I guess even poor white MAGA trash has their limits paying a so called billionaires legal bills.

Donald Trump’s donor numbers fall by 200,000 compared with 2019

If the miracle on ice happened today half of America would be disappointed

Brought to you by the party always screaming about being censored...

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His fundraising is bad right now. Haley is out-raising him and he's spending about 20% of incoming cash on legal bills. He raised around 14 mil in January while Biden raised 42 mil.

Big day for Haley. Hope she does much better than expected so she can last longer (every little bit helps).

The media has been eating Biden alive for his age, but ignores the fact that Trump is, at times, having trouble putting a coherent sentence together at his rallies.

That's because it's hard to differentiate from his usual ramblings.

Every Trump rally would be a month of stories if Biden acted that way.

Trumps going to win in part because of the way the media covers Biden, especially his age, and when they lose their FCC licenses they will wonder why.

The media should ignore the age issue? An obvious issue that is noted as the #1 negative on Biden by polls?

The media sucks in this country but pointing out the very old guy who has issues remembering basic facts about his life seems relevant in a Presidential eelction.

Biden has his age issues and I'd rank it as my #1 concern with him as well, but I don't think the date of son's death and some other things mentioned are that big of a deal. Those are typical age related issues. When it comes down to decision making by himself and those around him he's still a safe choice.

With Trump, you not only have those same issues with forgetting key facts about his life, but you also have clear mental decline with slurred speech, mixing people up, along with weird rants and ramblings. Ksyrup mentioned for most its hard to distinguish from his normal ramblings, and there's some truth there, but his is also far beyond what we saw in 2016 and 2020.

My concern with Trump is when you mix his general instability with some dementia you have a dangerous mix. Add in his revenge obsession and a GOP that's busy purging anyone that isn't full-on MAGA and we're putting a lot of faith in our institutional guardrails that he's already shown he's willing to tear down.

Haley is going to get crushed today. She's still pulling in plenty of money so as long as she continues to there's no reason for her to back out and ride it out as long as she can to see if anything happens to Trump that disqualifies him.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sout...y?id=107521006




I've seen some interesting data, and I don't remember where, but it showed that the GOP is horribly informed when it comes to his indictments and you do see some of his support chip away the more informed a voter is. He's convinced not only base, but large amounts of more moderate voters that the charges against him are entirely political in nature and there's no evidence he committed a crime.



Another interesting thing is the unspoken contract he has with evangelicals. As long as he gives them what they're asking for they'll ignore the fact that he's probably the most impious man to ever set foot in the white house.

That state of the GOP right now is that if Jesus Christ was on the ballot and didn't have a "R" next to his name he isn't winning any election in a red area.

I said the way they cover it, I didn't say they shouldn't.

Anyone who isn't concerned with Bidens age isn't paying attention. That being said Trump makes equal or worse gaffs, on top of, you know, flat out saying he wants to be an authoritarian, and the media lets it slide because we have gotten used to the crazy.

You never hear them media discuss all the positive things Biden has done. It is literally all about his age and they jump on any minor gaff.

I think the media has been incredibly kind to Biden lately.

Umm, that's why most of us are voting for him.

He isn't hiding that he intends to be one ... and we aren't really hiding the fact that we believe one is desperately needed to save what little good might be left in a once great nation.

Compared to past candidates? Probably

Compared to his opponent? Absolutely not. If Biden had one speech that was anything like a Trump speech they'd put him in a straight jacket and wheel him away on the spot.

Slurring speech? Mixing up his primary opponent for the former House Speaker? Mixing up the current President for a previous one? Not remembering the dates he was married? Stumbling through sentences that don't make sense?

Dems have been slow to pounce on it because it highlights a weakness of Biden and starts us down the road of the "race to the bottom". It's something Haley and other GOP candidates should have pounced on day 1, but they handled Trump with kids gloves and all but Haley are sitting at home hoping to get picked for VP.

The reality is it should be a huge story for both. It's disingenuous to attack Biden for his age and mistakes and mostly ignore Trump having the same issues, if not worse.

When was it great?

