2024 Presidential Election

[LFC]

I think DeSatanist pushed his fascism act too far and probably stepped on too many toes, making Trump a more palatable choice to some Republicans, including some from Florida. I wonder if Ron's got the ability to recalibrate or if the screeching outrage act is all he's got to offer.

Former president Donald Trump has procured more endorsements from Florida’s congressional delegation a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) specifically asked Florida GOPers not to do that.

Rep. Brian Mast announced on Tuesday afternoon that he plans on endorsing Trump in next year’s presidential race, and plans to chair the “Veterans For Trump” group. He’s joined by Reps. Greg Steube and John Rutherford, who announced their endorsements earlier this week.

“I’m happy and honored to endorse Donald J. Trump for president,” Steube said on Newsmax Tuesday morning. “He’s widely supported in my district, widely supported in Florida, and I’m honored to add my endorsement to the long list of endorsements for President Trump.” He later added in a press release that “Floridians need him back in the White House to finish the job.”

Their endorsements add to the growing list of Florida Republican members of Congress who are paying no mind to the fact that their own home state governor is planning a 2024 bid: Steube, Rutherford and Mast are now among Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Matt Gaetz, Cory Mills and Byron Donalds as Trump’s Florida contingent…much to DeSantis’ chagrin.

As the governor pretends to just be eyeing a run this cycle, his team has reached out to at least six members of his state’s congressional delegation asking them to hold off on making endorsements in the near future.

“There is clearly some angst from the DeSantis camp that so many members of the state’s congressional delegation are throwing support behind Trump,” a GOP consultant told NBC News last week. “Gaetz going with Trump is one thing, but Byron’s endorsement of the former president undoubtedly rattled some cages.”

Sounds like he has to brush up his schmoozing skills.

The snub from Steube seems personal. The lawmaker told Politico Playbook in an interview that he hadn’t heard from DeSantis once in the five years he’s been in Congress until he was contacted by the governor’s aides to hold off on an endorsement. On the other hand, he said, Trump has reached out to him personally in the past, including while he was in the hospital in January.

“Floridians want him focused on Florida,” he told Politico of DeSantis, “which is the job they elected him to do.”

This should be my temporary tagline: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence; a noun, a verb, and 9/11 wokeness. There's nothing else!"

[LFC]

I think he's a bit premature but Josh Marshall seems to think that Trump has already outflanked DeSatanist, using personal skills that Ron simply doesn't possess to garner public support. And below is yet another public humiliation, not just a vanilla "after much consideration..." They're either sticking it to him because Trump asked them to, because they despise DeSatanist, or some of each.

There’s a lot of “Don was there for me when my pet iguana Fred died” kind of stuff. By implication, if not always explicitly, they make clear that DeSantis didn’t do any of these things.

For most reporters and many political people this is pushing on an open door. DeSantis is rather notoriously not a people person. He’s socially awkward. He’s not a glad hander. So these stories ring true about DeSantis and they may well be true. But I strongly suggest not taking them at face value. Is Trump really a shoulder to cry on? He’s definitely a guy who works the phones. But these very much look like stories crafted to fit a specific narrative and ones geared to speak in the Trumpian language of humiliation.

I mean, the bottom fell out of DeSantis’s in-state endorsements right after he finally made the ask. That’s no accident.

Another example, this one from Texas. Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) said this on Twitter last night: “Today, after careful consideration and a positive meeting with Governor DeSantis, I have decided to endorse President @realdonaldtrump for 2024.” This isn’t a statement of fact. It’s a coldhearted humiliation. Ron DeSantis did the best he could. And I’m actually mentioning his best shot as I announce that I’m doing exactly what Ron begged me not to do: endorse Donald Trump.

All of these statements have the fingerprints of Donald Trump all over them.

Ron brought three fingers to a gun fight. Stick a spork in him. He’s done.

[pnwguy]

Apr 20, 2023 18:30:31 GMT LFC said:

I think he's a bit premature but Josh Marshall seems to think that Trump has already outflanked DeSatanist, using personal skills that Ron simply doesn't possess to garner public support. And below is yet another public humiliation, not just a vanilla "after much consideration..." They're either sticking it to him because Trump asked them to, because they despise DeSatanist, or some of each.

Most of the Lincoln Project leaders think it's a done deal and that all opposition to Dumpster will collapse like it did in 2016.

The Fox Brain Virus has infected too many.  

