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2024 U.S. Election of President and Vice President

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  • Trump beats Biden, Harris in 2024 match-ups: poll

    Former President Trump leads President Biden and Vice President Harris in hypothetical 2024 match-ups, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released Friday exclusively to The Hill.

    Forty-six percent of those surveyed said they would vote for Trump over Biden if the 2024 election were held today, compared to 41 percent who said they would support the president. Thirteen percent were unsure or didn’t know.

    By a wider margin, 49 percent of respondents would vote for Trump and 39 percent would vote for Harris if the 2024 race were between the two. Thirteen percent were unsure or didn’t know.

    Trump continues to be the strong favorite among a competitive Republican field, according to the poll. In a hypothetical eight-way primary, 37 percent of respondents would vote for Trump, while 19 percent would back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), whose support has dropped from previous polls.

    Seven percent would vote for former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the second notable Republican to officially launch a presidential bid and first to challenge Trump. The poll found that Haley did gain some momentum after what many considered to be a successful presidential campaign announcement this week, rising to third place in a potential GOP primary that does not feature Trump.

    A Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey in January found Haley with just 3 percent support in a hypothetical primary.

    While the Republican presidential primary is expected to be crowded, Democrats are coalescing around a Biden reelection campaign, with intraparty talks about replacing the president in 2024 cooling down.

    After Biden’s State of the Union address, his approval rating remains unchanged at 42 percent, where it has hovered for most of his presidency. The president did receive some high marks for taking on Republicans who heckled him during his address and over Social Security and Medicare, but voters were split 50-50 on whether they found the speech favorable, the poll found.

    The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted Feb. 15-16 and surveyed 1,838 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.

    The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.
    _________
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

    Comment


    • Tough-guy Ron DeSantis defeats Woke Disney! Except ... he didn’t. At all.
      It seems rumors of DeSantis’ success at battling the liberal 'woke mind virus,' or whatever it is they’re calling it these days, may be greatly exaggerated.

      If you’re into combatting wokeness, the imaginary villain that haunts Republican fever dreams, then Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is your superhero du jour.

      He took on Woke Disney and won! He flew migrants to Woke Martha's Vineyard and owned the libs! He singlehandedly de-woke-ified the Woke College Board’s planned AP African American studies course!

      The mighty DeSantis is surely the Anti-Woke Warrior conservative America needs, right?

      Well, let’s put it this way: If you’re into combatting wokeness, you’re also into getting conned, so embracing DeSantis as a blustery David defeating this perceived Goliath of liberalism is perfectly on brand. But if you’ve got at least one oar in the waters of reality, it’s a short paddle to see behind the curtain of Florida’s Great and Mighty Despoiler of Woke. And there ain’t much back there.

      Florida's governor bravely takes on ... Disney?
      Take DeSantis’ war on Disney, which began after the corporation – one of the largest private employers in the state – spoke out in opposition to Florida’s “don’t say gay” law restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

      The governor struck back at the “woke” theme park and entertainment giant last year by pushing for and then signing a bill abolishing the company’s longstanding status as a special tax district. In theory, that meant an end to significant tax breaks the company has enjoyed for more than 50 years.

      However, right-wing exclamations of “WAY TO GO, RON!” were premature. Turns out that just doing away with Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District – which put the company in control of the sprawling area it inhabits – would force taxpayers in surrounding counties to shoulder the costs of running the Disney-occupied area (think emergency services, road repairs etc.) and take on the special tax district’s roughly $1 billion in debt.

      So the Florida Legislature that does DeSantis’ bidding swooped into a special session this month to clean up the governor’s mess. Lawmakers passed a new bill that lets DeSantis pick who sits on the Disney tax district’s board.

      DeSantis' Disney victory not all it was cracked up to be
      As The New York Times reported: “This time, Disney would be allowed to keep the special tax district – which never went away – and almost all its perks, including the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds and approve development plans without scrutiny from certain local regulators.”

      So … DeSantis stuck it to woke Disney by taking control of the board that oversees the company’s special tax district while leaving all the perks and tax breaks in place.

      The bill’s sponsor in the House, Republican Rep. Fred Hawkins, was asked how it changes anything happening in the district and said: “That I can’t answer.”

      'BIG loss for conservatives'
      Even some conservatives saw through DeSantis’ fake victory. Anthony Sabatini, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party in Florida tweeted: “So basically Woke Disney gets to keep its nearly tax-free, regulation-free status—but with a different Board. … What a massive capitulation this is. HUGE win for Woke Disney. BIG loss for conservatives.”

