People are gonna find out he is more Wondo than Lando when he hits the national stage. He is in a good situation, but those debates and attacks are gonna crush him. He couldn't even handle Charlie Criss, ffs. @The Jitty Slitter in my rugby chatroom, I used more Sam Broomhall than Kieran Reid.
Reported for the outrageous personal attack on all San Jose fans everywhere. You're not wrong about DeSantis. Nobody has beaten Trump in a Republican vote since the beginning of 2016. When the votes start coming in and Trump is still in charge, Republicans will line up behind Trump's criminal ass and drop DeSantis like last week's diaper.
I apologize to all quakes and earthquake fans. I just could not think of a player who was really benefited from a system but was not that good of a player and was exposed on a higher level. Best I could do was AJ Wood at Virginia and AJ Wood at Red Bulls. But nobody would get that.
Bulwark have been going on about this a lot. Rhonda doesn't even mention Trump by name. Whereas Trump is going round called Rhonda a RINO. At some point a republican will have to show some balls and make the case against Trump. I do agree with their argument that there is one big difference to '16. Back then, the GOP elites and candidates assumed Trump would implode and didn't want to go head to head with him. This enabled him to build his support before anyone started making a case against him. e.g Wilson details how the big donors behind Jeb/Cruz etc didn't want to neg Trump because they worried he would use his "billionaire money" against their candidate. I don't think that can happen this time - they will realise they have to take Trump down at the start because he has a solid 30% base of always trump voters Trump's real leverage is his own personal base. Even if it is just 10% of voters, that is fatal to a GOP candidate. Pfeiffer argues the easiest play for Trump, if he is in trouble, is to threaten to blow everything up. Not do an indy run (hard work), but just sabotage the eventual GOP candidate by telling his base not to vote for them. I think he will do this, because once there is a GOP nominee who is not Trump, the grift is over. He has to keep those people loyal to him. Longwell's focus groups and polling support this idea. There is a hardcore base Trump voter who does not like the GOP.
Yep, Trump's trump card is the indy threat. He doesn't care if doing so would cripple the GOP, because cares nothing for his alleged party members. He is unlike Don Corleone is being utterly disloyal. And that is an effective threat, because Republican honchos know that treachery is indeed in his nature.
Can’t wait for the menstrual cycle enforcement centres! It’s gonna be real cool when DeSantis is president and brings his freakshow fascism nationwide and the AP finds itself at pains to insist that DeSantis did NOT actually create a forced birthing compound called Gilead, because the order was written by his HHS secretary. https://t.co/emWtadTako— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) February 4, 2023
I'd say kneecap DeSatan now by digging into the usual Republican financial crimes that he's surely doing. But we know Merrick couldn't be bothered.
The ptowith that is...? *signed Galaxy fan.* I'm not sold on this, at least up front. There is a lot of polling/reporting that many Rs don't want Trump around. And some reporters are questioning his energy level, which in his case is necessary. The problem is that everybody else is a mimic of him. Noem, Hailey, Rhonda, are all similar to him. Personally, I'm looking at Noem as it has become fairly clear Rhonda can't do well off the stage.
But you are asking voters to vote for caffeine free diet coke as opposed to Coke. All these guys came to prominence riding his coattails so I don't see how they're going to attack him or really be able to differentiate themselves and say I'm the guy you want to vote for. Only way that's done is you take on the Alpha but they are all too beta cucks and simps (their verbage) to do so. That is why he will win.
If anyone has time, this is a fascinating interview with Tim Miller on the offline podcast - exploring the MAGA extended universe of grifters, influencers and whackjobs who will make up an invisible media primary. tldr, the likes of RDS will mostly campaign in MAGAverse media which normies like us are unaware of. Sure we've heard of the big ones like Bannon, Ben Shapiro and Candace, but there is also a vast number of tier 2 grifters who have big audiences that Tim has been discovering. One reason this is quite dangerous is the mainstream media is quite oblivious to what is going on in the 'real primary' - especially the extremism.
Tim has some interesting points about the primary The GOP has learned nothing from its '22 setbacks. e.g 8% of registered republicans voted for Katie Hill. RDS has the magic fairy dust that will fix these problems - no need to learn anything. Biggest issues in MAGAverse are the Woke Culture Wars and COVID. Seems bizarre but there it is! One reason is that an issue where RDS and Trump can attack each other is Covid response and vaccines. They agree on almost everything else (e.g fascism). Republicans exist in their own media bubble these days - this is seen most clearly with the Lake campaign which spectacularly failed to address moderate voters and independents. But in the primary none of this matters, so RDS is mostly focussed on the vast array of grifters and whackjob media that make up the extended MAGAverse. "No one cares what Rich Lowry thinks" Trump is quite weak, but everyone has a foot in both camps. Trump is their favourite president but they want someone who can win. One strangeness here is both candidates are claiming to be the outsider. RDS is backed by the GOP elites and is a GOP governor LOL. But he is going to clean up the swamp. Turmp is the only real outsider (his '16 greatest hits) and now calls RDS a RINO. But Trump also has to run on his record of 'great achievements'
They also talked about how Mark Kelly won pretty handily just being a normal human, AND an astronaut, in contrast to weirdo Blake Masters. They think this is the strategy: point out just how weird these MAGA GOP candidates are. I kinda think that makes sense. Youngkin got in by deceiving the middle that he wasn't a cray-cray. Fetterman won over "crudite" Oz. Etc..... Obviously, it's more than just that, but there's a good chunk of voters that just don't pay that much attention and vote on how they feel about the party and/or candidate, issues aside.
Yes - in fact IIRC Youngkin was a stitch up as well - didn't the party game the primary to make sure no cray cray candidate could win the nom?
Miller has developed some interesting insights after he went down the cray hole of the Lake campaign and the most recent CPAC. I think it's a big issue that the MSM don't cover what is really happening in the MAGAverse
Self immolation, no doubt. They aren't outright covering it in the MSM, but they sure are following their lead in setting the narrative.
This is very clear from the House leadership cluster********. But it has also been pretty widely noted, from Vox to WaPo to NPR to Bulwark. Well, according to the polls of Reps, he might. It is bizarre that Trump is attacking Rhonda being pro-vaccine and school/business closures. This is really bizarre. Really. Trump is not doing well at all, and clearly there is a mental decline (I keep thinking about his dad having Alzheimer's). If he gets the nom, he will get crushed. But he has become the cult leader, the favorite neighbor, the mailman, the guy you want at your barbeque, the guy you want to take to the ballgame rather than your kid or spouse. But you know he's going to lose. One thing I think we need to understand is that to be a proper conservative/Republican, you need to do it the way Trump does it. Everybody else is a RINO.
The cult is completely delusional at this point. As the cult leader, he is the only one capable of winning, and that is true for about half the GQP base. The other half would prefer someone more conventional, but will vote for him anyways. The non-MAGA politicians know that he's too toxic and that he won't win, but they cannot risk saying so, because then they will be primaried. It's a really weird world where most victories are achieved by substraction, and more in spite off than because off...