Vivek Ramaswamy, at 37 years old, is the first ever millennial Republican presidential candidate. He graduated from Harvard, then Yale Law School, and worked as a partner at a hedge fund before starting a successful biotech company, where he made millions.
Was kind of looking forward to this. I didn't have a particularly good impression of Vivek, but recognized that I didn't know enough about him and was curious. Listened to the first 40 minutes thinking "yea, but what do you actually want to do?" Then we got to Ukraine. I have now officially crossed Vivek off my list. Bari, your pushback was spot on. And Vivek is no Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan would wretch listening to him on foreign affairs.
Agreed. I actually turned it off at that point. Responding to torture, rape, and murder on an industrial scale with "well they have a corrupt government" is either incandescently stupid, or an indicator of a severe lack of morality. Either way, I can't support him.
I've been impressed with Vivek for quite some time now, way before he decided to run for POTUS. He is the future, I think. But I think Bari has a wee bit of the TDS. I just think she, like so many, can't see why Trump resonates with so many people because she can't see who Trump actually is. Not to say he's perfect or "good" or anything like that, but the idea that he has normalized bigotry and racism is, I think, off base.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a brilliant extemporaneous expositor. He has an amazing intellect, but brilliance does not guarantee that someone could be an excellent president. Ronald Reagan was far from brilliant but he was an excellent president. Reagan had the good sense to surround himself with smart people and take their counsel. Trump barely had a pilot light for an intellect but was so pathetically narcissistic that he could take no counsel.
In Bari Weiss, VIvek has met his match in dissecting nuance and double talk in his discourse; Vivek has the disposition of a Ted Talk motivational speaker. His cadence is exhausting. He demonstrates artful, verbal calisthenics and great confidence in his own intellectual abilities, but he is unable to recognize that true street smarts are not learned in school. Also, a president cannot be Boy/Girl Scout and needs to be able to go toe to toe with capable sociopaths who lead other countries.
Like many successful wunderkinds, he has never known true adversity or human struggle. He is first generation from India, born to educated and higher caste parents who emigrated with excellent prospects. He lacks the humility learned from living at the bottom of social pyramid. His intense adulation of American values seems almost like a well rehearsed affectation……and the rapping?!!! Please don’t rap Vivek; it’s not presidential. The rapping doesn’t win you any street cred outside of Harvard Yard.
His views on the FBI, DOJ, and Ukraine are worrisome. He clearly believes himself to be an expert in everything. I might agree with his position on raising the voting age and to require a standardized civics curriculum in high schools. Too many voters have a deficient fund of knowledge about history and issues. It has made me question universal suffrage. Vivek might make an interesting advisor to a conservative president.
Vivek is an intellectual powerhouse. That is clear. He is a pleasure to listen to. Love the nuance and detail with which he lays out a position. His opinions are not whimsical but well constructed views with historical data to support them. His platform is probably too ambitious however. Bari is probably right that he might get more traction by saying only a few things....despite the fact that what he says is pretty sensible. I will keep listening.
Note to Bari - it would be worth having him back in say six months to get into foreign policy.
Note to Vivek - I think most people agree that two parents are preferred over one - just say out loud more clearly that this includes same sex couples as you discuss the "no father at home" issue. Your response was too cagey.
I knew nothing about Vivek and appreciate this introduction to him. We all have our hot button issues, but what I found most off-putting was the commentary on Ukraine. It seemed that Bari tried to pin him down on this but he did not respond to the “Russia as the clear aggressor” gambit. But it did get me thinking more about Ukraine. I am generally very supportive of continued support of Ukraine from the West. But as a Jew, I also find close inspection of Ukraine’s role in the ethnic cleansing of its Jews during WWII to be incredibly disturbing and problematic. As I heard Vivek’s listing of Ukraine’s shortcomings - and he didn’t mention collaboration in Nazi atrocities - it did bring these horrors back in focus for me. I see that Michael T also raised the Ukraine issue, below, sorry for not replying.
Much of what VR says I agree with but for me other things rule him out completely. His defense of Trump seems like pandering to the base - not authentic. If nothing else, Trump has made it clear he’s completely unfit and VR shouldn’t be giving him a pass just because Trump was dogged by bogus oppo research. Trump made bad choices. I heard the recording of the phone call with Brad Raffensburger where Trump tried to badger him into faking 11k votes. Open and shut to me whether or not there’s a conviction. VR soils himself by putting blame on censorship instead. I disagree about Ukraine also. As Bari puts it a large not-free country invades a smaller more free country and also targets hospitals and schools. Any sense of justice requires we do something about it. “Not my problem” is not acceptable to me even when you frame it by saying we shouldn’t be the world’s police. That kinda ignores the fact there are bad actors in the world and someone has to oppose them. VR seems a very smart guy but that’s not everything.