      The far-right news site Big League Politics blasted this headline – “FRAUD: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Folds to Woke Disney, Pushes Bill to Quietly Restore Special Tax Breaks."

      That’s far from the only example of DeSantis’ all-talk-no-actual-destruction-of-wokeness grift.

      DeSantis said he forced changes to an AP course – but he didn't
      The governor recently took credit for the College Board making changes to an AP African American studies course he had rejected as too “woke” and “historically fictional.” The board clapped back, saying any claim that the board “was in frequent dialogue with Florida” about the content of the course is “a false and politically motivated charge.”

      Last year, DeSantis fancied himself a true master of “owning the libs” after using Florida taxpayer money to lure migrants in Texas onto a plane and dump them in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The stunt might have pleased a cruel swath of the governor’s base, but it was largely met with derision and viewed as an inhumane waste of money.

      It also, according to at least one of several lawsuits, might have violated state law because the state money earmarked for transporting migrants specified they had to already be in Florida, not Texas or any other state. And, of course, the whole stunt had zero impact on immigration, or really anything else.

      Florida lawmakers spending time cleaning up DeSantis' war-on-woke messes
      The aforementioned Republican Florida lawmakers who recently cleaned up DeSantis’ Disney mess also tried to fix his migrant transport problem this month by passing a bill that declared “all payments made pursuant to (the original law) are deemed approved.” It’s good to have powerful friends devoid of ethics, apparently.

      DeSantis is fighting woke gun-control advocates by pushing legislation that would allow Floridians to carry guns without safety training or permits. But at an election night party in Tampa last year, The Washington Post reported, the governor’s campaign banned guns at the event while asking city officials to say it was their decision.

      Florida: Where woke goes to die ... or not
      It seems rumors of DeSantis’ success at battling the liberal “woke mind virus,” or whatever it is they’re calling it these days, may be greatly exaggerated. I imagine that’s of interest to another alleged enemy of wokeness down in South Florida – one Donald J. Trump. Rumor has it the former president and current presidential candidate is sitting around pondering possible nicknames for DeSantis, who many expect will enter the Republican presidential primary.

      How about Paper-Tiger Ron? Or maybe Ron FakeSantis? Ron “All Woke Sizzle, No Woke Steak” DeSantis?

      I dunno, I’m just spitballing here. I’ll leave it to Trump to figure it out. It’s literally the only thing he’s good at – which means he’s good at one more thing than Florida’s all-show-no-go governor.
      _________

      Reminder: This is the guy that conservatives are all hot and bothered about as their next big thing after Trump
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

      Comment


      • Originally posted by CNN!
        22 February 2023
        DeSantis received three 7-figure checks from top GOP donors
        (03 min, 53 sec)

        Records reviewed by CNN reveal Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received three 7-figure checks from GOP donors, putting him on equal footing with former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign donations. CNN’s Harry Enten joins Anderson Cooper to discuss the hefty contributions.
        Influence seems to have significant market value. ...or in this case seemingly the sale of call options on futures contracts on influence.
        .
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        Comment


        • Republican loyalty pledge: RNC chair says 2024 GOP candidates must sign pledge to participate in debates

          Any Republican who wants to run for president in 2024 will have to sign a loyalty pledge if they want to join the 2024 debates, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel told CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday. The pledge would require candidates to support the eventual GOP presidential nominee.

          Discussing the qualification criteria for the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, McDaniel said the rules aren’t set in stone yet, but she expects the pledge will be included.

          “I think it’s kind of a no-brainer, right?” McDaniel said of the pledge. “If you’re gonna be on the Republican National Committee debate stage asking voters to support you, you should say ‘I’m gonna support the voters and who they choose as the nominee.’”

          McDaniel: 'Trump would like to be on the debate stage'
          Former President Donald Trump, who is seen as one of the frontrunners in the race, declined to say if he would support the nominee, telling a conservative radio host in early February that “it would depend” who the nominee was.

          In 2015, Trump signed a similar pledge, albeit without the tie-in for debate participation like the pledge has for this election cycle. Later on in the 2016 election, he walked back on the pledge, also saying he would only support the nominee depending on who it was.

          McDaniel brushed off Trump’s past, saying she “thinks they’re all going to sign it,” including Trump.

