Countless Republican dysfunctions turned the much-vaunted red wave into a puny trickle on Tuesday, despite historic tailwinds. Dems absolutely pummeled the GOP in small-dollar donations, and Republican grifters took huge cuts of the scant grassroots funding Republicans did manage to scrounge up.
That required Romney’s niece to scuttle forth repeatedly to rattle the begging bowl at increasingly skeptical fat cat donors. Some decided they’d given enough and sat the race out.
Rick Scott and Mitch McConnell, two of the most odious and ruthless douchebags in the Senate, knifed each other over campaign strategy and hilariously knee-capped one another on fundraising and spending with competing PACs. You can read all about it in a longish, schadenfreuderiffic article at this WaPo gift link.
But primary credit for Tuesday’s debacle has to go to Trump, a black hole of need, stupidity and malice who seems determined to keep right on sucking Republican prospects into an airless void until he either dies or Republicans figure out how to pry the cult out of his tiny fists:
As he jetted between his resort homes, Trump’s agenda, as it had been for years, remained transactional. He seemed to delight in the public and private attention he could attract. Up to the final day of the midterm campaign, he demanded constant minding by party leaders.
On the final Monday before the election, enraged by positive coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and determined to claim credit for what he believed were going to be the party’s wins, Trump began phoning people to say he would announce his 2024 presidential bid that evening at a rally in Ohio. A coterie of Republicans, including McDaniel of the RNC, called and eventually begged him off. Instead he came up with a troll: He would announce that he would be announcing.
“The whole day was miserable,” one leading Republican said. “It was just: Who could get him on the phone and convince him not to hurt us?”
That last sentence — good lord. That party has been Trump’s bitch for going on seven years now, and they still don’t understand he doesn’t give a shit if he hurts them or not?
Writing for The Atlantic, Never Trumper David Frum says DeSantis has a shot at slaying the beast if he (DeSantis) has the stones for the fight:
Trump counts on running in 2024 more or less unopposed. He’s trying to frighten strong alternatives out of the race, leaving him the reality-TV blood sport of chewing up weaker alternatives as he chewed up the alternatives in 2016.
If DeSantis is in the game now, he has to play now…
Somebody who seeks to replace Trump atop the Republican Party cannot pretend Trump is not there. Trump is a huge personality who makes every contest a battle of personalities. Refusing to engage is not an option, because he will engage whether his target likes it or not. There’s no choice except to engage in turn.
So: man or mouse? DeSantis’s answer will shape the future not only of the Republican Party but of America.
Mouse, maybe. DeSantis is young enough to wait for Trump to move on to another con or croak. He has crossed Trump a time or two, but always in an indirect, passive-aggressive way. I can’t tell if it’s smart politics or cowardice.
Meanwhile, Trump is convinced he’s still big — it’s the party that got small. I find myself uncharacteristically wishing him long life and godspeed as he follows Republicans around, demanding another close-up.
Mimi
He likes hurting people. He doesn’t really care who it is.
TaMara
I’m hoping DeSatan is stupid/conceited enough to take the orange one on directly. (And he’s only 44? jeebuz, he looks older than Obama – evil and stupidity takes it toll). I would enjoy the smoldering crater left from the fallout.
Meanwhile, if you are on Twitter and haven’t downloaded your archives, might be time to:
JPL
trump is still big for the magas. The republicans want the maga vote, so they will tread lightly. Wake me up when Kevin McCarthy stands up and denounces trump. Until then, he still has them by the balls.
JPL
@TaMara: Which one will start the my wife is prettier than your wife. That fight should be interesting.
Jeffg166
I think the GOP will have TFG whacked.
Hawes
Love to see DeSantis eek out a bruising primary win and Trump launch a third MAGA Party campaign that divides the right. Biden wins 40 states.
Miss Bianca
@TaMara: I have a Twitter account that I never use – I think I only even opened it to comment once (on some out-of-stater’s clueless take on Lauren Boebert, actually, if I recall correctly), so I am honestly in doubt as to whether I would even have anything to archive. The only people I followed at all were all BJ personalities.
