Opinion | The Republican candidates have picked a new victim

You can listen here to her whole conversation with Chuck Lane and Greg Sargent, the latter of whom added about the Ramaswamy antipathy: “My strong sense is that he is very conscious of this. We’ve talked about how unlikable” he is.

Boy, have we. In Dana Milbank’s analysis of the debate’s most pivotal moment — the show of hands for who would support a convicted Trump as the nominee — he writes that Ramaswamy nearly broke the sound barrier shooting his hand up, “like a teacher’s pet begging to be called upon.” (It was, of course, the last to come down, too.)

“Something about him is off,” Kathleen Parker writes of Ramaswamy in a column that crowned the “poised, precise and prepared” Nikki Haley the winner. “Maybe it’s the arrogance, the stylish braggadocio, the smarter-than-thou attitude.”

But the least sparing take on the businessman-turned-politician comes from George Will, who weeks ago wrote that Ramaswamy possesses the “limitless optimism of the inexperienced” and now says that he “illustrates the difference between intelligence, which he has, abundantly, and judgment, which he lacks, utterly.”

His proposals for America’s big problems are as outlandish as they are facile, George argues, and his brazen enthusiasm for conspiracy extends even to 9/11 skepticism.

So everyone — candidates, columnists — is on the same page about Ramaswamy, right? Well, the one group that appears not to have gotten the message is prospective GOP voters. In The Post’s poll, 26 percent of such debate watchers said Ramaswamy performed best, right behind Ron DeSantis (29 percent).

The mug shot seen ’round the world

Trump’s mug shot is everywhere. Newspaper front pages, cable, X — memed or not. Trump himself immediately started fundraising off the image — he’d be happy to sell you a T-shirt with a photo of his surrender captioned “Never surrender,” for a mere $34.

But don’t forget the shots of the charged accomplices who were also booked this week in Fulton County, Ga., their mugs arranged into the world’s grimmest game of Hollywood Squares.

Paul Waldman writes that District Attorney Fani Willis’s decision to indict the latter crew could be an effective deterrent against the would-be lackeys necessary to attempt another election overthrow.

“Anyone thinking of joining Trump’s next coup attempt is getting a vivid instruction in what could await them,” Paul says. As long as enough people are sufficiently interested in saving their own skins, he argues, Trump just won’t have the manpower to subvert democracy.

So the country should be grateful for what at first seemed like the “sprawl” of Willis’s indictment. Because it’s funny when Paul Lynde deceives — less so with election lawyers.

Chaser: Gene Robinson writes that Trump’s aggrieved victimhood — see the debate; see the indictments — is a recipe for carnage.

From Megan McArdle’s explainer of what exactly this means, which, she argues, isn’t “just about one company having a really, really good year.” It has huge ramifications for the future of artificial intelligence.

Basically, the sort of chips Nvidia makes are critical to AI computing, and the explosion in this industry means that chip demand is far outstripping supply. Good for Nvidia’s profits, bad in that it’s created a bottleneck.

Megan explains how the bottleneck might resolve — and how there is another waiting right behind it.

Chaser: The supply chain is on the Editorial Board’s agenda, too — specifically the Chinese minerals that electric cars and solar cells rely on. It has a proposal for minimizing the risks of reliance.

Jim Geraghty just spent some time in Kovel, Ukraine. It’s a city about the size of Oshkosh, Wis., situated in the country’s northwest, far from the Russian invasion’s front lines. And, Jim writes, it’s the perfect illustration how no corner of Ukraine has escaped unscathed from this war.

Of the small city’s young men, 47 have been killed since fighting began.

Jim’s piece is a valuable glimpse into life under siege. The city’s mayor, who has led the city through both pandemic and war, told him the people of Kovel “didn’t notice any happy times” in the brief interlude in between.

But more than anything, Jim notes the resolve — as all over the country — that those times will eventually come.

Chaser: On the GOP debate stage, the Editorial Board saw the fight to save Ukraine play out in another arena.

• Larry Summers provides a script for what Fed Chair Jerome Powell ought to say on inflation.
• The GOP’s race to the bottom on immigration is on full display, the Editorial Board writes.

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.

Make sure to get my good side

Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. Have a great weekend!