          “I think President Trump would like to be on the debate stage. That’s what he likes to do,” McDaniel said.

          Other potential GOP candidates for 2024 have also expressed skepticism on pledging their loyalty to the eventual nominee. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told the Washington Post that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualified Trump from being “the right direction for the country” and that he would have problems with signing a pledge with Trump in mind.

          But McDaniel called for party unity, saying she still expects candidates to support the eventual nominee.

          “We have to come together as a party.” McDaniel said, pointing at the GOP’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections. “We saw big races lost this cycle because of Republicans refusing to support other Republicans and unless we fix this in our party, unless we start coming together, we will not win in 2024.”

          Several potential GOP candidates could still join the race
          Other high-profile Republicans are expected to join the race.

          As of now, Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are the only big-name candidates officially running, but Hutchinson and other figures are starting to make the rounds around the country, putting feelers out on potential campaigns.

          Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who just finished a trip to Iowa, a key early state on the Republican nominating calendar, told “Fox News Sunday” he is focused “on the mission of making sure that every single American believes that the American dream is achievable for them,” echoing his recent speeches in Iowa, where he described his early life growing up poor and as a child of segregation.

          Also in the Hawkeye State was Haley, who hosted town-hall style events where she told GOP voters who might be considering Trump to “look forward.”

          “It’s time for a new direction,” Haley said on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures,” after her trip to Iowa. “I think we need to leave the status quo of the past.”

          And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to formally announce a presidential campaign, visited New York, Philadelphia and Chicago on Monday on a tour aimed at framing himself as a GOP candidate of law and order.

          Asked whether she had any concern of the GOP field possibly being too crowded and disrupting party unity, McDaniel instead lauded the competition.

          “I think it speaks about the deep bench we have.” McDaniel said. “I mean we have so many great governors, senators, congressional members, business leaders, a former president. We have such a great bench of candidates.”
          ____________

          Come what may, at least the Republican primary will be good for a laugh or three...or a thousand and three. I might go broke buying popcorn.
          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

          Comment


          • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
            Come what may, at least the Republican primary will be good for a laugh or three...or a thousand and three. I might go broke buying popcorn.
            Or shit yourself blind.
            “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
            Mark Twain

            Comment


            • Trump Is Starting to Run a Conventional Campaign

              Normal politicians running for office do things like raise money, hire experienced staff, visit early primary states, and write a platform. Donald Trump is not a normal politician, but this time around he is starting to act like one—in contrast to his previous runs.

              The former president has the raising money part down pat, but he is now also starting on the other parts. Trump has hired Susie Wiles, an expert on campaigns (especially in Florida), veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio and policy adviser Vince Haley. More will follow, but these are a solid foundation.

              Trump is also starting to make policy proposals under the rubric "Agenda47." He is expected to have proposals for opposing environmental, social and governance investing (i.e., money spent to fight climate change); fighting crime; and boosting the production of American energy. For example, he is expected to propose that any local police department getting federal funds return to the stop-and-frisk policies used in the past and widely condemned as racist. On energy, he would once again take the U.S. out of the Paris accord on climate change and approve all new energy projects (e.g., oil drilling) very quickly. Since Ron DeSantis is surely going to have detailed platform proposals (see above on education), Trump apparently feels he needs some, too. What is unusual here is not in the nature of the platform planks, but that he is making them at all. After all, the Republicans didn't even draw up a platform in 2020. They just said: "We approve of everything Donald Trump wants."

              Trump also plans to travel around and hold rallies, especially in early states. He went to East Palestine, OH, last Wednesday to blast the Biden administration for the train wreck there that left poisonous chemicals in the ground and air. More trips are upcoming.

              Nevertheless, Trump is not going to become a conventional politician. He will still rant and scream, but behind the scenes he will operate somewhat more like normal candidate than he has in the past. He probably dimly understands that DeSantis is a force to be reckoned with and not the second coming of Jeb! (V)
              _________

              I wonder how long this is going to last....

              Someone must have sat the orange one down and explained - in very short sentences and using comic books - that tearing down DeSantis isn't going to work with conservatives like it did in 2015.