Nicole
The media all painting Trump as a big loser today gives me hope that he might eventually see consequences for some of the illegal things he’s done. Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly didn’t face consequences until they were a few years past their career peaks.
matt
Elected and media Republicans seem to be making a concerted effort to cut him loose. I think he’ll bury all of them next to Ivanka.
Miss Bianca
@Hawes: Actually, I would love that, too. Does that make me a bad person? Well, all righty then.
Betty Cracker
@Hawes: That would be ideal, yes.
Ken
@Jeffg166: I had the same thought while reading “until he either dies or Republicans figure out how to pry the cult out of his tiny fists”. Doesn’t have to be two things…
Jesse
@Hawes: Bull Moose Party redux! Golden Bull Party?
Chetan Murthy
@Hawes: Best-case scenario. I’m not gonna write down the worst-case scenario, b/c “still basking in the glow of not losing our Republic”.
Qrop Non Sequitur
The man is a case study in your attitude affecting your looks. I have a friend who has superficially very similar features. I consider my friend attractive, but he’s kind and radiates warmth.
DeSantis’s ugliness is his soul shining through.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
This is what Trump does…he gets you in just deep enough that you can’t back out without losing everything. It’s how his ever failing business deals work and how his political career has worked. The deal is a failure and he walks away with some of your money, so things work out for him if not for you. He doesn’t now and never has given a crap about the good of the Republican party or its success. As long as he clings to just enough loyalty from his base to give him the leverage to screw over that party he will continue to bleed them dry to enrich himself. McConnell could have killed it all dead by voting and convincing a few other R’s to vote to convict in the second impeachment of 2021 but he was too chicken, or still thought he could maintain control of the crazy enough that it would help the party, or some combination thereof. For whatever reason he decided to cling to the anchor rather than cut it loose.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Jesse: Im pulling that moniker out for 2024 when I run for Congress as a Republican. Theodore Roosevelt was my favorite President before my lifetime.
Republicans want to bring this country back to the 1950s or earlier. I want to bring the Republicans back to the 1900s when they were forward-looking.
Ken
@TaMara: “The chief privacy, information security, and compliance officers all quit” is not something you want to hear when your company is already under an FTC consent decree.
And neither of those things mix well with Musk’s latest brilliant idea, that Twitter will offer high-yield money market accounts to users who link their online bank accounts to Twitter.
Rusty
Money for campaigning matters, leadership can make some difference, and so on, but in the end the problem for the Republicans are the active base. The base went out of its way to pick bad candidates. Here in NH, the political season started with a good chance of the Republicans turfing out all three of our federal representatives. We got lucky that Sununu decided to run for governor again (for reasons I still don’t discern he is popular) The Republicans then picked a MAGA general that had never been elected to anything over the state senate president. Hassan absolutely pummeled him over election denial, wanting to eliminate social security and Medicare (in a state with the second highest average population age) and right to choose (libertarian views of being left alone by the government cut across the party here). A sure loss turned into a tight win. The same happened in the 1st congressional district, where Pappas was extremely vulnerable. The Republican base picked a 25 year old Trump White House intern, again never elected to anything, over more experienced candidates. Pappas ran basically the same campaign as Hassan on the same issues and he eked out a win. In the 2nd congressional district Kuster was also vulnerable, and the party picked a firebrand, again over more reasonable candidates that that were much more likely to win. Again Kuster ran a campaign painting him as an extremist and kept her seat. In the end, Trump, McConnell and more didn’t really matter. What mattered was a base that couldn’t resist its extremist urges, and is out of touch with its neighbors. Nothing happening in Washington is going to fix that, and anointing Desantis won’t either (quick, name 3 positions where Desantis is different from Trump. You can’t, because there aren’t any. How will he make any difference then to the party?). Sadly the Republicans kept control of the state government, with some modest inroads by the Democrats.
kalakal
@Jesse: Orange Bull surely?
@Hawes: My ideal scenario
Miss Bianca
@Ken:
OMG. Because nothing could *possibly* go wrong with *that* set-up, amirite?
Hoodie
Normally, it would be perfectly in keeping with past GOP behavior for them to airbrush Trump out of the photos, example being the way they memory-holed GWB when he became saturated with loser stink. However, Trump will not go away quietly because he has never been a loyal Republican. Moreover, NY media will not ignore him.
