If I could vote for a Kasich, Haley, etc. I probably would; there are factors that could make me go back to third party also but I'd lean that way. As long as it's somebody like Trump - I wouldn't vote for DeSantis either for similar reasons as Trump - as long as it's somebody like that, I don't see a reasonable choice other than voting Biden. I don't support a lot of his policies, but on some issues he constrains himself by respecting the form of government of the country he's the President of. Right now, that's where the bar basically is; are you in favor of voting or against it, for or against civil war/anarchy/despotism.

I used isidewith.com and ended up with the governor of N Dakota 1st and then the senator from W Virginia, I think he’s independent now as number 2… then Biden. Therefore it looks like none of the current class of candidates outside of Biden match what I believe.


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Glad to see Ramaswamy drop out. He is an unlikable guy with, hope he takes a significant financial hit in his businesses because he was such an ass.

Disappointed in Haley's 3rd place showing but NH is where she's planning on the breakout. Trump will still win but she needs a strong showing for momentum.

As someone who considers Trump uniquely dangerous and who believes that this country really needs an honorable intellectual conservative party in order to thrive, I was very saddened by these results. A Trump blowout with DeSantis in second place is about as bad as it can get from my point of view.

I find it hilarious that Ramaswamy spent a year of his life trying to win votes from people who, in the end, didn't vote for him because they thought he was Arab/Muslim and from Saudi Arabia instead of an Indian/Hindu born in Cincinnati. Sometimes, you get what you deserve.

A good thread by Steve Korancki on how Trump's nomination didn't start as a forgone conclusion and where it started to break away. Indict him needed to be done, but the slow drag in the investigation and waiting till it was this close to the election basically handed him this nomination.

The shift came abruptly: A clear rally-around-Trump effect among GOP voters when news of the first indictment (Manhattan DA) broke in March '23. Look how the polling averaged diverged at that moment and never looked back: pic.twitter.com/uwCToHzx1P

— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) January 16, 2024

I didn't think much about his religion until you mentioned it. I always assumed he was one of the Christian denominations.

But googled and you're right! Electing a Hindu is a bridge too far (at least right now) if you're going after the GOP base or general electorate.

Karma = get what you deserve.

Sincere question. Do you see yourself as a member of the GOP?

That is the piece I can't wrap my head around. GOPers could vote for Haley because they agree with her policies. They could vote for Haley because they don't like Trump/DeSantis. They could vote for Haley because they believe she is the best chance to defeat Biden. But yet here we are.

To be clear, the same could be said on the Democratic side as well when it comes to actual votes cast. I just see more people expressing their choice in one of those three terms. I personally think Haley (or someone else) would have had a better chance running as a conservative Democratic against Biden as opposed to what she has done. I'm not saying she would have won the nomination but her pushes to the far right so far come off as disingenuous to me. She seems better suited to chase the support of the more conservative members of the Democratic Party.

That's because she's not a conservative, so it makes sense.

No actual conservative would have done what that treacherous hellspawn did in South Carolina.

Or was this just the inevitable outcome of a race where nobody had the courage to go after Trump directly?

I found myself oddly impressed by both Apoorva Ramaswamy and the Fowlers from the video clips that I saw regarding this. I think we all have been in the position the Fowlers were in sitting at the table. The silent conversation of a wife basically seeking reassurance from her husband because she wants to/is going to say the thing. Her husband responding like yeah go ahead and say the thing. The wife actually saying the thing. Finally Apoorva Ramaswamy deserves immense credit for giving them the space and grace to say what was obviously a difficult thing for them, not try to minimize what was said even if minimizing it might have played well later. The little quip of “Not much we can do about that one.” was a perfect way to lift the tension while not dismissing what was said. Good job by all.

The two people who really fucked us were Garland And Bragg. The Stormy Daniels case being the first one really made it look like they were out to get him as opposed to something Garland should have brought which would have had teeth. No excuse for Garland taking so long and now Trump will likely be reelected and it all goes away.

yes she might have the conservative part down but she also has the far-right down very well. She can't seem to make her up her mind on any one topic and stay with it. She was very anti-trump until he became the nominee and then she kissed the ring and got UN Ambassador where she was very far right. She was pro Confederate flag here In SC until events caused her to change course. And then just last week she even couldn't agree that slavery was a/the cause for the Civil war until forced to. She will never work with Democrats, so how exactly is she any different than Trump but younger?

