2024 Presidential Election Thread - Let's keep the party going.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19142]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Gen Z women are going to love knowing that the GOP thinks ambition women = whores. Especially the college-aged ones working on actual degrees (not an MRS at Baylor) 

Fuck, it infuriates me and I’m late Gen-X. I bust my ass day in, day out in an industry full of men. Hell, men on this site have told me repeatedly how unhappy my life is because I am unmarried and have no children. The right is going to alienate a shit load of women very quickly. Fuck them all.

1 hour ago, Zonahorn said:

And the media 

 

They thought there would be more drama. This is the problem with for profit media.

1 hour ago, 4th&Five said:

by tossing out a bunch of racist and sexist bullshit.  just like the last 9 years.

It’s a feature of the party.

1 hour ago, Zonahorn said:

 

Holy shit. He is awful.

1 hour ago, TexEx15 said:

Get him in front of ALL the cameras.

Expecting three toes to use rational thought or having even a basic grasp of supply and demand is asking a whole hell of a lot. I love Pete.

58 minutes ago, Zonahorn said:

Look over there MAGA, CARAVANS

Like fucking clockwork.

55 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I don't know. Maybe we should stand back and let these hateful white men keep shooting themselve in the dick until they shoot it completely off.

This DEI hire and calling her a whore vileness almost suggests they're worried about the deplorables not showing up. I don't know why they would think that, but the wishy-washy undeep thinking undecideds won't be attracted to this or they'd already be Magas.

My gut feeling is that these drawling yokels are like right-wingers we all know; they're unjustifiably sure that everbody in the room agrees with them. They, as Brisket said, have lost the storyline. 

Should be an interesting week. If they double down on misogyny and racism regarding Harris, I will be absolutely demoralized should it work.

This. Fuck them.

32 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

My personal favorite was Rex Tillerson calling him a fucking moron. 100% accurate.

Edited July 22 by PenelopeWitherspoon

[Js1 85498]

18 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

On a side note, I'm late to the game how Vance has had 3 last names in his life. The first and second last names being after his biological and then step father. But then took his mother's maiden name at age 30 when he got married. What's the story there? I could understand that perhaps he didn't want his step dad's name but I can't recall ever hearing of someone changing their name at 30.

He is James Donald Bowman.  Apply the same standard as when they deadname trans people. 

[Ted Lange 16113]

1 minute ago, Js1 said:

So we are 1 day + 2 hours since Biden stepped back and Harris has been the de facto nominee and the best the GOP has come up with is "she's a DEI whore hire" and that the DNC should refund the GOP for all their attacks on Biden?

 

Also, she isn't eligible to run (because reasons), Joe didn't really sign (it is forged) his resignation (and doesn't even know that he resigned from running), and she isn't really black.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33884]

1208/1976 delegates needed. over 60% now

[Hank Kingsley 21027]

I mean, is there a better nickname for fake hillbilly JD Vance than "Diet Mountain Dew"? I hope it sticks. Stupid moniker for a stupid asshole. 

 

[Post Oak 20256]

16 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, swraith said:

The pace of events has been absurd.

 

"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen."

[Zonahorn 8079]

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

So we are 1 day + 2 hours since Biden stepped back and Harris has been the de facto nominee and the best the GOP has come up with is "she's a DEI whore hire" and that the DNC should refund the GOP for all their attacks on Biden?

 

The titanic right wing intelligentsia folks

[SimonBolivar 10958]

3 minutes ago, Zonahorn said:

 

It's illegal to eat roadkill? Shit!

[chainsaw 9873]

21 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

McRaven as a possible VP candidate?  On the VP front, the military comparison would be a Marine public affairs corporal vs a 4-star admiral who ran Special Ops. I almost feel sorry for Vance. I'm not taking anything away from Vance but he should feel ashamed if his record was even mentioned in the vicinity of McRaven.

