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Trump Turns On Vivek – “deceitful campaign tricks” “Not MAGA”

Trump Turns On Vivek – “deceitful campaign tricks” “Not MAGA”

But why did Trump turn on Vivek NOW? Concern that Vivek was taking votes away from Trump in Iowa and hurting Trump not DeSantis? Or just sick of him?

Vivek comes across as incredibly smarmy. He made his fortune in what amounted to a pump-and-dump play with a pharmaceutical company, and he reminds me of the sham-wow guy.

There is no core, he’s a sales guy, closing the deal is his only principle.

Vivek’s strategy has been to suck up to Trump and Trump supporters, waiting for Trump to fall, to set himself up as the alternative to DeSantis. It was all so insincere, but it served Team Trump’s purposes because the more alternatives to Trump in the primaries, the better for Trump.

Sucking up earned Vivek safety from Trump’s barbs (does he even have a nickname for Vivek?) and attacks. Vivek rose because it suited Trump’s purposes for Vivek to rise. Vivek thought he was in control, another stock hustle with The Donald as the mark.

Late this afternoon, just ahead of the Iowa Caucuses, Trump called Vivek out on Truth Social:

Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, “the best President in generations,” etc. Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks. Very sly, but a vote for Vivek is a vote for the “other side” — don’t get duped by this. Vote for “TRUMP,” don’t waste your vote! Vivek is not MAGA. The Biden Indictments against his Political Opponent will never be allowed in this Country, they are already beginning to fall! MAGA!!!

There is a lot of Truth in that Truth. But why did Trump turn on Vivek NOW? Concern that Vivek was taking votes away from Trump in Iowa and hurting Trump not DeSantis? Or just sick of him?

Vivek is STILL sucking up even after Trump threw him under the bus, and saying the quiet part out loud – he’s waiting for Trump to fall.

Here’s the plot & it’s hiding in plain sight:

1. Narrow this to a 2-horse race between Trump & Haley.
2. Eliminate Trump.
3. Trot their puppet into the White House.

I respect the hell out of Trump. He’s the best President of the 21st century. I’ve defended him at every step against the unjust persecutions. I filed a Supreme Court brief this week laying out the winning legal arguments to overrule Colorado’s disastrous ruling. I’ve filed FOIA demands against the Biden administration. I went to Miami to rally outside the courthouse against Joe Biden and Merrick Garland’s unjust federal indictment of Trump. I’ve called on every Republican to remove themselves from the ballots of Maine & Colorado if they remove Trump.

But OPEN YOUR EYES to the hard TRUTH: this system will stop at nothing to keep this man away from the White House.

Just because it’s wrong doesn’t mean it won’t happen & we owe it to our nation to take America-First forward.

I feel like I need a shower after writing so much about Vivek.

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Comments

Geeeez, I feel like I need a shower, too. He is oilier than the oiliest of snake salesmen.

Have to disagree with you on Vivek.
The first time I saw him was on a two-hour long podcast with Tim Pool about a year ago, The man thoroughly impressed me! He came off as sincere, knowledgeable on the issues and very intelligent. I like Trump, but Vivek seemed like a younger, smarter and more articulate version of Trump.

Is Vivek fooling me? Could be, but he has my vote in the primary. While Trump will surely win, which is fine, I am disheartened to see Trump going after Vivek as I am really hoping he will get the VP nod or a cabinet position.

    The Gentle Grizzly in reply to fogflyer. | January 14, 2024 at 9:44 am

    I’m pretty much in the same situation. I may be getting fooled, but I’ve been fooled before.

    As it is, even if we get our dream candidate in the White House, the Communists will goad the spineless GOP into doing anything they want done, so, in general, we will still be a divided nation in its last days.

    inspectorudy in reply to fogflyer. | January 14, 2024 at 2:12 pm

    I like listening to him but when you analyze his positions, you realize he is blowing smoke and no POTUS has the power he claims he will have. He has said that he would fire 75% of the federal workforce! We all know he can’t do that. He makes claims about Israel and solving world problems with no experience in any of those areas. He is a hustler and a snake oil salesman. He is a lot like Buttigieg with the ability to think on his feet and talk nonstop without really saying anything.

