A couple of updates on the GOP 2024 presidential race. First, as of last night, Pompeo is out:
As a commenter on Twitter noted, not even SUSAN was going to vote for him.
Another presidential aspirant, Ron DeSantis, held an event in New Hampshire last night. According to The Daily Beast, it didn’t go especially well.
“We wanna actually find out that he’s gonna get in the race and if he’s gonna be our Trump with a better disposition,” added his* wife, Carrie McGee, as they headed toward the ballroom at the Double Tree by Hilton in downtown Manchester.
But they had some hesitations.
“I think a six-week ban would be a hard sell here in New Hampshire,” said Chuck McGee, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge in 2004 stemming from the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal.
* Chuck McGee, a Concord Republican and the former executive director of the New Hampshire GOP.
Sorry, crime dude’s wife: Pudd’n Boots isn’t going to be your potty-trained Trump, and yeah, most people in Florida aren’t thrilled that DeSantis consigned half the population to second-class citizenship and substandard medical care either. And for us, it’s not just a fucking campaign complication. (It’s almost like these shitheads don’t give a fuck that people’s lives are at stake.)
Also, this happened last night in New Hampshire:
The speech had an early hiccup when a pair of women rushed the stage chanting, “Jews against DeSantis…”
DeSantis brushed off the kerfuffle as the protesters were dragged off stage.
“Gotta have a little spice in the speech, right?” the governor quipped to a round of applause.
Some quip, huh? Maybe the pair who rushed the stage were sick of shit like this happening in Florida fairly regularly and DeSantis remaining silent about it except to snarl if anyone suggests he has a responsibility to address the enormous spike in antisemitism in the state:
Still, some in New Hampshire remain deluded about the candidate’s appeal:
(Manchester Republican Brad) Chandler and a group of attendees at the bar said they thought DeSantis could bring a JFK-type image to the national stage and help Republicans win over moderates and independents.
It must have been an open bar with red-goddamnit shooters. DeSantis appears to genuinely possess a thick head of hair, which compares favorably to the state’s U.S. Senate representatives, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio. But that and the elite education is the only Kennedy-like thing about Pudd’n Boots Pinochet.
Who knows what will happen, but the wheels seem to be coming off that particular wagon. I’m cautiously relieved for us all.
Open thread.
Baud
DeSantis’s only good quality vis-a-vis Trump is that DeSantis hasn’t tried to overthrow an election, but he can’t use that against Trump in the primary!
Frankensteinbeck
Ironically, I think DeSantis would have the primary locked up if he would hit back against Trump. Just call Trump a loser who failed conservative voters when they needed him most. It’s a message the Republican base would eat up.
OzarkHillbilly
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp…. wheeze… BWAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAH AHAHAHA…… Jeebus Betty, are you tryin’ to kill me???
OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck: Yep. As long as he plays lapdog he’ll remain in the doghouse.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
You broke the blog!
Baud
I love that Trump is attacking DeSantis from the left. I wonder how many bros will be fooled this time though.
Scout211
DeSantis is
campaigningon his book tour while Ft. Lauderdale is experiencing a 1000 year flood.Baud
@Scout211:
He don’t care. Ft. Lauderdale isn’t DeSantis territory.
Ken
“A JFK-type image”? Were they having trouble thinking of any popular Republican presidents?
Jeffg166
Guess is presidential run grift didn’t produce enough cash or maybe any cash.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Scout211: As I mentioned in the previous thread, we just came through Ft. Lauderdale. It’s a disaster. What kind of governor doesn’t even seize a chance to say how concerned he is, even if he isn’t?
Frankensteinbeck
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I can give you two possible answers for that. First, one who knows his voters want him to abandon anywhere they think is liberal to suffer. Second, a sadistic asshole. The second is certainly true. The first I don’t know.
kalakal
DeSantis has pushed himself into a position where if he runs he’ll get stomped and if he doesn’t he’ll always be seen as a wimp. At the moment he’s 200lbs of suet being used a punching bag by TFG and looking more ineffectual by the day. His only hope is TFG dies soon. In 2 years time he’s term limited and he’s spent the last 2 years pandering to extremists in Fl, It’s probably downhill to state rep level from here on. Scott Walker redux.
He remains a master strategist
topclimber
I could see a Nixon image. Ole tricky was popular before he self-destructed.
ETA: Also a Dick.
Baud
@Jeffg166:
I believe he can’t fundraise yet because FL still has a law that a sitting governor can’t run for president.
