2024 Presidential race

[Mori Chu]

I didn't want to make a thread for this. Roy Wood Jr's comedy set at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner last night. Some funny lines, though not as great as some of the memorable ones from the past.

[Superbone]

Ha.

[Mori Chu]

Ron DeSantis announced his Presidential campaign today on Twitter. It had some technical glitches.

[specialsauce]

Is there a reason they’d siphon more Democrat votes than Republican votes?

Yes; the theory is that Biden beat Trump in '20 because most independent and moderate voters went for him. And, a decent subset of Republican voters found Trump distasteful and reluctantly voted for Biden. If there is a 3rd party candidate who seems "moderate" and isn't a Democrat, a lot of the aforementioned folks might vote for them. But that ends up being a lot of folks who voted for Biden in '20, so it hurts him more.

Of course that might turn out to be false, but I think there has been some polling to indicate this kind of thinking.

Well then Dems should get serious about putting out a candidate that isn’t basically just a wax figure at this point. It’s beyond obvious Biden has dementia

[specialsauce]

Is there a reason they’d siphon more Democrat votes than Republican votes?

Yes; the theory is that Biden beat Trump in '20 because most independent and moderate voters went for him. And, a decent subset of Republican voters found Trump distasteful and reluctantly voted for Biden. If there is a 3rd party candidate who seems "moderate" and isn't a Democrat, a lot of the aforementioned folks might vote for them. But that ends up being a lot of folks who voted for Biden in '20, so it hurts him more.

Of course that might turn out to be false, but I think there has been some polling to indicate this kind of thinking.

Well then Dems should get serious about putting out a candidate that isn’t basically just a wax figure at this point. It’s beyond obvious Biden has dementia

[Superbone]

Maybe you should check yourself with the double posts.

[Mori Chu]

A critique of the DeSantis campaign launch. I agree with most of this. Tech issues aside, DeSantis seems overly concerned with "wokeness" and "cancel culture" issues that I'm not sure resonate with most Americans. His solutions to problems mostly seem to involve banning LGBT people and books from being in the public square.

[Nodack]

They are making fun of DeSantis and Musk with that botched campaign rollout. It was technical glitches. They happen. I play at a lot of pretty big corporate party’s that have guys in headsets coordinating the timing of a bunch of different things and 99.9% of them come off without any hitches. I’m pretty sure DeSantis had nothing to do with the technicalities of pulling off the video and audio portions of the day. I am pretty confident that someone got chewed out by DeSantis for their failure. That wouldn’t make want to vote for or against DeSantis any more or less.

The whole GOP party is a no go for me. We have very serious issues to deal with in this country and all they want to talk about is stupid shit. They are on a crusade to turn the US into a White Christian Nationalist country by force if necessary that they have total control over whether they win elections or not and they don’t care if they have to destroy the entire country to achieve their goals it seems. They have the Supreme Court on their side now and they have decided to make the most of it why they can.

We are in a proxy war with Russia who is allied with China, who is running military scenarios taking it our aircraft carriers as we speak. The GOP stance on that? Depends on who you talk to. Some are pro Ukraine and Maga seems to be pro Russia. Trump says he would end the war in one day. And Mexico will pay for the wall. Maga will believe it of course. Anyone with a brain knows it’s all BS. The rest of NATO and Ukraine is having to plan for the scenario if Trump gets elected and the US stops being a supporter of Ukraine and starts becoming an ally of Russia.

Our debt is massive and no party is planning on doing anything about it. The GOP today say they want to do something about it. History tells me they only care about the debt when there is a Dem in the WH. They want to kill anything that helps low income people like food stamps and promote anything that helps rich people like tax breaks. The GOP uses the debt ceiling as a weapon to hurt Dems and already hurt our nations credit the last time they pulled their stupid stunts with it. They didn’t bat an eye raising the debt limit under Trump, which was 100% predictable.

Our health care is still a mess. We almost had Universal health care and the GOP squashed that. Now health care isn’t even an issue anymore for any party it seems.

The internet has become a very scary place that can control people and scam them out of their money. AI is a serious concern for the future. Disinformation has become almost more prevalent than real information. How do we deal with that? What is the GOP or Dem stance on that?