I would be surprised if DeSantis challenges Trump in 2024, unless Trump ends up in an orange jumpsuit sometime in the next year. Even if DeSantis could take the nomination in 2024, Trump will not take that lying down and there’s a good chance that a significant chunk of the current GOP base would walk with him. I don’t see how DeSantis replaces lost Trump loyalists with a program of banning books, deporting Venezuelans and cutting Medicare and SS. If he’s smart, he’ll wait until 2028, maybe suck up to Trump for the VP slot in 2024. They’ll probably lose, which means he can start campaigning for 2028 right away. The shelf life of such a humorless asshole is often fairly short and now is probably DeSantis’ moment, but Nixon (who DeSantis strongly reminds me off) did manage to stick around for decades.
FridayNext
I was doing some “research” this morning because I for the life of me cannot think of a single politician that has translate political success in Florida to national popularity or office. It looks like Andrew Jackson was military governor of Florida and then became president. Other than that……?
Miss Bianca
@kalakal: I dunno, I guess “Red Bull” is taken, huh? But I could see him claiming it and then blithely blowing off any of the real Red Bull’s cease-and-desist efforts, just like he did with the Rolling Stones.
kalakal
@Ken:
Really? He’s even stupider than I thought he was.
Kevin
Olbermann mentioned it on his podcast today and I could totally see it happen: DeSantis wins the 2024 R nomination and Trump runs Independent just to fuck them and satisfy his ego. How fun would that be?
Hitchhiker
I’m gonna make a little use of trump’s malicious nicknaming habit and call him Ron DeSanctimonious. It captures his lack of personality and phoniness perfectly.
In the primary, the trump cult will never, ever vote for him, even in the general if he wins and trump tells them they have to, which trump will not be able to do. Remember when he tried to tell them to get vaccinated? No. They’ll sit it out, because DeSanctimonious is just not as much fun as trump.
What they love about trump is that he’s great at playing the mean brat who thumbs his nose at the teachers and puts “kick me” signs on the backs of the cool kids. That’s the draw. I’m talking cult people now, not half-paying-attention people who reflexively vote for anybody with an R after their name. DeSanctimonious will get them in the primary if they believe he’s more likely to beat Democrats than trump.
tl;dr
I hope they claw each other into limp bloody shreds.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I imagine a conflict between trump’s wounded ego and his lizard-brained instinct for self-preservation, which will tell him he might need a friend in an office with unchecked pardon power
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I thought Mary Trump has a point that Donny Dumbass doesn’t want to run in 2024 and risk yet another humiliation, yet Donny just had to make the Mid Term about himself, even though he should know his own base will only come out and vote his name in on the ticket. More proof Donald Trump is nutters.
So going by how Trump behaved in the mid term, he will probably not actively contest the GOP nomination with DeStantis but will do everything Trump can to trip DeStanis up, merely to be an asshole.
Hoodie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, but those same instincts might tell him that DeSantis is a snake and can’t be trusted.
Mousebumples
OT – Postcarding party for Warnock planned for SATURDAY at 7pm central (8pm blog time).
Music, fun, and the like will be had.
WaterGirl is busy with work things (so am I, shhh! 😉), so I wanted to give everyone a heads up.
If you want to write with #PostcardsToVoters, text JOIN to 484-275-2229 or email [email protected]
Lots of fun will be had – and hopefully we can help re-elect Senator Warnock!
Kay
I love the helplessness of these manly, rock ribbed conservatives.
“The WHOLE DAY was MISERABLE” For meeeeeee!
6th graders take more responsibility for the mess they made.
The whiner is a “leading Republican”. Leading what? A big bunch of weaker cry babies who are afraid of Donald Trump?
hueyplong
@kalakal: “Really? He’s even stupider than I thought he was.”
I’m becoming conditioned to apply the “even stupider than I thought” line to the recipients of such messages. Too much reading about Trumpers, I guess.
eclare
I wish a long life for TFG so that Melanie has to endure multiple decades of being his wife, rather than the five or ten years that she probably envisioned.
Gary K
@TaMara: “Their resignations came a day ahead of a deadline for Twitter to submit a compliance report to the Federal Trade Commission.” (NY Times)
Captain C
In the specific context of intra-Republican politics in a party dominated by Trump and his cult, cowardice may well be the smartest politics for now, or at least appear so to DeSantis.
trollhattan
@Kevin: We can dream.
