Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

This really is a full service blog.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / The Ron DeSantis Challenge Open Thread

The Ron DeSantis Challenge Open Thread

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As far as I can tell, this tweet that Anne Laurie posted recently is the only good thing DeSantis or his campaign has ever done.

The Ron DeSantis Challenge: Can you name even one good thing that he or his campaign has ever done, besides put together the video below?

In case you can’t come up with anything else good Desantis has done, please feel free to list the WORST thing you think he and his campaign has ever done. Bonus points if you can explain why that’s the worst thing.

The Ron DeSantis Challenge Open Thread

Think of it as a early roast for the going away party for Ron.  On Monday, when I first put this post together, I had written this, but sadly, it looks like we’ll have Ron DeSantis to kick around for awhile longer.  Maybe just two more weeks?

He surely won’t be in the race after, what, Wednesday?  Or maybe by Wednesday they will figure out that he’s toast, but they will think that if they wait a week maybe no one will notice and it will be less humiliating to drop out.

*Pausing the campaign also counts as dropping out.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  1. 1.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Assuming his presidential run ends up torpedoing his political career, does that count as a good thing?

  3. 3.

    Chris

    Ron DeSantis is a cautionary tale in what happens when you believe the mainstream media.

    Because this entire campaign has been an MSM product from beginning to end.  It started a year or two ago when the media, embarrassed by Trump and desperate to manifest a world in which he wouldn’t be the 2024 Republican nominee, started churning out article after article about an as-yet nonexistent DeSantis campaign.  He was actually dumb enough to go for it, and it’s gone exactly the way I thought it would.

    It’s Trump’s party.

  5. 5.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chris: I saw people flying DeSantis for President flags that were the Trump flag with DeSantis’s name swapped in, in 2021. I suspect most of those people have just gone back to Trump by now–they just assumed briefly that DeSantis was his heir.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

     

    Joe Trippi (@JoeTrippi) posted at 8:57 PM on Mon, Jan 15, 2024:

     

     

    So here is why I think Trump is weaker than most think. Its Iowa. He has taken total control of the party. He is unstoppable and everyone there knows he will be nominee. But 49% went with someone else. DeSantis is dead but still circling the drain. This is the worst out come for Haley even if she comes in 2nd late in the evening (which is still likely to happen). Because she needs to right this minute go out and say – “DeSantis lost to Trump and he lost to me. Thank you Iowa! On to New Hampshire!” Waiting is a mistake. Ask Rick Santorum.

    (https://x.com/JoeTrippi/status/1747090666373439787?t=xrode65f8KOv7zGzxRSDZQ&s=03)

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @dmsilev: You guys are doing a much better job of thinking of good things than I could have guessed you would.

    I do think DeSantis did some terrible things to Florida in order to “help” his campaign.  Let’s hope he slinks back to Florida and keeps his head down for awhile, though that would be a normal human response, so I’m not putting any money on that.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    @Chris:

     

    And, they (the MSM) were the ones who had to be brought to reality kicking and screaming.

     

    After all, they had invested a year and a half in pushing that Ronnie D was the next Republican big thing

    😡😠😠

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    DeSantis lured a dozen or so Florida statehouse minions to Iowa during a deep freeze to act as surrogates. Their personal discomfort is a good thing because they are terrible people, and their absence from the state meant they weren’t on hand to add to its dysfunction, also a good thing.

    The DeSantis money people claim he has enough in the tank to campaign until Super Tuesday. I’m not sure I believe that, but he probably thinks he can edge out Haley in SC for the runner-up spot and breathe new life into his failing effort. I have no idea how realistic that is — the polls I’ve seen indicate it’s a pipedream, but SC is a quirky state, so who knows?

  11. 11.

    Chris

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I suspect most of those people have just gone back to Trump by now–they just assumed briefly that DeSantis was his heir.

    I honestly believe that at least half the DeSantis supporters we saw when his polls were at their peak were simply low-info Republicans going “everybody’s been talking about DeSantis, I guess he’s going to be the nominee, yeah, sure, I’m okay with him,” and not realizing Trump was still in the running.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah:

    DeSantis lost to Trump and he lost to me.

    Do we think DeSantis is smart enough to say that about Nikki Haley?  Hoping the big money boys are crying this morning about the millions and millions they spent on Haley.

    Unless Haley is expected to win New Hampshire?

