I’m disappointed in the Iowa results, but just barely. I’d hoped Trump would have a weaker showing, but he topped 50%. He’s crowing about that, but should he? It’s true he squashed DeSantis and Haley, but almost half of Republicans in that Trumpy state caucused for someone else.
Having brainwashed a majority of Republicans into thinking he actually won in 2020, Trump is the de facto incumbent. So maybe he shouldn’t be so smug about his “historic” 51% in Iowa.
Since I hate him so very much, I wanted to see DeSantis humiliated by a third-place finish, but he took the silver in Iowa, coming in 30 points behind Trump and edging Haley with 21.2% to her 19.1%. Because both are dishonest boobs, DeSantis and Haley tried to spin their lackluster results as a juggernaut.
Orlando Sentinel: “They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” DeSantis said at a caucus watch party. “… But I can tell you because of your support, in spite of all they threw at us [and] everyone against us, we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa.”
Politico: “I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” Haley said to applause and cheering.
On the bright side, it looks like DeSantis will continue to be absent from Florida for at least another few weeks. If Haley is delusional enough to believe she’s in a “two-person race” after coming in third, she’ll soldier on, maybe weakening Trump in future contests without gaining anything like genuine momentum for herself. And Ramaswamy dropped out and will hopefully go away forever.
So maybe not such a bad night after all.
Open thread.
Splitting Image
Fewer Trump voters froze to death than I’d hoped, but there is still time for some of them to die of pneumonia.
Other than that, I think the night proceeded roughly according to expectations.
Jinchi
A two-person race for second place?
30 points behind the winner?
piratedan
well, I wonder how many of them gave each other Covid while arguing for their favorite Cruella. I also enjoy that each dollar they spend in political warfare during primary season is one less that they have to spend for fuckery against Dems (although THAT war chest keeps getting filled with gratis media coverage narratives).
As is common when they interview these asshats regarding who they believe is President, there are no follow up questions to be found. We know the answers but sometimes you would like to see these journalists at least “journal” a bit.
AlaskaReader
In closing pitch to Iowa Republicans, Trump says their their votes can help him punish his enemies.
Iowa said they’re good with that.
John Revolta
After New Hampshire Haley should come out looking better. She’s polling way ahead of Little Boots there and is closing in on Trump. And she’s also a solid second in South Carolina.
Brachiator
Repeated from an earlier thread.
Noting that caucus results don’t mean much, Trump did less well than his recent polling.
Hayley is not doing well. However, she has done well with Republican voters who believe that Biden won the election. This is a potential weakness for the GOP.
CNN talked to 10 Iowa Republicans. Nine said that they would vote for Trump if he were the nominee. One guy said that he might vote for an “Independent” like Joe Manchin because he would reach across the aisle to work with Republicans, and that Manchin reflected his own Republican values.
This guy is just blind to GOP bad faith and obstruction. But unfortunately I understand how people fail to evaluate their so-called values and whether these values are actually reflected in our political universe. This is just how blind people can be. At least this guy politely registered deep dissatisfaction with Trump.
E.
Have I been using the term “got his ticket punched” incorrectly my whole life? It doesn’t mean getting killed?
AlaskaReader
@E.: His subconscious was talking to him,
…easing him along into the reality that he got cancelled.
Geminid
@E.: The expression can have positive meanings. I’ve seen it used here like you say, as in “Chechen General ____ got his ticket to hell punched.” But a college basketball team might get “their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen punched.”
The term is becoming archaic, but probably will persist. Getting one’s ticket scanned is not so punchy.
Mai Naem mobile
I heard the total number of people who participated in the caucus was only 130,000 people. That’s it. I don’t know if that’s the norm or much lower but that’s an awfully small number for a decent sized state. Oh, and I caught a few seconds of TFGs speech in Iowa. There was a lot of sniffing. A lot.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: I read that the various campaigns spent $124 million in Iowa this cycle. That’s almost $1,000 per caucus vote.