On a side note, I'm late to the game how Vance has had 3 last names in his life. The first and second last names being after his biological and then step father. But then took his mother's maiden name at age 30 when he got married. What's the story there? I could understand that perhaps he didn't want his step dad's name but I can't recall ever hearing of someone changing their name at 30.

Military cred is fool's gold for Dems. Don't squander the opportunity to flip a swing state (or three)

[Js1 85498]

Can't even stay on target

 

[troph 24905]

Just now, Js1 said:

Can't even stay on target

 

something is Paul Ryan's fault...

[Underdog 28765]

Since when has it been illegal to feast on roadkill?  

Edited July 22 by Underdog

[Hank Kingsley 21027]

 

[Js1 85498]

6 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

1208/1976 delegates needed. over 60% now

She's retaining 96% of delegates who have pledged - 1208 Kamala, 56 undecided. 

Iowa living up to its name - 8 pledged to Kamala, 11 undecided.  Idiots out walking around

[MissingInAction 25167]

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Can't even stay on target

 

[The Dog 44108]

4 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Can't even stay on target

 

yeah he's having really bad day:

 

[Ted Lange 16113]

What are the chances that Vance is still the VP candidate by month's end?  50/50?   

[TexArcher 38006]

9 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Hell, men on this site have told me repeatedly hoe unhappy my life is because I am unmarried and have no children.

 

I'm unmarried with no children, and it's fucking magnificent.

Scrape 'em off...

 

[SydneyCarton 48149]

4 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Since when has it been illegal to feast on roadkill?  

Well, most of that roadkill were actually people they hit with their cars, so...

[Bateshorn 9929]

1 minute ago, Ted Lange said:

What are the chances that Vance is still the VP candidate by month's end?  50/50?   

He's on the ticket unless he resigns.  VP is the only person Trump can't fire. 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33884]

1 minute ago, Ted Lange said:

What are the chances that Vance is still the VP candidate by month's end?  50/50?   

had this same thought earlier. maybe too late?

[Js1 85498]

Just now, Ted Lange said:

What are the chances that Vance is still the VP candidate by month's end?  50/50?   

Is anyone surprised Don Jr's pick fucking sucked?  He's probably Don Jr's oxy hookup. 

There's a reason Murdoch didn't want it to be Vance.  He ain't dumb.  Just evil. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19142]

Just now, TexArcher said:

 

I'm unmarried with no children, and it's fucking magnificent.

Scrape 'em off...

 

Oh, agreed.  I just think the double standard is hilarious. 

I am planning a trip next Spring for Venice/Emilia Romagna, with a nice visit to Imola for the race. We are contemplating Paddock Passes for the weekend. If I had kids, I couldn't afford that. Because I do not, I can.

[Chuckie Finster 22722]

On 1/28/2019 at 9:27 PM, Chuckie Finster said:

Kamala is gonna win the whole fucking thing.

Check the timestamp.  Better late than never.

[TexArcher 38006]

Wait, why would Vance not be the VP nominee?

Just because his wife makes it harder for them to call Kamala awful names?

Because I'm not sure that contradiction has even occurred to them, and I am sure that they won't give a shit if it does.

[Js1 85498]

5 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

 

That man has never drank a Mountain Dew in his life! 

[Ted Lange 16113]

1 minute ago, Bateshorn said:

He's on the ticket unless he resigns.  VP is the only person Trump can't fire. 

If Trump wants him to leave, Vance will gladly resign and thank Trump for making him leave.

[Js1 85498]

Just now, TexArcher said:

Wait, why would Vance not be the VP nominee?

 

Because he was picked solely to run against Biden/Harris, not Harris/TBD.  But it's too late now unless Vance resigns.

 

Just now, Ted Lange said:

If Trump wants him to leave, Vance will gladly resign and thank Trump for making him leave.

Vance will not. His best shot at being POTUS is Trump winning and then dying. 

[Pato del Muerto 52557]

13 minutes ago, Js1 said:

He is James Donald Bowman.  Apply the same standard as when they deadname trans people. 

