Such is the derangement passing for analysis at MSNBC that tonight’s post-debate analysis featured dismay at the thought of candidates discussing (gasp) IDEAS and not flaying Donald Trump to their liking.
See for yourselves:
NICOLLE WALLACE: Take us out of it. Nikki Haley called the other guy, scum, okay. But the Republican primary voters have weighed in, and they are not into any of these people. They want Trump. And they want Trump by larger numbers than I think anyone has ever been ahead this many weeks before the first primary contests in either party. I don't know that in modern history, anyone has ever been 50, 60, 39 points ahead of the next person at the November mark, ahead of the first primary, ever.
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Then why aren't any of them going for the jugular when it comes to him? The guy was sitting in a courtroom, humiliating himself on Monday. He faces 91 counts. They just lost three times. You're right. He is far, far ahead, so for anyone of them, their only shot is to go for him and none of them did.
RACHEL MADDOW: Because they think they're probably not going to land that shot, and their future in Republican politics is with this polity, with this group of voters that only like that guy. And if they are seen as being against that guy, then they’re toast, right?
RUHLE: Then why did we waste 20 minutes having this substitative(sic) conversation about foreign policy where some of them made cogent arguments, and we're all forgetting the fact, when it comes to foreign policy, at best, Donald Trump cozies up to Vladimir Putin, writes love letters to Kim Jong Un and, most recently, said Hezbollah’s really darn smart?
Ruhle is mad that the candidate field did not sufficiently entertain her. Substantive policy analysis is a Bad Thing now, inasmuch as it detracts from MSNBC’s raison d'être: to dump on Donald Trump and anyone who supports him or, in the case of GOP primary opponents, is deliberate and intentional about how they engage him.
This is what Trump Derangement Syndrome looks like in 2023.