Gee, if only righties were more united attacking lefties than they are eating their own.

#Reagans11thCommandment

    Ah, yes, Reagan never bashed Bush 41, right? He just sailed through the primaries without ever attacking his opponents? I want to live in your lollipop world; it must be so much fun to have zero knowledge of what actually happened in the real world and to live in your cotton candy world of trite cliches.

      I was criticizing Trump using shorthand. I’m not sure what your problem is but I bet it’s hard to pronounce.

        Danny in reply to LB1901. | January 15, 2024 at 10:55 am

        I think you meant well but tone does not translate over the internet, and you did lay out the principle of hiding our garbage (as in the no eating our own).

      To second your point with a great example of how that rule applies even outside of the presidency Tucker Carlson thinks we should allow the Houthis to shut down one of the chief trade nodes of the planet increasing prices on everything you purchase and that we should be backing Hamas against Israel and Russia against Ukraine, and disagreement to that makes you disloyal to the United States. Trump has made it clear he doesn’t think Biden’s fighting hard enough against Houthi pirates, isn’t providing enough to Ukraine, and isn’t giving Israel enough political support for it to finish Hamas.

      I would 100% pick Trump all the way on the issues today, and I think the right deserves to know Tucker thinks they are disloyal to their country if they do not back the Harvard faculty and that Tucker or Trump is a choice to make.

        henrybowman in reply to Danny. | January 14, 2024 at 3:04 pm

        “Shenanigans.”

        CommoChief in reply to Danny. | January 14, 2024 at 4:54 pm

        ‘We’ presumably that ‘We’ are the Sons and Daughters of the USA with military hardware paid for by US taxpayers?

        If so can you articulate the case that maintaining the maritime traffic through the the Suez is a duty and responsibility of the USA and not that of the Nations who’s merchant maritime fleets transit the Suez?

          Dathurtz in reply to CommoChief. | January 14, 2024 at 9:21 pm

          If our country is going to be responsible for keeping trade lanes open, then we need to charge other countries through the nose to pay for it.

          Having the costs of empire without the benefits of empire is stupid.

          1. The U.S. economy doesn’t care about technicalities. Prices going up due to piracy means prices going up. Just like the U.S. economy doesn’t care about Biden’s re-election campaign it doesn’t care that the Greek Merchant marine is larger than the U.S. Merchant marine either. Shutting down Red Sea trade means higher prices in America.

          2. American merchant shipping uses both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.

          3. Prices going up impacts Americans as much as anyone else and the only place you could avoid price increases as a result of merchant shipping being hurt is fairy tale land.

          4. What part of destabilizing Egypt a country with a pro-American government is in our interests?

          5. American investors have their money in international assets that are explicitly harmed by shutting down Red Sea trade.

          6. American honor is without doubt hurt by failure to secure American interests we have stated will be protected.

          7. Other countries having stronger interests in way diminishes America’s economic interests.

          8. So many of the internationally owned assets that go through the Red Sea are partly American owned.

          9. What most on the left and on the right Tucker Carlson does not understand is our military does exist to fight for America’s interests including preserving it’s economic interests. No nation on planet Earth benefits more from the free flow of goods from around the world than the United States of America does.

          10. What part of deterrence do you think other nations in the world would understand if we ignore our clear economic interests in favor of ideology? Do you think Xi isn’t watching right now?

          11. From having served in the navy I promise you defending American interests is something every single sailor wants to do, and keeping the sea lanes open is without doubt our interests.