Even the fight over who gets MTG and who gets Lake as running mate, would be epic.
trollhattan
@eclare: There’s always the pillow intervention available to her. I can ever recommend the brand.
Qrop Non Sequitur
A “MyPillow” dropped from 12 inches or more will crush any skull.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
@Hawes: the dream 🙏🏻😍
JoyceH
When Trump was about to announce his candidacy on Monday, you just KNOW he’d listened to the Red Wave narrative and wanted to get out in front and claim credit for it. But someone less enthusiastic must have pointed out he’d also be blamed if the wave never materialized.
As for DeSantis, I look at him and just KNOW he was his high school’s bully.
eclare
@trollhattan: Hahaha…
hueyplong
@Jeffg166: Maybe they could have the Ecumenical Liberation Army knock him off on live TV, on FoxNews. Hell of a rating, guarantee that. 50 share, easy.
Kay
I know I’m crowing but I fucking love watching these awful, dishonest sanctimonoius scolds get their ass handed to them.
No. You are not allowed in the examining room with us. Back off. Do we need a restraining order? Because we’ll get one.
Qrop Non Sequitur
That man is already whacked.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I can’t see how De Santis can win the nomination in 2024. He has no charisma. No magnetism. At all. He’s like Tom Cotton, a black hole of charisma, a charisma hospice, a place where charisma goes to die.
That’s the big leg up Trump has. He’s charismatic. He draws people to himself. It’s the worst kind of destructive magnetism, but it’s magnetism all the same. De Santis doesn’t have that, and it isn’t something you can fake. I don’t know if he’s smart enough to understand that, but he has no shot. The 2024 nomination is Trump’s.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Funnier than it has any right to be.
eclare
@JoyceH: Absolutely. Just watch that video of him bullying kids in masks at some school event. He definitely kicks down, the kids looked to be around ten years old.
Betty Cracker
Even if the chinless swine Miller is smart enough to frame his pitch in terms of the glory that awaits Trump if Walker wins, how will he convince the orange dick-widget that announcing a presidential run prior to the GA runoff would harm Walker’s chances?
The Moar You Know
My pet office Trumper has, in 24 hours, become a never-Trumper, parroting the new Murdoch line word-for-word. He has been unpersoned. I hope he can maintain enough goodwill amongst the lumpenproletariat so that he will run in 2024 and hurt any other contenders. I suspect this may not happen. Americans tend to hate losers and he lost bad yesterday.
Incidentally, that’s who really owns and runs the Republican Party. The Murdochs. Nobody else.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Perfect were the resulting fight makes it clear to the low information voters how repulsive the two of them really are.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca:
My thought exactly. Whoever signs up for that deserves to be fleeced.
mrmoshpotato
Don’t mind me. Just savoring this bit of prose.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JoyceH: that story about his time as high school teacher creeped me out ETA: he was 23, the year between Yale and Harvard Law
Too many quotes to pull, but…
NotMax
@The Moar You Know
Follow the golden grift road.
“Murdochs and Mercers and Kochs, oh my.”
//
Anoniminous
@Kay:
Here in New Mexico the women are a little more direct.
Kay
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
Pundits: “women, being super self sacrificing and completely consumed by the family grocery budget to the exclusion of all other issues, as is proper, will give up bodily autonomy for a vague notion of conservatives doing something or other about inflation”.
They ran with that. That seemed right to them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
From what I’ve seen on-line his supporters in Florida seems to think he is the new Messiah. Apparently De Santis appeals to a certain group of people.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Holy dumpster fire (h/t driftglass), Batman!
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Kay: See? This is why I get most of my news from Balloon Juice and Youtube. It isn’t comprehensive; but I find well-informed, well reasoned people.
I know who the bad guys are and how to beat them. If it comes anywhere close to changing, I pay just enough attention to notice. Until then vote D, work, have fun, FTFNYT.
dmsilev
@Miss Bianca: I dunno about you, but the first thing *I* look for in a bank is a mercurial CEO who will ban you and (presumably) take your money on a whim, always assuming that he doesn’t crash the entire company first.
