US Politics, December 2022: "They're now the working class party, man."

lol If we are really doing this just for fun — It aggravates me to no end that I never hear anybody admit that Bernie ran two bad campaigns for president. Which is as many as Hillary ran. The dude was not ever a very viable or attractive national candidate, and his fans and stans somehow never understood that. Sure, you can argue he overachieved for a lefty coming from one of the smallest states in the country, but so what? Bill Clinton overachieved coming from one of the smaller states in the country and fucking won the election. I don’t have a problem saying Hillary was a wrak candidate, I don’t have a problem saying Biden was a weak candidate, I just wish people would stop pretending that Bernie was not also a weak candidate. It is what has permanently skewed this discussion, the idea that there was some great option in there that was somehow stolen from people. If Bernie had been a better candidate, maybe he could have won. But he wasn’t and he didn’t.

The actual lesson is that it really helps to have good candidates running good campaigns.

Lol “wrak” — The dreaded combination of reek and whack.

and none of us (at the time) thought Comey's stupid memo was going to hurt things.

― Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Wednesday, December 14, 2022 12:30 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh well I definitely did! I nearly had a panic attack when it happened. if you followed the more serious forecasters who did more than just aggregate you'd hear them talk a lot about how we've never had an election between two candidates this unpopular and thus you had to give a wide latitude to how independents would break. ultimately that's how it went down, Dems got the turnout they needed but independents killed them by going 2:1 for Trump. as mentioned ITT a lot of that probably had to do with Trump being such a political blank slate; notice how Republicans got pummeled pretty hard in every election afterwards.

My favorite candidate out of the last two presidential cycles was Elizabeth Warren, and she tanked because it turned out that she too was a weak national candidate. I don't have a problem admitting that or spend any time sitting around complaining about how the DNC stole the election from her or whatever.

The actual lesson is that it really helps to have good candidates running good campaigns.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, December 14, 2022 12:59 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yea something that needs to be emphasized is that having good views does not necessarily make you a good politician, what makes a "good candidate" is such a nebulous and evolving concept but things like personality, looks, and humor arguably matter more than your political stances or voting record. Clinton and Obama very much had *it* - Hillary did not, Biden kinda doesn't (but he was running against Trump so it didn't matter much), and Bernie really doesn't either. maybe AOC does.

that settles it. i will not vote for hillary clinton or donald trump for president in 2024

AOC needs more birthdays

as "interesting" as this discussion is, there were also a lot of us who naively thought there were limits to the depravity people were willing to vote for, even acknowledging that there were plenty of people who had no problem voting for Reagan or Bush after starting the Iraq war.

If I've learned nothing else from the past 6+ years, I at least know now to never again assume that a majority of my fellow citizens share anything resembling my own values. Even what seems like just real basic shit like decency towards others or justice or eschewing full-blown psychosis.

Being a Good Candidate also means spending $$ in states: paying for lit, scripts, field operatives whi command volunteers, etc.

By a 56%-33% margin, conservative voters picked Governor Ron DeSantis over the former president, who formally launched his new campaign last month....

According to the nationwide survey, Mr DeSantis also leads Mr Biden by 47%-43% among all voters in a hypothetical election. Seven per cent were undecided.

Not sure I buy this last bit

Those polls run before the challenger is officially nominated are never very accurate

yeah didn't one of these have Biden over like 15 vs. Trump at one point

in 2008

lol plz make this true

People on Truth Social, including Michael Flynn, speculating that Trump’s “big announcement” tomorrow is that wants to be Speaker of the House, will run for president while Speaker, & that he wants to shut down the govt and preside over impeachment hearings. Very doubtful but 🤷‍♂️

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) December 14, 2022

He would be so miserable as Speaker, having to actually be there day in day out. "Can't we just move the House to Mar A Lago?"

doesn't he make a 'big announcement' like every four days?

Who gives a fuck

He also makes a big you-know-what every four or so days

that long?

I'm convinced he hasn't had a proper dump since 2013

The happiest he ever looked:

https://i.imgur.com/63oY8C0.jpg

love the dipping sauce discreetly tucked on the window sill.

eating fried chicken with utensils

Nice for them to install grease guards on AF1 during his presidency

Doesn't everyone?

xpost

I mean the mashed potatoes maybe

Your yearly reminder that Hillary Clinton (a flawed human being in many ways) was Secretary of State for Obama's first term (you know, the Benghazi thing) and was at one point the single most popular politician in the United States https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-clinton-idUSBRE9170NZ20130208

Also dug out of the memory hole - the 2016 election day thread here contained a lot of people losing their shit at Nate Silver because he had Trump at 35% instead of the single figures the other sources were giving.

That's okay, thanks.

that dang memory hole

"And finally, Trump was, you gotta hand it to him, funny. DeSantis is a humorless fanatic.

― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, December 14, 2022"

Trump was only funny to people who were either adoring him or laughing at him. He was not funny in any way to me. DeSantis is humorless and is a fanatic, and I hope that will be his undoing, but not sure

otm

Trump is incidentally funny, rarely on purpose - "Merry Christmas to all the haters and losers" would be a great line from someone who knew he was playing a character like Tim Heidecker, the guy 30% of the male populace over the age of 45 decided was the most alpha dude ever dancing (poorly) to YMCA, etc..

Gov. Orban once more unto the breach in Sungary, and everywhere:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday asked his state’s Supreme Court to green-light an investigation of “any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to Covid-19 vaccines,” his latest move to cast doubt on the vaccines’ effectiveness and amplify fears about side effects.

In the petition filed with the Florida Supreme Court, the Republican governor requests the empaneling of a grand jury to investigate a broad group of entities associated with the development, distribution and promotion of the vaccines, including pharmaceutical manufacturers and their executive officers, as well as medical associations.

DeSantis also said Tuesday he was launching a public health integrity committee – a panel that would counter the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which DeSantis said “is not serving a useful function; it’s really serving to advance narratives rather than do evidence-based medicine.” The panel would assess guidance and actions from federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, US Food and Drug Administration and the CDC.
DeSantis has made Covid-19 vaccine skepticism his calling card ahead of a potential run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The governor, who cruised to victory in his bid for a second term in November, is positioning himself to the right of former President Donald Trump, a potential rival who was in office when the vaccine was developed.

TPM reached out to Hannity to discuss his connections to Giuliani on Wednesday evening. He was apparently not pleased.

“Number one, you’re not allowed to get my number,” Hannity said, adding, “What are your questions?”

When he was informed about the subject of this story, Hannity declared, “You want any interview with me, you have to go through Fox PR.” After assuring Hannity that we would also contact Fox News’ spokeswoman, Irena Briganti, TPM asked him if he thought it was “appropriate” for a member of the political media to do business deals with associates of the former president.

“You think it’s appropriate when you know Fox’s rules to bypass Irena and call me directly?” Hannity asked incredulously, before adding, “You can take your predetermined outcome, which is already written in your head, and write whatever the hell you want. I don’t give a shit. You knew the rules and you didn’t care.”

I know it's early, but nominating "Number one, you're not allowed to get my number" for next month's thread.

oh noes it's not allowed

"lol u answer phone calls"

From the bottom to the top “no u!” is their only defense.

This photo of Giuliani (taken yesterday) is cracking me up this morning.

"I used ta be *mayor* of this town, ya know!"
"Just keep walking, honey. I told you, you can't make eye contact with them."

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FkBhtPwWYAAF6As.jpg

lollll this is Trump's "major announcement." This dude is so done.

https://i.imgur.com/HQim0Y7.png

Like I feel like we're at the giant red GOING OUT OF BUSINESS banner phase of his political life. He'll juice it for whatever cash he can, but that's all he's even trying to do at this point.

is that an nft?

Yep

For the first time, you can celebrate the life and career of President Donald Trump through his first official Digital Trading Card collection.

Some people call these NFTs (non-fungible tokens) because each Trump Digital Trading Card has a unique identifier that cannot be copied, is recorded on a blockchain, and can be used to certify authenticity as well as ownership.

But essentially, these are personal digital collectibles or “trading cards” that you can collect, accumulate, trade, etc. Think of them like traditional baseball or basketball cards but stored digitally so you never have to worry about physical damage.

He'll be selling autographs from a card table within six months.

All the Rocket Man stuff was legit very funny. The signed CD, etc...

Trumps big announcement

Missed it by that much! pic.twitter.com/Dhz66gGe21

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) December 15, 2022

I am speechless

https://i.imgur.com/uRrtH7i.png

His best line btw was "Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at 7, it's marginal, right?"

I don't know which is more humiliating, buying these or selling them

Gone, I believe, very quickly

I wish he was.

josh marshall has an interesting take on this morning's NFT debacle. the more trump fucks up, the more challengers he'll attract in the primary, which is to his advantage:

Trump still has plenty of potential advantages. The more beatable he looks in the polls the more challengers he’ll draw. Many party leaders hope for something like a bloodless coup in which DeSantis eliminates Trump and painlessly stand in for him. But there are plenty of ambitious Republicans who want a shot at the big prize as well. If Trump looks beatable, as he currently does, there’s next to no chance DeSantis gets a clear shot at him. That helps Trump a lot since his 30%-40% support among Republicans in a hypothetical primary battle is certainly far more durable than anyone else’s. On his own, DeSantis gets everyone who’s tired of Trump. With others the anti-Trump vote gets divided.

DeSantis 2024: Free Covid, only $99!pic.twitter.com/T4f7qxDM7H

— Lynda Straffin 🇺🇦 (@lyndastraffin) December 15, 2022