Vivek Ramaswamy

[AUFAN78 3,943]

I've heard his name mentioned here a few times. This is a good introduction to the man.

 

[Gowebb11 9,424]

Interesting to say the least. On one hand I believe that lady took him to the ropes over his ideas around service. On the other hand I respect the few candidates who care to stand tall in the arena and take shots. Far too few of today’s candidates will do these types of forums where they don’t control the mic and mute button. He’s very well spoken for sure. 

[Mikey 16,777]

Of course there's time, but I don't yet know enough about Ramaswamy to figure out how he compares vs DeSantis, Haley, Scott, etc. He is, indeed, very well spoken.

[aubaseball 2,671]

What started out as a get to know a candidate turned into an attack by an angry woman.   She would have never questioned a guy running for president by the name of Barack Obama the same way she did this guy.   

[Gowebb11 9,424]

5 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

What started out as a get to know a candidate turned into an attack by an angry woman.   She would have never questioned a guy running for president by the name of Barack Obama the same way she did this guy.   

She did attack. But the guy is running for President of the worlds most powerful nation. Fox doesn’t go after Trump like that and CNN/MSNBC doesn’t go after Biden like that. I wish they would put all of these candidates in more of a hot seat and not the softball interviews we typically see. I think it reflects well on Ramaswamy that he kept his cool and remained committed to his stance on the issue. Many of the other candidates would have crumbled under her barrage. 

[auburnatl1 5,227]

He is a wild card. He’s dynamic, polished, and confident enough not to melt to trump name calling. But whether he gets any traction with the maga faction is hard to predict. If somehow he made it to the general election - he’d intellectually overwhelm Biden in any debate.

[aubaseball 2,671]

1 hour ago, Gowebb11 said:

She did attack. But the guy is running for President of the worlds most powerful nation. Fox doesn’t go after Trump like that and CNN/MSNBC doesn’t go after Biden like that. I wish they would put all of these candidates in more of a hot seat and not the softball interviews we typically see. I think it reflects well on Ramaswamy that he kept his cool and remained committed to his stance on the issue. Many of the other candidates would have crumbled under her barrage. 

I don’t mind the hard questions but she came across condescending and in my opinion very self righteous.   Thanks for her service to country, but you don’t have to come across that way just because you joined the Air Force.   

[KansasTiger 3,261]

13 hours ago, AUFAN78 said:

I've heard his name mentioned here a few times. This is a good introduction to the man.

 

I've mentioned my concerns with him a few times. 

1. He was listed as a World Economic Forum young global leader. This is a red flag amongst the kind of people that support him. He stated he never accepted the award and has since sued the WEF when they refused to take his name off their website. So this one appears addressed, but its an interesting data point.

2. He was a fellow for the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation (George Soros' brother). He states anybody in his shoes would accept scholarship money to go to college, despite the source. Might be true. But it's another data point.

3. He is proud of his time working with BioNtech. This may not be a red flag for many, but of the people he will want support from, that is another data point that could raise an eyebrow after Covid showed us what many vaccine manufacturers are doing.

4. He states hes a libertarian at heart, but I don't know any libertarians that would support mask mandates and call out conservatives when they disagree. Or any libertarians that would support the TPP like he does.

There are several concerning data points to me that may indicate he might be pretending to be something he is not, or that he doesn't truly believe what he has been saying.

Still would be a better choice than what we currently look to be getting, though.

And the only choice besides RFKjr that wants to get us out of the Ukraine war.

Edited August 9, 2023 by KansasTiger

[Gowebb11 9,424]

15 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

I don’t mind the hard questions but she came across condescending and in my opinion very self righteous.   Thanks for her service to country, but you don’t have to come across that way just because you joined the Air Force.   

We agree on that. Ramaswamy missed his opportunity there. Lots of us on here are veterans or involved in service in some way. The service part was part of my reason to go into the Army. Them paying for school was another part. Service orientation and getting something positive out of it aren’t mutually exclusive and she apparently doesn’t get that. I wish he had done better throwing that back at her. 

