Fear is a great motivator.

Haley needs to pound the drum that Trump might be convicted before November and that might mean a Democratic blowout and

(1) Dem control of state legislatures, who will gerrymander the GOP out of existence
(2) Federal codification of Roe
(3) Replacing Thomas and Alito with 25 year old black queer public defenders
(4) Expanding SCOTUS and throwing a few more justices up there for good measure
(5) DC and Puerto Rico statehood
(6) A transgender bill of rights
(7) banning SUVs
(8) Open Borders
(9) Restrictions on homeschooling

Of course, even with healthy Dem majorities, a lot of those wouldn't happen. But campaigns are all about exaggeration.

She needs to judo Trump's fear based campaign back at him. Make it seem like nominating him is just too risky b/c of all of the criminal charges.

But Haley could only get 30% when Trump wasn't on the ballot in NV. I just don't think there's any realistic chance for her to even threaten to win a single primary.

To be fair, None of these candidates is an extremely compelling choice for a GOP primary.

So Trump's new NATO position should be the biggest (I'd argue only) thing being discussed right now.

Maybe NATO is outdated. Maybe Western Europe has been mooching off of us. Maybe we should disband it.

Personally, I don't think so. But it's a debate worth having since one of the two leading candidates for the Presidency has come out that way.

So let's get our Senators and Reps (from both parties) on record with this. Let's get Haley's position. Let's get Biden's position.

It's the biggest foreign policy question since WWII, so let's, you know, actually treat it that way.

But what about the Taylor Swift conspiracy?! Priorities, people!

Trump is going to put Lara Trump as co-chair of the RNC. Might as well just forward all the donations to Trump's accounts.

Got to it yesterday. I'm happy (and surprised) to say it was pretty edible!

They aren't even hiding that they're going to steal all of the money.

Dems should just play videos of all the things Trump has forgotten under deposition.

Besides just wanting all the money because it's his personal party now, he just probably figures if he wins he can do whatever he wants anyway, regardless of the makeup of Congress.

Biden's age is a thing. It was a thing before. It should have been resolved before now. But here we are. Also...


Reagan Retains Charm but Not His Memory - Los Angeles Times

You think this was primarily related to Reagan's age and not the investigation? Lots of people younger and more with it suddenly don't remember a lot of things when they might face criminal charges.

No, but the Rs back then didn't think to much of his 'memory' issues then did they?

You can't get a Republican to acknowledge a 180 degree different position from documented statements made 5-6 years (heck, maybe months) ago. Pointing out a 35+ year old inconsistency is hardly a gotcha moment in today's politics.

Speaking of Reagan, I think he put his daughter as head of the RNC too (or some major position).

Reagan would have been a RINO is todays party. Today they would be cheering Gorbachev on and praising him for how smart he is that he has a wall...

A republican on the house intelligence committee was tweeting today about a new(?) national security threat and the need for the president to declassify for all members to inspect. Several others are now releasing statements about it saying that they have been tracking this since the beginning and they are talking to the administration about what they can reveal about it

You mean? ANOTHER CRISIS!?!?!?!
Something I can fear, AND be angry about?!?!

Defense industry needs new ways to siphon funds after the Ukraine money fell through.

Next Saturday, Feb 24 is the date for Haley. Not looking good at all, wonder when she'll drop out.

Trump has huge lead over Haley in South Carolina, poll shows - POLITICO

Yes so not even telling the truth about Trump worked for Nikki.

As long as she has financial backing she is going to stick around and home something happens to Trump to disqualify hm.

A nice scenario would be for her to hang on till the very end, Trump loses in 2024, and positions herself for a 2028 run.

I guess it's possible she somehow gets an invite/agrees to join a Trump admin. But I'd be very disappointed in her if she did.

It's not about the candidates at this point, it's about the people the candidates are talking to. Chris Christie said everything that needed to be said way earlier and better than Haley ever could, and the people didn't want to hear it. He basically got booed off of every stage he was on.

I'd be second-guessing my vote for Trump if he puts that treacherous bitch in any job.

You're aware she had a position in his first administration, right?

Yup. But a lot has been said during the run up to now

She is one of the slimiest politicians out there.

I imagine she will be back to saying Trump must be President again when she does drop out

Bill Barr has spent the last three years shit talking about Trump and now he has the gall to say if it's Trump vs. Biden he'll vote for Trump.

Too bad. Would have been interesting for a while.

Manchin says he won’t launch independent presidential bid - Live Updates - POLITICO

Human garbage....