The GOP is focused on putting the Ten Commandments back into the classrooms because they feel the fabric of society has broken down and they think forcing kids to read the Ten Commandments every day will set a good example for them to follow. I think an even better example the GOP could set would be not to anoint a man that makes a mockery of the Ten Commandments every single day as “Gods Chosen One”. Lying, cheating, stealing, coveting thy neighbor’s wife, bragging, etc. is what makes Trump Trump. Does that bother Trumps Christian followers? Not a tiny little bit it seems.

[Mori Chu]

WSJ editorial board comes out against Trump:

[Mori Chu]

I just don't get what these Republican primary candidates are doing. The only way any of them has the slightest chance of winning would be to knock out Trump. But then they completely rally behind him, defend him, say he is being mistreated, etc. How is that going to work? "Wow, he really bent over for Trump and kissed up to him. That's what I want in a leader and President!" ???

Fundamentally there's no way anybody else can win. They have to appeal to Trump's base, if they bash Trump they'll piss off large parts of the party. But you can't appeal to his base any other way than by kissing Trump's ass, because the #1 issue to his base is unabashed fandom and loyalty to Trump himself. I guess they're all just running to be his veep. Except Chris Christie.

[Split T]

Maybe they are hoping he’s in prison and then his base will jump to support them

[Nodack]

Exactly. The weaponization of the DOJ? Trump won and promised Hillary would be in jail. As much as Trump publicly tried to weaponize the DOJ and the FBI, in the end he still failed. Biden and Garland have been trying to stay as far from any investigation into Trump as possible. Democracy is working and Maga is blaming Biden. Trump built his own bed.

The other candidates besides Christy are petrified of Maga.

[Nodack]

DeSantis has been getting pummeled on the right. His quest to be President has seriously fallen flat with the Trump clan. His war on LGBT, Disney and Woke has brought about travel warnings to his state by minorities. He says and does crazy enough stuff that you would think Maga has to take notice. His latest is him saying he will slit throats on his first day of office as President. It seems a little un Presidential to me. The GOP in general seems to be running on the platform of revenge. Elect us and we will slit throats on day one. It’s probably a catchy phase Maga could get into. I am not sure how that plays with the rest of the country.

DeSantis is clearly hoping Trump goes to prison so he can assimilate the Trump clan. He has had to thread the needle and run against him while simultaneously kissing Trumps ass. I think all of the people running against Trump are frothing at the mouth at the thought of Trump being sent to prison because that means one of them becomes the candidate by default. They are also kissing Trumps ass because just in case he wins they want to be in his cabinet and not in his crosshairs.

That brings me to Gavin Newsome. He is the opposite of DeSantis and he and DeSantis have been trading barbs. A Lib from California against a Con from Florida. They should be on the fight card with the Musk and Zuckerberg fight. DeSantis has been avoiding a direct confrontation with Newsome and Newsome has been hounding him to debate. Now that DeSantis stuck in neutral he has decided to accept Newsome’s invitation to debate. Newsome is so bold that he is going to eagerly debate DeSantis on FOX News and moderated by Hannity of all people. Newsome is quietly putting himself in position to be the front runner for President in the event Biden doesn’t or can’t run. As crappy as DeSantis is doing, he is still clearly in second place to Trump in the event Trump doesn’t or can’t run.

I will definitely be watching this debate. Tentatively Nov 8 or 10th.

[virtual9mm]

DeSantis has been getting pummeled on the right. His quest to be President has seriously fallen flat with the Trump clan. His war on LGBT, Disney and Woke has brought about travel warnings to his state by minorities. He says and does crazy enough stuff that you would think Maga has to take notice. His latest is him saying he will slit throats on his first day of office as President. It seems a little un Presidential to me. The GOP in general seems to be running on the platform of revenge. Elect us and we will slit throats on day one. It’s probably a catchy phase Maga could get into. I am not sure how that plays with the rest of the country.

DeSantis is clearly hoping Trump goes to prison so he can assimilate the Trump clan. He has had to thread the needle and run against him while simultaneously kissing Trumps ass. I think all of the people running against Trump are frothing at the mouth at the thought of Trump being sent to prison because that means one of them becomes the candidate by default. They are also kissing Trumps ass because just in case he wins they want to be in his cabinet and not in his crosshairs.