MattF
Just for the fun of stirring another wtf into the pot— what about the Russians? TFG’s stupidities have spoiled the Russian plan to de-fund the Ukraine war, I’d bet that Putin is Not Pleased About That. As Ms. Pelosi has noted, the Russians always seem to have a hand or two or three in TFG’s business. I think TFG should stay away from windows, balconies, staircases, large boats, forklifts, etc.
mrmoshpotato
Decades of working in the monster factory finally created a monster. Cry harder, Dump’s bitches.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: From what I’ve seen on-line [DeSantis’s] supporters in Florida seems to think he is the new Messiah.
DeSantis basically put that message out in an ad, didn’t he? The notion that these people call themselves Christian…
Cameron
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): I think he’s got the right draw if Trump doesn’t run. He doesn’t need the dubious charisma of the swinish oaf – he’s a sadistic bully who loves to punch down, and that’s the characteristic the knuckle-walkers love the most. Remember the complaint about Trump that he “wasn’t hurting the people he needs to be hurting?” Pure Morlock.
And the other thing in common with Trump? The vague endorsement of his followers about “all the things he’s done.” Ask one of them, whether Trumper or DeSantisist, to name their favorite policy among “all the things he’s done.” You won’t get an answer, just an angry accusation that you’re a woke critical-race Marxophile groomer or some other word-salad gibberish.
JMG
@Rusty: Sununu gave an interview in the spring in which he basically said being a Senator was a lousy job. The subtext was he had no interest in being one of McConnell’s bobos for six years with no voice of his own.
Miss Bianca
@Kay:
You and me both.
Y’know, back in the early 90s, I was working for Planned Parenthood in Chicago. (If I hadn’t got accepted into grad school, I think I would have stayed working there.) I remember we had posters on the wall with the message: “What if the police came to question you about your miscarriage?”
We knew the fundie shit was coming down thirty years ago, and we tried to tell anyone who would listen. But they didn’t, and so we got Dobbs. And that’s when normie America woke up from its “moral hazard” hangover and went “WHAAAAATT?!”
Sorry it took so long, and sorrier at the toll that’s going to be extracted from real, actual people while we course-correct, but daaaamn…it feels good to watch these anti-abortion forces finally get curb-stomped the way they so richly deserve.
dm
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: In a perverse way, I find myself looking forward to the vans plastered with DeSantis’ face photoshopped onto Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo body.
mrmoshpotato
Dammit, edit window.
Or, to throw back to 2012 stupidity, We Built It.
dmsilev
(click through for the image)
(nobody tell Trump it’s a fake…)
Cameron
@MattF: Probably wouldn’t hurt VVP to start looking over his own shoulder from time to time, too.
Shakti
@TaMara: I can’t believe this guy is approximately my age. And this is with the expert makeup and contouring services of his wife who used to be a tv anchor.
There’s something…dissipated, leaden and awful about him. And that’s before he opens his mouth to say anything. Is he cunningly aging himself up to appeal to spiritual old men yelling at clouds?
I just hope Trump and DeSantis injure each other mortally. Trump is chaotic awful and DeSantis is more of the same but smarter & more organized under that affect.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@dmsilev: Musk suicide bombing Twitter might help deal with two problems.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Actually, I could see those Mega Church pastors deciding De Stantis makes the Free market Baby Jesus smile more than Trump, for the simple fact that every dollar donated to Trump’s legal fund is one less dollar of love donation to their church.
Sure Lurkalot
Some gems from the linked WaPo article (hyperbole much?):
….Despite $5-a-gallon gasoline and a historically unpopular President…
…amid soaring inflation and broad dissatisfaction with the nation’s direction.
….overwhelming frustration with inflation and growing fears about crime
….revealed weaknesses in both parties, which were viewed negatively by a plurality of voters in the final days of the election.
….Democrats found themselves with a White House leader who struggled to command the bully pulpit and candidates who were wounded by months of public infighting over their legislative agenda.
BritinChicago
@Hawes: getting on the ballot takes a lot of organizational work. Maybe TFG can hire it done, but he might just get ripped off. But having him on the sidelines sniping at DeSantis might be enough.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Hey speaking of the gas prices, gas here in Alameda County, CA dropped 40c a gallon over night Wednesday. Almost like it was being jacked up for the election.
