Last week, the U.S. Republican Party held the first of nine scheduled debates to vet candidates to be its nominee in the 2016 presidential election. The overflow field — 17 contenders — obliged the party to split the field in two, with the seven lower-ranking prospects appearing at a "Happy Hour" program three hours before the other 10 took the stage for the main event Thursday evening. It was "rock 'em, sock 'em" television, with fireworks throughout the main debate, courtesy of Donald Trump, real estate magnate and reality TV star, and the host, Fox News, which took seriously its mission to identify a truly conservative, electable GOP candidate. Both say a great deal about politics in the United States.
The participants in the debate and their placement on stage were determined by polls. Trump's position in the middle signaled his rise to the top of the contestants. Surveys before the debate gave him about a quarter of GOP support, typically doubling the second place finisher, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Trump is the reality TV candidate — brash, unfiltered, convinced that U.S. leaders and its political class are failing the country as other governments run circles around them in every confrontation, whether it is a trade negotiation or the Iranian nuclear deal. He, of course, knows how to deal with them.
Unfortunately, however, he is reluctant to provide details other than assuring the audience that he knows better and his financial success proves it. When pressed for evidence to support his more outrageous assertions — that the Mexican government deliberately sends criminals to the U.S. — or pushed to say how he would teach the Iranians a lesson, he failed to do so. For all his bluster, it would be a mistake to dismiss Trump as a blowhard: He taps a deep vein of discontent and the eventual Republican nominee will have to ride that swell without being pushed by it into positions that alienate all voters other than the GOP base.