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: Probably it’s his last shot! DeSantis is expected to do poorly in New Hampshire, and pundits are acting like Haley has a chance to unseat Trump as the winner. I think that’s daft — I’d bet a substantial sum that Trump wins the NH primary. But it does seem like the NH electorate is more in Haley’s wheelhouse than DeSantis’s — they aren’t as Christianist, for one thing.

  16. 16.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: Can we say it’s good that DeSantis has hurt Haley’s chances?

    I should say, I lean to the theory Haley ran knowing she could not win, and is trying to set herself up as the alternative if Trump has a heart attack. DeSantis, on the other hand, was dumb enough to think he could beat Trump for the nomination.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    please feel free to list the WORST thing you think he and his campaign has ever done

    Easy: Exist.​

    eta: no explanation needed.

  24. 24.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    OK, I’ll bite. The best thing DeSantis did in office was collaborate with Biden on hurricane relief efforts in Florida. The worst thing he has done is really a toss up between so many things.. don’t say gay (along with using the power of the state to punish Disney), abortion ban, etc.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    By curious coincidence, given the past few comments from Baud and OzarkHillbilly (among others), when WaterGirl posed the challenge my first thought was of Blackadder, series 4, episode 1:

    Melchett: Field Marshal Haig is worried that this [editor: going “over the top” and being slaughtered en masse by German machine-gun fire] may be depressing the men a tadge. So, he’s looking to find a way to cheer them up.

    Blackadder: Well, his resignation and suicide would seem the obvious solution.

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I have a friend whose father was a train engineer.  One year, on Christmas Eve, a person threw himself in front of my friend’s dad’s train.  My friend’s dad was fucked up for a long time about killing the guy, even though he was not at fault in the slightest.  Anyway, thanks for letting me rain on your parade.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: I share your thought that Haley initially was in it for the “wildcard” factor.  Then the big money boys chose her as their best shot and  heaped millions upon millions of dollars on her.

    After that, I *think Haley thought she could actually win it.

    *It may surprise you that I am not a close personal confidant of Nikki Haley, so this is pure speculation on my part.

  31. 31.

    sab

    I still think the worst of the many bad things DeSantis did was the damage to public education in Florida. Back in the 1960s when I was in elementary school there our public schools could get bus drivers’ kids into Harvard with scholarships. Now they barely have libraries.

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Having just watched a TV show last night where a train hit a prom party bus that was stalled on the tracks, I think the train option would have a negative impact on all involved.

    But perhaps a meteor could fall from the sky in a remote area where Ron was wandering, and confused.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: One thing about South Carolina primaries: the state does not register by party, so Independents and Democrats can vote in a Republican primary as easily as Republicans can. This effect of this dynamic is hard to calculate, but it could substantial this year.

  36. 36.

    oldgold

    This is a twisted game.

    They challengers can’t beat Trump.

    Their only chance is if Smith makes Trump untenable.

    They have to stay in the race waiting for that possibility.

    But, in order to be the heir to the base, they can’t attack Trump or promote Smith.

    So, this mad campaign persists where seldom is heard a discouraging from the challengers concerning Trump and the skies are not cloudy all day.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    CNN headline:

    He claimed 50% of the vote in the biggest win in caucus history, showing that the current party is entirely his.

    Also previous thread.
    Doesn’t that mean the party is only half his?

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    As we speak, it’s minus 20 with the windchill, and I have to venture out because Henry (aka allergy boy) has to go for his medicated bath.  brrrrr.

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    The Ron DeSantis Challenge: Can you name even one good thing that he or his campaign has ever done, besides put together the video below?

    He capaciously entertained me with his campaign rollout on Xhitter. I laughed until I cried.

  45. 45.

    schrodingers_cat

    Pundits are telling us that a Trump presidency is inevitable because Joe Biden has low approval ratings. These primaries and caucuses serve a purpose, we find out how many Rs are in the Trump cult

    ETA: FWIW I think that the Punditwit arguments is BS. Not only is this outcome not inevitable, the Orange Man’s popularity may also be an overestimate.

  46. 46.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I was going to say, train suicide is well known to exact a terrible toll on train engineers. The only way this wouldn’t be devastating to someone would be if he threw himself in front of a driverless vehicle – train or car. But come on,.

  48. 48.

    eclare

    @sab:

    When I was in college in the late 80’s at another SEC school, UF was considered the best in the *SEC.  DeSantis has done a lot to try destroy that, and he has successfully destroyed New College.

    *I guess Vanderbilt is technically SEC, but I don’t really count them.

  52. 52.

    eclare

    @WaterGirl:

    What infuriated me was the gall he had to use Obama’s “skinny guy with a funny name” line.  That is Obama’s, and he is ours, you fucking douchecanoe!

