Tim Scott is yelling

South Carolina Senator's presidential campaign debut requests an Amen

Tim Scott Announces Presidential Campaign

5/22/23

Justin Rating - 5/10

First impressions matter in politics. You need to guess what yours will be and do your best to shape it how you’d like it to be.

The bad first impression for Tim Scott (if he hopes to be president) is that he’s just another Senate nerd.

Nerds are scared. Nerds are quiet. Nerds are Ted Cruz.

That’s probably why Tim Scott opened his first speech as a presidential candidate yelling. 

He’s a jock. A former football player. 

The following is a review of his official presidential campaign announcement. Watch it yourself.

Scott bolts out of the gate like a racehorse, his fervor perhaps better suited for a primetime slot rather than a morning introduction. Earnest but awkward. But not boring, so there’s that.

First heartstrings moment came when he spoke earnestly of his mother, a window into his personal life and a likely preview of his stump speech, clearly still in the process of fine-tuning. But the real crux of his platform is his anti Anti-Racist message. In short: America is the greatest country in the world. His humble origins are proof. Yet the left seeks to deny our greatness and mentally subjugate our people with identity politics.  

His repeated use of "Amen" might've given the uninitiated the impression they'd stumbled into a Sunday church service instead of a political presser. There was an undeniable tent revival energy to it, straddling the line between preachy and passionate.

Scott tried to pivot to Biden by embracing a spiritual message.Aimed at the evangelical demographic. It was here that he unfurled a litany of self-help style maxims - the kind of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps bon mots that would fit snugly in a motivational speaker's arsenal. “You can be bitter or better,” he preached, following it with, “You can be a victim or victorious.”

He describes Biden and the “radical left” as insidious agents of decay battling to permanently win their battle for the soul of America. 

And you’d never guess who the solution is! Him! Tim Scott!

And then he joked about how happy he was that his mom beat his ass for failing classes in high school. GOP Primary baybee!

As he got into the meat of his platform, his message seemed to lost power, literally. Right after delivering what was supposed to be his money shot line about announcing his candidacy, his mic went out. A tad ironic, and certainly not the metaphor you want on your first big day.

When it came to policy, Scott stayed true to classic conservative talking points:

On border control, he drew an analogy: “If you don’t control your back door, you don’t own your house.” On China, he pulled out an old proverb: “The borrower is slave to the lender.” On taxes and supply chain issues, he pitched “Opportunity Zones 2.0,” a sequel to a Senate bill he co-authored. You know a Senator is running when they think anyone care about sequels to laws.

Scott got tough on crime, calling for it to be a "federal crime to ambush or kill a cop," and proposed that “every child should have a choice and every parent a voice” in education.

Absent in a speech with so much religiosity? Abortion policy. At least in South Carolina you have 22 weeks before you have to make a decision.

No GOP primary red meat here. The closest Scott came to critiquing Trump was a subtle closing remark about the need for the GOP to expand beyond its diehard base. 

In all, it was an impassioned, if somewhat erratic, debut, hinting at Scott's intent to bring his blend of spirituality, conservative values, and personal story to the Presidential race. 

Amen.