[goldenvalley]

No one can be Trump, but Trump.  DeSantis is perhaps learning this.  Trump is a showman, seems humorous and likable in the right circumstances so he attracted a large following.  If he said something mean and got called on it, he said he was joking and most people who liked him anyway said yeah he's joking.  DeSantis...he means it and he doesn't have the personality to convince people he's basically an ok guy.

[LFC]

DeSatanist doesn't seem to be running the best campaign. He may have jumped the gun and waited for Trump to die. Or even right-wingers may just feel he's an unlikable asshole, like Ted Cruz.

[LFC]

Of all the stupid things (compared to the truly evil ones) that could take down Ron DeSatanist, could this be the one? Bobblehead Ron is trending hard and I suspect Trump will pick it up and hammer him with it. Mockery is one powerful weapon.

Twitter was having too much fun on Monday memefying Ron DeSantis. In a press conference during his visit to Japan, he was asked about recent polling that showed him falling far behind Donald Trump in a potential 2024 GOP primary. “Governor, polls show you falling behind Trump. Any thoughts on that?” a reporter asked. DeSantis tried to play it cool, but he looked bamboozled. “I’m not a candidate, so we’ll see if and when that changes,” DeSantis said, with his eyes wide open and his head shaking from side to side. The clip quickly trended on Twitter with tweets pouring in from all sides of the political aisle to goof on the “bobblehead” governor. “DeSantis is literally malfunctioning lol,” one tweeter joked. “Ron DeSantis’s costume is beginning to rip at the seams,” The New Republic wrote. DeSantis trailed Trump in a Wall Street Journal poll released Friday 24 percent to 48 percent.

Midas Touch latched on and some of the replies are brutal.

[goldenvalley]

He's been practicing that response for a while and is so pleased to be able to use it.  Both he and his wife have a very weird affect.

[LFC]

The RNC (no shock) just dropped the first 100% AI generated political ad where none of the "photos" are real.

[LFC]

Tuckums for president?

Where do you go after losing your job as the most popular political pundit on television? For Tucker Carlson, newly ousted from Fox News under circumstances still being revealed, the answer could be a bid for the presidency.

[indy]

I never thought they could up with a more unappealing person than Trump. Never say never.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 25, 2023 21:17:21 GMT indy said:

I never thought they could up with a more unappealing person than Trump. Never say never.

DeSantis...maybe Carlson?  Yup they can.

[LFC]

Ron DeSatanist hits the U.K. and is viewed as “low-wattage.” It seems like his only ability is to wind up MAGAts. He certainly can't actually govern.

He hopes to win the hearts and minds of devoted Donald Trump supporters ahead of next year’s U.S. election.

But Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis failed to impress British business chiefs at a high-profile London event Friday, in a tired performance described variously as “horrendous,” “low-wattage” and “like the end of an overseas trip.”

The Florida governor, expected to launch his bid next month to challenge Trump as the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential race, met with more than 50 representatives of major U.K. firms and business lobbying groups as a part of a four-country “trade mission” ending in London Friday.
[snip]
For several of those present, however, the statesmanship was lacking.

One U.K. business figure said DeSantis “looked bored” and “stared at his feet” as he met with titans of British industry in an event co-hosted by Lloyd’s of London — the world’s largest insurance marketplace.

“He had been to five different countries in five days and he definitely looked spent, but his message wasn’t presidential,” they told POLITICO. “He was horrendous.”

A second business figure who was in the room said it was a “low-wattage” performance and that “nobody in the room was left thinking, ‘this man’s going places’.”

They said: “It felt really a bit like we were watching a state-level politician. I wouldn’t be surprised if [people in attendance] came out thinking ‘that’s not the guy’.”

“There wasn’t any stardust.”

A third person present at the event agreed “it felt like the end of an overseas trip — which it was,” but insisted DeSantis “came across well.” The best a fourth could muster was that DeSantis was “fine.”

[LFC]

Is DeSatanist learning a lesson? I doubt it. Even if he did, would he even be remotely capable of changing his brand to competent governance? I doubt it and doubly so with the shitbags he's surrounded himself with.

DeSantis, complaining about Disney World at April 14, 2023 press conference.Joe Burbank/Zuma
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The success of Donald Trump, an asshole who became president, created a fallacy: Americans want an asshole as their president. This misapprehension greatly appeals, of course, to assholes, especially those in public office, who seem happy to drop their traditional practice of pretending to be nicer than they really are in favor of doubling down on being dicks.

In truth, Trump’s appeal is, or was, probably based less on just being an asshole than in getting America’s large share of angry, aging, conservative, mostly white people to feel “this asshole is on my side,” plus occasionally being funny.