              Also, I wonder if that train derailment had happened in, let's say, Detroit, or Chicago, if Trump would've shown up? Lol fuck no!
              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

              Comment


              • The key word is 'act'. At this stage nothing will change his instinctive tendencies to yell as he did during his run for the presidency and term in office. Nor can he direct most of his tantrums at the Democrats as he did previously. This time round he's facing Republicans who have fully embraced the same far right mantra's he used to great effect last election and it will be much harder for him to distinguish himself from the 'crowd'. That will be very frustrating for him That and every candidate be they Dem or Republican will be looking to prick his balloon, sorry I meant ego. They'll all want voters to see the same old Donald hiding under the facade. Watching them trying to goad him into a public melt down might be the only enjoyable thing about the run up to this next election.
                Last edited by Monash; 28 Feb 23,, 00:44.
                If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Monash View Post
                  This time round he's facing Republicans who have fully embraced the same far right mantra's he used to great effect last election and it will be much harder for his to distinguish himself from the 'crowd'.
                  Well said. Circus acts like Trump's have a limited shelf life. You gotta develop something new if you want to hold their attention...and this is all Trump has ever known.
                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                  Comment


                  • Nevada Democratic Party Is in Disarray...
                    Former senator Harry Reid's political machine long dominated Nevada Democratic politics. That is, until supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pulled off a hostile takeover in 2021. In March of that year, Judith Whitmer was elected chair of the Nevada Democratic Party along with a new slate of party leaders, all of them associated with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Upon their election, the entire party staff resigned. It's been downhill ever since.

                    Even Sanders himself is unhappy with the results of the coup. Sanders was hoping for the Nevada party to showcase what a progressive party could stand for and do. Instead, there has been wall-to-wall infighting and backbiting. More importantly, the proof is in the pudding, and the election results have been less than spectacular. Former governor Steve Sisolak (D) was defeated for reelection in 2022—the only incumbent governor in the country to lose reelection.

                    Peter Koltak, a senior adviser for Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, said: "Look, there's a lot of well-meaning activists involved there, but they don't understand the ins and outs of how you build modern campaigns." Whitmer has also made a number of promises she has not kept.

                    The problems with the state party are not entirely Whitmer's fault, though. For example, just before Whitmer took over, party officials transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state party's bank account to the DSCC's. That might have helped Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) get reelected in 2022, which is not a bad thing for Nevada Democrats, but it also meant that the new party leaders had no money when they took over. Also, when the entire staff quit, they didn't just look for new jobs somewhere, they took over the machinery of the state's second most-populous county and tried to oppose Whitmer from there. Whitmer noticed. She said: "The previous administration pretty much burnt the house down."

                    But her critics, including progressives, say that Whitmer is a poor fundraiser, has bad relationships with elected Democratic officials, and failed to build the grassroots infrastructure she promised to build. They also condemned her decision to support a primary challenger to the sitting Democratic lieutenant governor.

                    Another battle was with progressives whose true loyalty is to the DSA, not to the Democratic Party. They wanted her to work outside the system, but she said: "I represent the Democratic Party. I don't represent the DSA." This caused friction with the left. Whitmer's term is up in March and she will have to fight like hell to keep her job. Even then, she will probably not be successful. (V)

                    ...While the Florida Democratic Party Is Trying to Pull Itself Together
                    The Florida Democratic Party, like its Nevada counterpart (see above), is a train wreck. In this case, the problem isn't infighting, though. It's that the Florida GOP has turned itself into a finely oiled machine, and that machine has spent the last three election cycles steamrolling the Florida Democrats.

                    It was time to choose new leadership over the weekend, and after a rather contentious election, the new party chair is former Florida agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried. She wants to rebuild the party structure, build up a large base of small donors, and position Florida Democrats on the front lines of the effort to stop Ron DeSantis from becoming president.

                    Is Fried the right person to resurrect a party organization that is greater disarray than the Chicago Bears' defense? Maybe. She's the most recent Democrat to win statewide election in Florida, and she probably learned a trick or two while running for governor against DeSantis. On the other hand, she got trounced in the primaries of that election, and by a man (Charlie Crist) who went on to get trounced in the general. Indeed, that was the positive outlier of the night for the Republicans, who otherwise largely underperformed expectations last November. Anyhow, that's not the best résumé we've ever seen.

                    Incidentally, Fried is a very moderate Democrat who has supported some Republican candidates in the past with her donations. So, the progressive wing of the Florida Democratic Party is not thrilled with her victory, and is not enthused about working with her. The phrase "DINO" has been bandied about. So, it's the other side of the coin from what's happening in Nevada. We shall soon see if Fried is better able to herd cats than Judith Whitmer is. (Z)
                    __________
                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                    Comment


                    • Trump’s polling strength causes heartburn for Senate GOP
                      A Fox News survey showing former President Trump leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 15 points among Republican presidential primary voters is the latest cause for heartburn among Senate Republicans who don’t think Trump can win a general election match-up against President Biden.