For a lot of people, authoritarianism sounds great when you're on the side of the people in power. The problem is to maintain that power the people that benefit shrinks to the point that nearly everyone is an enemy of the state and the state eventually eats itself alive and collapses.

Authoritarianism has never really worked and and in nearly every instance has come back to oppress those that voted for it. You also can't mix authoritarianism and capitalism. Eventually you're going to see real socialism as a means for the authoritarian state to maintain control over the economy and its people.

I think he means the CSA.

A fair question. I'd venture to say most people that say this would point to a timeframe when New Deal socialism had boosted the economy and living conditions, unions had power, a minimum wage was a living wage, and getting an education was far cheaper than today.

I'm sure those aren't the things from that period that people would say made us great, but that's the reality.

It works as long as you have money to bribe people to get anything done (or are those in position to receive the bribes).

Some people like licking boots and having a daddy tell them what they're allowed to do. Not going to convince people to change their view on that.

They've given him a complete pass on the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Barely any pushback from mainstream press and even puff pieces every couple weeks about how "Biden is angry with Netanyahu" that mean absolutely nothing.

The border plan has been played as some master gambit and not that Biden is essentially trying to implement Trump's border policy. The same policy the media torched Trump for at every turn (and Biden campaigned against). Almost no questions on why we're just funneling billions to Ukraine and what we're getting out of it. And remember how the media cared about COVID until Biden was elected?

Trump would be destroyed by the media for all this. If your biggest complaint about the media is questioning whether a guy who will be 86 at the end of his second term should be re-elected, you're in a good spot.

To me it just feels like people building up excuses already for a defeat. An inability to accept why an unpopular old man in cognitive decline might not make the best candidate for President.

Absolutely I said is refuted in your post here. I said compared to past Presidents the media has been soft on him, but not in comparison to his opponent, who you could describe in the exact same way as your last paragraph.

Yes, the media was hard on the guy that oversaw the death of over 400,000 Americans, broke federal laws on a daily basis, routinely leaked classified info, stole classified info, hired his unqualified family members into key white house positions, and had to be handled like a child by his advisors.

I don't know if you have just blissfully forgotten the stuff Trump did or if your obsession with the negatives with Biden clouds your thinking, but you constantly move goal posts and either misrepresent parts of his policy or just ignore his accomplishments altogether. It's difficult to take you seriously when it comes to anything related to Biden, though, when you act like he's been worse than Trump for the left.

Every single one of those things you mention about Trump was covered extensively by the media. I don't know what you're arguing at this point. That because Trump is worse than Biden they should never criticize Biden? What do you think they are criticizing Biden for that they wouldn't criticize Trump for?

No one is forgetting what Trump did. It's all been covered and continue to be covered. Maybe you're upset it's not getting the response from the public you want.

And more people have died from COVID under Biden than Trump. We're still at 600 a day. The media just stopped caring when Biden got into office.

The argument was that compared to Trump, the media isn't going easy on Biden. Biden is getting hammered for his age while Trump largely gets a pass. Biden couldn't remember the year his son died and was ripped to shreds for it. Trump couldn't remember the years he was married to his previous wife. Not a peep from the media. Biden didn't remember some things surrounding the classified documents in his house that were detailed in the special report. Again, the media jumped on it. Trump seemingly can't remember a single thing when he's being disposed, but that's just him being smart and not incriminating himself. Everyone looks the other way. Biden makes a gaff on who the President of France is and the media jumps on it. Trump confuses who the President of Turkey for the President of Hungary and then tells people that President called on Obama, instead of Biden to step down, nothing from the media. There's a massive difference in how the media is treating each in regards to their age.

That argument is where this started and where we're at now is what every single Biden conversation you're involved in devolves into. You absolutely seem incapable of seeing him in anything other than a negative light. You have been far quicker in this thread to praise Trump than to give the Biden administration credit for a single positive thing.



Bullshit

His entire strategy is to do so much ridiculous shit it's impossible to cover everything and everyone forgets most of it. That was discussed extensively in the Trump presidency thread. There's tons of shit with Trump that most people don't remember because we've gone through 1,000 scandals since then.