And now we know the real reason Trump chose him 

[Ted Lange 16113]

1 minute ago, TexArcher said:

Wait, why would Vance not be the VP nominee?

 

If he lays a couple eggs at rallies (like he has today), Trump will cut him loose.   

1 minute ago, Js1 said:

Vance will not. His best shot at being POTUS is Trump winning and then dying. 

 

You think, that if Trump asked Vance to resign, Vance has the balls to say no?   OK

[cmontexas 3275]

Not to get too far ahead of things, but if Harris beats Trump this year is there any doubt that Trump will be the nominee again in 2028?

[Ted Lange 16113]

Just now, cmontexas said:

Not to get too far ahead of things, but if Harris beats Trump this year is there any doubt that Trump will be the nominee again in 2028?

Zero.   Don (if he is alive) if not it will be Jr.

[The Dog 44108]

This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared A campaign that had been optimized to beat Joe Biden must now be reinvented.

Spoiler

On the evening of Super Tuesday, March 5, shortly before Donald Trump effectively ended the Republican primary and earned a general-election rematch with President Joe Biden, I asked the co-managers of Trump’s presidential campaign what they feared most about Biden.

“Honestly, it’s less him,” Chris LaCivita told me. “And more—”

“Institutional Democrats,” Susie Wiles said, finishing her partner’s thought.

It was a revealing exchange, and a theme we would revisit frequently. The Democratic Party, Wiles and LaCivita would tell me in conversations over the coming months, was a machine—well organized and well financed, with a record of support from the low-propensity voters who turn out every four years in presidential contests. Ordinarily, they explained, Democrats would have structural superiority in a race like this one. But something was holding the party back: Biden.

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LaCivita and Wiles expected the campaign’s narrative to be controlled by Democrats from the beginning: Trump, after all, had sabotaged the peaceful transition of power after the 2020 election, incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol, and, more recently, faced numerous criminal prosecutions and the possibility of jail time. And yet Biden offered an opening. Already the oldest president in American history, he began to show signs of rapid deterioration in 2023. This would make the campaign a game of survival more than skill, each candidate needing to convince voters that he was less unqualified than his opponent.

Read: Trump is planning for a landslide win

In the race to clear historically low hurdles, Trump began pulling ahead. Polls showed him making unprecedented gains with those low-propensity demographics, specifically Black and Hispanic voters—not because of anything he was doing particularly well, but because of apathy and disillusionment within the Democratic base. As far back as springtime, the numbers told a straightforward story: Biden was not going to win. Democrats could only look on, powerless, as the president denied the party’s young bench—and its organizational machine—a chance to change the narrative.

“I don’t think Joe Biden has a ton of advantages,” Wiles told me on Super Tuesday. “But I do think Democrats do.”

She and LaCivita were right to worry.

Biden’s departure from the presidential race this afternoon—hours after his top surrogates had insisted that he would carry on—is the culmination of a remarkable pressure campaign, launched after his calamitous June 27 debate performance and aimed at pushing the president into retirement. On the Republican side, it caps a frenetic four-month stretch in which Trump’s campaign went from cocky about Biden’s deficiencies to fearful of his ouster to stunned at the sudden letter from Biden doing the thing Republicans thought he’d never do.

Republicans I spoke with today, some of them still hungover from celebrating what felt to many like a victory-night celebration in Milwaukee, registered shock at the news of Biden’s departure. Party officials had left town believing the race was all but over. Now they were confronting the reality of reimagining a campaign—one that had been optimized, in every way, to defeat Biden—against a new and unknown challenger. “So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate, and quits the race,” a clearly peeved Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. “Now we have to start all over again.”