  54. 54.

    catclub

    @schrodingers_cat: Pundits are telling us that a Trump presidency is inevitable because Joe Biden has low approval ratings.

     

    I wonder if they were saying that Biden was inevitable in 2020 for the same reason.  I sure don’t remember it.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @eclare: What infuriated me was the gall he had to use Obama’s “skinny guy with a funny name” line.

     

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

  58. 58.

    karen marie

    Heidi Feldman provided a gift link to Dana Milbank at Wapo. An excerpt that made me laugh:

    All this stuff. Despite a year of practice, DeSantis is still painfully awkward attempting to sound human. He wants supporters to know that “my, um, my, my wife … is out knocking on people’s doors, doing all this stuff.” The Machine Shed restaurant chain, he adds, is where, “you know, they have the different stuff where you can buy the gizmos or the things.” If elected, he promises, “we’re going to do that stuff.”

    He makes sure to touch all culture-war buttons. Anthony Fauci. George Soros. Teachers unions. Woke government. Trans kids. Indoctrination camps. The diversity-equity-inclusion cartel. The D.C. ruling class. A sexualized curriculum. He mechanically responds to interlocutors: “Great question. What’s your name?”

    And he closes each speech with the same 150 words, recited in a singsong voice, sounding bored by his own canned speech. “What we are called upon to do is to preserve what George Washington called the sacred fire of liberty,” he recites. “This is the fire that burned in Independence Hall in 1776 … It’s a fire that burned at a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, when our nation’s first Republican president pledged this nation to a new birth of freedom. It’s a fire that burned on the beaches of Normandy when a merry band of brothers stormed the shores.”

    Maybe DeSantis really believes the heroes of D-Day were “merry” under machine-gun fire, but his audiences are not merry. They start filing out well before he finishes his dreary appearances.

  60. 60.

    Hoodie

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think Haley or DeSantis can win, but there’s something to be said about a functional incumbent only getting about 50% of the vote.  Iowa’s kind of weird because it is a caucus state and the weather was awful, which probably selected for Trump cultists over Republicans who want someone other than Trump but are not particularly enthused about any of the current alternatives.  This is not a new phenomenon in the GOP.  When Trump won in 2016, it was by plurality because none of the alternatives generated much excitement and couldn’t weed each other out.   He wasn’t a strong general election candidate either; he lost the popular vote against a Dem who had very negative public perception following a very popular Dem president.  Same in 2020 and 2022.  Neither Haley nor DeSantis is a strong candidate in their own terms.  Haley suffers in the GOP because of her gender and her waffling nature, DeSantis has been revealed to be some sort of alien life form.  If there is a similar result in NH, e.g., if Haley and DeSantis can pull in something around 50%, it will confirm again how fundamentally weak Trump is as a candidate.  At that point, I wonder if some other GOPer (e.g., Kemp or Youngkin) jumps into the race.  The filing deadlines and GOP delegate rules might make that impossible, but this is a different type of race than 2016.  Trump is a known quantity and Republicans have ample evidence that he’s an electoral liability who could tank their whole ticket, including preventing them from taking advantage of a very favorable Senate map.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    It’s true that Biden has low approval ratings, and I don’t necessarily fault the media for pointing that out. But it’s malpractice to harp on Biden’s polling without noting that Trump also has terrible approval ratings. It’s of a piece with the age issue. Yes, Biden is old. So is Trump! 

  65. 65.

    Bupalos

    Actually my bud who is a marine ecologist used to somewhat defend Desantis for pushing serious resources towards everglades restoration. I think that’s just a hair better than trying to invert inspiring Obama phrases into a dog-whistley right-on-right smear ad.

    We come perilously close to Trump triumphalism when we point and laugh at his opponents getting smashed. It is very good that half the caucus goers responded to one of the other (shitty) political pitches made to them rather than lining up behind Hair Furor.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @eclare: All of it is Obama! That’s the speech where the rest of the country got to know who he was!!

    and the smarmy guy just stole all of it! Infuriating!

    edit: not yelling at you of course!

  70. 70.

    RevRick

    @catclub: Oh, it’s his alright. Most of the rest will dutifully fall in line as they always do, because God forbid they’d ever vote for a Demonrat. Haley and DeSantis are pathetic sideshows, but sharing with Trump an essential loathsomeness.
    Haley is oily loathsome and DeSantis is stubborn loathsome, but Trump is a God-damned fascist, which means his loathsomeness is wrapped in the entertaining package of cleverness and transgressions.