That's what I'd like to know. Where exactly (other than the flag) does Haley agree with Dems/disagree with Reps on much of anything? Abortion, LGBTQ issues, immigration, the environment, school loans, school "choice", etc. Maybe she's not ivermectin crazy, but what else does she give Dems? Oh, she's not quite as overtly racist, great (though as we've seen, disqualifies her to some on the right).

She's the classic example of a 2015 normie GOPer who is trying to play both sides of the fence. She knew how she should have answered the Civil War question, but she couldn't answer that way because the voters she was courting don't want to hear it.

Haley today, "we've never been a racist country."

lol Too late, dearie. You won't be the nominee and Trump will never pick you as his VP.

well at least she waited until after martin luther king day to say that, yes we should all vote for her now.

Dana Bash: "How do you feel about your party’s frontrunner being held liable for sexual abuse?"

Nikki Haley: "I haven't paid attention to his cases, and I'm not a lawyer…You got investigations on Trump and Biden.” pic.twitter.com/M7pVXt1SbA

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 16, 2024

And the first thing he wanted to do when he got in office is not to allow people like him, children born in America of immigrant parents, have birthright citizenship. I mean that is just a special level of douche.

Yeah until its only her and trump left then it will be 'yes we can't have someone convicted of sexual abuse as the leader of our country' or some such nonsense. not paid attention to the cases for the guy who you worked for, yeah right.

That's not quite accurate. The important distinction is legal vs illegal.

Trump obliterating her on the slavery answer was pretty funny.




Spoken like a man not afraid of losing any votes for saying the obvious.

The immigration crisis is so bad that the Speaker of the House says it can wait until next year when a Republican is in office. Why negotiate at least some semblance of a solution now for the benefit of the country when Biden can then claim a hand in the solution? No, the best thing to do is, like the economy, hope everything goes to hell in a hand basket because winning the election is so much more important than, you know, doing things to improve the lives of Americans.

That is the point. She has tried to be a version of Trump IMO much like other GOP candidates in the last few years. If this is who she really is, I feel like we would have heard about the female version of Donald Trump way back in 2005 when she first ran for office. This current version of Nikki Haley would not be getting endorsements and potential vice president nominee consideration from Mitt Romney. Hell, she turned down a far right layup when she did not support one of those anti trans bathroom bills back in 2016. Why create an easy stick like that for your opponents to hit you with if you actually believed that the bathroom scare was a problem. Much like you have documented, the current version is doing what she has to do to get elected IMO.

When I talk about her running as a Democrat, I mean a specific version of Haley. That version would still be right leaning and would still have problematic positions on certain things as far as I am concerned. That version would also be closer to what Joe Biden than many Democrats would like to believe and would allow for those right leaning Democrats that I know exist to have a more genuine voice within the party (No I don't think Joe Manchin as a genuine conservative Democrat. I think he is a DINO). I know that it is terrifying for some Democrats to consider that there is a right leaning faction of the party but they know that it exists. I would say that she would be better off trying to get support from the left leaning wing of the Republican party but I honestly don't think that exist which was the reason for my original post.


Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema both are sitting in the U.S. Senate with D's next to their name. I live in a state where Charlie Bleepin' Crist won a congressional election and was the Democratic candidate for Governor. If the first two can still be sitting in the Senate right now and that last one could be still campaigning for Dems, is it that far fetched to think a version of Haley would have had a better chance at the current Democratic nomination than she does at the Republican one? As far as what positions she would agree with Dems, it all depends on when you asked her. Catch her on the right day you might find she is in lock step with the Dems.

Here is Nikki Haley said in Iowa in August 2023.


A regular old AOC if I ever so one.

Now one could forgive the questioner for thinking she was against gay marriage because here is what she said in 2013.


I think that first position would get rounding applause in democratic debate provided she can claimed to have learned some things in the years since that second one.