Yes, and abortion laws were better under Trump and Trump did more for poor people than Biden has. We know where you stand.

Every single one of those things you mentioned about Trump was covered by the media. His competency has been relentlessly talked about over the past 7 years. They had wall-to-wall coverage about invoking the 25th Amendment on him.


Biden has been one of the worst politicians in our country over the past 50 years. He spearheaded a law that destroyed the economic prospects of an entire generation. He voted for 2 disastrous wars in the Middle East and after that was seen as a failure, is trying to bring back that same neocon foreign policy. Not to mention the billions he has provided for a genocide which is one of the most shameful foreign policy decisions in our country's history. So yes, I do view him in a negative light.

As for why I am talking about him instead of Trump? Because Biden is President.


No one has forgotten about the stuff. There's just only so many times you can go to that well. 7 years of orange man bad is just not cutting it anymore. They need new material like an actual policy position.


You're the one who said it was the President's fault for COVID deaths! Do the deaths not count under Biden because of the D next to his name or because he said the pandemic was over 2 years ago?

And I think overall your frustration is misguided toward the media. People aren't talking about the issues you want because the President physically can't. He isn't mentally capable of going on Jimmy Fallon and doing that. He can't hold a long press conference where he blasts Trump's record.

Take a look at the recent Alabama ruling. Obama would have been in front of the cameras the next day talking about it. It would have been broadcast on every news site and channel. Biden had to have his team put out a statement. It just doesn't resonate the same way.

That's why it sucks to run an 82-year old who you have to hide from the public. Despite his political flaws, 2016 Biden would be dogwalking Trump in this election. Just go back and watch how good Biden was in front of a camera 10 years ago. The media is not your campaign team and the party should stop making excuses.

If you think of Trump as the de facto GOP incumbent, these results are horrible for him.

If you think of him as a challenger in an open primary, then they are great.

He passed the largest infrastructure bill in years, CHIPS Act, bipartisan border deal that Trump tanked, etc...there is plenty of policy positions that can be discussed, the media refuses to do it.

Hell, the market went bonkers the other ay and all I saw were stories about Biden slipping as he boarded air force one.

No one is saying Biden isn't too old, hell, I agree with you. The point is the media is giving coverage of that a disproportionate amount of time to his age instead of Trumps obvious equal issues, or Bidens positives. Trump has already said he will revoke FCC licenses for unfriendly media, so when ABC loses their broadcast license because Jimmy Kimmel is mean to him they will have no one to blame but themsleves.

Some of the CNN exit polls were pretty wild.

I mean, who hasn't said the wrong name when introducing your wife?

Donald Trump calls wife Melania ‘Mercedes’ during CPAC | News | Independent TV

Reagan spent his second administration in a haze of dementia, as likely will either Biden or Trump. What the election should really be about, and what the media really should be focusing on is who will really be running the country under either of these administrations, because the differences are really stark, despite what "both sides" Rainmaker would have you believe.

He should get on TV and talk about those accomplishments. The media is not your campaign.

As for why age is being talked about, it's because it's the number one issue for voters against him. Seems relevant to to cover something voters are concerned with instead of something voters aren't.

Just last week Biden spoke to reporters multiple times, did multiple public or donor events, hosted the governors at multiple events and spoke to the G7 over video.

I think it is fair to criticize the media for playing along with the idea that Biden can't handle public events.

It may not be the medias job to carry his water, but back to my original point. When he starts cancelling FCC licenses out of revenge for something Jimmy Kimmel said they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Don’t tell me that can’t or won’t happen because Stephen Miller et al have already said they want state run media.

So because of a threat to their FCC license, they should drop the journalism and just be his campaign? I genuinely don't know what you're asking them to do. It's not their job to win elections.

And none of that will happen. He was already President for 4 years and didn't do that. He doesn't even have the power to do that. Just another scare tactic because you have nothing else to run on.

Probably won't be long now.

C'mon guys, there's no way Trump would put those Heritage/Project 2025 guys in charge! Something like that couldn't happen here.