Baud
I’d prefer below 50%, but 51% is less than I would have expected going in.
Baud
@Geminid:
So glad Dems stopped doing he Iowa caucus. What a waste of money.
OzarkHillbilly
So the Ioway Covid Super Spreader event is over. I wonder how how crowded their hospital ERs will be in coming weeks. All I can say is they best not slip on the slug slime trails left behind.
eclare
@Geminid:
And $3.3M per delegate. I am so glad Democrats dropped the IA caucus as first. Plus it’s now a primary, looks like on Super Tuesday.
AlaskaReader
It’s the day after Martin Luther King Day so you can be sure that no Republican will give a thought to King’s legacy again until another year passes.
============
Be A King
@BerniceKing
Dear politicians/political influencers:
When you evoke my father this #MLKDay, remember that he was resolute about eradicating racism, poverty, and militarism. And about corrective justice work.
Don’t just quote him.
Encourage and enact policies that reflect his teachings.
satby
I don’t think our politics will get better until we get the insane amounts of money wasted on it out of it. And we won’t be able to do that without a Democratic trifecta. Round and round we go.
NotMax
“I got 99 problems and Iowa is all of them.”
//
Brachiator
@Mai Naem mobile:
In 2016, about 187,000 voters came out for the Iowa Caucus. Ted Cruz won with 27 percent of the vote, followed by Trump with 26 percent.
2020 was affected by the pandemic.
The Iowa Caucus isn’t particularly representative, but it gets things started.
As I noted before, the one thing that I found interesting is that Hayley got the vote of people who accept that Biden won in 2020.
Tony Jay
Hang on just one taffeta-picking minute. Isn’t the Eternal God-Emperor of MAGAworld only getting 51% of Republican voters in fucking Iowa to tickle his button a catastrophic failure and proof of deep divisions on the Right?
I’d imagine that Biden only polling 51% in South Carolina would be viewed in that way.
Brachiator
Emmy Awards trivia: Elton John became an EGOT as Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium won outstanding variety special (live).
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Pretty much correct. I saw some Trumpies onn Reddit crowing about how this is historically good for Iowa, and ignoring Trump’s unique position.
eclare
@Brachiator:
And his award was announced by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who did a funny bit as SNL Emmy newscasters.
I was impressed with the show last night. Anthony Anderson was funny, and it moved fast. Twenty seven awards were given out in three hours.
Baud
@eclare:
I watched a little a saw Carol Burnett. I didn’t even know she was still alive, and she looked pretty good!
NotMax
@Baud
One excised from the Kama Sutra.
//
Baud
It is too bad DeSantis did better than Haley. And combined with Trump, says nothing good about today’s GOP.
eclare
@Baud:
She did! Also Joan Collins presented an award. She looks amazing at 90.
I just googled, Carol is also 90. Wow.
NotMax
@Baud
Burnett owns a lot of land on the Lahaina side of the island. Which (AFAIK) was not directly impacted by the fire.
NotMax
@eclare
“And now, for the Dorian Gray portion of the festivities….”
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
If a Democratic incumbent got 51% of a primary vote it would be a feeding frenzy of DOOM.
Baud
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch:
Trump is a Schrodinger’s Incumbent.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
So, with Ramasmary cashing out his grift-chips and Christie returning to Skull Island for winter, there should be intense pressure from Not-Trump donors on one of Haley or De Santis to get the fuck out of the way and let the other challenge Stinky Pants on a more even playing field.
I mean, it won’t work, but surely that’s the play here. OTOH, while Haley has the advantage of being an actual (terrible) human being as opposed to a twitchy collective of alien lobsters filling out a human fleshsuit, De Santis does have the genuine GOP-centric advantage over Haley of swinging external genitalia.
Mmmm. Maybe it’s finally time for Kevin Sorbo to throw his hat into the ring. Christian Hercules to the rescue!
Splitting Image
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch:
Don’t fret. Doom is on its way.