          An American interest is under attack. That our interests coincide with those of other nations in no way changes that. Don’t for a second think that we had a higher economic interest in crushing the Barbary Corsairs than the nations of Italy did. Nobody told Thomas Jefferson “why are you fighting for Venice” because Thomas Jefferson lived in a much more serious time period.

    chrisboltssr in reply to LB1901. | January 13, 2024 at 10:41 pm

    Yeah, 20204 should have been so easy. Everyone knew Trump was going to run for reelection in 2024. All conservatives should have gotten behind him and used all of their resources to fight the evil of the Left.

    But NeverTrumpers are as shallow and as petty as scorned women, and hold grudges for things that didn’t happen to them, despite Trump doing most of what they asked for.

    Oh well, you NeverTrumpers will be dragged kicking and screaming to supporting Trump. Or Biden. Doesn’t matter, the point is you will be dragged, kicking and screaming.

      CommoChief in reply to chrisboltssr. | January 14, 2024 at 7:57 am

      Here’s the key point about unity for a general election candidate. In our current political system it is earned via the primary system run by the political parties. The candidates duke it out, the voters in every State make a choice, those choices are put into action at the nominating convention and ideally the members of the party will coalesce behind the party nominee and support the nominee in the general election v pouting and taking their ball home if their preferred primary candidate isn’t selected. Some of whom have also loudly and proudly told they are not registered members of the GoP. Kinda curious that these folks who ain’t in the party demand that the members of the party do what outsiders want…or else.

      There has been much ink spilled both here at LI and elsewhere from many who very persuasively proclaimed they wouldn’t vote for anyone but DJT and would boycott the election if he wasn’t the nominee. That doesn’t sound like folks who want to make logical arguments, rather it comes across as a form of extortion.

      Not everyone outside the ‘only Trump’ camp is in the ‘never Trump’ camp. Lots of folks are in between and we are gonna have to win the support of the majority of those in the middle ground between the extremes in order to win in November. The way the ‘only Trump’ makes their case is definitely gonna matter.

      The folk wisdom re catching more fly with honey than vinegar definitely applies. Keep in mind that we can’t the general election exclusively from the votes of the ‘only Trump’ camp, there ain’t enough of them. Pushing away supporters of other primary candidates by demonizing folks who have the ‘audacity’ to believe we should use the party primary system to select a nominee to represent the party’s voters in the general election seems like a bad strategy to create a coalition of voters large enough to turn Biden out of office. Especially when some of the loudest voices of this come from outside the party.

      GravityOpera in reply to chrisboltssr. | January 14, 2024 at 7:05 pm

      You’re right, 2024 should have been so easy. Everybody knows not to run an incumbent loser against the guy who beat him. Only one President in US history has a win-lose-win record and he won the popular vote all three times, but lost the Electoral College once.

      Trump did tons of economic destruction, screwed voter integrity efforts with idiots like Lindell, and screwed conservative politics for a generation handing Democrats power.

      Shallow? I can’t think of anything shallower than “The Left hates him!” and “I want revenge!” as excuses for suicide.

      You should be more concerned about resigned apathy as we can do nothing useful but stand by and watch as the entire country receives the consequences of your actions.

Could be that Trump, now at 48%, is looking to crack 50%, and Ramaswammy, at 8%, is in the way.

At this point, aren’t they all just hanging around hoping for the worst?

The Gentle Grizzly | January 13, 2024 at 10:09 pm

Mr. Trump? Stop sniveling.

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | January 14, 2024 at 10:00 am

      What would you like? “President Trump”, when he is no such thing? Or, how about some show-biz-ese in honor of The Apprentice? “Donny-baby”! Or, lastly, given the outright blind fealty so many exhibit regarding his infallible ways, make his pronoun not him but Him as if He is some Deity?

      I voted for him twice. I may again should he be the candidate. But, another four years of horrible cabinet appointments and stupid policies over “pandemics”, we are in for interesting times.

      Would I consider voting Democrat? No. Independent? No one catches my eye.

      For all of you who write the phrase “Never-Trumper” so freely, consider this: some people just flat don’t like him. Or, they have decided his less than stellar cabinet appointments and his handling of the Covid fiasco make consideration of another candidate something to be done. If that makes us bad people then so be it.