I get it. You hate the guy. You envision him standing in the middle of the Gaza strip with one hand holding a rocket launcher and the other drinking the blood of Palestinian children out of a skull.

I'm just asking for balanced coverage. Shouldn't be too much to ask.

And I know you aren't stupid. If you don't think virtually all the guardrails from his first term will be removed you're nuts.

I've been told without 60 Senate seats you really can't do anything.

and when you control the courts you can get away with a lot.

He is illegally supplying the weaponry for the genocide. He is proposing far-right immigration policies to get more money to kill more people. So he's not bathing in the blood of dead Palestinian children, but he wants it to happen.

And you don't want unbiased coverage. If they treat Biden like Trump, he'd be peppered every day about Gaza, COVID deaths, and the opening of new wars in the Middle East. We'd go back to caring about kids in cages and families being separated. Maybe they'll make a big stink about the USPS again which they conveniently stopped caring about in January 2021.

Trust me, Biden has an extremely friendly media at his back. The age thing is about the tamest shit they can be going after him for. The guy has 50 years of incompetence under his belt they won't touch.

I get the party needs to start piling up those excuses early but I don't think blaming the media for mentioning what we all can see (he's old) is the reason he's in danger of losing to a tremendously bad candidate.

There are 59 federal judiciary openings that the Democrats have not filled. Biden has only bothered to nominate people for 22 of those positions. And they're still using the old tradition of blue slips to allow more conservative judges to be nominated (something McConnell laughed at when he had a majority).

So it doesn't seem like the Democrats are as concerned about the courts as you are.

Biden also voted to confirm Scalia and O'Connor to the courts if you're wondering his thoughts on the threat of conservative judges.

RM, you really look like you are hunting for bad stuff to say about Biden, Scalia was voted in 98-0. It was a different more bipartisan time then, and weren't expecting him to be SO conservative in his rulings, O'Connor got 99 votes to confirm.



Biden has confirmed 177 judges so far, so he's not just sitting back and doing nothing. Though i would like him to nominate the Court of Appeals judges before the end of his term. I don't know the process involved in finding and naming judges, so maybe there are legitimate reasons for some of the openings not being filled.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...d_by_Joe_Biden

Biden was on pace to appoint way more judges than Trump until Feinstein got ill and the Senate Judiciary Committee ground to a halt. Still, he's appointed a lot, and 2/3s of those appointed have been POC. Really impressive given that he's only got a 50-50 Senate.

reuters.com

Picking on that point and the unaninmous confirmations of Scalia & O'Connor shows, again, your naivete, RM. This is "Bernie's going to win and pass the Green New Deal and appoint 9 justices to SCOTUS" all over again.

There's 59 vacancies. Most of which are in Republican states that are being held up by "blue slips". Something Trump and McConnell laughed at (and will laugh at if in power again). That doesn't count the moderate and conservative judges he's gotten confirmed with the blessing of Republican Senators like Marco Rubio. They literally planned to nominate an anti-abortion judge in Kentucky till some folks spoke up.

So are the courts important or not? Are they vital to upholding our democracy as was implied earlier in the thread? Because if so, why was a 90-year old senile woman placed in such a vital role? Why are "blue slips" still being taken seriously by just one part? Why has there been a failure to even nominate someone for half the remaining vacancies?

Just answer those questions for me since you're both implying that the courts are important to Biden and the Democrats.

This I agree with. The GOP ignored the blue slip for 17 nominations and they've said they want to rework how they're used in 2025 so they can't be abused anymore, but at the very least the dems should ignore it for 17 of their own nominations.

I think it's beyond obvious that the Dems have attempted to stay within the rails of outdated "norms" mistakenly thinking they are taking the high ground and that voters really give a crap when it comes to things like this. It's also why the party just sat around and did nothing about Biden, because a party just doesn't tell an incumbent with one term left to serve that they can't run again.

I agree, that's why I think it's bad to have someone from that time in charge. Republicans are not doing the old bipartisan stuff from when Biden was in the Senate. They don't care about blue slips, they don't care about the filibuster, they certainly don't give a shit what Chuck Schumer thinks about their judicial nominees in New York.