Ksmiami
@eclare: they should have kicked his ass. A few ten year olds could take him down in a second.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@dm: ROFL. They have a contest over who can badly Photoshop Trump or De Santis face on the most images of half naked male body builders.
Shakti
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
See, I’d agree.
Except:
DeSantis’ bland smarmy beat a dude nicknamed “Charming” and Gillum, who had way more charisma. He might not directly announce himself but wait for Trump to implode and then make his moves?
DeSantis excites all of these hardcore conservatives– they are frothing to support this dude.
Also Scott Walker was considered a wunderkund candidate until he made it to a national debate stage and he had no charisma either.
I’m not sure charisma is something Republicans require of their candidates when they do so much gerrymandering and primary manipulation.
ColoradoGuy
The GOP is all about revenge, sadism, and “getting even”. T**** is the perfect avatar of that, because it’s who he is and has always been. He doesn’t need to fake it, and that’s the instinctive rapport he has with his cult followers. Can DeathSantis not just replicate that, but steal away T****’s cult members? Remains to be seen.
dww44
@Sure Lurkalot: I/m not gonna go read after this. Whose byline is it under?
Gravenstone
The ghost of P.T. Barnum chuckles quietly in the shadows…
Raoul Paste
Maybe it’s already been mentioned on this thread, but my favourite part of today’s Trump rant is that he reminded people that he is a stable genius
And he literally wrote “remind you that I am a Stable Genius”
This quote will probably be in the Trump presidential library
Geminid
@Qrop Non Sequitur: I think Desantis’s support among Republican rank and file has spread beyond Florida and the bible thumper wing of the party may be helping it spread. “He’s one of us,” they tell their brethren.
And those political Baptists are a pragmatic bunch, albeit a nasty one. They want to back a winner, and they know Trump is damaged goods. Like Bill Barr’s Federalist Society crowd, they’ve gotten their use out of Trump and would just as soon see him double bagged and set out by the curb.
There are a lot of more secular Republicans who see things similarly. I don’t usually follow Republican Twitter, but Ron Filipkowski’s report on Trump’s Florida rally led me into a few Republican rabbit holes. No one liked the way Trump dissed DeSantis, and some were vehement: “Keep your stubby fingers off DeSantis!” they said in effect. They seemed to be from places besides Florida, too.
. The few Republicans I know are upper middle class, retired professionals that I’ve worked for. Range Rover, or Wall Street Journal Republicans if you will. They’re not active in party politics but their peers are and they still punch above their weight in the party. The ones I know are done with Trump and would be glad to see a DeSantis, Pompeo or even a Christie to knock him out and win the nomination.
So I think this is not just the elites against the base. I’m not saying Trump can’t still win the nomination, but he’s gonna have to fight for it and I wonder if he is up to the task this time.
There go two miscreants
@Raoul Paste: A Stable Genius constantly shovelling out horseshit.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
One of the things women said when they were asked about why the issue resonated so much with them, is that they are afraid of getting pregnant. With birth control. With prevention. An unplanned pregnancy is such a profound event that even a small chance scares them and we’re talking nervous for decades, because they can get pregnant for decades.
So they had abortion as a backstop, even if they never needed it, the right was there and they could pick it up in a break glass kind of way. I think we need much, much more information from women on this. It’s layered and complex.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@FridayNext: And Jackson became a war hero after the War of 1812 (Battle of New Orleans). De Santis is not a war hero.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kevin: Wayyy too much fun :-)
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Well, Kay, first we have to acknowledge that women might be just as human as men, and that their stories and concerns are just as worth paying attention to.
louc
Off topic, but since you have the ballot curing list to the right, can Adam Frisch be added to it? Apparently Boebert is out there calling the Rs who messed up their ballots to please come fix. We should throw some money Adam’s way, too.
Tim C.
Trump *WILL* seek the nomination completely unopposed by anyone of significance in the GOP, including DeSantis. They all are physical and moral cowards. They won’t cross him and they wont cross the Trump Cultists. They are acting tough now, but we crossed that line around January 8th, 2021 when they decided to hope he would just go away. He didn’t. They chose not to impeach, and they chose not to convict, and it’s too late for them to go back. 40%-60% of GOP voters are Trump or nothing. And Republicans can’t imagine just having a really bad cycle and then bouncing back.
