If, and this is a big if, you watched any, or all of Wednesday night’s Republican Presidential Debate on Fox News, or caught any of the up-drift and numerous comments by news pundits... It is really scary out there!

There was a mixed bag of double-talk, country directions, conservative quasi-values and pure nonsense being thrown about.

The not-so big forum was made up of Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Republican presidential candidate/former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Republican presidential candidate/former Vice President Mike Pence, Republican presidential candidate/Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Republican presidential candidate/Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican presidential candidate/former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate/South Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott, and Republican presidential candidate/ North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

Absent from all the mish-mash was current Republican poll leader former President Donald Trump. He wisely decided that being part of the brouhaha was not in his interest. He was right, of course, since the party of eight would have eaten him up and attacked his every comment and move.

Some die-hard Republicans may not believe this, but Trump is far, far from being the Republican nominee for the presidency in 2024. He and his insiders know well that his numbers will drop over the next several months leading up to the Summer 2024 hot flash of indictments, truth, talking points and commercials.

Trump is smart enough to know that his current trends and numbers are coasting and far from the end game.

The very raucous two hour debate crossed a few lines, but nobody really  grabbed the brass ring.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the loud-mouth biotech entrepreneur took the Party the farthest to the right, willing to abandon the support of the Ukraine war and just about every migrant cause, and adopt every Trump-like gesture. He even called trump "the best president of the 21st century", hoping to get the eventual Trump castoff. 

Only a handful of the contestants on stage were willing to completely abandon Trump.

Nikki Haley criticized Trump stated  that the former President added trillions of dollars in debt and his electability is practically nil. "We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America," she said.

Second in the current Republican polls, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis played it safe. He had hoped to avoid his prior rejected moves at conservatism he believed the other candidates would shower upon him. His duck and cover approach will probably not help check his dwindling poll numbers.

Milk toast Mike Pence, whose life was threatened by pro-Trump rioters on the January 6 assault on the Capitol, said more than once that he was "incredibly proud of the Trump-Pence administration." Yeah, that will not help his cause.

When the candidates were asked whether they would support Trump as the nominee if he were convicted of a crime, all but two of the eight Republican presidential contenders on the debate stage raised their hands to pledge to support former president Donald Trump “as your party’s choice”  Former governors Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson did not.

Christie called Trump’s behavior "beneath the office of the president of the United States," he was drowned out by a round of boos from the audience.

The response questioned just who made up the audience and how the tickets to the event were handed out.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the absent Trump garnered millions of views as the taped message with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran at the same time as the debate. He blundered his way through his questionable accomplishments and added a few attacks on Joe Biden.

All in all the debate and Trump pre-tape left  me and surely many Americans in a depressing funk for the future