[auburnatl1 5,227]

He is an interesting wild card. He’s dynamic, polished, and confident enough not to melt to trump name calling. But whether he gets any traction with the maga group is hard to predict. If somehow he made it to the general election - he’d intellectually overwhelm Biden in any debate. He may not be perfect for everyone but we’re waaaaay past that thinking.

Edited August 9, 2023 by auburnatl1

[KansasTiger 3,261]

Just now, auburnatl1 said:

He is an interesting wild card. He’s dynamic, polished, and confident enough not to melt to trump name calling. But whether he gets any traction with the maga group is hard to predict. If somehow he made it to the general election - he’d intellectually overwhelm Biden in any debate. He may not perfect for everyone but we’re waaaaay past that thinking.

I mean, knowing he has advocated for abolishing several federal agencies including the Dept of education and the FBI, I'm surprised you're not railing against the guy.

[aubaseball 2,671]

9 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

We agree on that. Ramaswamy missed his opportunity there. Lots of us on here are veterans or involved in service in some way. The service part was part of my reason to go into the Army. Them paying for school was another part. Service orientation and getting something positive out of it aren’t mutually exclusive and she apparently doesn’t get that. I wish he had done better throwing that back at her. 

I agree.   Not sure how you can throw it back when you haven’t served but find very unfortunate that she thinks she is better than him just because she joined.  That’s the impression I got from her.   

[auburnatl1 5,227]

Just now, KansasTiger said:

I mean, knowing he has advocated for abolishing several federal agencies including the Dept of education and the FBI, I'm surprised you're not railing against the guy.

My instincts are he has to throw ultra conservatives raw meat to stand out.  Plus a divided Congress would moderate him. Same with desantis. Again, when the options are Biden, who has lost the ability to control his radical element, and trump, who actually weaponizes his, Im pretty damn wide open these days. 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

Just now, auburnatl1 said:

My instincts are he has to throw ultra conservatives raw meat to stand out.  Plus a divided Congress would moderate him. Same with desantis. Again, when the options are Biden, who has lost the ability to control his radical element, and trump, who actually weaponizes his, Im pretty damn wide open these days. 

I'm not necessarily disagreeing. Though his prescribed plan to abolish those agencies doesn't involve using Congress at all. Mostly through executive orders that he knows will be challenged at the Supreme Court level, and he believes he can win. To flesh it out in a comment would be difficult.

I'm not trying to talk you out of supporting Vivek. Just surprised. I was trying to convince @I_M4_AU in a different thread this guy is fast rising and will eventually eclipse DeSantis.

[auburnatl1 5,227]

1 minute ago, KansasTiger said:

I'm not necessarily disagreeing. Though his prescribed plan to abolish those agencies doesn't involve using Congress at all. Mostly through executive orders that he knows will be challenged at the Supreme Court level, and he believes he can win. To flesh it out in a comment would be difficult.

I'm not trying to talk you out of supporting Vivek. Just surprised. I was trying to convince @I_M4_AU in a different thread this guy is fast rising and will eventually eclipse DeSantis.

It’s math. Just like 2016, trumps major advantage is too many Republican candidates. He will always get his 40-50% of the party. And everyone else fractionalizes the rest. The only prayer a non trump candidate has is complete consolidation behind one candidate before Super Tuesday (it’s the way Biden beat Bernie). It’s time to get practical quick. 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

10 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

It’s math. Just like 2016, trumps major advantage is too many Republican candidates. He will always get his 40-50% of the party. And everyone else fractionalizes the rest. The only prayer a non trump candidate has is complete consolidation behind one candidate before Super Tuesday (it’s the way Biden beat Bernie). It’s time to get practical quick. 