  74. 74.

    WaterGirl

    I just saw on Twitter that only 14% of Iowa voters came out to vote last night. Not linking because I am on my phone.

    is any of the media reporting that? Seems like it would be important.

  75. 75.

    karen marie

    @Hoodie: But they’re all terrible. The constant stream of vile invective and eliminationist rhetoric without any condemnation by the chattering class reminds one that the outsized reaction to Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” was all a put-on. The people in the executive offices really do believe Republicans are better for business. And they’re right, if you understand “business” as an entirely extractive, one-way enterprise.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @RevRick: I would argue that Trump and DeSantis are both authoritarians, though their styles are very different, i.e., Trump HAS a style. Apart from my deep personal loathing of DeSantis for what he’s done to Florida, I want him to fail because he’s a danger to the U.S. on par with Trump, IMO. The only reason he’s not as scary is because he apparently lacks the skills to build a national cult.

    Haley is a mealy-mouthed plutocracy drone, and she would be a terrible president. But she’d be a terrible Republican president in the time-honored manner rather than a true threat to end American democracy as we know it. Trump and DeSantis would.

  78. 78.

    frosty

    @karen marie: And the Band of Brothers didn’t storm ashore. They jumped out of perfectly good airplanes. Or, much worse, landed in gliders (AKA flying coffins).

  79. 79.

    Almost Retired

    @WaterGirl: It was roughly 100,000 voters total.  That’s all that turned out for the caucus.  All this attention paid to 100,000 authoritarian diner goobers in an insignificant state.  What a system!

  80. 80.

    Jackie

    @schrodingers_cat:

    the Orange Man’s popularity may also be an overestimate.

    His popularity is with the MAGA republican base. Plenty of “normal” republicans will NOT vote for him in the General. 49% of the republican caucus who braved the weather and frigid temps voted against him. The majority of Iowans stayed home.

  81. 81.

    Marmot

    @RevRick:

    … which means his loathsomeness is wrapped in the entertaining package of cleverness and transgressions.

    I’m with you up to this point—I don’t perceive any cleverness in the man. Maybe you mean the way he workshops nicknames and insults and whinges?

    I know you didn’t mean this, but I feel like it bears mentioning: MAGA anti-intellectualism is a large component of what makes it fascist. Doing, acting, not thinking, debating.

  83. 83.

    narya

    The thing that brings me the most joy is the info about the large number of small-donor dollars–and the large number of dollars!  Those both seem significant to me.

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Hoodie:

    there’s something to be said about a functional incumbent only getting about 50% of the vote.

    This.  This isn’t a normal primary where a bunch of people are running from the same start.  50% of the Iowa caucus just went “We would rather vote for some random dufus than the guy everyone claims is the head of our party.”

    It’s a caucus and not a primary, diluting the reliability of that feedback, but this is not a sign of strength for the general election.

  87. 87.

    karen marie

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, but it’s Democrats who disapprove of Trump. Everyone knows they don’t count. When it comes to public opinion, only Real Americans – aka Republicans – matter.

  88. 88.

    Bupalos

    @Ken: I know it’s a theme around here that Trump is a kind of Republican destiny. But it was perfectly reasonable for R politicians deciding to run in the 24 cycle to expect Trump might be perceived as too wounded, or voluntarily or involuntarily gone from the scene. That could have happened for a number of reasons. It didn’t, but I think we’re kind of perpetuating a false aura that in fact helps Trump when we both mock these people that acted on the reality that things could be different.

    As much as it’s true that Trump has some nearly unbelievable political forces on his side, he is an essentially false creation and these forces are based entirely on perception. He could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose supporters, but he could also lose them all because his wig fell off. No one has figured out how to snatch the wig, but mocking folks for trying is essentially insinuating these essentially ephemeral things are eternal. It isn’t a good idea.

  92. 92.

    zhena gogolia

    @frosty: But also the title of the Tom Hanks-produced miniseries, which in turn was from some popular history book.

    ETA: Although “merry” wasn’t in the title

  94. 94.

    Hoodie

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, NH may make a clearer statement.  I would think NH GOPers would be less cult-disposed than the evangelicals caucusing in Iowa.  Their schtick is more of the performative asshole variety, but there’s a point that those folks will bail if they think the candidate is a loser.

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    DeSantis is doomed in the long run, but he did better than people think. MSNBC did a good county breakdown. In the rural counties, Hayley failed to get above single digits. And the rural counties are where Trump rules. But DeSantis was a weak, but significant echo.

