Opinion : Vivek Ramaswamy was in town, Zzzzzzzz

As a reporter, I've been tossing around, how to report or whether I need to report that Vivek Ramaswamy was in town. He came. He saw. He left. Big deal.

I will have to use Ramaswamy as many times as I can in this article. Why? Because he doesn't have a chance of winning, and it's just fun to spell out the lengthy name.

As any good Republican type will tell you, Ramaswamy shared the same message, the same delivery. the same blah, blah, blah, with a lot of emphasis on the blah, blah, blah part. I talked to a few voters in the room who have been to these presidential stops, and we all seem to agree. Same message, different face. No one is wowing us.

Some voters are saying, "Never Trump" and some are saying, "Only Trump." I'm just saying anything that isn't followed by a (D) after their name is good with me. I simply can't afford that D for another four years. President Biden thinks that the prices we are paying now is somehow a good thing, "Bidenomics." he calls it proudly. I don't think it's anything to be proud of, but what do I know? I mean when groceries are (D)ouble, gas is (D)oubler, car prices are more than (D)ouble, and in some cases as much as the price of a house, I'm out. Like the saying goes, "It's not personal, it's business."

All the big issues are settled. Gay marriage a hot topic years ago is settled, it's legal. Abortion rights returned to the states, so not really a presidential issue. To quote James Carville, from way back in the dark ages, he had it right in 1992, "It's the economy stupid."

The charade that groceries have only gone up 30% is a joke. As a mom of six, I spent decades paying attention to where I could find the cheapest ground beef, hot dogs, mac and cheese, etc. It's something that I've always had to pay attention to. Now on my own, I am thankful that I don't have to buy groceries for a family. I pay as much now, or more than what I did for a family of eight for a whole month, if I decide to buy meat.

But back to Ramaswamy.

I found myself actually bored with Ramasamy. I think it was the endless yammering. Or maybe it was because I was a little ticked off after waiting a half hour past his promised arrival time. One potential supporter asked, "How much longer will he be?" The answer, "12 minutes." It was 12 minutes and another 20 before he arrived.

The board behind where Ramaswamy stood lists the reason that he's there. At the top in huge letters was the word, "TRUTH." I know it's petty maybe, but his campaign started out within my earshot with a lie. It's always better to tell me exactly how long it's going to be than to lie about it. But, I'm just a hick from Iowa who can't tell time or stupid enough to not be upset that I was lied to.

DeSantis also arrived a good half-hour past his scheduled arrival time. Granted these guys are in an unfamiliar state and people like to talk, so it would be easy to get behind. However, with Siri on the phone, Google maps and etc. there really isn't an excuse. And again, if you're going to be late, just tell us, and be HONEST.

The next issue I find insulting, annoying and fake to the max, is the whole playing to the "conservative Christian" voters. I had an issue with Tim Scott sounding so much like a preacher rather than a politician that I wouldn't vote for him. And this is from a gal who's probably heard more preaching in her life than most of you. So yeah, I'm outta here on that one, and apparently so was everyone else.

Ramaswamy tried to go all "spiritual" on us as well. I have to admit, I wanted to call his bluff and ask, "What church do you go to, how often do you go and what's your favorite spiritual saying?" Then you can root out a fake pretty quickly. When former President Trump tried to pull this on the Liberty University campus, he outed himself by reading a verse on the wall from II Corinthians. If you know his mistake, you probably also caught Ramaswamy's small tell tell in his story about the Israelites. If you think he's a "conservative Christian" type, I'd guess he is as much as Trump is.

Then there was a promise that you could ask Ramaswamy any question that you wanted to. Well, that didn't happen. All the hype of, "Think up the hardest question that you can," was a great sales technique, but also a sales scam. There was only time for 4 or 5 questions while Ramaswamy went on and on and on and on, I think to avoid the hard questions.

I had to laugh when a former school teacher asked about his plan to end the Board of Education. She asked, "What's your plan after you do that?" The pause that Ramaswamy had after the question was just seconds long enough to tell me that to him, that was a hard question. I didn't think it was a tough "gotcha" question. He fumbled around in the archives of his mind for the talking points and finally found them. He pulled out the education script but he didn't really answer the question, as any good politician wouldn't do.

It's the little things that matter to me, and to the Iowa voters.

I'm so over simply believing that there will be a perfect candidate. But if you want my vote here are some tips:

1. Be on time or tell the room when you will REALLY be there. Maybe set up a YouTube channel for people to tune in to talk to you while you travel.

2. Don't act like someone you aren't.

3. Don't advertise that you can ask anything you want if you aren't going to take questions.

4. Don't try to BS us. We live really close to farm country, we can smell it a mile away.