I didn't know they had decided to debate, but I'm happy to hear it. I'll watch it. I'm still with DeSantis, but he has only so long to get traction against Trump, then I'll start looking around, and Younggkin is impressive.
This 2012 post-mortem by Bill Whittle is evergreen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuW6WRU3baw . For anyone who has ever been confronted with "How is x going to do better than Romney's 47 percent, his answer is "Why didn't _Romney_ do better than 47%" Highly recommended.
(There is an argument to be made if you can also make your opponent a villain, the election becomes about policy, but sadly Trump may be beyond that being an option.)
I always thought Christine O'Donnell was treated unfairly. The "witch" incident, as I recall, involved some goofy stuff from when she was in college. I suspect most members of Congress have done worse things. She argued persuasively in her book that the only reason Michael Castle had a good record of winning elections was that he kept avoiding hard races, like challenging Joe Biden.
Lots of things to unpack here. The 7 million popular vote victory by Biden is irrelevant. I saw an analysis after the 2016 election that Trump would have comfortably won the popular vote if you threw out the results in Los Angeles County and New York City except for Staten Island. The Democratic margins in California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and the rest of the northeast are such it's highly unlikely a successful Republican presidential candidate will carry the popular vote anytime soon. Trump lost in 2020 as he won in 2016, by a handful of votes in a handful of states.
Bill may be right that Trump will be in trial during the election, though a lot of talking head litigators think it likely the special counsel cases won't come to trial before the election, and each piling on by special counsel Smith makes that more likely. Biden may be arraigned in the court of public opinion for bribery, influence peddling and pocket-lining charges that are easier for the public to understand than the charges against Trump. And while Biden was popular, with a nice guy image, in 2020, the shine is now off the Biden rose, he is a doddering, angry, mentally-challenged old man,, and he has more baggage than a railroad porter.
I would rather have someone other than Trump for our candidate, but I think that's unlikely. I would vote for him in the proverbial New York minute, and don't agree that he's unelectable. In fact, I saw a liberal pundit's analysis lately showing Trump faring better than Biden among those who hate both of them, which is a very large cohort. Jim Dueholm
We cannot ignore the popular vote. A large segment of the American people would not have accepted an electoral college victory for Trump in 2020, and many will not accept one in 2024, possibly rising to the level of insurrection. The public will accept a once-in-a-century fluke in a close race. When it happens twice in sixteen years, it looks less fluky. A third time in twenty-four years would convince many people that the system is rigged. Furthermore, while Harrison barely lost to Cleveland and Bush barely lost to Gore, Trump lost to Crooked Hillary by 3 million votes and lost to Sleepy Joe Biden by 7 million votes. People would accept this more easily if the electoral college sometimes favored Republicans and sometimes favored Democrats, but a 3-0 outcome will lead to riots -- real riots, not the 2020 amateur events.
In the event of another split between the electoral college and the popular vote, we can try to inspire faith in the Constitution. The problem, apart from the Left's destruction of civic education, is that Trump is the worst possible candidate to make such an argument. Trump trashes American institutions daily and ridicules our traditions. In a famous incident, when informed that the greatest threat to his presidency would be the Twenty-fifth Amendment, he responded "What's that?" A man who doesn't care enough about our Constitution to read it and disparages our institutions is the last person who can tell angry voters that they should forget about what they want because of the writings of men from 236 years ago.
If Trump or any other Republican wins the presidency in 2024, he or she will almost certainly lose the popular vote. The huge popular vote margins in California, New York, Illinois and other blue states are too big to overcome. In 2016 Trump would have won the popular vote if the votes in Los Angeles County and New York City exclusive of Staten Island had been thrown out.. Something similar would happen if a Republican wins in 2024. I don't think the public would riot because voters in small areas of California and New York were deprived of the power to elect the president.
Completely agree
I agree. I’d like to send this to my Trump-loving friends.
Feel free!