    Hayley did okay in the larger cities and in the university dominated areas. She counted on the educated and the independents coming out for her. They did, but not in enough numbers.

    New Hampshire is not like Iowa. It might be an interesting test of the depth of Trump’s support. And DeSantis’ last stand.

  97. 97.

    Bupalos

    @Betty Cracker:The only reason he’s not as scary is because he apparently lacks the skills to build a national cult.

    This feels a little like saying the only reason dead people are less scary than zombies is they can’t move around or eat brains. But I do think there’s a more thoroughgoing difference between the danger of Trump and one of the other Republican political entrepreneurs. I read them all as the kind of more run-of-the-mill pathologically ambitious folks that will do either good or bad political things saying “I’d rather not do that, but politics dictates I should.”

    Trump is the kind of rare shitbird that literally has no policy inclination whatsoever, I don’t think he can even conceive of having real policy inclinations. His goal is simply to destroy and replace politics entirely. This is a huge difference to me and I think a huge difference to the expected rate of democratic decline in this country.

  98. 98.

    frosty

    @zhena gogolia: The Band of Brothers name was given to Easy Company of the 101st Airborne by Stephen Ambrose, who wrote the book that the mini-series was adapted from. He used the Shakespeare line early in the book.

    Yeah, changing “happy few” to “merry” is all on DeSantis. I think the previous comment about Robin Hood nailed his thinking, or lack thereof.

    PS I was wrong about the gliders. Some of the 82nd and 101st landed that way, along with jeeps, artillery, and ammunition, but all of Easy Company jumped.

  99. 99.

    Bupalos

    @frosty: I refuse to believe he’s been repeatedly saying “merry band of brothers.” My mind is already too boggled to handle that.

  104. 104.

    louc

    When DeSantis was first in office, he seemed to govern in a more centrist way. Remember, he pushed seniors to get vaccinated. The COVID death rates in Fla, as bad as they were, would have been much worse because of that initial push to vax everyone in nursing homes. Then he decided to out-Trump Trump

    The worst things. He destroyed New College and UF and the public ed system. But the worst thing he did, which is a frightening example of authoritarianism, was to oust locally elected officials, like the Hillsborough State Attorney.

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @Old School: Thank you!

    I had a roommate who was in med school, but she spent her summers as a volunteer fighting forest fires in California.  Much respect for her, and it leaves me with an interest in that.

  109. 109.

    zhena gogolia

    @zhena gogolia:
    In the YouTube comments to that song there is a funny anecdote:

    Ok no idea if this story is true but it’s funny: In the early 90s, the Bryan Adams song “(Everything I Do) I do it for you” from the 1991 Kevin Costner Robin Hood film was very popular. There was a young man about to be married, and he told the church organist, an older gentleman, that he wanted the bride to come in to “The song from Robin Hood.” The organist was a little perplexed, but agreed to play what the bridegroom had requested. On the wedding day, as the bride began her walk down the aisle, expecting to hear her favorite 90s love song, the band sang, “Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding Through the Glen”

  111. 111.

    oldgold

    Consider this madness:

    Moe Davis (U.S. Air Force, Retired) Reposted at emptywheel

    “If you divide the $123M by the 108K Iowa Republicans who voted, that means Republican presidential candidates spent $1,139 per vote … and that’s just on advertising!”

      

  114. 114.

    RaflW

    (My exasperation is hardly new, but) my god the NYT politics desk is awful. Trump wins 51% of Iowa voters and the top of page blaring head & subhead are:
    5 Takeaways From Trump’s Runaway Victory in the Iowa Caucuses
    The former president crushed Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley and also benefited from their close battle for second, which seems set to prolong a three-way race

    It is true there is no one challenger who can likely topple Donald. And many of the Ron & Nikki voters will come home to whoever the GOP nominee is. But runaway is ridiculous. Embarrassing, except it is clear that dept. just never gets even the faintest blush in their cheeks.

  115. 115.

    cmorenc

    @Ken:  That Haley has a significant share of support within the GOP electorate, even though way short of enough to overtake Trump, is a very good thing – realize that unlike the remaining share of support DeSantis still has, a substantial share of Haley supporters are turned off and many even nearly as repulsed by Trump as we Ds are, even if most won’t be able to  bring themselves across the divide to vote for Biden.  Instead, they have very strong potential to vote 3rd party, whereas disappointed DeSantis supporters are near-certain to vote for Trump.  Trump’s chances to win the general election will (as in 2016) require winning a handful of crucial states by razor-thin margins, and even modest single-digit defections will doom his chances.