But that distinction seems lost on figures like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, presidential aspirants all, if not 2024 candidates. These folks may be secretly nicer than they pretend, but all seem to hope that publicly playing up any boorish qualities they share with the former president is a ticket to national polling success.

The main example in this genre, of course, is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has been elected in the country’s third biggest state twice, and has won extensive media attention in part by being unprecedentedly obnoxious to the press. No one can accuse him of being nice. DeSantis’ banning of books that address racism, his prohibiting saying “gay,” his use of state funds to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, and his (losing) fight with Disney are undeniably obnoxious. If American wants another jerk in the White House, here is a champion.

[LFC]

America is so f***ed up.

[LFC]

Look who is teaming up with Kanye Kennedy.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to manage his 2024 presidential campaign, according to NBC News. Former Cleveland mayor turned Fox News contributor Kucinich, who will presumably draw on his own experiences of unsuccessfully running for the White House in 2004 and 2008 in his work with RFK Jr., said it was “an easy decision” to join up with his friend’s race. “We’re looking at a campaign that could change America,” Kucinich told NBC News, calling Kennedy “everything the American people would want in a president and more.” Kucinich also defended RFK Jr.’s outspoken anti-vaccine activism, saying Kennedy has “been an environmental attorney for 40 years, and he raised questions about the safety of some [vaccines].” “He’s not anti-vaccine,” Kucinich inexplicably added.

Dennis has already sold his soul by lying right out of the gate. That didn't take long.

[LFC]

Let the childish Republican food fight begin!

Former President Donald Trump is continuing to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his closest — though still fairly distant — rival in the polls amid an increasingly crowded Republican presidential primary field. On Tuesday evening, Trump’s campaign blasted out a press release that claimed DeSantis had “blatantly” plagiarized the former president’s 2020 State of the Union address. The accusation hinged on a single phrase: the “great American comeback.”

However, despite Trump’s protestations, that verbiage has been extremely common in politics over the past few decades, including being featured prominently in President Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union address in 1986 and being used repeatedly by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

The thought of Trump whining about somebody plagiarizing him is particularly ironic since he wife seemed to be addicted to stealing other people's words and claiming them as her own.

[goldenvalley]

May 31, 2023 21:38:32 GMT LFC said:

Let the childish Republican food fight begin!

Former President Donald Trump is continuing to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his closest — though still fairly distant — rival in the polls amid an increasingly crowded Republican presidential primary field. On Tuesday evening, Trump’s campaign blasted out a press release that claimed DeSantis had “blatantly” plagiarized the former president’s 2020 State of the Union address. The accusation hinged on a single phrase: the “great American comeback.”

However, despite Trump’s protestations, that verbiage has been extremely common in politics over the past few decades, including being featured prominently in President Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union address in 1986 and being used repeatedly by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

The thought of Trump whining about somebody plagiarizing him is particularly ironic since he wife seemed to be addicted to stealing other people's words and claiming them as her own.

I just heard that Pence is announcing his candidacy next week.  Didn't say if it would be on Twitter audio or whatever it was called.  And Chris Christy is declaring too.  Not sure why either of them is bothering.

[pg]

May 19, 2023 19:00:57 GMT LFC said:

Look who is teaming up with Kanye Kennedy.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to manage his 2024 presidential campaign, according to NBC News. Former Cleveland mayor turned Fox News contributor Kucinich, who will presumably draw on his own experiences of unsuccessfully running for the White House in 2004 and 2008 in his work with RFK Jr., said it was “an easy decision” to join up with his friend’s race. “We’re looking at a campaign that could change America,” Kucinich told NBC News, calling Kennedy “everything the American people would want in a president and more.” Kucinich also defended RFK Jr.’s outspoken anti-vaccine activism, saying Kennedy has “been an environmental attorney for 40 years, and he raised questions about the safety of some [vaccines].” “He’s not anti-vaccine,” Kucinich inexplicably added.

Dennis has already sold his soul by lying right out of the gate. That didn't take long.

I'm in the camp of "no" on RFK Jr. ? He is, actually an anti-vaxer. Period, stop down. He is ultimately against medical, proven science. We all know that this isn't the first epidemic we'll see. And many will die under his "leadership." He's also a F-tard on ability to run our government. He is actually just Donald Trump with a legacy name. 

[goldenvalley]

So the Republican National party is launching a vote early by mail and harvest ballots initiative and the Pillow Guy is not happy.

Mike Lindell did not mince his words in a recent phone conversation with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

“That’s the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard,” Lindell said he told McDaniel when the pair discussed the new “Bank Your Vote” initiative, which the RNC launched on Jun. 7.

