Press: Time for the media to stop fawning over Vivek Ramaswamy  

In America, every natural-born citizen who’s at least 35 years old is free to run for president. But that doesn’t mean everyone who does so should be taken seriously. Vivek Ramaswamy should not.  

If Ramaswamy’s unfitness for the office was not clear before last week’s debate, there’s no doubt about it now. Let’s start out with the fact that he’s never run for office before or held any political office at any level — and now he’s running for president. We tried that before, in 2016. How’d that work out?   

His rookie status was on full display in Milwaukee. He accused everybody else on stage — a former vice president; three former governors; two current governors; and a U.S. senator — of being “bought and paid for.” 

He said the climate change agenda was a “hoax.” He pledged to cut off aid to Ukraine and Israel. He vowed to raise the legal voting age from 18 to 25. And, if elected, no matter what Donald Trump might be convicted of, he promised to pardon him on day one.   

Ramaswamy might have a winning smile, but his debate performance left many Republicans and political reporters scratching their heads and wondering whether this was a winning general election message.  

The big question is: What took them so long to question his viability as a candidate? Vivek Ramaswamy is the Andrew Yang of 2024: young, looks good, talks fast, but utters nothing but nonsense — and has no prayer of getting elected.   

Has anybody examined what Ramaswamy ‘s running on? He calls them “my 10 Truths” and posts them at every campaign rally. Look closely. They’re nothing but a bunch of empty slogans, each of which can be easily refuted.   

1. “God is real.” Oh, really? Which God? His Hindu God, or my Christian God? And, of course, he can’t prove God is real. He can only believe it.   
2. “There are two genders.” True for the most part, but the reality is that some people are not comfortable with the gender given at birth.   
3. “Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.” Really? Perhaps the greatest civilizations in human history existed before the discovery of fossil fuels.  
4.  “Reverse racism is racism.” True, but that doesn’t deny the systemic racism that’s defined this country for two centuries and still plagues us today.
5. “An open border is no border.” Name one Democrat or Republican who advocates for an open border.   
6. “Parents determine the education of their children.” God forbid that parents alone should decide what kids are taught in school.
7. “The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.” Not for all families. Some end in disaster. Many non-nuclear families are happy and successful.  
8. “Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.” Some people, but not all. According to the 2021 census, 37.9 million people live in poverty in capitalist America. 
9. “There are three branches of government, not four.” Does anybody honestly know what Ramaswamy’s talking about here? Does he?  
10. “The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.” Yet today those freedoms are still not guaranteed for, or enjoyed by, all Americans.  

Ramaswamy’s “10 Truths” are pure pap, and have nothing to do with being president. It’s time for the media to stop treating him like a serious candidate, fawning over the big crowds he’s attracting in Iowa. Big crowds turned out at the Iowa State Fair to see a cow made of butter, too. But that doesn’t mean they want it to be president of the United States.

Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”