Vivek Ramaswamy desires voters to know he’s younger, vigorous — and did he point out younger?
“You’re a blank slate — you’re 38 years old,” Mr. Ramaswamy, the primary Republican millennial presidential candidate, imagined a viewer as saying about him. And, he added, “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?” — a reference to the previous political wunderkind Barack Obama, which former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey rapidly identified, including, “I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same kind of amateur.”
But Mr. Ramaswamy made it clear that he wasn’t going to be deferential to the extra skilled candidates onstage. He addressed former vice chairman Mike Pence as “Mike,” familiarly, and didn’t again down when Mr. Pence declared, “We don’t need to bring in a rookie.” Instead, he made his newcomer standing a combative rallying cry.
“I’m the only person on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for, so I can say this,” Mr. Ramaswamy mentioned in response to a query about local weather change coverage. Even extra pointedly, he referred to his younger youngsters and instructed that voters wanted to “hand it over to a new generation to actually fix the problem.”
This all got here after debate preparation that included releasing movies of himself taking part in tennis shirtless — he has mentioned, in a pointed reminder of his younger legs, that he likes to hit with faculty gamers across the nation whereas on the path — and doing burpees to T.I.’s “Bring ’Em Out,” a celebration hit from 2004, when Mr. Ramaswamy was simply an Eminem-impersonating underclassman at Harvard.
His emphasis on his youth remembers the candidacy of Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat who preceded him by one election cycle and some years at Harvard.
Mr. Ramaswamy’s views are largely out of step along with his personal technology and the one beneath him, which skew Democratic. But, mentioned Charlotte Alter, the creator of “The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America”: “The only way the G.O.P. is attracting any young voters is on culture war issues like anti-woke posturing and contrarian hot takes. And that’s where Vivek has planted his flag.”
Source: www.nytimes.com