I am tempted by the enema analogy, Trump’s constructive destructive process is clear to all who have eyes to see and wit to understand, but for the following:
- Trumps all out campaigning in 2018 probably saved the Senate for the GOP. The losses in the House were so severe largely due to anti-Trump Republican members of the House deciding to retire en masse.
- In 2020 the Republicans gained 14 seats in the House while Trump was “losing” the Presidency. That rarely happens. One of many factoids that convince me the election was stolen.
- Trump wasn’t on the ballot this time and I think the attempts by many to blame Trump solely for this debacle are ludicrous. The idea that standard issue Republican candidates, rather than Trump backed candidates, would have fared better is unproven. I blame Trump mostly for withholding funds until the end, but McConnell playing games with funding for Trump backed Senate candidates played a significant role in the defeats of some of them.
- Most importantly, the gains in working class and Hispanic and Black votes is almost entirely due to Trump.
Realistically an attempt to deprive Trump of the nomination in 2024 is highly unlikely to succeed. If it did, the nomination would likely be worthless with many Trump voters staying home. Trump’s crassness, pettiness, bloody mindedness and often foolish actions drive me to distraction. However, he is a politician of immense strength, when properly used, and he is the founder of a new and stronger GOP which is still in the process of birth. Republican strategists ignore all of this to the peril of the party. Trump and DeSantis is probably the ticket, with DeSantis given authority over domestic matters by Trump. In effect Trump for President and DeSantis for Prime Minister/Executive Officer. With luck this could lead to twelve years in power for the Republicans, giving both men historic stature in the history of the nation, Getting both to agree to this obvious alliance is the challenge of next year.
Trumps all out campaigning in 2018 probably saved the Senate for the GOP.
But Trump’s “woe is me, what’s the point of voting? They’ll just steal the election again anyway” nonsense after the 2020 election probably lost Georgia and the Senate for the GOP too. A lot of republicans who voted in the general election stayed home for the runoff.
gains in working class and Hispanic and Black votes is almost entirely due to Trump.
It could be argued that the Democrats’ open war against the family and the American dream is what’s driving hispanic voters into the Republican camp.
Getting both to agree to this obvious alliance is the challenge of next year.
Two words: Mike Pence.
Lashing oneself to Trump is political suicide for anyone who thinks for themselves. Besides, what benefit to Trump would DeSantis bring in the ticket? He’s already going to win Florida, and DeSantis campaigning in Pennsylvania and Colorado didn’t help republicans there. Thanks to the MSM, DeSantis’ name is already anathema in every blue and purple household in America.
… Besides, we like our Governor here in Florida, and many of us would like to hang onto him for a full term. We might seem bright red now, but we’re only one or two blue-minded election supervisors away from being the Florida of Bob Graham and walkin’ Lawton Chiles again.
Incisive analysis: The paradox of Trump leadership.
And this:
Blaming Trump for the poor midterm elections omit the fact that many people felt they were voting for Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, both demotivating options.
Without much doubt, mesmerized single women voted for abortion, not against Trump.
Equally mesmerized young people age 18–29 we know now voted +28 probably for the likely-to-be overturned student loan bail-out executive order.
A friend of mine is an escapee from the mad-mullah regime of Iran. Now a legal US citizen sbd voter, he can’t understand why people are anti-Trump and/or arevoting Democrat, essentially cozying up to Iran to give them a nuclear weapon as they murder Iranians in the streets.
I explained that eventually things got so bad under Carter, even Democrats went for Reagan.
He said: “So you mean it has to get so bad, that finally even the stupid people finally figure it out.”
Unfortunately I think that’s the best analysis I’ve found.
The record for Trump backed candidates in 2022 is a lot better than the media is reporting.
It is not the fault of Trump that the Pennsylvania GOP is a pathetic mess. Running a celebrity Muslim with ten houses from New Jersey has shown to be a failure.
DeSantis may not help in California, but saying he won’t help in Pennsylvania is BS. DeSantis’ dad is from Aliquippa, and his mom is from Youngstown. That alone makes him a stronger Republican than anyone in PA. If DeSantis ran an ad with a picture of him as a baby wearing a Steelers bib that might flip Allegheny County.