That brings me to Gavin Newsome. He is the opposite of DeSantis and he and DeSantis have been trading barbs. A Lib from California against a Con from Florida. They should be on the fight card with the Musk and Zuckerberg fight. DeSantis has been avoiding a direct confrontation with Newsome and Newsome has been hounding him to debate. Now that DeSantis stuck in neutral he has decided to accept Newsome’s invitation to debate. Newsome is so bold that he is going to eagerly debate DeSantis on FOX News and moderated by Hannity of all people. Newsome is quietly putting himself in position to be the front runner for President in the event Biden doesn’t or can’t run. As crappy as DeSantis is doing, he is still clearly in second place to Trump in the event Trump doesn’t or can’t run.

I will definitely be watching this debate. Tentatively Nov 8 or 10th.

Newsom is a party boy from SF, he used to own the Balboa Cafe, which was known as the place where a fifty year old dude could walk out the door with a twenty year old gold digger or pro. His ex wife went bat shit crazy because of stuff like this and went to bat for the Trumpers. Not to mention the crappy job he has done as governor starting with the debacle at the French Laundry. No thank you.

[Nodack]

I don’t know if that info affects me. He owned Balboa Cafe? It’s a restaurant/bar. There are thousands of restaurant/bars and older men and younger gold diggers can pick up each other at any one of them. His wife didn’t like that men and women could pick up on each other at Balboa Cafe and became a Trump fan because of it? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

I looked up the French Laundry thing. During Covid when everyone was supposed to be distancing themselves, he went to a 12 person dinner with a lobbyist and caught flak for it. Not a good look.

You swayed me slightly v9. The dinner thing was a bad look. The Balboa Cafe/Wife Trump thing didn’t move the needle at all. The crappy job as Gov needs clarification.

[Superbone]

A politician that cheats on his spouse?! Say it isn't so!

[Nodack]

I didn’t see where he cheated on his wife. He said he owned a bar where older men picked up on younger women trying to pick up on older men and his wife didn’t like it.

Edit: I just read where it said he cheated on his wife when he was mayor in 2007. It also said they were already in the middle of a divorce when it happened. I met my 2nd wife when I was separated from my first wife and getting a divorce. My 2nd wife met me when she was separated from her 1st husband and getting a divorce. We have been together 30 years now. We don’t think we are bad people.

[Superbone]

That doesn't sound like cheating to me, 'Dack, and I never made a judgement on people who do. It is quite common in politics and the entertainment industry as well as many other walks of life.

[Nodack]

Trying to find worthy candidates who are squeaky clean is next to impossible. Trump is old and evil. DeSantis is just doing evil things too score points with Maga and is failing . Biden IMO has done a decent job but is ancient. Harris is unliked by most people. I am not sure what kind of President she would be. Something about her bugs me. A VP’s job is to basically stay out of the way so it’s hard to judge from that. I can’t see Trump surviving 4 indictments and becoming President. Biden seems like he is running again. If Harris is the VP still then I can certainly see her becoming the first woman President by default when Biden becomes incapacitated at some point.

Republicans have come out swinging and rules, laws and the Constitution means nothing to them anymore. It’s all about winning at all costs. Newsom has shown he is willing to fight back and for some reason that pleases me. The Dems went a different direction than the Cons. Dems went all in on letting the Constitution, Congress and the legal system deal with the GOP abandoning the US legal system and Democracy. That appears to be working. 2 impeachments and maybe 4 indictments on Trump speaks volumes. Hundreds of Maga sentenced for the Jan 6 coup attempt speaks volumes too. FOX having to shell out 780 million for lying is definitely a statement. As much as the right screams that everything is fake and fraudulent, the wheels of justice keeps rolling along ignoring the noise.

[virtual9mm]

Dack -- you make reasonable points. I don't think I was very clear about my core argument. It's that he's a party boy who puts his having a good time above the needs of the office and the people. He wasn't a great mayor and is a semi-terrible governor. I don't think that California would be the mess it is now had old Jerry Brown still been in office.

To be clear, I don't give a damn what politicians do in their spare time, as long as they're not trying to undermine the Constitution or launching coups. I do care about their effectiveness in office. Newsom is terrible and the country deserves better.