                      Predictions by key Senate Republicans that Trump would fade as the 2024 election approached are being upended, putting pressure on party leaders in Washington to consider embracing the former president once again.

                      Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans blamed the “chaos” surrounding Trump for the party’s disappointing performance in the 2022 midterm election. Some thought it would be the final straw to keep Trump off the presidential ticket next year.

                      And McConnell had privately told several Senate GOP colleagues that Trump’s political strength would fade the more time he spent outside the Oval Office, according to two Republican senators who spoke to The Hill.

                      Yet a Fox News poll of 1,006 registered voters nationwide found Trump leading DeSantis 43 percent to 28 percent among GOP primary voters in a hypothetical match-up.

                      Republican strategists say the poll shows Trump is more resilient than many party insiders expected. And they warn that Republican senators and other party establishment figures who have ramped up their criticism of Trump since he lost the 2020 election would be wise to carefully reconsider his chances of winning the presidential nomination next year.

                      “I think Trump’s position is stronger than I thought it was,” said Vin Weber, a GOP strategist and former member of the House GOP leadership.

                      He cited reports Trump has put together a more professional campaign operation than what he had previously.

                      “If those articles are true, then Trump is running a very different campaign than he ran in 2016 or 2020. A formidable campaign with a disciplined candidate and 15-point lead in the polls today is more important than just a 15-point lead in the polls,” he said.

                      Weber said “whatever doubts people may have about Trump’s inevitability … that should not be confused with a presumption that he’s not going to win.”

                      “I think the Republicans that proceed on the assumption that Donald Trump will not be our candidate are taking a huge risk,” he added.

                      Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), who has criticized Trump from time to time and faced the former president’s wrath as a result, acknowledged Monday Trump still has a good chance of winning the party’s presidential nomination.

                      “I think it’s possible he could be the nominee but I also think there are other people who could be the nominee. It’s very early on. The field isn’t even close to being set,” he said.

                      Asked if he is surprised by Trump’s political resilience, Thune responded, “he’s got a very loyal, hardcore base of support and the other candidates aren’t that well known yet.”

                      Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, said national polls don’t necessarily reflect how Trump will do in individual state contests — but the polling shows he could do well if GOP votes are split among many candidates.

                      “National polls don’t mean to much,” he said. “I just don’t think we know who’s going to be in contention. If there are a lot of people running, that probably will benefit President Trump.”

                      One Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the GOP presidential primary pointed out that Trump has maintained a solid lead among white working-class conservative voters who don’t have college degrees.

                      “DeSantis’s problem is this: Trump still has self-identified very conservative primary voters and working-class voters, folks who don’t have a four-year college degree. He has really substantial leads among those folks,” the senator said.


                      “When you break down DeSantis’s support, it’s almost from self-identified moderates and then Never-Trumpers, which is fine but you’re not going to win a primary with that. So he’s got to make some inroads,” the senator added.

                      The Fox poll found Trump beating DeSantis by double digits among white Republican voters without a college degree, primary voters earning less than $50,000, white rural voters and white evangelical voters.

                      DeSantis led Trump 37 percent to 30 percent among white GOP voters with college degrees and they were virtually tied among suburban GOP voters, according to the survey.

                      NBC News reported Monday that DeSantis will skip the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland this week, a large annual gathering of conservative activists.

                      “It’s clear that Trump is the front-runner and Republicans in Washington need to get used to that idea,” Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide, said.

                      “The Fox News poll does indicate that Ron DeSantis is a very strong candidate but that’s it. None of the other candidates are showing the strength to challenge Trump,” he said. “Right now, the race is Donald Trump’s to lose.

                      “If you’re [New Hampshire Gov.] Chris Sununu or [former Maryland Gov.] Larry Hogan or [former South Carolina Gov.] Nikki Haley, these polls are not good news for you,” he added.

                      Darling said Trump’s critics in the party establishment are feeling heartburn over the former president’s popularity with GOP voters.

                      “He is showing more strength as he gets more active which should give the congressional delegation of Never Trumpers some pause,” he added. “He’s always going to have that very strong base of support.”