        Keep in mind that RINO McConnell wouldnt let Trump have free choice over his nominees. Turtle approved Trumps slower than he did democrats. Turtle will be soup by 2025

        henrybowman in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | January 14, 2024 at 3:15 pm

        I don’t really “like” him, either, and as he keeps becoming more and more petty, I like him less and less. But I voted for him twice because he was by far the least dangerous to me among the entire pack. (And to say that the best QB in the league is one that makes only 20% “own goals” shows you how desperate conservatives are.) And, among the current pack of contenders, he still is the least dangerous choice.

        If you go by what he says “today,” Ramaswamy is the best choice… but he has an unsurmountable credibility problem. If Rand Paul were running, I’d drop Trump like a dog-park baggie. But the Swamp has carefully groomed all (the illusions of) our “choices” for this race, and Trump is the only one who still stands outside that forced “consensus.”

          Tom Orrow in reply to henrybowman. | January 14, 2024 at 4:20 pm

          How is DeSantis more “dangerous” than Trump?

          I’ve seen a lot of smoke about DeSantis, blown by Trumpistas. He’s not articulate enough (Trump is??); sometimes he misspeaks (Trump doesn’t??); he has lifts on his boots (seriously??)

          I will vote for Trump if he is the GOP nominee, but I think DeSantis is the best candidate, so I will vote for him in the primaries. Pollsters and blowhards* on the Internet don’t influence me.
          *Not directed at you, Henry Bowman

          henrybowman in reply to henrybowman. | January 15, 2024 at 12:18 am

          I think you’re right. (DeSantis wasn’t one of the choices the past two cycles, so I wasn’t calling him dangerous.)

          This time around, DeSantis isn’t dangerous at all… what’s dangerous is voting for him. My tinfoil hat contends that his poll numbers have been artificially depressed, and the MSM seems to be deliberately underreporting on him so as not to boost them. When you look at the newsprint dedicated to Ramaswamy compared to Desantis, you know the fix is in, because the attention gap makes no logical sense whatsoever. I just don’t believe DeSantis is going to be a viable choice this time around. He’s going to be the Republican Party’s “Libertarian Party Candidate” — unelectable solely because the media demoralizes enough voters by claiming that he cannot win and he would be a wasted vote. If there is a counter to this tactic, neither I nor the Libertarian Party has yet discovered it.

He plays tennis pretty well, but, other than that.. IDK, there is something disingenuous about him.. Obviously really smart,, but he just does not strike me as a leader.

He might be a candidate I would vote for except that he has never adrressed thhese claims:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qQfV2_9w4

    henrybowman in reply to thad_the_man. | January 15, 2024 at 1:14 am

    Really? Because when I pulled up that URL, the top result in the right-hand column (under the paid ads) was Vivek Ramaswamy *JUST* Responded to Me, posted the very next day.

    The second video is a clownshow: the poster spends more than the first half of the video defending himself before the very first mention of anything Ramaswamy responded. And then the reason becomes obvious — Vivek exposed the poster as a Democrat hatchetman who promoted the heck out of the fraudulent FTX, impoverishing his customer base. From there on in, it devolves into a he-said-she-said squabble about who legitimately thought his investment was a great investment, and who was knowingly committing fraud. It was so obviously pot and kettle that I couldn’t steel myself to watch it all the way through. The poster makes a big deal about his accusations (and that’s all they are) “illustrating the character of a presidential candidate!!,” but the poster himself actually ran for Governor of California while promoting FTX, another ironic instance of pot-blackening.

“But why did Trump turn on Vivek NOW?”

Came to his attention, in terms of something he cares about.

The Orange Crush has a weird, feral intelligence I’ve been trying to characterize since about 2015. How’s he doing that? How’s he know to do that particular thing, now?