MagdaInBlack
@Frankensteinbeck: Unrepentant asshole was my first response.
twbrandt
JFK-type image? JFK was handsome and charismatic. DeSantis has a face made for radio and all the charisma of soggy shredded wheat.
Baud
“We don’t these things not because they are easy, but because they are evil.”
Baud
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your country can do to people who are different from you.”
Baud
“Ich bin ein Führer.”
Scout211
Asa Hutchison (who??) is the candidate to watch (and laugh). He is branding himself as the not-Trump alternative. Link
He will likely get trounced in the primary. But at least he is talking about the party needing a Trump alternative. But is anyone listening?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@kalakal: He has bad political instincts
Rand Careaga
Pompeo: “This nation has given me more than I deserve.” I can’t really argue with that.
Ken B
DeSantis has the personality and the political skills of a pigshit lagoon.
Bex
DeSantis’s idea of a JFK image is to dress his wife up as Jackie. Or maybe it’s her idea. Who cares? She’s already being described as Tacky O.
Delk
You’d think he’d be all over Fort Lauderdale working those boots.
Also, enough with the JFK. I was 1 when he was shot. I’m 60 now.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
Pompeo found that he couldn’t get the grift going.
rikyrah
@Jeffg166:
See…you…me…juslikethis😂😂
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
zhena gogolia
@Baud: lol
HeartlandLiberal
Betty Cracker had me at “Pudd’n Boots Pinochet.”
DFH
Betty, thank you for “Pudd’n Boots”
Another Scott
@Baud:
“Ich bin ein Gummibärchen!”
(Supposedly JFK flubbed it, as “Ich bin ein Berliner” = “I am a jelly donut” while “Ich bin Berliner” = “I am a citizen of Berlin”.)
He should have used Chat GPT, wouldn’t have had that problem. (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
Nelle
He’s the kid that got beat up in the early 1950’s, with taunts of “Jew boy, Jew boy.” His small, isolated family never practiced the faith or much of the culture so he got the penalty of anti-semitism without the blessing of belief or belonging
kalakal
@Baud: “Ich bin ein meatball”
Sure Lurkalot
Yeah, right, your base with the George Soros here there and everywhere pulling the strings, ruining our country, not to mention Betty’s link about the rise in antisemitism where she lives, glad to see Pompeo’s pompous bullshit didn’t make bank.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Scout211:
Reminder #1 billion that “moderate” Republicans are still horrible
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle: How awful. That has to feel like an assault
Another Scott
CitizensForEthics.org (aka CREW):
Good, good.
They were infamous for hounding Democrats. It’s good their hounding some real monsters for a change.
(via BlueVirginia.US)
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Good morning
WaterGirl
@twbrandt: Looks like someone fell for the dollar-store Jackie O long gloves look.
Cameron
He still hasn’t acknowledged any problems in Fort Lauderdale? Them sassy boots must be getting an overhaul.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Yeah, until he says what hot button culture war topic he disagrees with his party on, it’s all about marketing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
I think Pompeo might be waiting for 2028, when Trump is either dead, in jail, or termed out. Hopefully either of the first two than that last one
BlueGuitarist
@Another Scott:
According to this article JFK wasn’t wrong
https://language.mki.wisc.edu/essays/ich-bin-ein-berliner/
unrelatedwaffle
@Another Scott: I also heard this growing up but apparently he got it right after all: https://language.mki.wisc.edu/essays/ich-bin-ein-berliner/
WaterGirl
@Cameron: I wonder if he’s not going because people mocked his boots last time?
Now that would be someone who is definitely presidential material. //
Kay
I saw a Vivek Ramaswamy 2024 flag flying from a huge, very expensive vacation house on Lake Michigan (in Michigan) yesterday. Looks just like the Trump flag. Probably a 15- 20 million dollar property. They put the flag on the lake side because no one would see it on the street side- it’s gated- a private road.
Baud
I’m in a Tesla for the first time right now. I would never buy one, but they are unique in interesting ways. I can see why some people like them.
Baud
@Kay:
Maybe it’s Vivek Ramaswamy’s house.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Good thing they’re self-driving, so you can post while you’re in the car.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
He’s too cheap to buy better boots?
dkxkee
Pompeo’s supporter will be devastated that he’s pulling out of the race.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Yup
@Cameron:
Doesn’t bode well for a hypothetical DeSantan presidency and a disaster hits a blue state. Good thing he’s crashing and burning so far. May it continue because DeSantis could do a ton of damage in the Oval.