Biden isn’t on the ballot in New Hampshire, so with write-ins he’s going to cap out at maybe 70% of the vote. That’ll be enough for the Sunday shows to stick a fork in him.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Tony Jay: Well, yes, a Republican getting 51% represents an overwhelming mandate to do whatever the hell he wants, while a Democrat only getting 61% of the vote needs to make concessions to Republicans and take into account a deeply divided electorate.
NotMax
@eclare
I prefer my actresses more naturale.
(Yes, that’s Gena Rowlands and Rita Moreno.)
;)
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Haley screwed up by not going all in and defending the Confederacy
NotMax
@Tony Jay
Hercules/Twanky ’24!
;)
Baud
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch:
She could have admitted it was about slavery and called it good.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Dawg, now I wanna buy that movie!
Geminid
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch: This outcome should concern Trump’s team. The caucus model plays to their candidate’s strength: his intensly loyal following. And I still don’t think Haley and DeSantis are strong candidates in their own right. Their showing represents a substantial core of resistance to Trump among Republican voters. Most of these will come around once Trump is the nominee, but he’ll need almost all of them to win in November.
The worst part is that this may presage a long and competitive nomination contest. Trump’s team needs to put the competition away early, so they can cruise to the nomination. But they might have to really work for it this time, for months. Sometimes competition can make a candidate stronger, but that could be the opposite in Trump’s case.
Tony Jay
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Of course. One must be careful to acknowledge and respect the ancient traditions of these mysterious cultures, even – and especially – when the traditions in question are relatively newly minted and will change on a whim to benefit the Red Team.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@Geminid: Also too, low energy turnout and small crowd size envy. Dems turned out 239,000 in 2008.
Nelle
@Brachiator: In 2020, the caucuses were held before the pandemic really affected behavior. We were uneasy, sure, but the Democratic caucuses were pretty full. Because Trump was the incumbent and there were no Republican policies, no platform, I suppose the R caucuses were not much to write about.
Tony Jay
@NotMax:
That. Was. Awesome.
Melt those MAGA brainstems.
eclare
@NotMax:
Holy moly! Hard to believe that’s real. Wow.
Ramalama
@eclare: julia Louis Dreyfus interviewed Carol Burnett on Wiser Than Me, an excellent podcast by JLD. The interview is really great.
Baud
@Nelle:
Pete Buttigieg’s shining moment!
Baud
@Splitting Image:
Good call.
Kathleen
@Geminid: Term is also used to describe assignments for corporate managers who are on the fast track (“Got their ticket punched at XYZ Department/Assignment”)
eclare
@Ramalama:
Thanks!
Geminid
@Baud: The best move would have been to concede that slavery was the immediate cause of the Civil War, and then pivot into the discussion of differing philosophies of government. That was just a big word salad and pretty bad in its own right, but its effect would have been neutral had she prefaced it with an accurate and simple answer about the war’s cause.
As it was, Haley spent the next few days explaining it. She even said slavery was so obviously the cause that it didn’t even need to be mentioned! This was a waste of messaging bandwidth right when her campaign was gaining momentum.
I think the incident also spoke to Haley’s character, in a bad way. She could have demonstrated a modicum of moral courage but instead she choked.
Baud
@Geminid:
The only winning move is not to play.
Princess
@Baud: 51% is really low for an incumbent. Carter got 59% against Kennedy and that was a bruising battle. The media is, once again, missing the story.
NotMax
@Baud
Hermann Hesse was onto something.
Baud
@Princess:
I agree. Plus it’s a caucus, which favors candidates with dedicated supporters.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I agree it’s a character test, and Haley failed. Of course, anyone who’s watched as she alternately embraced and stiff-armed The Beast for political gain over the past few years knows she’s an empty windsock.
Suzanne
DeSantis has some real JOEMENTUM happening. I was hoping that he would drop out today because I hate his weird face.
Princess
@Baud: My single data point is commenter Martin’s mother who decided not to caucus because of the cold and not wanting to be yelled at by MAGAts. I believe she was a Haley supporter. She’s one person but I bet there were many like her.