One more

Here is Nikki Haley discussing trans women in women's locker rooms in 2023.


No chance of her siding with the Dems on this issue except back in 2016 when discussing why she opposed anti trans bathroom bills for her state with the press, she said.


Finally, guess who her inspiration was to get into politics in the first place? That noted Republican...Hilary Clinton?


I am not saying she would win. In fact, I am definitely saying she would not win. I agree with Ksyrup she is trying to play both sides. I just think she would have a better chance with the Dems because she might get the right leaning faction of that party.

I think the anti-Trump dems, republicans, and independents are so desperate for a non-MAGA Republican that they've overlooked the fact that Haley has run an awful campaign and would be considered batshit crazy prior to Trump raising that bar.

I've said this before and will restate.

Both parties share blame in the immigration mess we are in. Some here will say it's all the GOP fault, they never want to negotiate etc. I'll agree that the GOP shares more blame in this current time (let's say 60-40, 70-30) but both parties had opportunities and (1) didn't want to negotiate or (2) wanted to propose something during election year vs the first 2 years when they owned the Presidency & Congress or (3) wanted to insert it into a non-related bill or (4) ad nauseum.

Specific to your point about GOP not wanting to negotiate because it'll help Joe? It's come up before recently and I'll refer you to my response at below link, see starting #9055 through #9061.

The Biden Presidency - 2020 - Page 182 - Front Office Football Central


I'm going to move this to below Immigration thread. Let's continue to discuss there? and if not, np.

Biden's Immigration Reform - Page 3 - Front Office Football Central

your arguments are well thought out here but i think haley has as good a chance of running as a dem, as the dems welcolming tulsi gabbard back into the party. i just cannot think that a haley/DINO like manchin or Sinema ticket could make it in today's political environment.

No more debates. ABC canceled the last one since Haley refused to attend without Trump.

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DeSantis had been saying that he's happy to show up and debate two empty podiums.

Guess not.

Ron is going to be so humiliated by the time it is all said and done.

Pretty much. I still don't understand why DeSantis didn't go hard on Trump after the midterms. He was at his weakest and that was the time to come out and say "I win elections, he doesn't".

And even if he lost the primary, he'd be in a great spot to say "I told you so" if Trump lost the general and immediately be the frontrunner in 2028.

One of the most bizarre campaigns I've ever seen run by a major candidate who actually had money. I get the strategy of Vivek who is just angling for a cabinet position or something, but how are you going to beat a guy you won't say a negative thing about?

She'd be pretty similar to Biden on foreign policy and economic matters. The difference would be on social issues, but that mostly comes down to the courts. The biggest difference for me would be the judges they'd nominate. I think they'd be fairly similar outside of that.

Looking at some of the polls and trends, it feels like the next election might come down to the state of Michigan. Feels like Trump is in a very good position to take Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia back. Biden likely wins Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

That would also make the one electoral college vote from Nebraska incredibly important.

I can't really give that the straight answer you are probably looking for. I would call myself an independent with GOP sympathies. I agree with both parties on some issues but disagree on others; if you go back to pre-Trump, I would say at that time I was with Democrats economically and Republicans more often than not socially, but most crucially with the Republicans on what I consider to be the foundational matter of constitutional law.

The GOP isn't what it was, so I don't vote for them anymore. They're doing more to undermine the Republic than Democrats are, which from my perspective is actually a pretty impressive accomplishment. If there were a sensible alternative on the Republican side, I would vote for them; Biden is the first Democratic presidential candidate I've ever voted for. He's disappointed me, but I don't regret the vote. Some things are intolerable and must be stopped.

I think the answer to your issue in the second paragraph is one that is hard to accept, which is why I commonly see it dismissed; Trump is largely post-policy. His support has a lot to do with his leadership style. He's not perceived as being as 'weak' and 'woke' as other politicians, and so forth. I think all of that is dumb and very misplaced, but a much higher amount of his support than we'd like to admit comes from people who have seen presidents for decades largely governing by poll/focus group. Trump appeals to them on a primal level and opposes a general sense in their minds of the country getting 'soft', 'going the wrong way', and all of that. Any alternative they view as opposing 'wokeness' is superior to one seen as weak or fake, which I suspect is where some of Jon's antipathy to Haley comes from as an example. Trump's 'wrong' views on issues of policy comes in a very distant backdrop after that.