Republicans like DeSantis refuse to acknowledge the awful crap they do is turning off a lot of independent voters. I don’t know what passes for thought in their heads when it comes down to winning a general election after tacking so far right and thinking they can win. They’re living in a bubble
NotMax
@Bex
Wife to The Monarch? Who knew?
:)
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, it’s much less stressful than when I post while driving a traditional car.
Gin & Tonic
If you follow the nightly Silverman threads, I posted last night about a weird person pretending to be russian, posting Telegram content and hosting a podcast as “Donbass Devushka.” If you are interested, vatnik hunter Pekka Kallioniemi has a lot more detail here:
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@OzarkHillbilly: Seriously what do you have to on to see Desantis as JFKesque? Trump has a JFK fixation too though, and Kennedy somehow fits into the Q conspiracies on the good side. Which is ironic because the GOP has been fighting to roll back the Kennedy/Johnson antipoverty agenda since the 60’s. I’m sure it probably stems from TFG wanting to be viewed as a charismatic womanizing ladies man like Kennedy but you can’t always get what you want.
Another Scott
@BlueGuitarist: @unrelatedwaffle:
:-)
Backseat drivers have always been with us. Thinking that the whole edifice of the Federal Executive Branch would mess up an important speech like that is part of what makes us insufferable creatures.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I wonder if it started as a fake right wing slam.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Do you think her guests on the Podcast were in on it and knew she was a fake or do you think they were stupid enough to believe she was the real deal?
Kay
@Baud:
Maybe. The house is out of place- looks like it belongs in southern California.
Dangerman
As Dany Don would have sung, “turn out the light’s, the Party’s over”. The nominee is either Trump or Weekend at Bernie’s Trump (if the fucker should kick).
Another Scott
@Baud:
Made me look…
Snopes.com – Did John F. Kennedy Proclaim Himself to Be a Jelly Doughnut?
You’ll be shocked, shocked to learn that FTFNYT has a big role in the story.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Nah, he just has no idea what manly boots look like. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t matter. No matter what he wears he’s gonna look like a total dweeb.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Hey, now. Dr. Girlfriend has way more class than Casey DeSantis.
OzarkHillbilly
Some really, really, really good acid. Probably wouldn’t be enough to make me hallucinate that tho.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
I don’t know about started, but it was widely popularized by Eddie Izzard.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: I would say bad acid.
Splitting Image
@Baud:
You win the internet today.
zhena gogolia
@BlueGuitarist: My former husband (German professor) always said what JFK said was correct.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: :-)
He should have gone to Indiana.
“Ich bin ein French Licker!!”
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m the man who accompanied Mrs De Santis to The Villages.
Mike in Pasadenaim
My alarm wakes me with the news and President Biden was asked by a reporter if he’d talk to squeaker McCarthy about the debt limit. He immediately replied, “Sure I’ll speak to him, soon as he shows me his budget.” That does not sound like a stupid or senile-addled old man the Rethuglicans make him out to be.
kindness
DeSantis’s main draw for the Republican base is he’s going to hurt those people they don’t like. DeSantis is a bully. The base loves that shit. They’re haters who loath anyone not it their group. Orthodoxy run amuck. Two things though. DeSantis has a glass jaw. Look what happened when Disney pantsed him changing the rules before DeSantis’s minions took over the board. DeSantis sulked quietly and finally whimpered how he was gonna get those damn kids (Scooby Doo villain like). And two, the general population in the US doesn’t like bullies and won’t vote for them. Assholism doesn’t sell all that well.
Brachiator
I still hope that some Republican can give Trump a run for his money, if only to rattle Trump a little and to shake up the GOP.
But I don’t see how a GOP candidate can appeal to moderates and independents when red states and the US Supreme Court is unleashing right wing terror on the country.
And it would be an exercise in grim irony to watch a candidate promise to be more authoritarian than Trump. This also is DeSantis territory.
Ksmiami
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): all their policies and their people are atrocities. Period. The GOP is a cancer
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack:
I first learned about the whole “I’m a jelly donut” from my World History teacher in HS. I have to think the crowd knew what JFK meant when he said it
John S.
@Scout211:
Why would anyone listen to Asa Hutchinson?
The people of Arkansas replaced him and elected Jethrene to be their proto-Trump, and they’re too busy listening to her.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Talk about mixed messages – dragged by a grandmother in Florida (not The Villages) in the 70s to a 4:30 in the the afternoon Early Bird special at a restaurant in order to get back to her condo in time to watch Soul Train.