Geminid
@Baud: Or, to recognise a hole in the path and step over or around it. That’s something good politicians learn. When Terry McAuliffe made his notorious debate gaffe, one thought I had afterwards was that Tim Kaine, Ralph Northam, or Mark Warner would not have made that mistake.
The idea McAuliffe was expressing was actually not such a bad one, but he sure said it the wrong way. Here I debit McAuliffe’s lack of experience at retail politicking. He was used to talking to Democrats as fellow partisans, and not to voters as people. The Democrats in the crowd cheered him, but Youngkin’s campaign managers just looked at each other and started writing up the ad they put on the internet that night and on TV the next day.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Linky no workee.
Dangerman
@NotMax: Oh dear; post referenced Trump and Kama Sutra. That’s a violation of blog standards, right?
ETA: This blog DOES have standards. Pants isn’t one of them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dangerman: If this blog has standards, why am I allowed to comment?
Suzanne
I just read that, according to the AP, 40% of the caucus attendees knew who they were going to support all along. So just under half of them…. the campaign means nothing to them. All those State Fair visits, all 99 counties…. doesn’t matter.
This is why I think retail politics is so dumb at this point. All politics is national now.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Dangerman: This may be a full-service blog, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Baud
@Princess:
Yes, the weather helped Trump too.
Baud
@Suzanne:
How did you get from 40% to retail politics don’t matter?
ETA: Even some the 40% might have been influenced by retail politics.
Retail politics don’t matter to me, but neither does any other type of campaigning in the general election.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@Baud: I’m suddenly hungry for burger king
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Fixee (I hope).
Geminid
@Suzanne: Ron DeSantis has Shmoe-mentum!
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Thanx.
Balconesfault
@Baud: yep … Dems were clearly the winners last night
Tony Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Affirmative Action?
Also, regional advertising. You’re the ‘in’ with the Valleys and Mountaintops community.
Suzanne
@Baud: Because 40% of people — even in that very weird state with a long tradition of going to meet politicians in person — made a choice without it. Trump won this thing and didn’t spend much time there. According to the same article, 2/3 of the caucusers made up their minds a month ago, before this huge push by the candidates.
And people in most states, especially the big ones where most Americans actually live, don’t get anywhere near this kind of interaction with the candidates.
It’s this huge amount of effort and intensity and attention and money and it just doesn’t seem like it moves the needle very much at all.
Now, maybe Trump just sort of overrides all of the normal “rules” of how this would normally work, and things will be more normal next time. But, like, right now, it doesn’t seem to me that on-the-ground efforts really return a lot.
Geminid
@Baud: I think the main value of retail politicking now is that candidates can hone their messaging. A good one can sense if they are hitting doubles or whiffing with a small crowd. So can their staff. This can help a campaign on the larger stages, including debates.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I’m not going to pretend to know what works, and I agree Iowa is a waste of money, but I don’t follow your logic that not doing retail campaigning would have no effect on the outcome of a particular candidate. You seem to be saying that because retail politics isn’t the only thing that matters, it doesn’t matter at all.
Suzanne
@Princess:
Can you blame her?! I think there’s a lot of people like that.
Trump’s cultists are freaky, even if you agree with his “politics”. (I put that in scare quotes because I don’t think he really has politics. I think he is too narcissistic to have politics. He has craven interests.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @Suzanne: Iowans are not the only target.
Balconesfault
@Baud: you were imagining that there was any way something good could be said about today’s GOP?
Princess
@Suzanne: I absolutely don’t blame her and I agree — even among Republicans I bet there are a lot who avoid arguing with MAGAts. Especially Republican women who, in my experience, tend to be the ones who avoid political discussions as much as they can (unless they are Trumpers).
NotMax
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Shall never forgive them the creepy king (no link in deference to the barest minimum of good taste).
