2024 U.S. Presidential election

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tommy said:
I pretty much think the "we need better candidates" thing is pretty bogus. With the exception of Trump, I'd say almost all of the recent presidential nominees have been solid, normal, in the mainstream candidates. Bill Clinton, Dole, GW Bush, Gore, Kerry, Obama, McCain, Romney, Hillary Clinton, Biden, and Harris. Sure some of them were a littler closer to the margins than others, and with real policy differences, but all were competent, reasonable people that either did or would have handled the country just fine. Many mistakes made, some very large ones, but still. None were terrible candidates.
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Yeah, the "we need better candidates crowd" is to me just another way of saying "I want a candidate that matches on all MY issues".

And this is different than the "Republicans need a better candidate crowd".
 
nmduke2001 said:
I think it has a lot to do with Elon. Elon's fanboying (is that word) of Donald Trump is giving some people the thought that Elon will come save the company. In addition, the stock often trades on how the investor believes Trump's chances of winning are going. Lots of these investors believe that the Elon endorsement will put Donald in the winners column and make DJT a winning stock.
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Polymarket and PredictIt have notably moved toward Trump over the past few days...
 
Skydog said:
Probably not, unfortunately. I believe they are mainly seen by already anti-Trump social media users. Preaching to the choir. My cynical side says they are more about making $ for the Lincoln Project founders.
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Lincoln Project just posted that the 30 and 60 second versions of the commercial will be airing on television in Pennsylvania. They should place it during the Penn State, Philadelphia Eagle and Pittsburgh Steelers football games and the Phillies playoff run.
 
nmduke2001 said:
Lincoln Project just posted that the 30 and 60 second versions of the commercial will be airing on television in Pennsylvania. They should place it during the Penn State, Philadelphia Eagle and Pittsburgh Steelers football games and the Phillies playoff run.
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If this happens then good on them.
 
tommy said:
I pretty much think the "we need better candidates" thing is pretty bogus. With the exception of Trump, I'd say almost all of the recent presidential nominees have been solid, normal, in the mainstream candidates. Bill Clinton, Dole, GW Bush, Gore, Kerry, Obama, McCain, Romney, Hillary Clinton, Biden, and Harris. Sure some of them were a littler closer to the margins than others, and with real policy differences, but all were competent, reasonable people that either did or would have handled the country just fine. Many mistakes made, some very large ones, but still. None were terrible candidates.
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This overlooks the problem of Biden's age. Politically I would agree, but the body and mind must be able to make it another four years. To that extent Biden has a bad candidate in 2016 and a horrible candidate in 2020.
 
So Trump secretly sent Putin some Covid testing machines when the pandemic hit and he's had at least 7 private conversations with Putin since 2021?

Isn't this man our enemy? Isn't there proof Russia has been meddling in our elections and democracy for years? Hasn't Putin jailed and murdered journalists and political opponents for years? Didn't they invade a Democratic ally of ours and proceed to kill innocent civilians and kidnap children?

What the **** has happened to the Republican Party? To our Republican elected officials? Where is George W Bush?
 
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SkyBrickey said:
So Trump secretly sent Putin some Covid testing machines when the pandemic hit and he's had at least 7 private conversations with Putin since 2021?

Isn't this man our enemy? Isn't their proof Russia has been meddling in our elections and democracy for years? Hasn't Putin jailed and murdered journalists and opposition leader for years? Didn't they invade a Democratic ally of ours and proceed to kill innocent civilians and kidnap children?

What the **** has happened to the Republican Party? To our Republican elected officials? Where is George W Bush?
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Back channel conversations with murderous dictators is a wise tactic. Frequent communication between heads of state, even despicable ones, is not a bad thing. Trump's admiration of Putin and other dictators is on the record. The issue is not that it's Putin, but that it's Trump.
 
CameronBlue said:
Back channel conversations with murderous dictators is a wise tactic. Frequent communication between heads of state, even despicable ones, is not a bad thing. Trump's admiration of Putin and other dictators is on the record. The issue is not that it's Putin, but that it's Trump.
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While there are sound reasons for maintaining channels of direct communication between heads of state to prevent potential misunderstandings and avoid unintended missteps, it might be worth asking why Trump would want to curry favor with Putin, and why both of them would take great care to conceal those "exchanges" from public view.
 
CameronBlue said:
Back channel conversations with murderous dictators is a wise tactic. Frequent communication between heads of state, even despicable ones, is not a bad thing. Trump's admiration of Putin and other dictators is on the record. The issue is not that it's Putin, but that it's Trump.
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JD Vance on the report that Trump had seven phone calls with Putin AFTER leaving the WH:
“Is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?”
 
Furniture said:
JD Vance on the report that Trump had seven phone calls with Putin AFTER leaving the WH:
“Is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?”
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Isn't there something that's been around for over 220 years? Something called the Logan Act? Although as far as I know, former Presidents have been given significant leeway in "informal" discussions.
 
Furniture said:
JD Vance on the report that Trump had seven phone calls with Putin AFTER leaving the WH:
“Is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?”
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I mean, yes - that’s illegal for a private citizen.

It’s not unheard of for leaders to develop personal relationships or friendships with other heads of state, and not always sinister for those relationships to continue after the potus leaves office. (Granted this is Putin so yuck but still). The notion that the guy who had a bunch of stolen classified documents in his bathroom was conducting “diplomacy” with an enemy who had run ops in the US to get him elected, however, is insane. As we say about something new just about every day, it would be disqualifying for any politician of any political party except, for some reason, this guy.
 
CameronBlue said:
Back channel conversations with murderous dictators is a wise tactic. Frequent communication between heads of state, even despicable ones, is not a bad thing. Trump's admiration of Putin and other dictators is on the record. The issue is not that it's Putin, but that it's Trump.
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These conversations happened after he left office. Maybe you missed that point. That's not at all acceptable and is a threat to our national security, especially with a private citizen who is sitting on boxes of our most highly classified national secrets.

I feel like I am living in some alternate reality where up is often down....
 
Stray Gator said:
While there are sound reasons for maintaining channels of direct communication between heads of state to prevent potential misunderstandings and avoid unintended missteps, it might be worth asking why Trump would want to curry favor with Putin, and why both of them would take great care to conceal those "exchanges" from public view.
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And in addition, Trump became a private citizen at the end of his last term. HE IS NOT A HEAD OF STATE!!
 
MChambers said:
Jay Kuo (who definitely leans D) has a piece up on what the early voting information tells us. Seems to me to be legitimately part of the horse race discussion: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/2024-early-vote-pennsylvania-michigan
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I am glad this analysis focuses on something measurable that could matter in early voting, the conversion of mail-in voting requests to actual returned ballots. If anything close to that 30% gap continues as we get more and more ballots returned then it could indicate something significant in terms of voter enthusiasm.

A lot of folks focus on the actual numbers of folks who early vote, which is a very poor metric. Astute analysis has shown the number of early votes to be an extremely limited (and borderline irrelevant) metric for electoral projections if they are just folks who would otherwise have voted on election day.
 
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