Trump needs to quit whining about DeSantis and Youngkin and go after the brain dead slug in the White House.
I meant Colorado, not California.
Truthfully, I wish Trump wouldn’t run, but sadly we don’t deserve another stateman like Reagan. And yes, I prefer the crass, uncouth, barbaric, petty, narcissistic, foul-mouthed, womanizing gambler to any godless baby-murdering sodomy-sanctifying Democrat out there.
“Me”
https://www.gocomics.com/chipbok/2022/11/09
“Amazing. People dislike you more than…”
https://www.gocomics.com/michaelramirez/2022/11/11
Let’s have a good person for President, besides having a good politician. Reagan is an example, as was Harry Truman. Does that eliminate Trump? I think so.
I do note for y’all that under the 12th Amendment, Trump and DeSantis can’t be on the same ticket because they’re residents of the same state.
Easily remedied by Trump taking up residence in one of the many states in which he has properties.
as was Harry Truman
Truman often called Republicans fascists and pled poverty after he left the White House which caused the Congress to pass legislation creating a Presidential pension. Truman had actually amassed a fortune from “public service”:
https://www.econlib.org/the-truman-fabrication/
https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=354126086101080089121101101126079127015022034039066089096031004029027005064116067102033025057058114013010096001023099066100002061012033001045106111029103108031024040081077079091001120093000087004081090099112119015121091010095080106123067016026109006&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE
I thought highly of Truman until I looked into his record a bit more closely a few years ago.
Trump has great personal flaws, but I think he is no more worse than a great many presidents, and as president I would rate him the best since Reagan.
I think wasting a talent like DeSantis on a useless office like that of the vice presidency is just that, a waste. Does anyone think Trump would give DeSantis any kind of control over anything? I don’t. Besides, Trump will have probably have burned his bridge with DeSantis so badly a VP slot will be unthinkable.
If Trump runs in 2024, DeSantis should remain governor of Florida serving out the rest of his term and look to 2028.
Trump will be 78 years old in 2024. We’re getting a lesson in having a man of advanced age in that job. Trump himself is phenomenally energetic as we speak. Regrettably, he does have a certain family history and a comparison of Biden in 2016 with Biden today is disquieting.
The other problem is that Trump, while he has good instincts, is not measured or meticulous. This has been trouble ever since we discovered very dubious goings on in vote tabulation in 2020. Everyone of consequence in the Republican Party should have been working on this problem. As far as I can see, McConnell, McCarthy, the staff of the RNC, and the Republican establishment in one state after another were asleep at the wheel and (in Arizona and Georgia) more interested in defending their conduct than in attacking the problem. Trump is a proud and competitive man. This is getting in the way right now.
Does anyone think Trump would give DeSantis any kind of control over anything?
In his businesses Trump was always heavily into delegation. Let us say that DeSantis sits out 2024 and Trump is not elected president. Wouldn’t the same issue exist in 2028 potentially? Trump’s father died when he was 93. Donald Trump could be around for a very, very long time.
DeSantis is also term limited to two terms as governor during any twelve year period.
I think wasting a talent like DeSantis on a useless office like that of the vice presidency is just that, a waste.
Bingo. The semi-elective VP slot should be abolished. Ditto the Lt. Governor’s position in every state and territory. Appointed lieutenants, assigned to supervise portfolios of departments and agencies assembled at the chief executive’s discretion, might be of use. The current office is a horrible 5th wheel. It has allowed some career legislators to observe the goings on in the executive branch. Didn’t help Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon much; both proved to be lousy executives even though they knew where the red phone was located.
Trump looks to yes men. DeSantis is not a yes man.
Trump’s father died when he was 93. Donald Trump could be around for a very, very long time.
Mother lived to be 88, father 93. Problem in re father was that he was non compos mentis for the last eight years of his life. Note also that Fred Trump was the outlier among his siblings; his sister died at 57 and brother at 78. Friedrich and Elisabeth Trump produced eight grandchildren, born over a period of 17 years; eight are now deceased, among them five of the six grandsons.