I suspect there's a number of GOP politicians who have been left behind by the MAGA-shift who, with a little moderation of positions on social issues, could have run for the Democrats.


I'm curious, which incident are you citing?


Probably his best chance to win a debate.

Brian's post is a pretty spot on summary.

"Probably his best chance to win a debate."
I still think the empty podiums would win.

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I had a customer just tell me that she and all her friends were Vivek Ramaswamy supporters, and they angry because they feel he was done wrong by the Republican party. She said she is mad enough that she is likely to vote for Biden just for spite, or more likely Robert Kennedy. She sounded like she was very anti-Trump, but I'm not sure why. I try not get into politics at work and so a just let her rant without asking follow-ups.

After seeing videos how people vote in the Iowa Caucus I'm starting to think the cries about election security are insincere.

There seem to be a lot of people upset about Iowa but no one pointing out how undemocratic a caucus is and especially when you're letting a handful of people in one state dictate who gets to run for President.

Sununu said that coming in second in NH would be a good result for Haley. I don't understand why she even bothered to get into the race.

Any of them. The hope was Trump would have to drop out because of legal trouble which was never happening. But just to play devils advocate, there have been times in the past when you had a candidate progressively get better and come back and beat a front-runner. She is showing a strong second in New Hampshire. The last polling I saw had her at 38% versus only 8% for Desantis. The problem is that Trump has 53%. A 15% margin is much narrower than in Iowa, but still a huge margin. The other factor is usually that strong showing in New Hampshire that propels a candidate is a surprise, but this has been expected for while. Short of her getting that margin on Trump down to the single digits, I don't see this result being a catapult for her campaign.
She needs something that can give her some momentum so that she could win South Carolina. If she could do that then there could be a real race.There is likely nothing that could do that. Trump is going to win the state that she had been governor of with above 50% of the vote, and that will be the end of the primary season in all practicality.

Our electoral process for picking POTUS, especially, is pants-on-head stupid in all of its facets.

I agree caucuses are stupid and would like Iowa to go to a primary. But..

Pretty much everything is dumb with how we select a president. Question #1, does the person with the most votes win? :banghead:

Is your comment about a "handful of people" applying to Iowa because it's first, at least on the R side? Or all states that caucus? I see 5 other states do caucus. I certainly haven't researched these states in any way so will ask you, have caucus states been shown to have a disproportionate influence on the eventual nominees?

If you're worried Iowa is setting the tone keep in mind "we've" (embarrassed to be from here since 2016 when commons sense went out the window :eek: ) been right on picking the eventual R nominee three out of the last eight times. And we've missed on the last three, including Cruz over Trump in 2016. I don't think any candidate with a realistic chance of winning the nomination has ever dropped out after the Iowa caucus. They move onto primary states that many times quickly kill whatever momentum the Iowa winner had.

Democrats since 1972? Iowa is seven of ten picking the nominee with only Carter and Obama winning the presidency.

So how's the Jamie Dimon love going these days?

I'd just add to the other comments that if people were letting Iowa voters determine how they vote ... I mean, you get the government you deserve.

Getting spicey now. Damage control team ramping up ...

Home | Daily Mail Online

Will Folks runs a sleazy website about SC politics and has always been very critical of Nikki Haley. He also takes the holier than though opinion whenever there's a SC politician sex scandal (all of them) that it doesn't matter and shouldn't be reported on... while endlessly reporting on it.

Yeah it's not sexual abuse but she found something else to go on here after trump multiple times confused her with nancy pelosi in a statement about jan 6 he's said many times. Though with Trump, I'm not sure he didn't do this on purpose given how Haley is his main threat to the nomination right now:


meidastouch.com

Been reading through all of this today, and I’m impressed and still sad by it.