Interesting that you seem to be coming out for Youngkin. Curious as to your thoughts about DeSantis and Newsome deciding to debate?
I didn't know they had decided to debate, but I'm happy to hear it. I'll watch it. I'm still with DeSantis, but he has only so long to get traction against Trump, then I'll start looking around, and Younggkin is impressive.
This 2012 post-mortem by Bill Whittle is evergreen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuW6WRU3baw . For anyone who has ever been confronted with "How is x going to do better than Romney's 47 percent, his answer is "Why didn't _Romney_ do better than 47%" Highly recommended.
(There is an argument to be made if you can also make your opponent a villain, the election becomes about policy, but sadly Trump may be beyond that being an option.)
I always thought Christine O'Donnell was treated unfairly. The "witch" incident, as I recall, involved some goofy stuff from when she was in college. I suspect most members of Congress have done worse things. She argued persuasively in her book that the only reason Michael Castle had a good record of winning elections was that he kept avoiding hard races, like challenging Joe Biden.
Yes, she was treated unfairly, and it will be massively worse with Trump.
Lots of things to unpack here. The 7 million popular vote victory by Biden is irrelevant. I saw an analysis after the 2016 election that Trump would have comfortably won the popular vote if you threw out the results in Los Angeles County and New York City except for Staten Island. The Democratic margins in California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and the rest of the northeast are such it's highly unlikely a successful Republican presidential candidate will carry the popular vote anytime soon. Trump lost in 2020 as he won in 2016, by a handful of votes in a handful of states.
Bill may be right that Trump will be in trial during the election, though a lot of talking head litigators think it likely the special counsel cases won't come to trial before the election, and each piling on by special counsel Smith makes that more likely. Biden may be arraigned in the court of public opinion for bribery, influence peddling and pocket-lining charges that are easier for the public to understand than the charges against Trump. And while Biden was popular, with a nice guy image, in 2020, the shine is now off the Biden rose, he is a doddering, angry, mentally-challenged old man,, and he has more baggage than a railroad porter.
I would rather have someone other than Trump for our candidate, but I think that's unlikely. I would vote for him in the proverbial New York minute, and don't agree that he's unelectable. In fact, I saw a liberal pundit's analysis lately showing Trump faring better than Biden among those who hate both of them, which is a very large cohort. Jim Dueholm
We cannot ignore the popular vote. A large segment of the American people would not have accepted an electoral college victory for Trump in 2020, and many will not accept one in 2024, possibly rising to the level of insurrection. The public will accept a once-in-a-century fluke in a close race. When it happens twice in sixteen years, it looks less fluky. A third time in twenty-four years would convince many people that the system is rigged. Furthermore, while Harrison barely lost to Cleveland and Bush barely lost to Gore, Trump lost to Crooked Hillary by 3 million votes and lost to Sleepy Joe Biden by 7 million votes. People would accept this more easily if the electoral college sometimes favored Republicans and sometimes favored Democrats, but a 3-0 outcome will lead to riots -- real riots, not the 2020 amateur events.
In the event of another split between the electoral college and the popular vote, we can try to inspire faith in the Constitution. The problem, apart from the Left's destruction of civic education, is that Trump is the worst possible candidate to make such an argument. Trump trashes American institutions daily and ridicules our traditions. In a famous incident, when informed that the greatest threat to his presidency would be the Twenty-fifth Amendment, he responded "What's that?" A man who doesn't care enough about our Constitution to read it and disparages our institutions is the last person who can tell angry voters that they should forget about what they want because of the writings of men from 236 years ago.
If Trump or any other Republican wins the presidency in 2024, he or she will almost certainly lose the popular vote. The huge popular vote margins in California, New York, Illinois and other blue states are too big to overcome. In 2016 Trump would have won the popular vote if the votes in Los Angeles County and New York City exclusive of Staten Island had been thrown out.. Something similar would happen if a Republican wins in 2024. I don't think the public would riot because voters in small areas of California and New York were deprived of the power to elect the president.