  122. 122.

    zhena gogolia

    @RaflW: Their headlines on Trump are always gushingly positive. Their headlines on Biden are always negative. Yesterday it was “Biden slow to get campaign going,” or something like that. Luckily my husband has a good memory. “That’s exactly what they said in 2020 — he was slow in responding to Bernie.”

  123. 123.

    zhena gogolia

    I astounded a normie I was having lunch with by referring to the NYT as “pro-Trump.” She said, “The New York Times? But they’re really liberal!” We soon determined that she does not read the New York Times, she was going by what she heard on television.

  129. 129.

    zhena gogolia

    Meanwhile, the NYT is completely ignoring the death of one of Russia’s major poets, Lev Rubinstein. The WaPo had a full obituary yesterday. NYT, nothing.

  133. 133.

    Hungry Joe

    The GOP field a year ago was Trump, Florida Ron … and then it was wide open. When you figure that there’s a reasonable chance that Trump will stroke-, heart-attack, or felony-out, jumping in wasn’t a bad move. And if you tread lightly enough in MagaLand you might either 1) get the VP spot, then stroll into the Oval Office when Trump (see above), or 2) be well positioned for 2028. I suspect this is Nikki’s reckoning, and it ain’t bad.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    Death Santa believes in his left big toe that he is one hell of a human. Of course all that does is show that his entire working brain fits in his left big toe. Which is better than SFB, who thinks, such as it is, with his large intestine. IOW he’s full of —-.

    Never been a fan of the republican party, always seemed a bit restricted, retarded, restrained in anything positive – long before SFB. It seemed to me that they only looked backwards, to a “better time.” It wasn’t, unless your entire platform was to regress to belonging to the king and doing what you are told and never, ever anything more. For proof, I give you Shit For Brains, the latest incarnation of the master and his subjects, such a stelar example of the breed of incapable, indefensible, worse than useless, loudmouthed moron, with all the grace of a runaway elephant. And none of the intelligence or common sense. Which upholds the concept that common sense is possibly not so common, as SFB proves in an ongoing basis….

  135. 135.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I’m finding it a little strange. But they have weird lacunae. They did a full obit on Joyce Randolph (Trixie on The Honeymooners) but have ignored Bill Hayes (Broadway actor, singer of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” and longtime star of Days of Our Lives).

  136. 136.

    Baud

    The biggest problem Dems have is the absence of a middle management between elected officials and voters.  Those people really are the backbone of the GOP.

  139. 139.

    Anoniminous

    We know who the nominees are going to be. We should just skip the primaries and save us all the aggravation of listening to stupid shit for the next six months.

  140. 140.

    Citizen Dave

    For me, the best and worst things about White Boots is the same thing: that with all the exposure, we all got to see what a truly weird weird dude he is, and the weird marital dynamic as well.  The head tics, no social skills, eating while talking stuff…

  141. 141.

    gvg

    @WaterGirl: I just looked it up. It’s the lowest in a decade but the others recently haven’t been that much higher IMO. The last one, Trump was the incumbent so not a lot of point then.

  142. 142.

    gvg

    @Betty Cracker: Except the racists and conspiracy mongers have been emboldened and I think they would get into her administration too. they wouldn’t be as directly in control, but I don’t think she would resist them much either.

  143. 143.

    Betty Cracker

    @Bupalos:

    This feels a little like saying the only reason dead people are less scary than zombies is they can’t move around or eat brains.

    Great analogy! However, I’d add another cinematic allusion and note that DeSantis is only mostly dead politically, which justifies regarding him with more dread than the truly politically dead, like Franco.

    I agree that Trump is sui generis, but not because he wants to destroy politics per se but rather because he’s a walking collection of untreated personality disorders with an insatiable appetite for acclaim and power. My sense is destroying politics is collateral damage, not a conscious aim. But you’re right that it’s a distinction that sets him apart from a more conventional authoritarian like DeSantis.

    That said, I would not put DeSantis and Haley into the same category of pols who are “more run-of-the-mill pathologically ambitious folks that will do either good or bad political things” for power. Haley is an example of that type, but I don’t think she’d fundamentally subvert American democracy if elected.

    DeSantis would, and his reign in Florida demonstrates that he has the skills to build a Viktor Orbán-style “soft” autocracy at the state level. Therefore he’s a greater danger than someone like Haley at the national level, IMO.

  144. 144.

    Alison Rose

    @frosty:

    Yeah, changing “happy few” to “merry” is all on DeSantis.