Most of you guys are way smarter than me, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. The thing that I don’t understand is how smart people can still play party versus party stuff. Obviously, you all know every politician is still bought and paid for. There are no Mr. Smiths Going to Washington anymore. So how do people still Jedi Mind-trick themselves into thinking one party is intrinsically any better than the other? Cognitive dissonance gets thrown around by everyone now, but isn’t that the definition? Surely, like me, most people vote based on one or two issues that they agree with and suck it up and vote for that politician. Because they don’t agree with every single thing another human stands for, right? I truly can’t wrap my head around voting at all otherwise.

And if that was all poorly worded, I apologize.

Read back your own words and I believe you'll find the basic answer to what you're asking.

Let's set aside the fucking drones -- in both parties -- that don't have two brain cells to rub together. As I've said many times, NOBODY gets elected without votes from a certain number of complete idiots.

Setting them aside though, there's still plenty of people who are pretty consistently aligned with one major party or the other, typically only varying when they can't manage to hold their nose tightly enough to vote for a stray candidate here and there.

The answer to those is right there in what you said yourself.


If your question is
Then you answered it already:

Right. And when the right answers on those one or two key issues consistently align with candidates from one party or the other, well ... after a while it doesn't take a house to fall on someone to for them to figure out where the highest chance of your issues/party alignment resides.

It isn't that one party is intrinsically better than the other. It is that they are nonetheless pretty different.

The GOP wants to ban abortion b/c they consider it infanticide.
The Dems want to legalize abortion because they consider it health care.

The GOP wants to lower taxes on rich people to spur investment and cut funding for poor people to reduce dependency on the welfare state.
The Dems want to tax rich people to reduce the deficit and pay for services and increase spending for poor people to help them out of poverty.

The GOP wants to reduce regulations to free up businesses to operate without needless red tape.
The Dems want aggressive regulations to protect health and welfare.

The GOP wants to outlaw gender affirming health care for trans youth because they think that it is liberal brainwashing.
The Dems want to protect gender affirming healthcare for trans youth because they think that it is a net positive.

The GOP thinks that funding the Ukraine war is a waste of American money.
The Dems want to fund the Ukraine war to stop Putin.

The parties are really different.

I don't think Dems actually support half that stuff. They absolutely don't care about taxing the rich. They don't care about welfare programs. And they haven't exactly put up much of a fight on abortion. The party still supports pro-life candidates if they fundraise for the party.

Also the GOP is correct that Ukraine money is a waste. Some tepidly support it because it's a welfare check for the defense industry. But it's essentially lighting our tax dollars on fire.

Thanks for your post, because you’re right and guess I did answer my own question. Sometimes I can’t see the forest for all the trees in my reasoning.

Trump: And you will have the rogue cop, the bad apple, and perhaps you'll have that also with president But there's nothing you can do about that. You're going to have to give the president immunity. I hope The Supreme Court will has the courage to do that pic.twitter.com/QbBNF8zpOF

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2024

DeSantis out and endorses Trump.

It's a cult, afterall.

Trump endorsement makes sense. He was the Trumpy candidate.

In 2016, people assured us that the GOP nominated Trump because too many non-Trump candidates stayed in. That is not the case this year. Let us see what the non-Democrat electorate really wants.

Ron DeSantis should have to carry his Presidential run to term even if it threatens the life of his party.

— Dana Goldberg (@DGComedy) January 21, 2024

It will be Trump easily. Who are the DeSantis supporters that are going to back Haley now? I don't think there are many. I would imagine most DeSantis supporters look at him like Trump without the baggage. Now that he is gone they will hold their nose and back Trump over a woman.

This is not really a question that we don't know the answer to. They want Trump. At one time Trump was a lot like Bernie in the Democratic Party (strong 35-40% of the part with the rest firmly against). That's just not the case anymore. He holds more like 55-65% of the parry now, along with most of the leadership. His only path of losing is if the minority of the party joined with the majority of Independents, many of whom are former Republicans ran out of the party by Trump. States that allow independents to vote in their choice of primaries along with states that had open primaries that allowed Democrats to vote on the Republican side are his only possible danger, and even that danger is tiny. Why do you think big Republican donors are propping up Dean Phillips? They were hoping to keep Democrats from voting the Republican primaries in open primary states. Anything to try to keep Trump ahead.
This will all be moot by the time the South Carolina primary is over. It looks like he is going to roll that with about 60% of the vote. If Hailey can't prevent a majority vote in her home state versus Trump, then she is done.