So if one side is "sticking with the norms", they're playing with one hand tied behind their back. That shows they're either naive/dumb or just don't give a shit.

And this goes beyond Biden. It's the old guard of Democrat leadership. Remember this insane statement by Pelosi last year?

Access to this page has been denied

Not going well in Michigan.

After days of meetings with disaffected Democrats in Michigan, Representative Ro Khanna of California said that President Biden cannot win the state without changes to his Middle East policy.

— Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) February 27, 2024

Maybe, but Khanna is hardly neutral here.

They're pushing to get votes for "Uncommitted" in tomorrow's primary. I don't know how hard they're trying, though. One said they hoped to get about 10k as a nod to Trump's 2016 win, but the 2020 Dem primary had 19k uncommitted. Another was hoping for 15%, which would actually be a more noticeable target.

I don't know if the uncommitted thing matters tomorrow. It's more just a protest vote. Michigan is looking like it might be the pivotal state in November, so I do think voters know the kind of power they will be able to wield.


In what way?

This is what I am talking about.

According to the NYT, though Biden is leading his nearest opponent by +76% in the Michigan primary he “faced opposition.” Meanwhile, Trump is leading by +35% but “easily beat” his opponent.

The NYT bias in covering this election is just impossible to ignore, at this point. pic.twitter.com/ndbVnloyXe

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) February 28, 2024

It's going to be so predictable when she inevitably endorses Trump.

Nikki Haley: America Is Committing “Suicide� by Voting for Trump | Vanity Fair

Looks like the uncommitted vote in MI is going to end up just a couple of points higher than it did in 2012.

And Dean finished fourth in a three person race.

My guess is that if she does not drop out after Super Tuesday, the RNC will change the rules to pretty much award the rest of the delegates to Trump.

Or, possibly, there will be some backroom deal where she is told that if she drops out and he does become incapacitated before the convention, then she will be the nominee.

The problem, though, is I don't even know who would make that deal from the RNC side. Trump has so successfully turned the RNC into the fundraising arm of MAGA, that I don't know if there really in an RNC outside of Trump anymore.

The RNC for all intents and purposes doesn't exist. Their only purpose is the pay his legal bills at this point.

There is zero chance any down ballot candidates see a dime from them.

The alternative for Haley is becoming another Kasich, who ... makes occasional appearances on MSNBC?

She has really painted herself into a corner. Once MAGA turns on you they don't take you back. Her best bet is continue bashing them, hope Biden wins in 2024, has a disastrous administration and she gets the non maga and independents in 2028.

Haley has Bill Clinton levels of does-not-believe-anything and will-say-whatever-people-want-to-hear. So I wouldn't put any future positions outside of the realm of possibility for her.

But I agree that her best bet is to stay anti-MAGA GOP and hope that's enough in 2028.

Honestly, the real pivot ahead in American politics will be the day Trump dies (or something practically equivalent) and then we find out if this "movement" among the faithful will continue behind one leader, many leaders, or not really at all.

We see plenty of people who are largely content to bootlick for now but hope to become "the next MAGA leader." It's not clear that any among them have the requisite charisma and... chutzpah?... to actually fill those bone-spur-friendly shoes.

But it's that pivot when someone well-positioned to be a non-MAGA or even anti-MAGA GOP leader can really figure out whether there's a lane at all for them. But clearly not until then. The former legitimate party is lost for now.

Not sure where this goes but Mitch McConnell is stepping down in November.

like I said...

Republican primaries are basically winner take all in a 2 person race by mid-March so they wouldn't have to change the rules.

Trump is really getting bothered by his age and mistakes getting pointed out. Especially by Biden. As I said here before, if you really want to get to him you have to needle him on things like his age, mistakes, intelligence, etc. That is the shit that bothers him. That's the stuff that will have him sounding more and more unhinged.

Not saying it shouldn't be done, of course it should. Maybe he'll say something crazier than he already has, but...

The trouble is even if Trump got to a "Did you order the code red" situation and responded with "your goddamned right I did", there will be no consequences, it won't mean a thing. To the voters or to the courts.