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For months, in talking with Wiles and LaCivita, I was struck by their concern about the potential of a dramatic switch—Democratic leaders pushing out Biden in favor of a younger nominee. They told me that Trump’s campaign was readying contingency plans and studying the weaknesses of would-be alternatives, beginning with Vice President Kamala Harris. By the time of the debate, however, they believed that Democrats’ window had all but closed. Even in the immediate aftermath—as Democratic officials openly called for Biden to quit—Wiles and LaCivita were betting on the status quo. More than anything, Trump’s allies believed that the president’s stubborn Irish ego wouldn’t let him back out of a fight with a man he despised.

But they couldn’t take any chances. Two weeks ago, according to a campaign source who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity, Trump’s pollster Tony Fabrizio went into the field to begin testing the outcomes of a Harris-versus-Trump matchup. These surveys, conducted across several battleground states, represented the most concrete step taken to prepare for the possibility of a new adversary. Still, with the polling a tightly held secret—I couldn’t verify the results—there were no outward signs of Trump’s operation expecting a reset. When convention speakers reached out to the GOP nominee’s campaign, gauging whether to hedge their speeches with attacks on Harris, they were told to keep the focus on Biden.

Read: Biden’s greatest strengths proved his undoing

In many ways, the convention scene was one of a party peaking too early. Campaigns are marathons measured by changes in momentum and narrative, and Republicans in Milwaukee reveled in what felt like a three-week winning streak, dating back to the debate, in which the daily churn of insider gossip focused ever more on Democratic fatalism and Trump’s seeming inevitability. No Republican I spoke with could remember a longer stretch of uninterrupted forward propulsion. And with Biden appearing to dig in, they left Milwaukee believing that this run of luck might never end.

The president’s abrupt exit dashed any such fantasy. Suddenly, Republicans who had boasted last week about expanding the electoral map—pushing into Minnesota and Virginia and other decidedly blue areas—were fretting about the possibility of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro or Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joining the Democratic ticket, partnering with Harris to put back into play key battlegrounds that just 24 hours earlier seemed to be out of reach.

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Given the historic volatility of this campaign—Trump survived an assassination attempt just last weekend—there’s no guarantee that Harris will ultimately succeed Biden atop the ticket. The Trump campaign certainly believes she will—understandably so, given the rapid consolidation of Democratic officials around her following Biden’s announcement—and blasted out a statement Sunday afternoon that tied Harris to her unpopular boss. “Kamala Harris is just as much of [a] joke as Biden is,” Wiles and LaCivita said in a statement. “Harris will be even WORSE for the people of our Nation than Joe Biden. Harris has been the Enabler in Chief for Crooked Joe this entire time. They own each other’s records, and there is no distance between the two.”

This is the essence of what Trump’s campaign believes—that any Democrat who picks up the party’s banner will inherit the baggage that made Biden unelectable. Republicans will point to historic inflation, millions of illegal border crossings, and geopolitical chaos from Eastern Europe to the Middle East as evidence that the entire Democratic Party has failed the American people. “We’ve talked about strength versus weakness, success versus failure,” LaCivita told me before the convention, summarizing the campaign’s strategic vision for the race. “The great thing about that messaging is that it’s not just unique to Joe Biden.”

But messaging is a secondary concern for Democrats. What they need first is a messenger.

It’s true that Harris will struggle to shed some policy-related criticisms; her appointment early in her vice presidency to handle the southern border, in fact, could make her even more vulnerable to immigration-related attacks than Biden was. It’s also true, however, that policy criticisms aren’t what made Biden unelectable in the eyes of most Americans. In an evenly divided and exceedingly polarized nation, Biden lost ground—with his party’s base as well as with independents—because he was perceived to be too old and infirm to serve another four years in office.

Harris is neither of those things. At 59 years old, she is two decades younger than Trump and will have no trouble keeping up with him on the campaign trail or the debate stage. She is also a former prosecutor who, if anything, is known for being too tough on crime. (Trump allies told me they plan to assault her left flank with accusations of Harris over-incarcerating young men of color when she was California’s attorney general.) At the very least, Trump’s lieutenants realize, Harris’s promotion will provide a desperately needed jolt to Democrats nationwide in the form of fundraising, volunteerism, and enthusiasm. Whatever her flaws as a politician—Harris ran a dreadful primary campaign for president in 2020, marked by organizational infighting and awkward sound bites—she does not possess the one flaw that proved insurmountable for Biden.