                      But Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was one of seven Senate Republicans to vote to convict Trump on an impeachment charge related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said he still doesn’t think the former president can win a general election.

                      “The issue is, ‘Can he win?’ and I don’t think he can,” he said. “Under President Trump, we lost the House, we lost the presidency and then we lost the Senate.”

                      Cassidy attributed Trump’s lead in the polls to name recognition but emphasized “ultimately it comes down to, ‘Can you win?’ and over six years we’ve learned no.”

                      Still, the Fox poll is the latest of a long string of national polls showing Trump with a comfortable lead over DeSantis, despite an unceasing flood of unflattering media reports about Trump’s legal problems and jabs from former members of his inner circle, such as former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

                      Trump has a comfortable 13-point lead over DeSantis in the national polling average calculated by RealClearPolitics.com.

                      A Harvard Center for American Political Studies—Harris Poll survey of 1,838 registered voters last month showed Trump ahead of DeSantis by 23 points while a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump with a 12-point lead over DeSantis in early February.

                      Jim McLaughlin, Trump’s pollster, said polls are “consistent” in showing that Trump is the clear front-runner for the nomination.

                      “President Trump’s unique selling point is he has the ability to say, ‘You know all these problems you have right now, whether it’s the economy, it’s inflation, it’s immigration, it’s war and peace? I solved all this stuff, we didn’t have those problems.’ Every day he looks better and better versus Joe Biden,” he said.

                      McLaughlin said “one of the reasons DeSantis has the popularity that he has is because he’s viewed as Donald Trump,” pointing to the tough-guy approach DeSantis has taken with the media and other liberal causes as well as Trump’s pivotal endorsement of DeSantis in the 2018 Florida governor’s race.

                      Explaining Trump’s greater popularity among Republican base voters including non-college educated White, evangelical and rural voters, McLaughlin said “it’s like why would want to go to Trump-lite, which is what they view DeSantis as, when I can get the real thing in Donald Trump.”

                      “It’s the old Coke versus New Coke, people want their old Coke,” he added. “They look at Trump and said he did this stuff, he solved these problems.”
                      __________
                      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                      Comment


                      • Opinion
                        Ron DeSantis stands no chance against a political barbarian like Donald Trump


                        There is one thing, and one thing only, I like about former President Donald Trump: He’s going to make Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political life absolutely miserable.

                        Trump is already a GOP presidential candidate, and all signs point to DeSantis, the Sunshine State’s pugilistic, anti-woke warrior toad, soon becoming the former president’s main competition in the race.

                        That’s where things get funny. DeSantis has leveraged a meanness borne of right-wing buzzwords to make a national name for himself, at least in Republican circles. His words drip with disdain as he “owns the libs” and panders to those who view things like “diversity” and “inclusion” as profane concepts.

                        But for all his bluster and right-wing celebrity, for all the boxes he checks on the MAGA-purity checklist, there’s this reality: Trump is going to eat DeSantis’ lunch, stuff the lunch bag in his mouth and leave him pantsed and bawling on the political playground.

                        Polls show Trump's continued grip on the Republican Party

                        A wave of recent polls showed that Trump – the oafish man who has brought the GOP a string of electoral losses – saw his lead over DeSantis surge in February. An Emerson College poll shows Trump with a massive 30-point lead over DeSantis, with support for the Florida governor dropping 4 percentage points from January’s numbers.

                        A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll pitting Trump in a head-to-head primary against DeSantis gives Trump an 8-point lead over the Florida governor, which is a 12-point swing from an early February poll by the same group that showed DeSantis up 4 percentage points over Trump.


                        Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for president for the third time at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 15, 2022.

                        In a recent poll from Echelon Insights, a GOP polling firm, Trump is trouncing DeSantis by 15 points after only leading by 2 points in January. And in a new Fox News poll, Republican primary voters favored Trump over DeSantis 43% to 28%.

                        DeSantis can make all the right moves, but Trump just needs a mean nickname or two to win

                        This Trump-heavy swing happened while DeSantis was making what are theoretically all the right moves to win over the GOP base. He has been attacking Disney, making life difficult for Florida teachers, combatting diversity in state colleges and generally doing what one does to court voters who survive on a steady diet of Fox News and conspiratorial Facebook memes.


                        President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in happier times.

                        What has Trump been doing? LOL! He has largely been sitting around Mar-a-Lago sending unhinged missives on Truth Social, his sad social media site, and tinkering with mean nicknames for DeSantis, including, but not limited to, “Meatball Ron.”