    Not understanding the meaning of words related to happiness seems fitting for a man who doesn’t know how to smile.

  147. 147.

    trollhattan

    please feel free to list the WORST thing you think he and his campaign has ever done.

    Worth thing DeSantis for President has done is to choose Ron DeSantis as their candidate to run for president.

  150. 150.

    Jim Appleton

    @catclub: Given comments above about staffers displeased with Ron as a boss, would not surprise if some of them intended sabotage by feeding him the Obama lines, figuring he’d have no clue.

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @Chris:

    It’s Trump’s party.

    Yes it is. It doesn’t speak well of the conservative side of the aisle that they have chosen him but then who else do they have? Little ronnie? Surly you jest. He’s about as viable as a 40 yr old car with 400K miles on the clock and 4 flat tires is of winning Daytona. Sure SFB isn’t actually better but little ronnie? Come on!

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    I hate that Bryan Adams song.

    The Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie also sucked big time. I remember the director claiming that he was going to bring historical accuracy to the film. This was just asking for trouble. I gave up trying to note all the anachronistic crap in the film.

    The acting, with some notable exceptions, was also crap.

  156. 156.

    catclub

    @Alison Rose: That ‘happy few’ was from Henry V by Shakespeare.

    It is in a speech given by Henry before a battle they expect to lose.

    The Normandy invasion force was not exactly a few.

  161. 161.

    catclub

    @Hoodie: Haley suffers in the GOP because of her gender and her waffling nature

     

    Translates for me as ‘willing to  recognize some facts that are rejected by the  GOP’

  163. 163.

    zhena gogolia

    @Alison Rose: Yes, “happy” has a sense of “fortunate,” not yukking it up. They’re fortunate to be able to die for England, is how I interpret it. It would never be “merry.”

  164. 164.

    catclub

    @cmorenc: Instead, they have very strong potential to vote 3rd party,

     

    Grrr, NPR report on third party and independents  this morning.

    I wish she could ask “What successes have independent / third party voters ever had?”   and Followed up with ” and “how did that benefit the independent voters?”

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    @twbrandt:

    Little ronnie never had a chance. He lacks bluster, stature, seemingly brains, and also seems terrified of, well, everything. It is not an encouraging presentation to voters. ShitForBrains is brash and speaks to a portion of humanity, the ones that think that if SFB can make it, then so can they. There is no concept of actual better in the current conservative party. Their only concept is that it was better once upon a time, therefore we need to go backasswards. They don’t have a better grasp of the future than how bad can it be and are trying to prove it.

  168. 168.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: I wouldn’t consider a person who’s steeped in Maddow’s work to be a normie. That said, I did persuade my normie husband to read Maddow’s “Prequel,” which he seems to be enjoying so far. Despite the subject matter (the American fascist movement in the 30s and 40s), I found it uplifting because it told the story of ordinary people who acted in extraordinary ways to save democracy.

  169. 169.

    Bupalos

    @Alison Rose: With the disclaimer that this has almost no relation to any question of DeSantis’s usage or mental fitness or anything other than my own Shakespeare pedantry…

    the original Shakespearean meaning of “happy” is a long way from our modern one. A modern translation would be more like “lucky,”  more generally and less acutely positive and related to cognates like “happening” or “happenstance.”   In the speech the King is just inverting a soldiers bitter fatalism saying “we’re actually lucky to be here with a chance to win fame.”

    Of course this means the original is even further from “merry” than modern ears hear.  And the Shakespearean meaning of “merry” has overtones of “careless and silly.”  A merry band of brothers at the battle of Agincourt is just the most incongruous thing I can imagine in a Shakespearean sense. And the modern “band of brothers” stuff to which DeSantis is really referring is all even more deadly serious.

    Maybe he was subtly trying to mishmash shoehorn in a “war on christmas” reference.

  171. 171.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    I never thought I’d say this but I am sooo rooting for Haley to win the primary in New Hampshire. I want DeSantis thoroughly defeated and Trump unhinged and angry.

  173. 173.

    Anyway

    I enjoyed the clips of Vivek getting busted for copying Barack -thanks for sharing WG.

    (How dare he?! he’s not worthy…)

  174. 174.

    trollhattan

    @catclub: because of her gender and her waffling nature

    Possibly also because she’s an evil little shit; however, that should help her brand among Republicans, so….

  175. 175.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @WaterGirl:

    Well, even without NH, you’re already halfway there on Trump being unhinged and angry.