“five are now deceased”.
Trump’s longevity has doubtless been helped by the fact that he doesn’t drink or smoke.
Trump doesn’t drink or smoke, but he’s overweight and eats like a trash panda. Those two things catch up to a man his age pretty quick.
Trump likes his junk food, but at six foot two and 244 pounds I would say he is managing it well at his age.
Doesn’t character matter?
Character always matters but one needs to take a broad look at it. Romney has been a good husband and father, but I think he is a man of bad character for his political action and his many issue reversals.
Politics is also the art of comparison. I would rate Trump of better character than Clinton or Biden.
Romney has been a good husband and father, but I think he is a man of bad character for his political action and his many issue reversals.
Reminds one of Richard Nixon, whose family life was untroubled but whose public career would be hard to defend in sum.
Politics is also the art of comparison. I would rate Trump of better character than Clinton or Biden.
I have a suspicion that if there’s an honest man left in the American history racket, composing a history of the Biden family will be a slog.
A capable forensic accountant needs to review what’s left of the Truman family’s journals and ledgers. I seem to recall David McCullough, who may have known more about Truman than any other man alive, presented him as the man who played piano in the whorehouse of Kansas City politics but never went up the stairs.
Trump has an easily bruised ego, a big mouth and an inability to “keep it in”. As character goes, almost all of the prominent Democrats are of bad character, greedy in obtaining and wielding power, lie like a rug and use hypocrisy as a tool in the toolbox. Their voters and the media do not care.
Pelosi is a vile human being. I could go on.
I seem to recall David McCullough, who may have known more about Truman than any other man alive, presented him as the man who played piano in the whorehouse of Kansas City politics but never went up the stairs.
McCullough made the mistake of taking Truman’s statements regarding his money at face value. He was in plentiful company in that regard. Truman ran a successful con that he was virtually penniless after his Presidency which endured for almost 45 years after his death. Merle Miller wrote a popular bio of Truman, Plain Spoken, in 1974 which was fact free hagiography and set up Truman as a man of the people saint as opposed to the evil Nixon. This was followed by a horde of television movies which cemented this image in the minds of the public. Truman is an interesting figure, and did have a fair number of solid accomplishments, especially in foreign affairs, but there were good reasons why he was an immensely unpopular figure when he left office in 1953 and the scholarship on him remains both plentiful and distinctly subpar.
In any event, 24 is Trump’s last hurrah, especially if he runs and loses. That being said, if there’s anyone who can prove that wrong, it’s Trump.
That being said, if there’s anyone who can prove that wrong, it’s Trump.
🙂
I think Trump deserves some credit for the 2018 senate, but nowhere near as much as the Democrats do, courtesy of the Kavanaugh hearings.
As for Trump, I think my son said it best. When you turn to the Joker to defeat the mob, the most you can hope for is a defeated mob with you left stuck with the Joker. Trump’s willingness to torch anyone in his path – including his own supporters – is a strong argument against him.
“Trump’s willingness to torch anyone in his path – including his own supporters – is a strong argument against him.” Good shot, Dave G
I think my son said it best. When you turn to the Joker to defeat the mob, the most you can hope for is a defeated mob with you left stuck with the Joker.
On policy this Joker achieved conservative goals that had eluded better spoken conservatives for generations. Too often we were led by fake conservatives like the Bushes. I am glad we had Joker Trump.
First pro-life activist president. Our Catholic in name only archbishops, cardinals and pope wouldn’t give Trump credit. Not one single public Atta Boy as I recall
I am glad we had Joker Trump.
If that were the case, it wouldn’t be a problem. I think he did some mighty good things. Problem is, we still have the Joker Trump. And it looks like he would do anything – even destroy the possibility of building on what he accomplished – if we fail to give him what he wants.
And it looks like he would do anything – even destroy the possibility of building on what he accomplished – if we fail to give him what he wants.
We’ll see. Trump is a born deal maker. A lot of what he says is for effect leading up to a deal. For all I know Trump may not want to be President again. I have never believed that Trump is always playing 5th dimensional chess, but the path between a and b is rarely a straight line trip for Trump.
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