Suzanne
@Baud: Okay, maybe it has some minor effect around the edges. I can buy the “testing out your presentation on a small stage” idea. But what do we talk about on this blog? When they say or do something on national media. I will note that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are the only candidates in the last 15 years that I’ve gotten to see on the campaign trail, and I follow this shit and make an effort. The vast majority of voters don’t get to see any of them before they vote.
Kathleen
@Balconesfault: Au contraire! Dems are never the winners even when they win! Right now the Pundlandia National is collectively peeing its pants in delight over Trump’s “victory”. They will quickly pivot to “bad news for Joe Biden”.
Baud
@Suzanne:
This blog is not representative. Most of us didn’t even recognize Biden’s strengths in the last primary, and certainly we’re not representative of the type of voters campaigns try to reach in a general election.
Tony Jay
@Princess:
So you’re saying that both Haley and De Santis missed a trick by not flooding the Iowa market with spraycans of Freedom Mace – For When Your Voting Liberty Trumps Their Dignity?
Couldn’t have hurt (though it would have).
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
‘Character’ and ‘GOP Candidate” are mutually exclusive. In that regard, she reminds me of Rubio.
Kay
@Suzanne:
When there was more local media it was really effective. They would play to both- local and national.
Bush used it very effectively. He essentially had local surrogates – not even only or mostly politicians, just people who were well known locally. They’d go where he was and then submit photos with him to local Ohio papers. I watched it because Kerry wasn’t doing it and it was smart. Obama also had a really effective local media approach, except rather than surrogates the Obama campaign called them “validators” – a prominent local person promoting Obama.
I think it’s ending because investors and national media companies swallowed local media. It’s probably not good.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I think it’s been established since 2016 that Trump does not need to do any retail campaigning. The big line then was that he “had no ground game” but his status as an object of fascination is clearly special.
And then in 2020, with asymmetrical pandemic rules, the Democrats did all right without having much of a ground game, but that was kind of special too.
So we’re kind of in uncharted waters now, with regard to this.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think one thing going on is that Republican candidates like Haley are afraid of their own voters, and struggle to figure out how to talk to them. Now it’s a feral base that does not respond well to rational arguments, and even resents them.
Kay
@Kathleen:
Even I am surprised at the joyful crowing and I have such a low opinion of them I thought they could not disappoint me. Fuck em. They always underestimate Biden because they’re ridiculous shallow snobs and they think he’s dumb. It’s his secret weapon.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Trump did do retail campaigning though. That’s what all his rallies is.
The ground game is something different.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
A very apt and succinct description. I think that’s what Christie came to realize this time around given his (and I’m paraphrasing) “our message is right but the voters are wrong” comment during the stopping-the-campaign speech. He wasn’t gonna tippy-toe around this time and “got smoked”.
Tony Jay
@Kay:
But can you imagine the looks they’d get from their colleagues and co-workers if they questioned their product? Can’t you empathise with the impossible situation they’re in, sandwiched between The Narrative and Basic Journalism 101? How could they possibly go to The Hamptons or Nantucket with that scandalous faux pas hanging over them?
You’re so heartless. ;-)
Geminid
I think retail campaigning still has value at the state level. At least, I thought I saw this in the 2021 Virginia Governor race. Retail politicking was Youngkin’s strong suit, and he criss-crossed the state talking to groups from 30 to 300. I’m not sure how many minds he changed, but Youngkin really motivated the Republican base that year.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Trump did have a solid ground game in Iowa this year, from what I’ve read, because he really wants to clear the field early. Unlike in 2016, he uses a professional campaign staff instead of roping in caddies and cabana boys, and it showed in IA.
trnc
@Jinchi:
Sure. It’s a race to see which one of them gets closer to VP pick before DT picks someone else, like Steve Bannon.
Joey Maloney
@Geminid: Especially since the ticket is usually a QR code on your phone screen.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Haley’s mistake is the same as DeSantis; since she is a governor she has actual policy that people can get upset about. Trump did everything in his power is avoid being the room when stuff was being done so he can still be the generic Republican.
Suzanne
@Geminid:
I mean, to be fair, I’m afraid of them, too.