The closest I’ve gotten so far is that he has a sort of intuitive sense for tacking through currents and forces larger than himself that informs even small-grained choices.

    chrisboltssr in reply to BierceAmbrose. | January 13, 2024 at 11:00 pm

    He saw Vivek take a photo with supporters who wore a shirt featuring his mugshot and the caption, “Save Trump. Vote Vivek.”

    Vivek may have thought it was funny, bit Trump didn’t. And it showed he’s as much a snake as DeSantis and Haley are.

      JohnSmith100 in reply to chrisboltssr. | January 14, 2024 at 9:44 am

      I saw an interesting pol that Trump was #1, then far removed Haley, with DeSantis trailing behind Haley. Such a fall from grace, he screwed the pooch. Politics is unforgiving.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair | January 13, 2024 at 10:59 pm

I like Vivek a lot. He’s my solid number 2 pick right behind Trump. Vivek is excellent.

Trump is attacking him because Vivek votes are most definitely Trump votes. No two ways around it.

Vivek’s a big boy. He can take it.

    So much cringe on the “Vivek is excellent” line. Yikes.

      ThePrimordialOrderedPair in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | January 13, 2024 at 11:42 pm

      He is excellent. Your emotions are in need of serious recalibration.

      Vivek is making the clearest case for America, outside of Trump, and he is correct on almost all the issues. Not all of them, but more than anyone else and he is pounding home the point of America.

      I have no idea what you find cringe-inducing about any of that and I don’t get what Prof. Jacobson’s problem with him is. He’s a salesman? So what? I really don’t care about his motivation – real or imagined by anyone – I only really care about what he actually says and judge him by the actions he actually takes.

      Vivek is smart, unafraid, and on point on pretty much all of the issues – most importantly, he understands what the point of America is.

      Cringe … give me a break.

        What actions has he “taken”, and in what arena(s)? Serious question. He has never held office.

          ThePrimordialOrderedPair in reply to herm2416. | January 14, 2024 at 12:53 am

          Of course, in campaigning there are only words, unless one has a record or is currently in the position. That’s one of the inherent weaknesses of the idea of campaigning. So, for many campaigns I have nothing to go on but what the candidate says.

          Viviek is saying all the right things, outside of one or two disagreements I have with him. That’s all I have to go on. But the more important part is that, outside of Trump, Vivek is the only candidate who has the courage and intelligence to address the real problems and offer serious solutions. Whether he would stay true to word and whether he would try to implement those solutions is a question. I get the impression that he is honest and would do just that. But he’s halfway there, already, just expressing those ideas – which is more than can be said for any of the others, save Trump.

          Vivek is real competition to Trump because Vivek basically agrees with Trump on almost all of the issues and is willing to express his opinions and solutions for them.

        You make good points.

        Back in the ’80s and ’90s, Apple had a guy named Guy Kawasaki. His job title was “chief evangelist.” He energized the “faithful,” was responsible for all the user groups and their convention, and so on. But he never actually ran the company, and would have been the wrong guy to do so, because his skill set was different.

        I see Vivek giving speeches and pwning journalists and other hostile questioners, and I see Guy. I just don’t see Steve.

          BierceAmbrose in reply to henrybowman. | January 14, 2024 at 4:52 pm

          Do you remember Bruce Tognazzini from the same period — back when Apple considered usability a thing?

          You kinda need these guys around to understand and say the things that get lost in the noise.

          Wired had an “Apple’s Usability Sucks Now” cover piece some years back, taking up nearly half the issue. Worth the read. Last actually useful think I saw in Wired, but I haven’t scanned them recently.

        “He’s a salesman?”

        I hope so. So is Trump.

He’s an oily used snake salesman but the real reason Trump “turned on him” is because he was getting too popular. Trump can’t stand it.

nordic prince | January 14, 2024 at 1:06 am

Vivek is a dark horse. In less than a year he’s gone from “Who’s he?” to damn near 24/7 in your face on all the podcasts and town halls, and anybody who will give him air time.

His status as a dark horse is the single biggest red flag that jumps out at me. There are no coincidences, and his becoming a household name is no accident. I want to know who is really behind him.

