Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: The Repubs Debate in Loma Linda (Early Reports)

Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: The Repubs Debate in Loma Linda (Early Reports)

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The clip I’m betting will define the evening:



Dead candidate walking…

Chris Christie, running to increase his bookings as the Anti-TFG:

Nikki Haley, (still) running for the 2028 Did I Not Warn Y’All? candidacy:


(Makes *me* wonder if, before the end of this campaign, she’s gonna stomp across the stage and actually punch another candidate — preferably Ramaswarmy, IMO.)

Vivek Ramaswamy, reputed anchor baby:

He’s decided to run full-throat for the TFG vice-presidency…

So, it’s not just me thinking this…

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    From the tweets, the debate sounds kind of boring.

    Your telling me not a single one of them proposed killing another human being?

  3. 3.

    Layer8Problem

    Given Marshall’s and Costa’s comments, I am so very much hoping Republican operatives and donors are collectively having a Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House meltdown.

    From Sunny Lisbon, where we’re recovering from the jet lag. This is the first big trip for us since the Covid business and damnit, we’ve earned it.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    Rich Lowry

    @RichLowry

    I’m not a Vivek fan, but I wonder if Nikki seemed too angry and personal in her attacks

    Agree, Rich. She should smile more.

  7. 7.

    balconesfault

    @Baud:  well, Pence is convinced that instantaneous death penalty sentences for anyone who shoots up a school will deter crazy people from shooting up schools.

    Because, I guess, school shooters go in figuring some liberal DA will eventually give them probation.

  8. 8.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    I’m glad that I was asleep for this one – although I have to admit that nine PM Eastern time is stupid o’clock in the Eastern European Time Zone.

    Actually, that’d make for good truth-in-advertising copy for whoever televises the next debate:

    “Republican Presidential candidates debate live, tonight at stupid o’clock!”

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    AL, I hope you’re wrong about the DeSantis clip being the defining moment because he came as close to having a statesman-like moment there as he ever has on any topic, ever. The Survivor vote was a dumb gimmick, and he was right to say so.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    This is weirdly specific:

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis roped in a heavy dose of fear-mongering into his post-debate spiel on Fox News, declaring Wednesday that he’d “bet” his “life savings” that a terrorist attack stemming from migration at the southern border is imminent. He went on to criticize Democrats and Joe Biden, claiming the president “doesn’t care” about the threat of terrorists crossing the southern border.

    DeSantis loves political stunts, is utterly indifferent to their effect on human beings involuntarily dragged into his set pieces and has an entire state budget to fund them. Am I paranoid for thinking he might be cooking something up?

  15. 15.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    “I’m not a.. (insert situational noun that I shall now embody)”

    “but I wonder.. (no, you really don’t)”

    “if Nikki… (over-familiar method of demeaning estrogen-positive targets)”

    “seemed… (evidentiary requirements minimal)”

    “too angry… (hysterically over-emotional bitches be all crazy and shit, can I get a bass Oh Yeah?)”

    “and personal… (unserious, not policy related, probably in love with him or jealous of younger rival)”

    “in her attacks…” (you just can’t talk to them when they’re being like that, always finding fault. Women!)

    Gee. Rich Lowry isn’t a very complicated person, is he?

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The difference between me and them is I’ve actually read the 14th Amendment.

    He must be thinking of a different 14th Amendment. Maybe the 14th Amendment to the Somalian constitution?

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    declaring Wednesday that he’d “bet” his “life savings” that a terrorist attack stemming from migration at the southern border is imminent.

    He is probably right you know, except the perpetrators are already here and we all know them as right wing nutjob Americans with small arsenals hidden in the walls of their homes.

  22. 22.

    BellyCat

    Thought bubble above all GOP debate participants’ heads:

    “To campaign for Preznit in case Trump is jailed or dies, OR to campaign to be Trump’s VP in case neither happens? Hmmm… ”

    😂 

  24. 24.

    JMG

    Those “GOP donors” Costa talked about have no objection to Trump being President, or dictator if it came to that. None at all. They just don’t want to give him their money because they know he’ll steal it.

  26. 26.

    Tony Jay

    @BellyCat:

      “If, due to some arcane technicality in the wording of the Constitution, the greatest President in our lifetime is unable to take part in next November’s election, then it’s with a humble heart and a true appreciation of the debt we all owe him that I will stand in his place, I will speak his words and I will accept, on his behalf, your nomination to become President of the United States of America, beat Joe Biden, put a bullet through the Radical Leftist Woke Agenda and Make America Great Again!”

    Needs a polish, but it should do at a push.

  27. 27.

    jimmiraybob

    “The difference between me and them is I’ve actually read the 14th Amendment.”

    He’s probably referring to the rewrite that he’s got tucked away.

  29. 29.

    RSA

    That DeSantis make-up clip… Did anyone else think, watching the first few seconds, that he was doing something weird to Haley?  It looked bizarre but not out of character.  Thanks, forced perspective!

  30. 30.