Trump finally comments on the death of Navalny, and like always, he has to make it all about himself.

He once again refuses to condemn Putin, instead targeting the US institutions over that of the violent dictator.

What is the reason why Trump has such a difficult time… pic.twitter.com/6dn47l2iZc

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 19, 2024

They all agree with what Trump and his policies. They just want to be invited to the cocktail parties too. These folks are huge cowards. I respect an all-out MAGA way more than these slimy creatures.

Is Haley dropping out?

Nikki Haley's campaign says she's delivering a speech tomorrow "to address the state of the presidential race."

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 19, 2024

Isn't her home state primary this week and she's going to get embarrassed? Yeah, I'd say dropping out is 99.9% certain (although I haven't really been following any specific news about her lately).

She has too much financial support. It is supposed to be more of a speech about why she is staying in from what I have read.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

If true, I guess she's the chosen one to be the last person standing in case Trump doesn't run. Which seems exceedingly unlikely outside of some sort of health issue. I can't imagine the party telling him no - he'd burn the whole thing to the ground.

Hey, there's always the chance that he flops over dead.

I'd take a very small chance of another candidate over no chance.

The thing is if he dies or drops out, Haley still won't be the nominee. Unless it happens pretty soon, she won't have a majority of delegates by the convention and there's no way a brokered convention selects her to be the nominee.

What do you think would happen if Trump were to be unavailable for whatever reason and the convention had to choose someone else?

Chaos. :) Pretty sure MAGA/Republicans don't care about election laws/normal convention procedures at this point and would nominate whoever made the best deal/got the most money backing. Would be funny then if someone like Liz Cheney/Marc Elias sued them for not following proper election law.

Things become worse? Maybe? :eek:

Anti-Trump independent votes go where?

Look at the Speaker change as a blueprint.

Unless "normal" R's can somehow get control we could end up with a young MAGA idiot running against old Joe. If Trump died of natural causes it wouldn't be believed by Magas. He'd be a martyr that the Libs finally silenced, so I don't think (R) turnout is affected unless it goes up. If he was convicted and in prison? Same answer (you said unavailable, so in that scenario he can't be running the country wearing an ankle bracelet from home).

In a normal world this sounds stupid. But we haven't been normal for quite some time.

Yeah I was more just speculating about ... I mean, the convention will have to choose somebody. I suppose they could just say 'we're nominating Trump regardless, we'd rather he be President from jail/the morgue than anyone else' which would result in a walk-over for Biden since it'd never hold up in court. Even our courts.

But ultimately they'd almost certainly have to nominate somebody else. It's fine to say it'd never be Haley, but who then? I don't think many people really want DeSantis anymore, so ... it likely won't be relevant, but a thought exercise.

Look how long it took them to settle on a Speaker of the House. Could take months to decide on a candidate.

Don Jr.


edit: and I'm not joking. Lara Trump will likely be running the convention, and they will definitely crown a Trump over any other candidate.

IMO, Don Jr. doesn't stand a chance. He doesn't have the MAGA charisma (?).

Good for Haley. I don't know if this is the right decision politically but appreciate the drive to see it through.

“Trump is the very worst—the actual bottom of the barrel—of the human beings our country has birthed.

“You can tell me that he is tied with some others (Manson, Dahmer, and so on) but as a Trump biographer I’m not going to have any difficulty arguing that no one *exceeds* Trump in being despicable.

“Keep in mind that the death toll from his actions during the pandemic will never be equaled by any serial killer or terrorist because it would be logistically impossible.

“He’s betrayed and abused his country, his friends, his family, our legal system, our free market, voters, investors, bankers, lawyers, doctors, vendors, contractors, renters, business associates, consumers, television viewers (understand that most of his early televised pageants were rigged and rigged by him), innocent bystanders (think The Central Park Five) in ways you couldn’t find another human being in American history to have done *in totality*. I can’t name a redeeming quality in the man.

“Opposing Donald Trump isn’t a political act. I want to repeat that: opposing him *isn’t a political act*.

“Opposing him is like opposing serial killers, the mafia, unilateral nuclear strikes, polio, or mob violence.... it’s something *any person of conscience* would naturally do *regardless* of their views on contemporary public policy debates.

“This is something corporate media appears never to have understood: we’re called upon to oppose this man in the same way we are lice, poison, and arson.”

-Seth Abrasom

Dola: And he’s still gonna beat Haley by like 30 points