It’s the first Republican primary debate of the 2024 election cycle, so we really need to take it easy on ourselves.

The presidential election seasons keep becoming longer and longer, and this one, with Donald Trump announcing his presidential candidacy one week after the 2022 midterm election was held, feels infinitely longer already. Is this really the wave of things to come, where we never get a breather between election cycles?

So here we are, a full 14-plus months before the actual general election, holding the very first Republican debate. Buckle up and gird your livers. Since we do have such a long way to go, I’m actually going to suggest that all drinks be nonalcoholic (it is still summer and hydrating with water is very important) or something with very low alcohol by volume. It’s August of 2023 and we really shouldn’t be getting blackout smashed the first time out of the gate. However, these debates might be all the ones we see this election season. The DNC has already declared that Joe Biden will not debate in a Democrat primary, and with a potential rematch of 2020 coming, both Biden and Trump could easily decline debates for a multitude of reasons. Trump has already announced that he won’t be at this debate or any other Republican primary debates. If Biden refuses to debate Trump later on similar grounds, we could be looking at basement campaign 2.0 for Biden and courtroom campaigning for Trump.

That point aside, there are plenty of things to watch for in this first Republican primary debate. First of all, there will be eight participants in this one.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel listed the participants in alphabetical order: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.”

“The RNC is excited to showcase our diverse candidate field and the conservative vision to beat Joe Biden on the debate stage Wednesday night,” Ms. McDaniel said.”

The candidates had to meet polling and donor thresholds to qualify for the debate stage.”

Candidates such as Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas did not make the cut.”

The candidates were also told to sign a loyalty pledge that vows to support the eventual GOP nominee.”

That “loyalty pledge” is already a joke, as Trump will not sign it, and Asa Hutchison did sign it, but then said he wouldn’t support Trump. Well done, Ronna, you’re batting a thousand here.

That leads us into the “take one drink” category of topics. Every time one of these comes up, take one drink. (For the sake of our livers, Trump and Biden will not be drinking topics.)

1) The loyalty pledge. The lack of Trump is going to be obvious on the stage. Expect candidates who are much more friendly to Donald Trump (Vivek Ramaswamy) or neutral (Nikki Haley) to press candidates who are openly hostile (Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson) to him about the loyalty pledge. That pledge might turn into quite the bat with which to hit another candidate in the right hands. A smart Republican candidate would defend signing the pledge because the end and ONLY goal is to beat Joe Biden. We will see who is a smart candidate.

2) January 6th. With Mike Pence on the stage, the topic of January 6th becomes inevitable. Pence has held fast to his stance (which is the correct Constitutional one) that he had no authority to stop the count of electoral votes, which has made him the irrational target of too many Trump supporters. Between Pence’s presence and the current politically motivated indictments against Donald Trump, there is no way that January 6th doesn’t come up.

3) Maui. This horrific and tragic situation should still be at the top of everyone’s mind, especially with Joe Biden’s visit there yesterday. Biden was his typical tired and lying old man self, and as predicted, made it all about him in the most freakishly inappropriate ways.

Correct. They key aspect of this is he has to lie about his own life to connect to real loss and suffering. It's sociopathic. https://t.co/zezCEf7Zso

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 22, 2023

Not only should Biden’s lies come up, but the people of Maui deserve better than this. The candidate who mentions Maui, and the money that needs to be committed there instead of Ukraine in this moment, will score points.

4) Afghanistan. This is the single biggest foreign policy failure of the Biden administration. It will come up, it should come up, and Republican candidates NEED to hang the withdrawl disaster on Joe Biden as the place the buck stops. I expect multiple candidates will mention Afghanistan.

5) Indictments. Trump won’t be there, but his absence, his legal battles, and the impending surrender that will apparently happen Thursday are all sure to come up.

Now we head into the “two drinks” category. Here we go…

1) Ganging up on DeSantis by multiple candidates at once. The rumor is out there that Vivek Ramaswamy may have deliberately entered the presidential campaign in order to take DeSantis out and clear a path for Donald Trump. True or not, Vivek Ramaswamy has had a bad week with his comments about 9/11, and Israel, and he will probably go into full attack mode to divert attention from himself. We shall see who takes the opportunity to pile on with him once he brings out a long knife for Ron DeSantis – and we will see what DeSantis is made of.

2) Chris Christie tries to take someone out. For some inexplicable reason, Chris Christie is running for president and has met the requirements for the debate stage. Who is actually supporting a Chris Christie run? I have no idea. But Christie seems to be a man on a mission, and much like he took out Marco Rubio in 2016, he may be aiming his fire at someone else on that stage in a similar kamikaze run. Or will that fire be trained on the absent Trump?

3) Pardons. The topic of Trump’s indictments is already in the “one drink” category, but if the topic of a potential pardon comes up, take two drinks. Many of the candidates have already been asked this question, and yes, it is way too early for a discussion. That never stopped anyone during a debate, though. Expect a lot of “wait and see” comments, or a deference to the precedent set by President Ford regarding Richard Nixon.

And there is only one thing that qualifies as a “drink the bottle dry” moment this early in the primaries…

1) Donald Trump crashes the debate. He does that, and the place will just erupt. That kind of spectacle could lock up the nomination in an instant, because it would instantly go viral.

But there is one question that the moderators, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, should ask and require each candidate to answer. And each candidate NEEDS to answer this question. The question is, “You are running for president because you believe that you can do a better job than Donald Trump. Describe where Trump failed and you would do better.” Some candidates will have no problem with answering this question. Some candidates have been hedging their bets on keeping Trump happy and trying to raise their own profile. The candidate who cannot give a direct answer should be then asked, “So, if you don’t have an answer, then why haven’t you dropped out yet?”

Drink safely, dear readers. This is only the beginning.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click