Thank god we don't have to live through a DeSantis Presidency

I feel like it was pretty on point that DeSantis got out not only on a weekend, not only a Sunday, not only an NFL playoff Sunday, but also while a Florida team played in said playoffs.

This was a masterclass in taking the "news dump" to new heights of trying to be buried.

I'm just wondering if DeSantis will now revert to his previous height.

Hey! You guys promised to keep him out of this state until at least the GOP convention! WTF?! At least keep him campaigning for Trump in every state but Florida.

Apparently the cult is one of forgiveness

“I just want to thank Ron and congratulate him on doing a very good job,” Trump said at the outset of his remarks. “He was very gracious, and he endorsed me. I appreciate that, and I also look forward to working with Ron.” Trump described DeSantis as "a really terrific person.”

Welp, up to Haley now.

Hoping for a strong 2nd place tomorrow.

she's losing her home state which is the next primary by a lot to Trump. Can't see her embarassing herself with the result there-she drops out before then i think.

A week or so after chiding people for kissing the ring... he kissed the ring.

And Haley will as well. Trump is the Republican party.

He’s like 45 years old which makes him viable for the next 8 or so cycles.

I don't think he has any real chance. The dude is just so unlikable. For all his warts Trump would probably be fun to play a round of golf with. DeSantis acts like he hates his supporters and probably does.

As much as I dislike the guy, I would not say he has no real chance. I expect him to make a Senate run next probably going after Rubio in 2028. Add to that a spot in a Trump administration if Trump is elected and he is right back in the mix.

That's ok, pretty sure he'll still be a horrible candidate for them all

I mean, Rafael Cruz was 45 8 years ago and I don't think anyone sees him as a viable future President anymore.

Except him and his family

High profile, failed presidential runs tend to put a ceiling on you. See: Cruz, Rubio, Jindal, etc.

The issue for DeSantis is he ran one of the worst campaigns ever and wasn't remotely competitive by the time he joined the race and didn't do anything particularly well. Going against Trump with his personality was a bad decision. If he had waited until 2028 he would have had a chance to back into the nomination without much competition, but i think he's done as a serious candidate moving forward.

I thought he could challenge Trump but I didn't know he was unable to organize and had no idea his personality was going to be as damaging for him as it has been. He excels at attacking people without the means to fight back, but he's shown he either folds or avoids direct confrontation with those that do.

He ran for president on a similar campaign to the campaign Matt Bevin ran for governor of Kentucky in 2019 (as an incumbent). He leaned hard into Trumpism, figuring he could energize the same people who overwhelmingly voted for Trump by being mean-spirited and performative, figuring those same people would find him just as "entertaining" as Trump. Except, neither of them had the personality to pull it off like Trump, and they embarrassed themselves over and over. And so DeSantis failed miserably to capitalize on winning Florida while Trump was coming off of losing to Biden and mired in multiple criminal investigations, and Bevin was the only Republican to lose a statewide office in a state that voted +30 for Trump in 2016.

I think he's odds are against him.

But never say never, politics is weird. Joe ran twice in 1988 and 2008. He became VP which positioned him after Hillary crashed.

Or put a little differently, he has a better shot at the GOP nomination than Bernie has with the Dems.

You're in the state so I'll defer to you, but it seems like a lot of his constituents have really soured on him after his reelection because of his culture was BS and not actually governing. Can he even beat Rubio at this point?

Based off the last Trump admin I wouldn't consider a spot on team Trump as a positive thing. Factor in his personality isn't going to change and IMO he is toast for 2028 and beyond.

He may have a future in FL, but he's done nationally. The more he campaigned the less people liked him.

I think he's toast. His term ends in 2026, so even if he were to run in 2028, he'd have been out of office and the spotlight for a couple years. His 2022 win when Republicans had a disastrous midterm was his chance, but he was too much of a pussy to come out swinging against Trump. Didn't help that he hired some of the weirdest and most repulsive campaign staffers who thought you'd reach boomers in Iowa with 4chan memes.