Good luck convincing all the candidates of that. That kind of organization would need the party to be involved, telling which candidates to drop out. A sort of collusion by the candidates and party against Trump. That would be brazen. And probably still wouldnt work unless they had a guy like Vivek who could lure some MAGA away from Trump. At this rate MAGA might be more prevelant than non MAGA in the party. No other candidate besides Vivek would sniff MAGA support.

And if Vivek is at all earnest about what he's been saying, he wouldn't do that to Trump. He sees him as a friend, and what support he does have would vanish if he betrayed Trump by colluding with the GOP to oust him. 

And honestly, if the party did ALL that and it somehow worked and I was Trump, I'd run third party out of spite.

Edited August 9, 2023 by KansasTiger

[auburnatl1 5,227]

5 minutes ago, KansasTiger said:

Good luck convincing all the candidates of that. That kind of organization would need the party to be involved, telling which candidates to drop out. A sort of collusion by the candidates and party against Trump. That would be brazen. And probably still wouldnt work unless they had a guy like Vivek who could lure some MAGA away from Trump. At this rate MAGA might be more prevelant than non MAGA in the party. No other candidate besides Vivek would sniff MAGA support.

And honestly, if the party did that and it somehow worked and I was Trump, I'd run third party out of spite.

Which is why I said hope. I agree it’s a stretch, but there are simply too many dilutive candidates right now. Other than the trump cultists, I do think most republicans believe trump will lose in the general again and would accept another candidate if the choice were clearer. 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

4 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

Which is why I said hope. I agree it’s a stretch, but there are simply too many dilutive candidates right now. Other than the trump cultists, I do think most republicans believe trump will lose in the general again and would accept another candidate if the choice were clearer. 

I think there's a better shot we see a different democratic candidate than someone surpassing Trump.

[auburnatl1 5,227]

7 minutes ago, KansasTiger said:

I think there's a better shot we see a different democratic candidate than someone surpassing Trump.

You may be right and there is a health scenario where Biden bows out. In either case I believe the only candidate that can’t win the general election is trump.  3 straight election cycles state republicans need to finally rethink the problem.

[KansasTiger 3,261]

6 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

You may be right and there is a health scenario where Biden bows out. In either case I believe the only candidate that can’t win the general election is trump.  3 straight election cycles state republicans need to finally rethink the problem.

Yes. They do. We need to get to Post Trump. But I think there's a schism on what that direction is.

[Gowebb11 9,424]

25 minutes ago, KansasTiger said:

I think there's a better shot we see a different democratic candidate than someone surpassing Trump.

I believe most of the Republicans running are pinning their hopes on Trump dropping out/being jailed or plea bargained out of the race. I don’t see any of them beating him in the primary. 

[AUFAN78 3,943]

6 hours ago, Gowebb11 said:

Interesting to say the least. On one hand I believe that lady took him to the ropes over his ideas around service. On the other hand I respect the few candidates who care to stand tall in the arena and take shots. Far too few of today’s candidates will do these types of forums where they don’t control the mic and mute button. He’s very well spoken for sure. 

Respectfully disagree that anyone on that panel took him to the ropes. I've watched multiple interviews now by those attempting to do so. All fails. 

[AUFAN78 3,943]

10 hours ago, Gowebb11 said:

We agree on that. Ramaswamy missed his opportunity there. Lots of us on here are veterans or involved in service in some way. The service part was part of my reason to go into the Army. Them paying for school was another part. Service orientation and getting something positive out of it aren’t mutually exclusive and she apparently doesn’t get that. I wish he had done better throwing that back at her. 

Agree. He took it easy on her. I don't have a problem with that and thought he handled himself well. Perhaps getting Don Lemon fired had a bearing on his decision to do so? 

[AUFAN78 3,943]

 

[AU9377 5,134]

I remember thinking to myself that a man named Barack Hussein Obama could never get elected.  Therefore, I won't say never and certainly won't say that because his name is Ramaswamy.