I remember back when Frothy Mix was running for president, and we were in the middle of all the “public conversation” about healthcare and the implications of the ACA….. and there was a debate, and some random attendee yelled “LET THEM DIE”. That was a fucken sign, y’all. Those people are scary.
Chris
Nikki Haley is the “moderate” candidate, the “I can get some dumb Democrats to vote for me!” candidate. She was always going to end up last. (Also, questionably white. Also, female. Yeah, she was always going to end up last).
Suzanne
@Baud: He’s holding fewer rallies this time, by a lot. (“Many fewer”? “Lots fewer”? I always hate this construction.)
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Boy this has been a tough year for Philly sports
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
That’s my knee jerk reaction as well buttressed, anecdotally, by McCaskill’s last (failed) Senate campaign in Misery.
She ran a remarkably good, retail campaign across the state (particularly compared to some of her early state-wide races of any visibility).
She’d go into virulently red areas, aka, the overwhelmingly vast majority of the state, and start out her stump speeches saying “Hey, look, me, a Democrat, is *here* of all places but my gooper opponent sure ain’t and never will.” (or something along those lines).
It didn’t work in that case and I think one part is that she was running for a federal office, not a state one. But it’s all anecdotal observations. Oh wait, that’s all our Pundit Class does.
Baud
@Suzanne:
This year is a little weird, since Trump is in an unprecedented position.
If he were a true equal primary candidate, his Iowa showing would be impressive.
Steeplejack
I decided to bail on taking the car in for its maintenance appointment this morning. We’re still under a storm warning (in NoVA), it’s 28° outside, and the streets are a zesty blend of ice, slush and snow. I tried to call the dealer service department and couldn’t get through, so I assume they are busy enough without me. I’ll reschedule later.
Kay
@Tony Jay:
The consolidation of for profit media is a shame. They all sound the same because they’re all working for four companies. Hundreds of outlets so there’s the illusion of choice, but a handful of owners so there’s no diversity of thought or coverage.
The CEO of Sinclair (Right wing garbage media – low quality) just purchased the Baltimore Sun. It’ll be 24/7 screeching fear-mongering ninnies- “CRIME! the border! DEI! wokeness! inflation!” right up until a Republican wins, then it’s “happy days are here again”.
I think Democrats have to design campaigns to get around media conglomerates and they have been doing that more and more.
Kay
New York Times digital front page had FOUR crowing articles about Donald Trump’s massive victory, his resiliency and popularity and general fabulousness.
So we know what the “but her emails team” are planning for this cycle. They’re going to work as hard as they can to drag him over the finish line. But they’re conventional, rigid, unimaginative people who follow an incredibly dull playbook and we can beat them.
Tony Jay
@Kay:
It’s almost like those Revolutionaries and Coupists whose first order of business was “Seize the Presses and TV studios” might have had a point. One the Milicia Blanca Rica took to heart and prioritised when they began seriously waging their War on Wealth Equality.
Field-Marshal Murdoch will end up with his face on a medals rewarding Conspicuous Fuckery if they win.
Baud
@Kay:
When blogs first hit the scene, I thought we’d found a way around the mainstream media. I was wrong.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I have not followed Lucas Kunce’s Senate campaign closely this year, but my understanding is that in 2022 he leaned hard into retail politicking. He might make it work this time around.
Joey Maloney
If Haley really wants Trump to choose her for VP, she shouldn’t waste those campaign funds on, well, campaigning. Cosmetic surgery and a good blonde dye job is the way to go.
eclare
@Kay:
I saw that about the Baltimore Sun yesterday. That is so sad.
OzarkHillbilly
@Joey Maloney: Don’t forget the breast enhancements.
Kay
@Baud:
Blogs should come back! Twitter and the clones suck as a replacement. The youths don’teven know what they’re missing.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: You were right. It’s just that every channel gets gamed or blocked or deteriorates of its own accord eventually.
There is never going to be any final good way to transmit information or connect people. So the center of activity is always going to slosh around.