Florida is on a downward trajectory too. Education is in the shitter and it's near impossible to get your home insured. And perhaps most importantly, the more he is seen by the national public, the more people dislike him.

Trump was right about him. He's an empty suit who rode Trump's coattails into office.

He's still popular but I would say the same if Satan had a (R) next to his name. The fact that he kissed the ring helps if the GOP remains as it is. The 2022 gubernatorial race spoiled him for the primary. That was the same campaign he ran then rolling his wife out near the end to serve as his soft side. The difference is the Dems decided on GOP lite with its nominee. The race against Rubio would be interesting. Little Ricky vs Ron DeSanctimonious with the big question being who would Trump endorse.


His term actually ends in 2027 as he officially took office again in 2023, so it is not that much of a gap. I have to believe he starts the personality makeover immediately. The people who ran his campaign won't be allowed anywhere near any other campaign again much less his.

I mean enough people voted for him to twice be elected as Governor and three times to the House including twice prior to Trump's election. I am not prepared to write off anyone who has shown a willingness to kiss the ring.

I get what you’re saying but you can only put so much lipstick on a pig. He may appeal to Floridians but a large part of the country looks at him like an alien.

Joe Biden ran for president in 1988

Because he acts like one. When you strip away the government-backed performative power play/bully bullshit, there's a weird little man left.

Ron DeSantis the minute he dropped out of the presidential race: pic.twitter.com/dQqmtjEp29

— eric (@MrEAnders) January 22, 2024

This is it in a nutshell. When your entire political persona surrounds itself around kids' sexuality and genitalia, you're just a weirdo to most of the country. Might play with sexually emasculated boomers and closet cases in Florida, but I don't think there is much appeal outside of that state.

I don't know if anyone else gets ads for RFJ Jr, but they are incredibly weird. Every ad I've seen is him complaining about not getting secret service protection. While I understand he might be upset with that, I don't know if there is a huge crop of voters who's number 1 issue is whether RFK Jr has secret service protection. I also imagine that the ad money for that could be used for protection.

Not much to add on that except it seems like a weird strategy. Especially for someone who's family should absolutely not trust the secret service.

Party A wants to turn the country into a Christian totalitarian state with the Christian equivalent of Sharia Law led by a failed real estate developer with a vindictiveness obsession.

Politican Movement C (not actually a party, but a collection of folks who are good at blogging) wants all the stuff that albion said Democrats want.

Party B wants some sort of mushy middle between those two polls.

Only Party A and Party B can conceivably win national elections because of the way our system is set up, and RainMaker would be OK with years of A to potentially have C emerge from the smoking remains of civilization.

Party B is aiding and abetting a genocide.

lol

Trump, as he’s inviting Tim Scott on stage with him: “He’s engaged to be married. We never thought this was going to happen. What’s going on?”

— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) January 23, 2024

All 6 votes from Dixville Notch were cast for Nikki Haley. She immediately called for New Hampshire to stop the count, and with 100 percent of the vote, she said the only way she could lose at this point was widespread fraud.

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Last night's Boston Globe poll of NH has it 60/38 Trump to Haley.

This might be Haley's last day.

I hope this actually happened.

You say that as if that's a point of differentiation with Party A, culpable of aiding and abetting many other genocides over the years, to say nothing of offering a home for white supremacists, a leader who copies rhetoric from Hitler, and whatever Stephen Miller was up to in the White House.

I hate the media's framing of NH yesterday. Big test for Trump! What? He is going to comfortably win, and Haley will pull out before she can be embarrassed in her home state. There is nothing transformative taking place right now. This was always going to happen. Trump isn't gaining momentum, or passing tests, he's just continuing the same bulldozer over dying daisies he's been doing in the GOP for 8 years.

They are looking for any story. Presidential primary season is their biggest money-maker season, but this one is just a huge clunker. It was over before it ever began, so they are trying to make it appear not so. The big sale here is that Haley is going to pull some kind d of miracle and pull such a huge number of independents that she can somehow win or make it close. It just isn't going to happen, but the media is trying to will it into existence.

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GD has it - the usual horse race aspect of this in past year was probably a huge revenue generator and this one is going to be a complete dud.