Whoa now, Trump may not have liked his living quarters and the actual work of presidentin’, but he mostly definitely craves the (even if not unlimited) power, the attention and adulation, the (at least temporary state of) immunity and the enormous grifting opportunities both during and after his term of office.
Plus he probably believes that there is just a slight chance of gumming up the constitutional works enough to hang around after his four years are up.
I think what you say is accurate. I think Trump is an odd case: a kinda lazy guy but with a monumental drive to grift. I think the presidency, therefore, was half bonanza for him, half torment.
Yep. Things are trending our way.
More evidence that the republicans are going to get crushed in November.
I read elsewhere that the district which went to Trump by 2 points has now gone to the Democrat by 26 points.
Yep. That same Democrat, Marilyn Lands, had lost to the (just departed) Republican in 2022 by 7 points.
That’s a hell of a swing.
Beau of the Fifth Column frequently has some useful insights on this sort of thing. He is saying you might want to be careful about reading to much into this. He argues that this has more to do with the fact that the Space Command didn’t move to Alabama (And that Republicans are to blame for it) than it does with Biden vs. Trump.
Has anybody done any analysis of the voters who caused this swing?
Special elections are usually sleepers. They get very little turnout and draw very little attention in many cases. What happened in this case?
For example: How large was the turnout, and will it be representative of the expected turnout in the general election in november? How much campaigning did the two candidates do and was it a highly charged atmosphere , like the November election will be?
The polls predicted an easy win for the Republican candidate.So maybe there was less turnout by Republicans?
(Oops…
Ninja’ed by one minute) .Thanks Tatterdemalian.
Is this the district that Alabama restructured kicking and screaming after SCOTUS ruled they had to? That might be a better explanation for the big swing than voter sentiment changing.
(Not that I’m complaining.)
ETA: Also what @Tatterdemalion said.
If Beau is correct, I wonder if thisn’t more of a referendum on Tuberville and his antics than anything else.
I’ll take the Alabama SE result as another data point in an overall pattern that is looking very good for us!
Bad for Trump:
If he can’t come up with the $175M, his “billionaire” posture is permanently punctured! He will look like a weak, broke fool to his worshipers. No bueno.
I think the Ronna McDaniel firing at NBC is also damaging to the GOP cause. It’s clear that the media is losing its ability to spin the horse race and normalize Trump.
There is also the chance the GOP could lose control of the House before the election:
If that should happen, game over, I say. We already have GOP House reps purposely timing their departure so as to maximum damage to MAGA. Should control switch, then it’s not just clear, it’s flashing-neon-red that Trump has no power over his own party and is in fact destroying it. What could be worse for his brand and election prospects?
It’s coming apart, guys, and we’re still at the “bottle rocket, sparklers, and M80s” stage of the fireworks show!
Three GOP senators are also openly against Trump:
Are there more to follow? Don’t bet against it!
If there are any realistic people left at the top of the RNC after the Trump family takeover, they know they’ve got big problems in November.
Fund raising is down and much of what is coming in is going to lawyers, Marc Elias is routinely defeating their vote suppression legislation in court, House members are deserting, MAGA senatorial candidates are trailing in states they have hopes of flipping, and the only demographic group in which they are gaining is young men, the least engaged cohort of them all.
Yet it may still be a nailbiter. It defies explanation.
Even as I try to be objective and avoid wishful thinking, it seems that RNC and GOP in general has gone from the frying pan of idiocy into the fire of imbecility. The problem with huffing Trump’s flatus 24/7 is that these fools really do end up believing in their own lies. All to our benefit in the election, of course.
Yeah, this article is not sanguine about the GOP’s current performance in the election, and it comes from a “conservative” site (mostly now just Trump-enabling, Biden-attacking bullshit, with the occasional article critical of Trump):
Key quote:
“We’ve got the skeleton right now,” Michigan Republican Party chairman Pete Hoekstra told the Associated Press this week. “We’re going to have to put more meat on it.” The Republican Party’s modest footprint in Michigan is indicative of a broader trend. “Indeed,” the AP added, “just six months before the first early votes are cast in the general election between Trump and Biden, Trump’s Republican Party has little general election infrastructure to speak of.” The report contrasts the GOP’s gaunt campaign apparatus with Joe Biden’s increasingly robust ground game.
Sounds great, guys!
Oh, and a comment under the article above:
Do you realize Trumpworld is simply chopping off the 2020 logos and re-running online ads from his last campaign?
Is that true?! If so, then oh ho ho ho ho!
I imagine the “new” 2024 RNC platform is just going to be the old 2020 platform (We will do whatever Trump tells us) with the 2020 crossed out and 2024 written in sharpie.
The 2020 RNC didn’t even adopt a platform – they took the unusual step of simply reissuing the 2016 platform.
Exactly.