Momentarily Decisive Details of GOP Debate Matter Less Than Fundamentals of the Race
One lesson of the 1980 campaign, and of many others, is that voters seek in presidential candidates qualities that they find lacking in the current president.
Having completed the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign cycle, it’s tempting to focus on minor but perhaps momentarily decisive details, such as whether Governor DeSantis was wise to outsource strategy to a committee that he’s legally barred from communicating with or whether it was wise for President Trump’s campaign spokesmen to not be allowed in the Fox News spin room.
Reporters have an incentive to focus on such things. Being the first to spot a change in course — leading the pack — is a source of professional pride. Yet the fundamentals remain potentially dispositive.
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