Lindell, who relayed his version of the discussion in an interview with TPM last week, said he was “very upset.”

“Ronna, this is the wrong thing,” Lindell said.

“Well, we have to do everything we can to win,” McDaniel answered, according to Lindell.

The “Bank Your Vote” initiative involves the party encouraging supporters “to vote by mail or early in-person, and ballot harvest where permitted.” Of course, all of those voting methods are ones that Lindell and other Republicans — including McDaniel — have long baselessly suggested were connected with election fraud. The RNC’s surprising embrace of voting by mail and “ballot harvesting” this year is setting the stage for a fresh battle between McDaniel and Lindell, who unsuccessfully ran to unseat her as RNC chair earlier this year.

[indy]

The GOP has largely become a doomsday cult. They are suicidal but simply aren't inclined to quietly drink some poison and end it all. My hope at this point is they turn their guns on each other and minimize collateral damage to the rest of us.

[andydp]

Jun 19, 2023 21:03:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

So the Republican National party is launching a vote early by mail and harvest ballots initiative and the Pillow Guy is not happy.

Here I was thinking "1984" was a novel: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”  What was "evil" in 2020 will be a "sacred right" in 2024.

Wonder how they plan on "selling" the idea. 

Food for thought: remember certain states passed restrictive "vote by mail" laws.  They may have stepped on their poncho.

[LFC]

RFK, Jr. continues to swirl the toilet bowl of crazy like a nutty little turd.

Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched his campaign challenging President Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, he has given hours of interviews to podcasts, magazines and TV networks. He paints a dark, conspiratorial picture of the world, bristling with debunked theories, misleading claims and outright falsehoods.

Wi-Fi causes cancer and "leaky brain," Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan last month. Antidepressants are to blame for school shootings, he mused during an appearance with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Chemicals in the water supply could turn children transgender, he told right-wing Canadian psychologist and podcaster Jordan Peterson, echoing a false assertion made by serial fabulist Alex Jones. AIDS may not be caused by HIV, he has suggested multiple times.

There's no credible evidence for any of these assertions or for Kennedy's longest-running false claims: that vaccines cause autism and are more harmful than the diseases they're designed to protect against.

Yet Kennedy is building a campaign for the highest office around these conspiracy theories and the idea that fact-checking or criticizing them amounts to censorship. His throughline is the bedrock conspiratorial premise that "they" (the government, pharmaceutical companies, the media) are lying to you — but that he is telling the truth.

"This is what happens when you censor somebody for 18 years," Kennedy told a cheering crowd at his April campaign kickoff in Boston. "They shouldn't have shut me up that long, 'cause now I'm really going to let loose on them for the next 18 months."

This episode isn't really his fault, but seems to sum up his "campaign" pretty well.

Camelot it ain’t.

Page Six regrets to report that a press dinner to boost Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign descended into a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting Tuesday night.

[Bact PhD]

Did anyone suspect that when RFK, Jr. said this

"They shouldn't have shut me up that long, 'cause now I'm really going to let loose on them for the next 18 months."

he was really referring to this (bold mine)

…foul bout of screaming and polemic fartingTuesday night.

…?

[AnBr]

"The Coming Biden Blowout" By David Frum



www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/gop-republicans-2024-election-biden-trump/673856/

The Republican plan for 2024 is already failing, and the party leadership can see it and knows it.

There was no secret to a more intelligent and intentional Republican plan for 2024. It would have gone like this:

(1) Replace Donald Trump at the head of the ticket with somebody less obnoxious and impulsive.

(2) Capitalize on inflation and other economic troubles.

(3) Offer plausible ideas on drugs, crime, and border enforcement.

(4) Reassure women worried about the post-Roe future.

(5) Don’t be too obvious about suppressing Democratic votes, because really blatant voter suppression will provoke and mobilize Democrats to vote, not discourage them.

Unfortunately for them, Republicans have turned every element of the plan upside down and inside out. Despite lavish anti-Trump donations by big-money Republicans, Trump is cruising to easy renomination. Rather than capitalize on existing economic troubles, Republicans have started a debt-ceiling fight that will cast them as the cause of America’s economic troubles. Worse for them, the troubles are fast receding. Inflation is vexing, but the recession that Republicans hoped for did not materialize: Instead, Joe Biden has presided over the fastest and steepest unemployment reduction in U.S. economic history.

[indy]

It appears as if the big money GOP people are abandoning DeSantis and looking at...Tim Scott? Talk about being out of touch with GOP voters.