Kay
@Brachiator:
I feel like the GOP money people jumped on DeSantis too early. I thin Florida is in many ways not a bad proxy for the US- huge, really diverse – but governors often don’t transition to a national stage. They could have just sat back a bit and watched.
Miss Bianca
@kindness:
What did happen? Haven’t heard that story.
TheronWare
DeSantis has the charisma of a dead fish! Those fools at the bar were on shrooms.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: You made me look. OMG, what a tool.
kalakal
@Miss Bianca:
here you go
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/politics/desantis-disney-board-control/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/08/politics/ron-desantis-disney-florida-district-retaliation/index.html
Baud
@Kay:
The money people hoped to knock Trump out early, I think.
kindness
@Miss Bianca: At first DeSantis didn’t acknowledge being outfoxed and when it became apparent that wouldn’t fly he started making Scooby Doo villain noises but has done nothing to stop Disney yet.
Shalimar
@dkxkee: My bet is Pompeo is pulling out after Susan told him that he didn’t even have her support.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Miss Bianca:
Glad to see you back, btw. People were wondering what happened to you
Brachiator
@Kay:
DeSantis was certainly hurting the “right” people, according to the GOP playbook. And some in the media were misled into thinking that DeSantis had charisma. The GOP money people also thought that DeSantis could stand up to Trump.
They were very wrong.
The money guys and the GOP leadership still don’t understand what kind of monster they created when they backed Trump. They could still stop him, but they are too afraid.
Even Fox News is fully embracing Trump again.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
He wrote (well, “wrote”) Woke, Inc. which will be like catnip for the NYTimes and booming Substack anti woke genre writers. I expect lots of glowing editorials in his favor but maybe not actual voters :)
The house has a helicopter pad.
oldgold
If you read Pompeo’s resume, it appears that he is intellectually gifted. That expressed, watching him, I have never seen any evidence of this.
Kay
@Baud:
Trump really is beating the shit out of him, though. The DeSantis thugs revoked the press pass of a Daily Beast reporter at the New Hampshire event because the Daily Beast published the story about how gross DeSantis is when he eats and Trump then made an attack ad about it -“Pudding Fingers” (actually a pretty effective and memorable ad).
Michael Bersin
@Baud:
In June 1963, as a child, I saw JFK in his motorcade as it drove into Frankfurt. There were huge crowds and a lot of American flags along the route.
Republicans are definitely mistaken in their comparison. They’re actually thinking twenty or so years earlier with different flags.
kalakal
@kindness:
The best bit is the high quality hard working
croniesexperts he appointed didn’t even notice that Disney had taken away all their powers for a month.Surely for the party of small goverment that believes in letting business do its thing unhindered this is a desirable state of affairs?
Dorothy A. Winsor
trollhattan
MTG does science.
Science will never recover.
Miss Bianca
@kalakal:
@kindness:
Ha!
OK, regardless of whether or not you buy Budowich’s assertions at face value here, that last sentence is comedy gold.
Kay
@Brachiator:
I just don’t think there’s any thought process on the Right anymore past “12 hours from now”
Say someone beats Trump. Are they imagining Donald Trump giving a gracious concession speech and endorsing the winner? Okey doke.
The big donors would be better off putting together a huge pile of cash and just flat out buying Trump off. If it’s a big enough bribe he;ll take it and they’re openly bribing Clarence Thomas so it’s not like ethics will stand in the way.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hah, good one!
Maybe they’ll send Sy Hersch as a proxy.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
✊️
Miss Bianca
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): *waves at Goku*
Eh, thanks. One particular commenter had got so far under my skin that I decided I needed to take a break to cool off. Which turned into an “e-media fast for Lent” sort of deal.
lollipopguild
@kalakal: I got the impression that Desantis thought that his hand picked board was going to “run” Disney and be able to tell Disney what movies and TV shows they should make.
Delk
DeSantis super pac calls Trump a gun grabber.
Cameron
@kindness: Well, Disney lawyers did try to defuse things. They offered a comp dinner for the guv and his family at the new park theme restaurant, Donald and Daisy’s. You’ve heard the ads – “Duck around and dine out!”
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
I’ll try to do better.
kindness
@lollipopguild: Yea well that is what DeSantis said would happen. Even he knew that wasn’t true but in right wing media land, just saying something makes it’s own truth to the cult members.
trollhattan
@Delk: They’re all fucking 11-YO boys and yet adults find themselves analyzing the actions of the Trumps and DeSantises as though they, too, were adults.