                        This is the conundrum for DeSantis and anyone else toying with a run at the GOP presidential nomination. You can do all the things you think a presidential candidate should do, and none of it will matter, because at the end of the day, you have to face off with the political equivalent of a rabid badger on bath salts. There is no “too low” in Trump’s vocabulary, and there is no “too far” in the lengths he’ll go to degrade, dehumanize and destroy an opponent.

                        'RINO Ron DeSATANis!!'

                        DeSantis just released a book. He recently traveled to give tough-on-crime speeches to police unions in New York and Chicago. This week he had an 850-word op-ed in the conservative Wall Street Journal that included seven uses of the word “woke,” two uses of the word “militant,” one “leftist,” one “cultural Marxism” and one “fringe left.”

                        But all Trump has to do is step away from the waffle bar at his golf resort for 10 seconds and tweet something like “RINO Ron DeSATANis” to make his poll numbers shoot up 5 points.


                        Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse on Jan. 28 in Columbia, South Carolina.

                        Such is the monster the GOP created. Some wealthy donors and non-MAGA conservatives still hope against hope that Trump’s base of voters will wake up and abandon their toxic idol.

                        That’s not going to happen. Trump is being investigated six different ways to Sunday, he continues to spout dangerous election conspiracy theories and his every utterance on Truth Social should disqualify him from ever holding a position of power. But his supporters only consume media that holds Trump out as the greatest president in American history, so his flaws, which are legion, are wholly irrelevant.

                        Can I pay someone in this Florida diner to support Ron DeSantis, please?

                        Fox News host Brian Kilmeade recently visited a diner in Florida and walked around asking customers who they want to be the GOP presidential candidate, and person after person after person said, “Donald Trump.” One woman wearing a DeSantis T-shirt said she favors the governor but is “either/or” between him and Trump. And that’s in DeSantis’ home state!


                        Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announces tax relief in Ocala on Feb. 8, 2023. He also wanted to eliminate more of Disney’s privileges by revoking Disney World’s designation as a special tax district.

                        Trump could get indicted, but would it matter?
                        Plenty can happen between now and the primaries, of course. Trump could get indicted, though I don’t know if even that would stop him. In the upside-down world of the GOP, it might help.

                        But the idea that Trump’s followers will abandon him en masse? Anyone paying attention knows that’s not happening.

                        Trump is a political barbarian. He’ll either win his party’s nomination or he’ll tear down everything around him in the process. And either way, he’s going to pound DeSantis’ political dreams to dust.

                        And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like that.
                        _________

                        I would've sworn that I'd written this
                        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                        Comment


                        • Trump Says Vote For Him In 2024 To Fund ‘Freedom Cities’ And Flying Cars

                          With his third presidential bid underway, former President Donald Trump painted a grandiose picture of what the country could look like if voters gave him another chance ― and it wasn’t too dissimilar from “The Jetsons.”

                          By the time the first Trump administration concluded, the country was left reeling from an unprecedented, violent attack on the Capitol and a deadly pandemic.

                          But a second Trump administration would bring “a quantum leap in the American standard of living,” Trump said, with brand-new cities, another baby boom and a push to develop flying vehicles.

                          “Past generations of Americans pursued big dreams and daring projects that once seemed absolutely impossible,” he began a new four-minute campaign video posted to Truth Social, the Twitter knockoff he launched after being booted from mainstream social media for refusing to stop spreading misinformation.

                          Trump proposed a contest to develop 10 new cities on federal land nationwide, nicknamed “Freedom Cities.” Grants would apparently be awarded to those who came up with the best city plans, although Trump offered almost zero specific details.

                          The Freedom Cities would “reopen the frontier” by giving “hundreds of thousands of young people and other people” a chance to buy new homes and new cars, which would somehow also be cheaper.


                          Meanwhile, he claimed plans to push American companies to outmaneuver their Chinese counterparts in developing “vertical takeoff and landing vehicles for families and individuals.” While such vehicles are in development, they are not widely viewed as being close to market.

                          Trump also claimed he would ask Congress to support a “baby bonus” to encourage a new baby boom, presumably to populate the new Freedom Cities, even though proposals to support parents of young children have already faced staunch and widespread opposition from Republicans.

                          Lastly, Trump spoke of efforts to beautify the country, saying that he would challenge governors nationwide to get “rid of ugly buildings,” revitalize parks and ensure “a pristine environment” that features “towering monuments to our true American heroes.”

