On Doug Burgum – NYT:

‘Jamelle Bouie: If nominees were still chosen by party elites in smoke-filled rooms, Doug Burgum would be a shoo-in for vice president. He’s both normal and perfectly inoffensive, which is more than you can say for some of the people onstage in Milwaukee.

Gail Collins: Well, at least he was standing after that Achilles’ tendon tear.

Matthew Continetti: Burgum has an impressive record as a businessman and governor. He displayed grit in showing up for the debate despite an injured leg. But he’s not a serious contender and his answers, while substantive and reasonable, diverted attention from the candidates who have more plausible paths to confronting Donald Trump.
Michelle Cottle: Genial guy. Made sure every single person watching understood that he is from a small town. But clearly out of his depth. Even he looked surprised at times that he was on that stage.

Ross Douthat: He proved this much: He has a lot more charisma than Asa Hutchinson.

David French: Burgum was fine, but fine just isn’t good enough when your polling numbers are so small they can’t be seen with an electron microscope.

Michelle Goldberg: I had no idea why he was running for president before the debate and no idea after it.

Katherine Mangu-Ward: I do love a man with a pocket Constitution.

Daniel McCarthy: He successfully defined himself as the candidate of small-government, states-oriented conservatism. If he avoided any serious pitfalls, though, he also didn’t make a convincing case that he’s the strongest candidate for any particular issue, let alone the best potential nominee. He’s big on China, but so is everyone else.

Bret Stephens: China Town Small Energy Shower Leg China Salad Word.’

Read the article here.

This is hilarious, and there is a case to be made for smoke-filled rooms where party elites decide who will be a shoo-in. Probably in that case we had dealt with let’s say a Jeb Bush (what happened to him?) but compared to you-know-who Jeb would have been totally acceptable as let’s say dentist of America.