It won't matter for his supporters, but the more Trump is in the media making unhinged responses to this stuff the more others are reminded of how awful he is. It goes against how a normal candidacy works, but the more Trump is in the media the more it hurts him with everyone except his base. Media trying to mostly ignore him and his rallies post presidency probably helped him.

I'd like to think you're right. Maybe once the nominations are done, the race actually starts, and it becomes harder to not have him be seen/heard there will be enough of an affect to do him damage. Perhaps those that think Joe is slipping cognitively will think a deranged Trump is as bad or worse? I hope so.

It can't be the immunity case because they haven't even had arguments. This will most likely be the Colorado ballot opinion. Almost certainly going Trump's way, just what will be the reasoning is the question.

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So last night Trump, again, confused Obama for Biden, spit out some gibberish as his brain appeared to completely lock up, and had a medical emergency in his crowd.

Just a typical Trump rally at this point.

Trump short circuits again LOL pic.twitter.com/OqfJpZR2i8

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 2, 2024

I'm for one relieved that FINALLY a candidate is talking about Saudi Arabian Russia.

He said that he'll cut federal education funds for any school that mandates vaccines. Make measles great again!

At least someone is talking about cutting federal spending.

Except anything that results in cuts to public education would just be redirected toward vouchers so rich people pay less for private school.

I'm here for it.

I'm betting when you ultimately add all the increases & decreases together in a Trump budget, the net is more deficit/debt. I sure hope I'm wrong, but my gut tells me I'm right.

Probably true but at this point I'm willing to listen to anyone who talks about balancing the deficit.

Biden probably doesn't even remember the word "deficit" means and Trump is the "King of Debt"

I just hope I'm not here when the fiscal damn blows in this country.

That's a really low bar to cross.

In fairness, the changes to the IRS were made to help collect the billions in tax fraud from wealthy people. That was specifically built to reduce the deficit.

I wouldn't mind the government trying that and seeing if the tax gap drops. If the tax gap doesn't drop then the funding should be recinded.

ETA:

Or maybe I should say the tax code should be changed.

I like Ted Cruz's idea that a tax return should be able to fit on a post card.

Honestly I'm not sure what Cruz's exact plan is but IMO if You earn X then you pay Y. No deductions.

Cruz doesn't really mean that though because the people that fund him are the ones who benefit most from a complicated tax code.

When auditing people worth over $10 million, the IRS earns $13,000/hour collecting unpaid taxes. If you care about the deficit, that's an easy way to reduce it.

Exactly. Also his tax plan would increase the deficit by a lot.

If that is true then I'm all for that.

Nikki Haley actually won a primary.

It was the DC GOP primary where a total of 2,000 votes were cast, which is about 1,800 more Republicans that I thought lived there.

Congrats Nikki.

Build on that momentum!

Was Haley expected to win DC?

Feels like that just plays right into Trump's hand - of course she won in the swamp!

Nothing can stop her now!

No surprise, SCOTUS strikes down the attempt to keep Trump off the ballot. The only surprise may be that it was unanimous.

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I wonder if that is an indicator they will also be unanimous on immunity, although I doubt it.

They won't. Delaying the argument until the last possible day gave the game away.

They will deny immunity, but push the opinion back so late that no trial will be possible.

Elon should run for President and then claim only an act of congress can enforce the citizenship clause.

It is really wild how we are living in two realities. We all know Trump will be the nominee, but half the news outlets will claim he is steam rolling and the other half will claim he is only getting 70% or so of support and with a lot of Haley voters saying they will never vote Trump he can't win the general.

I suspect RFK brings home the win for Trump.

RFK hurts Trump more than Biden in polls.

This is a good article on how Trump has built a lead in the polls. Him being off Twitter is one of them.

Trump Is Winning This Election Right Now. Here’s Why. | The Nation

In combination with being off Twitter, the fact that Truth Social's search function is broken (probably by design) makes it harder to make the "there's a post for that" immediate responses that juxtapose what he said weeks/months/years ago with things he's saying now.