I don’t trust dark horses. The last time we were treated to a dark horse, we were saddled with that jackass poser from $#!+cago.

    Milhouse in reply to nordic prince. | January 14, 2024 at 6:39 am

    Trump wasn’t a dark horse?!

      nordic prince in reply to Milhouse. | January 14, 2024 at 8:44 am

      No. Trump has been a known item for 40+ years. Love him or hate him, we’ve known who he is and what he does.

      The same can’t be said of Vivek – he was completely unknown just several months ago, yet now his name is on everyone’s lips. That doesn’t just happen, and although Vivek appears to be saying “the right things,” I find his meteoric rise to be highly suspicious.

        “Trump has been a known item for 40+ years.”

        Not “known” to be conservative until he was elected.

          henrybowman in reply to gibbie. | January 16, 2024 at 9:59 pm

          In fact, he was known to be quite the Democrat. Harped on “assault weapons” several times in his books. Treated poor Vera Coking monstrously by trying to leverage government to steal her property (and yes, I was aware of this moral offense long before “The Apprentice,” never mind his political run). But he governed way more conservatively (though far from perfectly) when he actually did win office. Certainly a lot better than we would have gotten from Hillary, or a typical challenger forced upon us by Swamp RINOs.

DJT needs to focus on the enemy, Vivek isn’t one of them

Vivek has admittedly said some bold and true things, and, he has staked out a few bold policy prescriptions, but, he lost me with his shameful and indefensible equivocations and tepid response to the 10/7 genocidal murders, rapes and other assorted sadistic atrocities committed by Arab Muslim Islamofascist thugs.

Someone who is of the Hindu faith, like the execrable Nikki Haley (who issued a similar response) should better appreciate and comprehend the threat posed by Muslim supremacism, terrorism, totalitarianism and belligerence and should unambiguously and staunchly support Israel and any other country and people defending themselves against this evil.

    Milhouse in reply to guyjones. | January 14, 2024 at 6:48 am

    Haley is not a Hindu and never has been. She grew up Sikh, and is now a Christian.

    I have not been paying as much attention to Ramaswamy as some, but I have not seen him display the behavior you claim; and if you could make an error like that I’m not about to trust you on this matter.

    The only criticism of him that I’ve seen on this issue was the claim that he’s anti-Israel because he said he wants Israel to stand on its own two feet and stop getting US aid, which comes with US opinions. I agree with him on that. The US should stop giving money and stop giving opinions, and just support Israel the same way it supports its other close allies such as Australia and the UK. And that means respecting Israel’s sovereignty and its right to defend itself as it sees fit, without needing Washington’s permission. As I understand it that is Ramaswamy’s position, so I’m for it.

Vivek comes across as incredibly smarmy. He made his fortune in what amounted to a pump-and-dump play with a pharmaceutical company, and he reminds me of the sham-wow guy. There is no core, he’s a sales guy, closing the deal is his only principle.

Sounds like Trump. And Trump turned out pretty well despite his flaws.

I haven’t paid that much attention to Ramaswamy, but I don’t recall him saying anything I had a problem with, which is more than I can say for Trump. If it came down to a primary choice between those two I’d choose him over Trump. But I’d happily vote for either of them over any Democrat.

He’s the best President of the 21st century.

Faint praise indeed. So, he’s best out of four, including two Democrats, one of whom is a radical leftist and the other was always an idiot and is now senile on top of that?

    BierceAmbrose in reply to Milhouse. | January 14, 2024 at 4:56 pm

    On reflection, I get the “smarmy” feel people get from Vivek.

    On my own, it blew right past me. It seems I was too dipped for too long in BigTech and the NewNewThing — seems you become oblivious to the smarm when smarm is the sea in which you swim.