I’ve seen people have this sort of nihilistic response to this, and conclude that people in fact should not get information or be connected–that the answer is to shut it all down; Internet or electronic media in general were just a bad idea. But I don’t think the pre-electronic-media age was generally a time of better politics, either.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Exactly. Trump is a semi-incumbent.
Shalimar
I admit that is the first time ever I have seen a 3rd-place finisher brag that it’s a 2-person race. She’s probably right. But it’s still political malpractice to haul that line out before results from New Hampshire confirm it. She’s creating a massive joke where she is the punchline.
Chris
@Kay:
Addressing the root problem begins with Democrats – ideally and independents, but at the very least Democrats – acknowledging that the media is not liberally biased, that it’s conservatively biased, and that all news you get from them has to be taken with the appropriate grains of salt to compensate for that.
Since last I looked, most people still believe the media is liberally biased, even on our side, I don’t know WTF to do. The situation isn’t exactly hopeless – people believed for the longest time and against all evidence that the courts were biased for liberals and not for conservatives, until Dobbs finally broke that myth, so it can happen – but it’s very very bleak.
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay:
Dammit, dude! This is *very expensive* Christmas gift coffee I’m drinking! Don’t make me urp it over my screen!
All right, I am putting the coffee cup *down* for the rest of this thread.
artem1s
So basically 49% or more of the caucusers in Iowa (one of the wingnuttiest primary states) didn’t vote for the GQP “incumbent” godking. That’s a terrible showing for TIFG. Especially considering it’s a caucus and an easily sway-able scrum if you have a decent ground game. Double loser stink because despite his completely wooden, inhuman demeanor, DeathSantis still pulled around 20% as did Notaboutslavery Nikki. Of course TIFG is spinning this as a sweeping victory. But in reality it’s probably a squeaker victory of the ‘not really a campaign’ over ‘complete train wreck of a campaign’. Nikki’s 2-way race remark is an interesting tell. All three candidates racked up delegates. From this point forward it’s going to be a 2-way race to see how many delegates can they amass before the convention. Given there are a number of ways that TFIG could end up being ineligible to run in the general or hold office again, his delegates could be completely up for grabs or he could use them for leverage in an attempt to be a kingmaker (I’m predicting Darth Jr. or the Mittster will make a bid here to regain power in the Party). You know TIFG already has a plan in place to amass a small fortune selling delegates off to the highest bidder (it was probably his plan to sell them off to JEB or Cruz or someone in 2016 too but the grift just kept on rolling thru to the WH). For the first time in a long time this could be a very interesting GOP convention. I’m rooting for injuries all around.
wjca
I’d say the value of retail politicking is that it forces someone like DeSantis to try to interact with real human beings. And fail miserably. Without it, he could just make studio ads, with as many takes as needed to simulate being human.
Quadrillipede
“A lot fewer?” 🤔
Quadrillipede
If Grover Cleveland was the only person who won the popular vote three times, maybe Orange will be the only person to lose it three times…
Ixnay
@Tony Jay: Fookin brill, man…
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: She’s very calculating, IMO. Always internally calculating what lie will be better for her at the given moment. TFG just lies like he breathes. No need to ‘calculate’.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: Good point. I’m sorta disgusted (mostly) and maybe a bit afraid of the completely cray cray ones (that are armed).
Paul in KY
@wjca: A whooooolllleeee lot of takes for Klargar the Infestor to ‘appear’ humanoid.
Another Scott
@Kay:
Some people are trying to build a movement for SubstackMigration (i.e. off Substack) for similar reasons.
Network effects are real, but people don’t have to be swept up in them. This place is the perfect example of the benefits of not being so. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Chris:
But, but, but, the RWNJ cranks at the Media Research Center tell us that the media is overrun with liberals and pinko commies and is out of touch with Real America™. (Note that their “evidence” ends in 2004, and much of it is from the 1970s.)
We need more and better hacks on our side to counter this nonsense.
Cheers,
Scott.