Every only-pretending-to-be-crazy GOP member is going to through two years of hell.
Candidate Trump will be indicted and they will have to defend him
Candidate Trump will demand abandoning Ukraine and they will have to defend him.
Candidate Trump will tell them to send the budget into default and they will have to defend him.
Candidate Trump will demand they impeach Biden over bullshit and then they will do it.
Trump owns them.
Captain C
@Raoul Paste:
Framed print with the quote over His Trumpiness only $249.99+tax. Shipping extra.
Princess
@Kay: the abortion issue isn’t going to go away either. It will continue to be a factor in elections.
Geminid
@Tim C.: I think 10-20% of Republicans are Trump or nothing right now. And some of these can be pursuaded that he is a spent force. He’ll help do this, too.
Republicans are going to gather around some other opponent because they have to. Trump can’t win a general election again. If they run him he’ll drag a bunch of the party’s other candidates down to defeat.
Trump will have credible primary opponents and they’ll have plenty of money backing them. He still might win but he’ll have to fight for that nomination.
DougL
@eclare: Thank you! I want a long descent into madness (how will we tell the difference tho?) that Melania and the sniveling brood have to deal with as they rumble over his $$$ which is the only thing they truly care for. Of course I want the coup de grace at the end – there is no $$$$. Plus I want to sit next to you at the next family gathering.
Tim C.
@Geminid: I work un rural Oregon, so that’s its own brand of dipshit crazy. I fully understand that window is limited in scope, but I don’t see a number that low here. I’d call it around 50%. But, again I know I could be wrong. Hope that’s the case.
Jinchi
One up side to TFG running is that – while he can only be elected president twice, he can run and lose over and over and over again.
Maybe the Republican party has found it’s Lyndon LaRouche
sab
@Geminid: I still think Trump had a huge advantage from The Apprentice, where millions of people watched it and thought that manufactured persona was the real guy.
That show was years ago. Are there any other possible successors on tv now or recently? I don’t think so, but I don’t watch that stuff.
Jinchi
I still get caught thinking I’m reading a parody. Then learning that, nope he is just that stupid.
Captain C
@sab:
That plus his WWE appearances, which I think were more important than realized in getting his mug out there.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
Maybe. My folks aren’t Floridians and they LOVE DeSantis. Its disturbing.
Jinchi
I disagree. A lot of major candidates may bow out, but there’s no way he runs unopposed.
If the “A-list” declines to run, there are plenty of “B-” and “C-” list candidates who will jump at the chance. He’s not an incumbent, he’s toxic to a large percentage of voters and as an overweight, brain-addled, 78 year old, there’s a fair chance that TFG would drop dead before the election season was over.
Mike in NC
Found today’s Wall Street Journal at the airport, featuring a piece by Karl Rove. He said the red wave turned into a red trickle because Trump endorsed a bunch of candidates who were “nuts and numbskulls”. Ouch.
misterpuff
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Yes but he’s a Top Gun Governor and probably an inch or two taller than Tom Cruise.
I think once he starts hitting the ’24 election circuit, his non-charisma and his non-Alpha speaking voice will turn off even the Lib Owning fans. I’m sure Trump will send a Cruz missile his way and he won’t know how to respond.
Burnspbesq
Republicans have constructed graven images of Merrick Garland, to which they pray three times daily. The want Trump defenestrated in the worst way, but can’t have their fingerprints on the windowsill.
”Help us, Merrick-wan. You’re our only hope.”
Burnspbesq
@Mike in NC:
Es verdad.
dp
Betty, condolences for the awful results in Florida. I’m, of course, in Louisiana, so I feel your pain. Hope this latest stupid storm doesn’t cause y’all any problems.
DavidFud
I heard speculation about Kemp running for president yesterday on a local NPR affiliate. They aren’t wrong that he has credibility with nonTrumpers and has shown strength to withstand Trump effectively. Whether that translates into an effective presidential run is beyond me. I am certianly not for it and wish Abrams could have nipped that in the bud by defeating him. I don’t think he would be as bad as DeSantis, but he would still be bad.