So very tiring to keep up. In the meantime, still rooting for injuries!
sab
@Brachiator: I think a lot of the media types confuse bullying with charisma, probably because of their own toxic work environment.
trollhattan
@Baud: The Tesla has a feature for that. Just don’t try accessing it while driving.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Even in jest, you can’t possibly imagine I meant *you*!
West of the Rockies
I wish Colbert would do a Hungry for Power Games number on Piggy Pompeo. Pompeo is such a dullard, a thick, lumbering high school bully.
“Goodbye, Pompeo! We hardly knew ye… or even knew you were contending. Or cared.”
trollhattan
Uhhhh, what?!?
“South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says 1-YO granddaughter already has shotgun, rifle.”
Just how fucking broken are these fucking people?
Cameron
@Delk: I didn’t think that it was guns that he claimed to be grabbing.
trollhattan
@Cameron: “This is my rifle and this is my gun….”
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
I just wanted to hear you say it. I am emotionally needy.
Eduardo
@Cameron: he is term limited in FL and FL is going to vote Rep in 2024.
he doesn’t care.
Jeffro
Since Pompeo is out and DeSantis is dropping…who, oh who, will make a serious run at unseating trumpov?
Haley is running…against Joe Biden.
Scott is running…against Joe Biden.
They’re literally praying that a junk food diet and actuarial tables take care of their trumpov problem for them, but good luck with that, Rs.
Now game that out a bit: trump continues to rack up indictments and act even crazier (if that’s even possible) for THE NEXT EIGHTEEN MONTHS while Uncle Joe keeps presidenting his little Irish butt off, making bipartisan-ish noises from time to time but mostly just doing Dem things.
And in the backdrop, there is Dobbs. Excuse me, I meant, THERE IS DOBBS.
I like our chances!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Phys.org:
[*] – 1792 dollars, probably.
SpaceFlightNow.com:
Presumably they won’t launch it unless they’re pretty sure it will work. Presumably the FAA will stick to its guns about the various regulations.
A zillion engines on the first stage always strikes me as the wrong way to go (because failure probabilities increase exponentially with numbers of parts), but the USSR made it work with the various Soyuz rockets. With enough time and money, they can make it work. A launch for $10M? That would take some very creative accounting, I think.
We’ll see!
Cheers,
Scott.
Gravenstone
@dkxkee: His supporter (Koch) likely told him to pound sand when asked for cash, so no real loss.
Citizen Alan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Not a bubble. They’ve all just concluded that between the electoral college and voter suppression in red States. , they can be as utterly awful as they want and still have a reasonable chance of winning the white house in an electoral fluke.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
The Soviets famously couldn’t make it work with their N1, their stab at a moon rocket. Only time will tell!
dww44
I know that this thread is probably dead, but am gonna share this anyways from last night’s Roundtable on Stephanie Ruhle’s 11th Hour. I almost never stay up for the end of the show but last night her Roundtable with Joe Nocera ( who thinks that Maggie Haberman has been unfairly maligned for her “asking direct questions of Trump” and who seems to like what DeSantis is doing in Florida), Evan McNorris who really really likes De Santis, along with the majority of Floridians who believe, as he does, that DeSantis is a competent governor, Sean Patrick Maloney, who was simply outclassed at the table, and Maura Gay, the only person at the table who seemed to me to be a genuinely sincere and caring journalist person.
If the link I shared doesn’t work (I’m not good at embedding) I hope some of you will go to the website and come back to weigh in on the around 7 minutes segment from last night’s show.
Another Scott
@Another Scott:
TheHill.com – The FAA gave SpaceX a 5 year launch license on Friday 4/14.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@dww44: Linky worked fine.
💯
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@Baud: All of them, Katie
Kathleen
@Ken: I really don’t get GQP’s obsession with JFK or JFK Jr. They were posting picture of his profile in a cross hair bordered by ,,”Wanted For Treason” back in the day.
Kathleen
@Dorothy A. Winsor: GQP is currently in “Post Governance” mode and banking on “Unfiltered Id” as their ticket to keeping power.
horatius
@WaterGirl: aka Tacky-O
Jim Appleton
@dkxkee:
I haven’t worn one of those since middle school, early ’70’s.
Mart
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Too bad about Pompeo. Vote for me I negotiated the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the evacuation of our troops from Afghanistan.
WaterGirl
@kindness:
The 2016 election called to say that you are wrong.
WaterGirl
@Baud: You are welcome to stop by any of the Baud-ette meetings whenever you are in need of reassurance.
Mike G
@Kay: Feel the Ramaswamentum!!
Uncle Cosmo
@Cameron:
;^p