from other places/positions. Haley, for example, has displayed spectacular turn-arounds on Trump (versions also seen in Pence, DeSantis, Christie):

The candidates present on the stage have been steadily dropping off, Pence most recently. Concurrent with Pence’s exit, NRSC Chair Steve Daines issued a call for the debates to be ended:

“National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) is calling on everyone but former President Donald Trump to drop out of the 2024 GOP presidential primary and coalesce behind Trump.”

Republicans at large may be saying now to the RNC and to those who remain in the debates: “So, would you prefer Kamala or her derivative?”  Or “Got a better idea?”

Image: Gage Skidmore