The only solution, POSSIBLY (although Trump's vitriolic memory seems endless) is to beat him early. Two polls came out today that looked good for RDeS. Hope.
Maybe we can retire him to go back to arguing about his inauguration crowd being larger than Obama's and his "Apprentice" shows getting much better ratings than Schwarzenegger's.
I wrote in Ted Cruz's name in 2016 because Trump's twisting of the "NY values" remark was the last instance of his bearing false witness that I could put up with. At that point, I was convinced that Trump's vow to limit abortions was likely meaningless. I was wrong. His Court picks, while not perfect, were excellent. (Only Gorsuch was at the Alito/Thomas level, however.) I voted for him in 2020. He made several clear improvements to America in his 4 years in office, but to my mind he threw them all away and stuck America with Biden and a radical Democrat Congress, solely because of his personality -- which will never change. (Yes, the pandemic and the media's un-journalistic anti-Trump coverage of it hurt him, but does anyone think that DeSantis wouldn't have handled all the COVID pandemic aspects better? -- limiting the CDC, when it went overboard in assaulting liberty and damaging our schools and economy, while retaining a stronger image of leadership?) Down deep, Trump has good basic instincts: love of country, love of people. It's only when anything challenges love of self that he abandons Godly behavior. Most recently, he denied responsibility for the 2022 GOP Congressional setbacks, where his endorsed candidates, several of whom backed his endless 2020 whining, underperformed (See Ann Coulter, 12/7/22), and turned the blame on pro-lifers! He won't change, and the Democrats and the media are counting on that. They are now easing their attacks him. Democrat voters will dutifully switch party affiliations to ensure that Trump wins the GOP primary and becomes our (losing) candidate in 2024.
Can DeSantis keep his calm? Donald Trump doesn't read up on the issues very much -- after stumbling around for a year as POTUS he did get people in his cabinet who knew how to get things done -- but he does know The Insult. He can do insult humor of both the teasing and outright demeaning varieties. He will dig and dig until he successfully demeans or hits a nerve with his opponent, forcing the guy or gal into a critical error.
What should be stated first off is that Donald Trump would readily destroy the administration and career of the most successful conservative governor in the United States if he thought that person MIGHT try to win something from him (fairly) that he wants. He would take the entire Republican party down with him should he be rejected by GOP primary voters in 2024. As such, he needs to be beaten early enough so that by mid 2024 he's just a ranting boor. No filled stadiums.
Marco Rubio had a legitimate shot at catching Trump in 2016 while sticking to the high ground. But he succumbed: He tried insult humor of his own, about penis size. It ruined his mature image. Ted Cruz after that had a shot, playing the high ground (even after Trump put down Ted's wife's looks). But then he went after Trump for "New York values." Disaster. Trump the counter-puncher twisted Ted's remarks into a slander about New York's 9/11 first responders.
Keep your class, Ron. Keep your cool. America needs you.
While I hope I’m wrong, I fear that if Trump doesn’t become the GOP nominee in 2024, he will try to totally destroy the Republican who wins the nomination. IMHO, I sadly believe that Trump only cares about Trump.
Agree totally . Trump taunted both Rubio and Cruz into self destructing as after being baited sufficiently they attempted to adopt his style in the debates. He has been very successful in making it very difficult for opponents to ignore him, which totally frustrates him. He was one of my least favorite Republican candidates, but IMHO was certainly preferable to Hilary. And I remain firmly convinced that my vote was justified by the difference between his Supreme Court appointments and those she almost certainly would have made. But I cringe to think of the negative impact of him being the 2024 Republican nominee
Trump isn't playing checkers. He's playing "Cranko" (or maybe even "Double Cranko") the game that Hawkeye & BJ used to play on M*A*S*H that often ended when Hawkeye would slam a stick on the board and scatter the chess pieces throughout The Swamp whenever he'd be close to losing.
Dear Meg:
The only solution, POSSIBLY (although Trump's vitriolic memory seems endless) is to beat him early. Two polls came out today that looked good for RDeS. Hope.
Maybe we can retire him to go back to arguing about his inauguration crowd being larger than Obama's and his "Apprentice" shows getting much better ratings than Schwarzenegger's.
I wrote in Ted Cruz's name in 2016 because Trump's twisting of the "NY values" remark was the last instance of his bearing false witness that I could put up with. At that point, I was convinced that Trump's vow to limit abortions was likely meaningless. I was wrong. His Court picks, while not perfect, were excellent. (Only Gorsuch was at the Alito/Thomas level, however.) I voted for him in 2020. He made several clear improvements to America in his 4 years in office, but to my mind he threw them all away and stuck America with Biden and a radical Democrat Congress, solely because of his personality -- which will never change. (Yes, the pandemic and the media's un-journalistic anti-Trump coverage of it hurt him, but does anyone think that DeSantis wouldn't have handled all the COVID pandemic aspects better? -- limiting the CDC, when it went overboard in assaulting liberty and damaging our schools and economy, while retaining a stronger image of leadership?) Down deep, Trump has good basic instincts: love of country, love of people. It's only when anything challenges love of self that he abandons Godly behavior. Most recently, he denied responsibility for the 2022 GOP Congressional setbacks, where his endorsed candidates, several of whom backed his endless 2020 whining, underperformed (See Ann Coulter, 12/7/22), and turned the blame on pro-lifers! He won't change, and the Democrats and the media are counting on that. They are now easing their attacks him. Democrat voters will dutifully switch party affiliations to ensure that Trump wins the GOP primary and becomes our (losing) candidate in 2024.
Can DeSantis keep his calm? Donald Trump doesn't read up on the issues very much -- after stumbling around for a year as POTUS he did get people in his cabinet who knew how to get things done -- but he does know The Insult. He can do insult humor of both the teasing and outright demeaning varieties. He will dig and dig until he successfully demeans or hits a nerve with his opponent, forcing the guy or gal into a critical error.
What should be stated first off is that Donald Trump would readily destroy the administration and career of the most successful conservative governor in the United States if he thought that person MIGHT try to win something from him (fairly) that he wants. He would take the entire Republican party down with him should he be rejected by GOP primary voters in 2024. As such, he needs to be beaten early enough so that by mid 2024 he's just a ranting boor. No filled stadiums.
Marco Rubio had a legitimate shot at catching Trump in 2016 while sticking to the high ground. But he succumbed: He tried insult humor of his own, about penis size. It ruined his mature image. Ted Cruz after that had a shot, playing the high ground (even after Trump put down Ted's wife's looks). But then he went after Trump for "New York values." Disaster. Trump the counter-puncher twisted Ted's remarks into a slander about New York's 9/11 first responders.
Keep your class, Ron. Keep your cool. America needs you.
While I hope I’m wrong, I fear that if Trump doesn’t become the GOP nominee in 2024, he will try to totally destroy the Republican who wins the nomination. IMHO, I sadly believe that Trump only cares about Trump.
Agree totally . Trump taunted both Rubio and Cruz into self destructing as after being baited sufficiently they attempted to adopt his style in the debates. He has been very successful in making it very difficult for opponents to ignore him, which totally frustrates him. He was one of my least favorite Republican candidates, but IMHO was certainly preferable to Hilary. And I remain firmly convinced that my vote was justified by the difference between his Supreme Court appointments and those she almost certainly would have made. But I cringe to think of the negative impact of him being the 2024 Republican nominee
Trump isn't playing checkers. He's playing "Cranko" (or maybe even "Double Cranko") the game that Hawkeye & BJ used to play on M*A*S*H that often ended when Hawkeye would slam a stick on the board and scatter the chess pieces throughout The Swamp whenever he'd be close to losing.