Was kind of looking forward to this. I didn't have a particularly good impression of Vivek, but recognized that I didn't know enough about him and was curious. Listened to the first 40 minutes thinking "yea, but what do you actually want to do?" Then we got to Ukraine. I have now officially crossed Vivek off my list. Bari, your pushback was spot on. And Vivek is no Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan would wretch listening to him on foreign affairs.
Agreed. I actually turned it off at that point. Responding to torture, rape, and murder on an industrial scale with "well they have a corrupt government" is either incandescently stupid, or an indicator of a severe lack of morality. Either way, I can't support him.
I've been impressed with Vivek for quite some time now, way before he decided to run for POTUS. He is the future, I think. But I think Bari has a wee bit of the TDS. I just think she, like so many, can't see why Trump resonates with so many people because she can't see who Trump actually is. Not to say he's perfect or "good" or anything like that, but the idea that he has normalized bigotry and racism is, I think, off base.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a brilliant extemporaneous expositor. He has an amazing intellect, but brilliance does not guarantee that someone could be an excellent president. Ronald Reagan was far from brilliant but he was an excellent president. Reagan had the good sense to surround himself with smart people and take their counsel. Trump barely had a pilot light for an intellect but was so pathetically narcissistic that he could take no counsel.
In Bari Weiss, VIvek has met his match in dissecting nuance and double talk in his discourse; Vivek has the disposition of a Ted Talk motivational speaker. His cadence is exhausting. He demonstrates artful, verbal calisthenics and great confidence in his own intellectual abilities, but he is unable to recognize that true street smarts are not learned in school. Also, a president cannot be Boy/Girl Scout and needs to be able to go toe to toe with capable sociopaths who lead other countries.
Like many successful wunderkinds, he has never known true adversity or human struggle. He is first generation from India, born to educated and higher caste parents who emigrated with excellent prospects. He lacks the humility learned from living at the bottom of social pyramid. His intense adulation of American values seems almost like a well rehearsed affectation……and the rapping?!!! Please don’t rap Vivek; it’s not presidential. The rapping doesn’t win you any street cred outside of Harvard Yard.
His views on the FBI, DOJ, and Ukraine are worrisome. He clearly believes himself to be an expert in everything. I might agree with his position on raising the voting age and to require a standardized civics curriculum in high schools. Too many voters have a deficient fund of knowledge about history and issues. It has made me question universal suffrage. Vivek might make an interesting advisor to a conservative president.
Vivek is an intellectual powerhouse. That is clear. He is a pleasure to listen to. Love the nuance and detail with which he lays out a position. His opinions are not whimsical but well constructed views with historical data to support them. His platform is probably too ambitious however. Bari is probably right that he might get more traction by saying only a few things....despite the fact that what he says is pretty sensible. I will keep listening.
Note to Bari - it would be worth having him back in say six months to get into foreign policy.
Note to Vivek - I think most people agree that two parents are preferred over one - just say out loud more clearly that this includes same sex couples as you discuss the "no father at home" issue. Your response was too cagey.
I knew nothing about Vivek and appreciate this introduction to him. We all have our hot button issues, but what I found most off-putting was the commentary on Ukraine. It seemed that Bari tried to pin him down on this but he did not respond to the “Russia as the clear aggressor” gambit. But it did get me thinking more about Ukraine. I am generally very supportive of continued support of Ukraine from the West. But as a Jew, I also find close inspection of Ukraine’s role in the ethnic cleansing of its Jews during WWII to be incredibly disturbing and problematic. As I heard Vivek’s listing of Ukraine’s shortcomings - and he didn’t mention collaboration in Nazi atrocities - it did bring these horrors back in focus for me. I see that Michael T also raised the Ukraine issue, below, sorry for not replying.
I’m with Vivek. Bari, I think you need to take off your neo con/lib blinders.
Much of what VR says I agree with but for me other things rule him out completely. His defense of Trump seems like pandering to the base - not authentic. If nothing else, Trump has made it clear he’s completely unfit and VR shouldn’t be giving him a pass just because Trump was dogged by bogus oppo research. Trump made bad choices. I heard the recording of the phone call with Brad Raffensburger where Trump tried to badger him into faking 11k votes. Open and shut to me whether or not there’s a conviction. VR soils himself by putting blame on censorship instead. I disagree about Ukraine also. As Bari puts it a large not-free country invades a smaller more free country and also targets hospitals and schools. Any sense of justice requires we do something about it. “Not my problem” is not acceptable to me even when you frame it by saying we shouldn’t be the world’s police. That kinda ignores the fact there are bad actors in the world and someone has to oppose them. VR seems a very smart guy but that’s not everything.