US Presidential Election 2024

[Puff Daddy]

I wish Meghan Markle would throw her hat in the ring. I think she would walk it, if she did

[The Old Man of Storr]

I wish Meghan Markle would throw her hat in the ring. I think she would walk it, if she did

After listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Laura Kuennsberg Show on Sunday I think there's only one man for the job - he'd make a brilliant President .

[Cuenca 'ammer]

wouldn't qualify me old mucker.

gotta be BORN IN THE U.S.A. (or one of it's territories or in an US Embassy someplace...)

[Puff Daddy]

After listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Laura Kuennsberg Show on Sunday I think there's only one man for the job - he'd make a brilliant President .

Born in Austria , so that automatically rules him out of contention, but I agree, very impressive

[WCpete]

No disrespect Pete, but we should ALL be independent when it comes to every election, shouldn't we?

You're not being disrespectful. That's certainly how I've approached elections in terms of casting actual individual votes, but it isn't how most people approach elections in terms of supporting platforms. The purpose for belonging to one party or another has increasingly become to prevent the other from becoming the decision makers. People walk in to polling stations having no idea who the candidates are or what the initiatives are and simply vote red or or blue across the ballot because of their affiliation. It doesn't work. When I became a Democrat decades ago, I did so because the party focussed on social and economic inequities and to me donating money to help change laws that affect those disparities was worth while. In hindsight it was naïveté to believe that any political donation would go for any other purpose than funding reelections. The system is completely broken now and even if I vote according to my research and beliefs, my official affiliation to one party or the other means I represent that party in some measure. I don't, so I'm just making that official. It won't make a jot of difference to anyone, but at least I can get off the mailing lists.

[Shabu]

I wish Meghan Markle would throw her hat in the ring. I think she would walk it, if she did

That would be a ****ing nightmare for me.

Anytime something happens with the royals I get white Americans telling me how racist British people are because of the way we treated her.

[WCpete]

I don't know how you work with the public Shabu. They just keep getting weirder and weirder. I'm grateful to be absconded in my little home office.

[Shabu]

It appears that right wing donors are starting to get fed up with Ron DeSantis & instead are shifting their attention towards Tim Scott, a black senator from North Carolina who actually shares a lot of the same views as DeSantis but hasn't yet been a dick about it.

He is pro life, anti same sex marriage & believes in more drilling & things that are going to keep messing up the environment & climate.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/1 ... t-00106062

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... n-of-color

Soon, Cook would find out. Her water had indeed broken early, and there was no stitch that could reverse it. In the next 48 hours, she would deliver and her fetus would not survive.

Cook would be sent home, to deliver on her own. Because the doctors could still see a fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound, she couldn’t have an abortion, even though they knew 16 weeks was too early for it to survive. And because Cook was not yet in a life-threatening situation, the doctors couldn’t intervene to save her.

Cook left the hospital certain of her fate that evening. After scouring the internet to learn about PPROM – preterm premature rupture of the membranes – she was sure she was going to die: complications from PPROM can include serious infection and hemorrhage.

Cook booked an appointment at the salon the next morning to have her hair done, ready for her casket. She and Derick argued all the way there. He couldn’t believe she was giving up.

Cook delivered her daughter, who she named Bunny, a few hours later, in the salon toilet. In the small, sterile-smelling room, she sat on the toilet with Derick between her legs, and tried to direct him, telling him to remove the cord and help her deliver her placenta, based on things she had seen on TV.

That woman might never be able to have kids now due to policy every Republican candidate supports. Should be thrown back in their faces at every stop on the campaign trail for the next 18 months.

[last.caress]

Genuine question for Peter, Shabs, Bitter Iron-y and our other brethren stationed in the colonies: Are there any... like, ANY decent or even half-decent republicans who might be serious contenders for the GOP presidential nomination? Any who you'd think, "Yeah, I'd be okay with that guy/gal if they took the White House; I could live with that one"? They can't all be Trump-lites or God-squad weirdos, can they? Or can they?

With Joe "The Dustiest Cobweb" Biden in the opposite corner, it's all rather depressing.

[Shabu]

I don't know politics that well but it feels like John McCain was the last decent one.

[bitter-iron-ny]

Genuine question for Peter, Shabs, Bitter Iron-y and our other brethren stationed in the colonies: Are there any... like, ANY decent or even half-decent republicans who might be serious contenders for the GOP presidential nomination? Any who you'd think, "Yeah, I'd be okay with that guy/gal if they took the White House; I could live with that one"? They can't all be Trump-lites or God-squad weirdos, can they? Or can they?

With Joe "The Dustiest Cobweb" Biden in the opposite corner, it's all rather depressing.

Haven't read through the thread, but just on this post you cover two different topics.