    With Trump, there’s no ceiling to unhinged and angry. There’s always another level he can climb to. I want normies to hear the crazy, be momentarily shocked, and then remember why they voted against him last time.

  178. 178.

    Alison Rose

    @Bupalos: Trust me, you don’t need explain Shakespeare to me :) I’m not sure why the way I worded my comment indicated something totally different than what I meant, but I’m quite well-acquainted with the usage.

  181. 181.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s dumb, the campaign has barely actually started and the press is already crowning the winner. Let’s hope it works out the same way it did in 2016, where the people who didn’t come out because they thought Hillary had it in the bag were sorely mistaken. Just added that to clarify my thoughts.

  182. 182.

    cain

    @Chris: He also lost standing in Florida – it is not likely he will win the next election. If Trump is around, he’ll make sure that DeSantis doesn’t get any job other than bootlicker.

  185. 185.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: First I heard of it. I can’t believe political pundits give so much weight to what 14% of Republican voters who were brave enough to come out on a night with below zero temps and blowing snow think.

  187. 187.

    Betty Cracker

    @cain: DeSantis has lost standing in FL, which is wonderful to see, but unfortunately we’re stuck with the sumbitch until he completes his 2nd term. He can’t then run for a third. But maybe he’ll primary Rubio. 🤔

  188. 188.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: LOL, OMG

    I *loved* the od Robin Hood TV show – it ran on CBC when I was a wee one growing up outside Detroit.

    I actually have a few DVDs of it that I picked up cheapo in a WalMart or something some number of moons ago – I occasionally pop them in as a comfort view. :)

  191. 191.

    Ruckus

    @Almost Retired:

    It was roughly 100,000 voters total.  That’s all that turned out for the caucus.  All this attention paid to 100,000 authoritarian diner goobers in an insignificant state.  What a system!

    If they needed a significantly larger number, how would they ever get to run? And to win. In my lifetime I’ve never seen a republican candidate or president who was worth – OK I won’t say what I was going to say, at least in the way I first thought of…. My entire life, at just shy of 3/4 of a century, every republican running for office should never have been elected to any office as high or higher than dog catcher. And thinking of the poor dogs, that’s pushing it. And it has gotten worse over that time, at least it could have stayed just shitty, but no, it had to get worse – no, far worse, to end up where we are, with someone like SFB or the FL child as their best choice. This isn’t politics, this is an extremely bad TV game show.

  192. 192.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Maddow’s “Prequel” is also good, as is the “Ultra” podcast that is sort of a condensed version of the same story.

    Maddow’s TV style isn’t for everyone, but she’s a terrific journalist, IMO. I wish every other goddamn TV pundit in the country were forced to watch, Clockwork Orange-style, this recent episode where Maddow torched the GOP for their role in endangering American democracy.

  193. 193.

    Anyway

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I only watch Maddow on special occasions – election results- things like that. Never tried a regular show of hers.

    I cannot sit through even a few minutes of the other person in her timeslot – Alex Wagner. Snoozefest.

  195. 195.

    Paul in KY

    @eclare: I wonder if he was riffing off the Henry V line (Shakespeare version) where Henry V is exhorting his troops and says ‘we merry band of brothers…’

    Edit: See it was ‘happy’ and not ‘merry’.

  197. 197.

    Citizen Alan

    @Mart: I did a double take at Christmas Eve dinner back in Mississippi when I saw that my RWNJ sister gave my RWNJ brother-in-law a pair of white galoshes as a present. Which he put on and proceeded to wear the rest of the night. With great difficulty, I said nothing.

  199. 199.

    Paul in KY

    @zhena gogolia: They were ‘fortunate’ to have a chance at whupping lots of French & getting all their booty & never buying another drink in their home town (provided they survived).

  200. 200.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    He is a newyorker. And no I do not mean that as a dis to normal New Yorkers. He is shit in platform shoes. He apparently has the stench of his shoes all around him, because he supposedly fills up his diapers and changes them rarely. I’ve seen some comments about people that have been around him for more than a few moments can smell his “ode da la toilette.” Such a great human being he is….

  201. 201.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @WaterGirl:

    Unhinged enough that the MAGA people see it?  Dare we hope that it’s even possible for them to see it?

    They could be standing in his presence while Trump does something the MAGA people would have a relative institutionalized for and they wouldn’t see it.

  203. 203.

    The Lodger

    @Brachiator: The large cities (ok, maybe large for Iowa) and college towns are where young people looking for employment and livability escape rural Iowa when they come of age. DeSantis won biggest in the areas that people leave when they can.

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