Read: Trump versus the coconut-pilled

Trump’s campaign insists that nothing has changed. Wiles and LaCivita are telling their team that given the obstacles Trump has already overcome—prosecutions, a conviction, an assassination attempt that nearly killed him—a new nominee for the Democrats is just another log on the 2024 inferno.

But they know it’s more than that. They know that from the moment they partnered with Trump, everything they intended for this campaign—the messaging, the advertising, the microtargeting, the ground game, the mail pieces, the digital engagement, the social-media maneuvers—was designed to defeat Joe Biden. Even the selection of Ohio’s Senator J. D. Vance as Trump’s running mate, campaign officials acknowledged, was something of a luxury meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter.

The mentality of this Trump campaign, LaCivita once told me, is to spend every day on offense. The team wants to shape the pace and substance of every news cycle and force Democrats to react, ensuring that key battles are fought on the GOP’s chosen terrain. It worked so well that Biden was ruined before his party’s convention. Now the Trump operation is vowing to destroy Harris—if, in fact, she becomes the nominee—in much the same way.

And yet, for a campaign that went to bed Saturday believing that it would dictate the terms of the election every day until November 5, Sunday brought an unfamiliar feeling of powerlessness. For the first time in a long time, Trump does not control the narrative of 2024.

Quote

For months, in talking with Wiles and LaCivita, I was struck by their concern about the potential of a dramatic switch—Democratic leaders pushing out Biden in favor of a younger nominee. They told me that Trump’s campaign was readying contingency plans and studying the weaknesses of would-be alternatives, beginning with Vice President Kamala Harris. By the time of the debate, however, they believed that Democrats’ window had all but closed. Even in the immediate aftermath—as Democratic officials openly called for Biden to quit—Wiles and LaCivita were betting on the status quo. More than anything, Trump’s allies believed that the president’s stubborn Irish ego wouldn’t let him back out of a fight with a man he despised.

Quote

In many ways, the convention scene was one of a party peaking too early. Campaigns are marathons measured by changes in momentum and narrative, and Republicans in Milwaukee reveled in what felt like a three-week winning streak, dating back to the debate, in which the daily churn of insider gossip focused ever more on Democratic fatalism and Trump’s seeming inevitability. No Republican I spoke with could remember a longer stretch of uninterrupted forward propulsion. And with Biden appearing to dig in, they left Milwaukee believing that this run of luck might never end.

 

[Aqua Buddha 14600]

1 minute ago, cmontexas said:

Not to get too far ahead of things, but if Harris beats Trump this year is there any doubt that Trump will be the nominee again in 2028?

If he’s alive, he’ll be the nominee.

[Pancho 44951]

not only did don jr want Vance but so did trunp because he liked how Vance sucked up to him. Also reporters have said the trunp campaign picked Vance because they believe they are going to win in a landslide so picking a maga loyalist who brings no group or state was okay. 

[Js1 85498]

1 minute ago, Aqua Buddha said:

If he’s alive, he’ll be the nominee.

Full on Barron Harkonnen by then

[Old Freak Nasty 821]

1 hour ago, TexEx15 said:

Get him in front of ALL the cameras.

Not the cameras, just as much airtime on Fox News as possible.  He delivers the daggers with total calm and control.

[jimmyjazz 46069]

2 hours ago, Texaus said:

I didn’t think the rhetoric could get much worse. It’s getting worse and we’ll be lucky to live through this. Someone talk me off the brisket ledge I’m out on. 

How could you NOT think the rhetoric would get worse?  I said it the moment Biden resigned:  Kamala would be labeled with the triple slur of woman, black, whore.  It was the most predictable thing besides 7-win Steve.  (Well, OK, more predictable than that.)

