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There isn't much for me to say about the GOP debate. I've already declared myself all-in for Ron DeSantis, who I think did great. I wasn't as enamored by Vivek Ramaswamy as 74% of you who read this website. And I stand by my preview of the debate about nothing moving the polls significantly other than the RESULTS of the Iowa Caucus. But the question and answer on viral sensation Oliver Anthony stood out as the one thing all of us need to focus on.

It just so happened DeSantis was the one who got it. It could have easily gone to Asa Hutchinson, and DeSantis could have gotten the UFO question.

Here's a little LWC BTS. I so knew Fox News would be hack enough to bring up Anthony, I pitched a last-minute addition to last night's drinking game "chug every time Oliver Anthony gets mentioned." I was NOT expecting it to be the first question of the debate: “Governor DeSantis, why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now? What do you think it means?”

DeSantis knocked it out of the park. “We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can’t afford groceries, a car, or a new home while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings. That is wrong. We also cannot succeed when the Congress spends trillions and trillions of dollars. Those rich men north of Richmond have put us in this situation.”

This will be the only clip to go viral outside of very online right-wing X (we can smell our own) since Anthony himself has gone viral outside of our bubble. He DEBUTED at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts ahead of Taylor Swift and Oliva Rodrigo. You don't do that because online conservatives want to own the libs. You do that because you touched a nerve with the vast apolitical center. The middle-class men south of Richmond, north of Annapolis, and west of Alexandria.

The apolitical people in the middle, the ones too busy being outside touching grass rather than being very online, are the ones who decide elections. With most national elections you have 40% conservative, 40% leftists, and 20% in the middle that move from cycle to cycle. That 20% has found a spiritual connection with Oliver Anthony in a way no other current artists have.

We need a candidate who connects the dots and talks TO and ABOUT that 20% (as opposed to talking about himself and how unfair his life is). Primary voters have the rest of 2023 to think long and hard about who that is.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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