First is the idea that a second Biden term is something to be depressed about. Why? Because of his age? Substantively, the country has been incredibly functional, economy heading in the right direction, major pieces of legislation being enacted even with a Republican majority in the House. The wafer-thin analysis and obsession on flimsy peripheral nonsensical headlines of the day should not be determinative, although obviously it shapes perceptions, fairly or unfairly. Mostly the latter.

But your main point is about the Republican Party. Barring a conviction (unlikely given the speed with which the wheels of justice turn) or a major health issue, Trump will be their nominee. The GOP of 10 years ago no longer exists. There is very little in the way of philosophical or policy underpinning to the party, it's all a cult of personality. Unless you live in the alternate universe of election denial and worship at the altar of Trump, you have no chance of prevailing in the Republican primary. Most of those in the race are vying for the vice-presidency or a cabinet position should Trump manage to pull it off. The purported acceptable alternative to Trump was Desantis, but that was just the monied interests who finance GOP candidates wanting someone less polarizing than the Trumper. But that's not who votes. For the MAGA base, why would they want an alternative to Trump when they can have the real thing? Who Trump is and what he stands for is probably better left for the Trump thread. But in terms of electoral politics, the Republican Party has no alternative. They are the party of Trump. They can't win with him and they can't win without him. Actually, they can win with him, but it involves an underhanded strategy that includes stealth funding of independent spoiler candidates who siphon away enough votes in the general election to influence the outcome in a few swing states. It's a strategy that is already well underway with the candidacy of RFK Jr, who is a total loon but has name recognition. That, or trying (again) to simply invalidate the election at the state level and have a Republican majority Congress just declare Trump the winner.

[Loftyhammer]

Thanks Bitter Iron Ny...interesting stuff. Any thoughts on who Dems would want to get the Rep nomination? Always got the impression they'd rather it was Trump given how divisive he would be for non-MAGA or swing voters?

[YGNB]

Trump will surely win this? Of course Trump will be the age that Biden was at the last election (When Trump said Biden was too old)

If Biden were 10 years younger he'd probably have it in the bag

[Loftyhammer]

Trump will surely win this? Of course Trump will be the age that Biden was at the last election (When Trump said Biden was too old)

If Biden were 10 years younger he'd probably have it in the bag

YOu mean win the whole election? What makes you so sure? Not a dig btw...just interested

[bitter-iron-ny]

Thanks Bitter Iron Ny...interesting stuff. Any thoughts on who Dems would want to get the Rep nomination? Always got the impression they'd rather it was Trump given how divisive he would be for non-MAGA or swing voters?

Only debate among Dems is who would be a worse president, Trump or Desantis.

The GOP is very much a minority party and cannot compete nationally without a significant majority of independents breaking their way. But also, they can't win without the MAGA hardcores turning up to vote.

Trump has become toxic with the majority of independents and even moderate Republicans, to the limited extent they still exist, for obvious reasons. Desantis, while claiming to be a more palatable version of Trump, has taken a somewhat different tact, one that isn't working as his poll numbers crater. He is trying to relying on being a culture warrior to fire up primary voters, taking extreme reactionary positions on a number of social issues. That is not what worked for Trump. In 2016, Trump relied on a xenophobic economic populism to expand the Republican base, bringing in a number of non-college educated white working class voters who had previously tended to vote blue. For a lot of those folks, they are MAGA not Republicans, and want no part of the GOP field. If Trump isn't on the ballot in November 2024, they're not showing up. The GOP establishment have chosen to continue with the Trump kool-aid and hope that somehow everyone falls in line and that independents break their way (or that something else happens to muddy the waters) rather than consider Desantis or some other candidate who won't be acceptable to the MAGA base.

Democrats are more worried about stalking horses like RFK Jr. (being packaged as a centrist alternative) or Cornell West (far left fringe) getting boosted to a degree that they siphon significant general election votes than they are the GOP's circular firing squad.

[Dimension Diver]

RFK Junior is possibly the most mentally unstable major US presidential candidate in anyone's lifetime.

[Plashet Grove Pete]

He's got fewer brain cells than his uncle had after the drive down Dealey Plaza.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

RFK Junior is possibly the most mentally unstable major US presidential candidate in anyone's lifetime.

Well how the f*** did I catch it twice then?? I knew only being half a chosen person was going to come back bite me some day

[bitter-iron-ny]

RFK Junior is possibly the most mentally unstable major US presidential candidate in anyone's lifetime.

He's seriously not well. A couple weeks ago, those who want to boost him (Fox, etc.) were hyping a clip of him doing pushups shirtless. Not a huge leap to speculate about steroid use. He's a sad figure whose family feels he needs help.

Other election shenanigans worth mentioning is the very inorganic emergence of the "No Labels" supposedly centrist movement. It's funded by some notorious benefactors who have little interest in achieving centrist policy aims. Who are these people? Plenty of background on these threads:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1669 ... 61249.html
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1670 ... 15616.html