Edited July 22 by jimmyjazz

[Zonahorn 8079]

 

[Brisketexan 105237]

22 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Hell, men on this site have told me repeatedly how unhappy my life is because I am unmarried and have no children.

To be fair, most of those men are really telling you that you are unhappy because you aren't fucking them.  Your response of "yeah...NOBODY is fucking you, for good reason" does not endear you to them.

20 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen."

Fucking hell.  This.

I have been a political junkie for 40+ years (I mean, I was a child nerd about this shit).  I enjoyed the days when very few people were paying attention to the details of things.  I really enjoyed the days of being able to not think about politics at all for weeks, even months at a time.  Shit was just moving along.  Some I agreed with, some I didn't, but it was all within the band of tolerable.  Now, we repeatedly careen from guardrail to guardrail, in flames, being driven like this:

Our national vehicle of state now looks like this:

But, on the bright side....

 

[troph 24905]

4 minutes ago, Pancho said:

not only did don jr want Vance but so did trunp because he liked how Vance sucked up to him. Also reporters have said the trunp campaign picked Vance because they believe they are going to win in a landslide so picking a maga loyalist who brings no group or state was okay. 

 

[Horn Dog 9901]

34 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

I like how he blames immigrants for the fentanyl problem but his mom was stealing pills from her patients.

Well some of her patients were immigrants so….

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20471]

[Js1 85498]

3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

How could you NOT think the rhetoric would get worse?  I said it the moment Biden resigned:  Kamala would be labeled with the triple slur of woman, black, whore.  It was the most predictable thing betweens 7-win Steve.  (Well, OK, more predictable than that.)

We all knew that.

I'm just not sure trying to Hillary her is going to work this time.  She doesn't have a massive scandal under her watch that led to Congressional inquiries (Benghazi), a recent scandal (emails), or a litany of older scandals that resonated with older voters (Whitewater, Vince Foster, charity scandal, etc.).  There hasn't been a 20 year hate campaign against Kamala and Doug.  There's no Harris Bodycount, Harris Crime Syndicate, etc. for Fox News to keep going back to.

She's not going to ignore the Blue Wall states.  She's basically just going to replicate the Biden 2020 campaign - Milwaukee, Atlanta, Detroit, Philly, Phoenix, Vegas, and maybe throw in North Carolina. 

Edited July 22 by Js1

[TexArcher 38006]

10 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Because he was picked solely to run against Biden/Harris, not Harris/TBD.  But it's too late now unless Vance resigns.

 

Does Trump really think that analytically, though?

I just assumed Vance's lips felt right on Trump's bloated ass?

[Ted Lange 16113]

3 minutes ago, Zonahorn said:

 

Im moving Vance to 40% chance of making it.   There is nothing Trump cares more about than appearance.   If he starts getting dunked on, Trump will force him out.

[sasquatch69 603]

Just now, Ted Lange said:

Im moving Vance to 40% chance of making it.   There is nothing Trump cares more about than appearance.   If he starts getting dunked on, Trump will force him out.

ETTD, part 6,239.

[Pancho 44951]

 

[Mdhorn 5982]

17 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Oh, agreed.  I just think the double standard is hilarious. 

I am planning a trip next Spring for Venice/Emilia Romagna, with a nice visit to Imola for the race. We are contemplating Paddock Passes for the weekend. If I had kids, I couldn't afford that. Because I do not, I can.

If you want kids, you can always adopt. There's no shortage of the humans, just caring ones. 

Edited July 22 by Mdhorn

[Js1 85498]

18 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Oh, agreed.  I just think the double standard is hilarious. 

I am planning a trip next Spring for Venice/Emilia Romagna, with a nice visit to Imola for the race. We are contemplating Paddock Passes for the weekend. If I had kids, I couldn't afford that. Because I do not, I can.

Always laugh at the memes that are like "friends without kids be like, hey want to go Africa next week?"