                          He took a moment to praise local police, saying, “They will do the job the way they have to.”

                          Trump’s ability to cinch the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, however, is far from certain.
                          ______

                          Dear god...it just keeps getting worse
                          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                          Comment


                          • I want my flying car and I want it armed!
                            If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Monash View Post
                              I want my flying car and I want it armed!
                              Only one catch: You'll have to live in a "freedom" city

                              Caveat emptor
                              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                              Comment


                              • Trump’s Threat of a Third-Party Run Is Undercut by ‘Sore Loser’ Laws

                                (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump hates losing so much that he has suggested he will mount a third-party campaign if he doesn’t win the Republican presidential nomination.

                                But he can’t win that way either, thanks to “sore loser” laws in six states he would need to return to the White House.

                                Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as Arkansas and Alabama, have laws that bar a candidate defeated in a major-party primary from running as an independent or on a third-party ticket in the general election. That would put Trump at the general-election starting gate with a deficit of 91 electoral votes of the 270 required to capture the White House.

                                Trump has flirted since 2016 with running for president on a third-party ticket or as an independent if he loses the GOP nomination. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said she hopes to require candidates to sign a pledge to support the GOP nominee as a requirement to participate in primary debates, a similar tactic the RNC used to try to box in Trump in 2016.

                                But any pledge would not be binding. Sore-loser laws would keep Trump’s name from even appearing on the ballot, although voters could still write him in.

                                A third major candidate on a presidential ballot poses problems for the Republican or Democratic parties, which dominate US politics, by splitting the votes of similarly minded candidates and handing victory to the opposite candidate, something that has happened a handful of times since the 19th century.

                                Presidential candidates who ran as independents or on a third-party ticket after losing a major-party primary include former President Theodore Roosevelt — also making an attempt to return to office four years after leaving the White House — in 1912, US Representative John Anderson in 1980 and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson in 2012. They all lost.

                                Asked about the risk of an independent run splitting the GOP vote, a Trump campaign spokesperson stated simply that he would win the Republican primary.

                                Trump declined to commit to an RNC pledge to back the presidential nominee, telling reporters during the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday he’d have to think about it because there are “people I wouldn’t be very happy about endorsing.”

                                Trump is generally ahead or roughly tied in early polls with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced if he will run. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who launched her campaign in mid-February, and other potential contenders remain in single digits.

                                In a recent survey by Republican pollster Whit Ayres for The Bulwark, an anti-Trump conservative news outlet, 28% of Republican primary voters said they would back Trump if he ran as an independent in a three-way race with DeSantis and President Joe Biden.

                                That’s the exact situation that sore-loser laws were designed to prevent. Some simply set early deadlines for filing, which makes it hard for candidates to launch such a campaign only after losing a party nomination, to strict bans on appearing on the ballot at all.

                                The laws aren’t always clear on whether they apply to presidential candidates.

                                “These laws have not really been scrutinized or tested because there hasn’t been a significant case like this since John Anderson” in 1980, said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “My guess is if Trump tried this move, there’d be a lot of litigation.”

                                Mark Brown, a law professor at Capital University who has worked on cases involving the laws, said that if Trump mounts a credible third-party candidacy “all bets are off.”

                                Even in states without strict bans, he said getting on the ballot would be a massive undertaking, and Republican officials like secretaries of state and attorneys general wouldn’t be inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

                                “It’s a draining process,” he said. “I know Trump’s wealthy, but it costs a lot of money to navigate, even without the legal challenges which are sure to come.”

                                Still, Trump wouldn’t have to be a viable candidate to have an effect on the race. In 2000, third-party candidate Ralph Nader was only on the ballot in 43 states, but his share of the vote was larger than the margin of victory for George W. Bush in Florida and New Hampshire. A win in either state would have made Democratic nominee Al Gore president.

                                Theresa Amato, Nader’s campaign manager in 2000 and 2004, said tracking election laws in 50 states and the District of Columbia was a massive undertaking for the campaign, lining up everything from volunteer signature gatherers to election law attorneys and presidential electors. The campaign had to put together its own manual on getting on the ballot.

                                “It’s a huge logistical undertaking, and no candidate should underestimate it,” she said.
                                _________

                                An interesting thought exercise but ultimately meaningless because, at this point in time, the nomination is Trump's for the taking.
                                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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