GOP Second Debate Thread

Just one question, do you seriously believe that Nikki Haley will pull perhaps the greatest miracle in the history of presidential politics securing the Republican presidential nomination after polling in single digits for months? The very fact that Trump snubbed a Republican debate twice and is already running a general election campaign should say it all. Putting aside my insults of Trump he is a very astute politician and knows exactly what he is doing.

 

Desantis is flaming out all on his own. The WP doesn't have that kind of power no matter what they " want".

 

I posted that I’m not overly optimistic.
If I don’t get behind Haley, I’ll lose interest. I’ll watch and vote my conscience. It’s all I can do for now. Trump is a loose canon. Who knows how it all ends.

 

Which is it?

 

My views on them aren’t really colored by Trump, but I have different views on the three.

I’ll chime in to say that while I don’t think he’s electable (in part because of the perception that he’s in this race in large part because it gave him an opportunity to trash Trump), I don’t particularly mind Christie.

Romney, on the other hand, I think a lot of folks are of the opinion (and I don’t necessarily disagree) that his desire for what he views as “civility” makes it not worth having him in office. If the other side is willing to throw a big enough fit about something he will back down on it, which means you can’t rely on him to actually get anything the base wants done.

Liz Cheney is a little tougher to get a read on, because she’s not really known for anything other than really hating Trump. I don’t mind having a candidate that vocally doesn’t support Trump, but when you’re a one trick pony with only that you’re going to get a lot of Republicans who interpret it as just trying to get Democrats to like you.

 

That’s very interesting. I suppose I get it. Dems wouldn’t really support a Manchin or Sinema type candidate, either. Haley could win, but I think that the Republican Party is propped up largely by the electoral college in national elections. Dems have the greater number of popular vote for quite some time. In that environment, a Republican needs to embrace the concepts that they opposed like encouraging mail in ballots. I think the problem for them is that also invites more Democratic voters. I can say this… as a Dem, I find it really refreshing to see a Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney. It almost makes me forget about their politics for awhile, and I think it’s something that Republicans should capitalize on.

 

Go look at who was the GOP poll leaders in 2008. Hint, it was Giuliani and Fred Thompson LOL. Long time to go, but it is funny to see you keep pointing out the same thing over and over.

 

Not arguing that at all. Show me where I said that? DeSantis lost me on the abortion issue.

 

Interesting take. I see Cheney as someone who said enough is enough. I didn’t see it as vindictive against Trump because she hates him. I’m sure she does detest him, but I never got the sense that is why she did what she did. I genuinely feel as though she felt he violated the constitution and she couldn’t support him.

 

That’s part of the issue with them.

It’s somewhat less clear what is supposed to excite Republicans about those kinds of Republican candidates, there are a whole lot of base Republican voters who feel like the GOP acts more like a controlled opposition voice than actually trying to get things they want done, and those voters are really wary of “Republicans who Democrats like” because they think the entire reason Democrats like them is that they will play the controlled opposition role.

 

To your point about the WP having an agenda that is somehow torpedoing Desantis. He is torpedoing himself. He doesn't need their help.

 

I would add that his refusal to even participate in the debate process is very suggestive of exactly of what a second term would be like.

In other words ignore time honored practice, the LAW, and any other stumbling Block to his agenda.

Some folks call that dictatorship.

 

Biden would smoke DeSantis.

The Q swarm believes DeSantis is a communist plant and child molester. That's a significant portion of the voting base and they absolutely will not vote for him. They spend almost as much effort running him down as all of their D enemies. Trump eliminated DeSantis in about 10 days with just a few marching orders and a nickname. Zero path to the nomination before he even formally announced.

DeSantis also steadily plummets as non-R's become familiar with him. When he was some Florida Man who was "Like Trump, but without the baggage", a significant portion of non-partisans thought that sounded good. Then he went even crazier than the craziest with Woke Wars, has some truly bizarre public speaking tics and habits like whatever that head-shake post-dental work smile thing is, and squirms more than a bait worm when any real-world policy discussion comes up.

In an almost cruel twist, DeSantis successfully painted himself as Trumpian to Trump-haters, and could not convince Trump-slurpers that he was Trumpian for even a minute.

 

Are you discounting that DeSantis won Florida by a landslide less than a year ago? He's made some bad decisions but to think Biden would sweep the floor with anyone at this point is laughable. Let's at least try to be honest here. Go back to MSNBC with that trash.

 

What, exactly, are Republicans trying to “get done”?

I think that’s actually a big part of the problem since Trump came into the fold. There’s a certain incoherence to it all. Although it’s clear they wanted to roll back abortion and civil rights, which isn’t new policy, it’s been continuous. These are NOT popular policies, hence the frantic efforts to extralegally seize power or lock in the gerrymandered advantages (see Alabama, Wisconsin, etc).

 

While that may be true, I think that’s partly a function of the fact that she was situated a bit differently than many of the other anti-Trump republicans.

Even if before this you only knew of Chris Christie as “weird looking fat guy from New Jersey,” you still knew who he was. Cheney and Kinzinger, however, were relative nobodies that most people had never heard of until they got attention for opposing Trump.

 

Well, of course he will be even more criminal and fascist in a second term.

But these debates are to determine the R nomination. He has had that wrapped up since the moment he lost the general. Back when all the Trump voters were scolding us for daring to mention the Republican's obvious POTUS nominee, trying like crazy to stop talking about him going even more berserk by the second. It's been done that long.

Strategically he'd be an idiot for agreeing to reset the scoreboard in a game he won in blowout. This isn't some sort of public service that citizens are owed. It's to secure the nomination. That ship sailed and already docked.

 

I’ll give you a clue.
Nikki Haley.com