    Tony Jay

    @evodevo:

    Oh, no. ‘Shrill’ is reserved for Democrats or Never Trumpers, isn’t it? When it’s within the GOP Big Tent collapsed kids’ tipi it’s all about the snide insinuation to remind the wo-menz of their place.

  31. 31.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker:  I saw the debate coverage on the Today Show. That bit from DeSantis didn’t make the coverage. Christie calling TFG Donald Duck did. Also some Haley v Vivek stuff.

  33. 33.

    cmorenc

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

    So where is the loophole in “all persons born in the United States…are citizens” that Ramaswamy claims to have “actually read”?  Is he claiming some truly novel spin on “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” (which was intended to exclude children of foreign diplomats), or is he claiming that because that 14A provision was intended to address black slaves born in the US, but not people of Hispanic parentage, the literal words need to be interpreted narrowly?

    In the next GOP candidate debate (ugh!) some moderator needs to press Ramaswamy on exactly why there’s some exception in the wording “all persons born in the United States…”.   But they probably won’t.

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    @Tony Jay:  Rich Lowry? The one who got a boner from Sarah Palin’s “debate” performance?

    I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @JMG: +1

    Costa let the cat out of the bag in the “breakout moment” quip.

    The whole point of these “debates” is to generate the soundbite to get attention – enough attention to overcome the horror of the rest of their personal qualities and policies.  Christie tries, but “everyone knows” he’s a loser.

    Meanwhile, the true believers won’t watch; the normies don’t care; and the actual GQP people in office continue to destroy the government and the commonweal, but the political press cannot discuss anything but the horserace and colors the horses are wearing…

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    TS

    @Baud:

    Nikki  mustn’t have been able to send  little starbursts through the screen  making Rich sit up a little straighter on the couch

  38. 38.

    OverTwistWillie

    That pile of nut sack hair on top of Vivek is… a look.

    Ron for sure got yelled at by Casey. He was supposed to shed his human skin, consume Tim Scott whole, and deliver a pithy Vilanch one liner.

  39. 39.

    OverTwistWillie

    Ken Griffin is the only GOP donor with any shame.

    The rest are psychopaths who are mad they’re going to have to kick up to Trump… again.

    “Unintelligible” “Hot mess”

  40. 40.

    jimmiraybob

    @cmorenc:  

    So where is the loophole in “all persons born in the United States…are citizens” that Ramaswamy claims to have “actually read”?

    The key loophole is defining who deserves to be considered a “person.”

  43. 43.

    Tony Jay

    @Yarrow:

    That’s the guy. Palin (not ‘Sarah’, he wasn’t trying to belittle her) was the candidate he wanted so received the firm rasp of a willing tongue. Haley, not so much.

  44. 44.

    sdhays

    @jimmiraybob: No, I think he just misspoke:

    “The difference between me and them is that I’ve actually never read the 14th Amendment.”

    After all, it’s much easier to pretend things when you don’t know anything about them. It’s like finding it easier to enjoy Star Wars if you have no idea what a parsec is.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Haysoos Chrispo, those are exhausting reads.

    Oh my god, even though I am no longer a practicing catholic, no matter how much I want to say “JFC” or even “Jesus Christ” I cannot bring myself to do it because the nuns very successfully drummed into my head that we can not say that!

    You may have just solved my decades-long problem!

  46. 46.

    Sherparick

    @Baud: I thought they all went on board for invading Mexico & hunting the cartels with drones.

    Vivek may have read the 14th Amendment, but he sure seems to have a problem with reading comprehension (if he is typical the Hedge Fund managers & Private Equity types, no wonder the financial system is just a nanosecond from cratering all the time).

  48. 48.

    Pink Tie

    What a collection of clowns. The ones I’d like to try and respect are at best cynical opportunists — Nikki Haley seems like she could have been a reasonable, moderate centrist Democrat in another life. And Christie obviously knows better and is just mouthing the words except when he goes after Trump in better moments. I was thinking Ramaswamy was just another cynic who calculated that his best play was to do the reactionary, revanchist bro thing, but now it looks like he is just a person who needs inpatient psychiatric treatment, or some kind of deprogramming. *These* are the people the Republican party has put forward as potential leaders? I am old enough that it shouldn’t be surprising, and yet it still is.

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    Damn Joy Reid didn’t just say the #GOPDebate felt like a Student Council Debate of the members of the sixth grade class that failed PE. 

    Well maybe not exactly like that……

  50. 50.

    Bill Arnold

    @cmorenc:
    Mr. Ramaswamy has not actually read the 14th amendment. He may have read the words, but he does not understand them, or at least pretends not to understand them. He also has not read any of the 150 years of legal reasoning about that part of the 14th amendment or even a summary of it.
    He’s just a dishonest, arrogant con-man, who uses talking points that are a deliberately constructed distillation of right-wing narratives, and he should be treated as such. He’s probably not a direct threat, since the GOP wouldn’t vote for him and Trump doesn’t want a (competing) con-man VP, but his nonsense needs to be rejected more vigorously.

  55. 55.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: I wouldn’t put it past him. TFG needs to have a food taster, as DeSatanis & his bride would poison him in a second if they thought they could get away with it.

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