MoeHowardwasright | January 14, 2024 at 6:27 am

When he first announced I thought he was a breath of fresh air. I even sent him a contribution to keep him going. Alas he has proven himself to be another charlatan. Two faced, slippery and willing to change his beliefs to fit the time/audience. Yes he is just like Trump only younger. Quite frankly Vivek is a man of our times. (Big Lebowski reference)
We as a country are truly screwed. We will be forced to choose between two octogenarians because the media is pushing it and real people are to blind in their loyalties to see that they are being played. FJB

IMO what’s happening here is that Vivek has laid out the true ‘never Trump’ strategy. Haley is the preferred candidate of the establishment. She’s is a neocon, forever war supporter who is advocating for amnesty for illegal aliens. Her policy preferences and platforms as a Presidential Candidate reflect the wishes of the establishment.

That doesn’t mean anything in the piece by Prof Jacobson about Vivek is incorrect. It’s the contrary. In fact I would surmise that the internal polling for Trump is showing Vivek making inroads into voters who would support him and that’s why he is turning his cannon onto Vivek. His statement (about a rival candidate mind you) simultaneously praises Vivek for his prior ‘support’ of Trump in the primary then attacks Vivek for truthfully pointing out that the real establishment candidate is Haley not DeSantis.

IMO, DJT is ultimately gonna be the nominee baring a very, very narrow path for everyone else. Still the path exists and it is important to allow the primary to unfold and the influences on the ’24 party platform from the voters via different candidates be allowed to occur. We should NOT follow the lead of the d/prog and simply anoint a candidate like the d/prog are doing with Biden in abandoning our primary process.

I have seen the word “cringe” used in this thread by a few people, what brings the cringe to me is a guy who is closely tied to the Graham’s and McConnell’s in the senate. While I can firmly endorse his policies, he is truly cringeworthy in regards to the people he includes in his inner circle. Just look at the people he chose for his initial cabinet and staff. Some of the people who remain in his inner circle.
Either one is far more acceptable than anything the democratic party has to offer currently and I don’t see one on the horizon that is in line with my views.
Neither party has enough of a base to win on just its own party voters, the so called “MAGA” group is not large enough to win on its own, you need to convince and win over the so called independents to win an election, not sure personal attacks is the route to do that especially when it is an issue like abortion that may very well be the deciding factor in and to date based upon the state level elections on the issue the republicans are not winning on that issue. One can argue the various reasons why but the results show that it is not a winning issue for them right now.
Very little of the noise right now will matter come the fall, there will be many more events occurring in the months to come that will be far more important than what we are experiencing right now.

My, how things have changed from a few months ago.

    henrybowman in reply to txvet2. | January 14, 2024 at 3:30 pm

    Months, weeks, sometimes even days. That’s why you never vote early!

      CommoChief in reply to henrybowman. | January 14, 2024 at 5:06 pm

      Not this early but in jurisdictions where the political opposition runs the process and is thus able to manufacture ‘shenanigans’ on election day, as we saw in some places in ’22 with polling places unprepared for routine operations; no paper of the correct size/type, printer settings that weren’t aligned to size of ballot, lack of personnel to accommodate the amount of in person voters….it might not be a bad idea to vote early especially when weather may become an issue.

      When we put all the eggs into election day turnout and then life happens; flat tire, illness, traffic, work emergency on top of the potential for manufactured ‘shenanigans’ by less than competent/scrupulous election officials we are handing over lots of power to those who are our political opposition.

      Where the election laws allow early voting we shouldn’t be afraid to use it. Where mail in voting doesn’t yet exist we should continue to oppose the implementation but early In Person voting …sure.

I’m disappointed in this ad hominem attack on Ramaswamy by Professor Jacobson. It’s no better than the ad hominem attacks leftists direct at Trump.

I like Scott Adams comment regarding Trump and Ramaswamy. Adams is constantly having to “explain” what Trump “really meant” by his “shoot-from-the-hip” comments. He never has to do that for Ramaswamy.

I don’t think Vivek can win the nomination, but I’m very happy having him in the race. His dismantlings of “journalist” fools are superb.