17 Comments

The real problem isn't these candidates, it's our fellow Republicans who keep putting a starting quarterback in the game (Trump) who can't win. If we lose another election just so we can watch Trump fight the libs and RINO's, we will only have ourselves to blame. Truth matters. Winning matters. It's as simple as that.

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Exactly right.

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Absolutely! I mean DeSantis and Christie have at least led the way on breaking through that wall, and set a precedent, but cowardice and self serving hypocrisy will mean others won't dare to get on Trump's bad side this early in the game. Especially if they want a job in a potential Trump administration. But they're fooling themselves.

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I don't think DeSantis has led the way on this, but I do see him edging closer and closer to it.

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Yeah, I think that's more accurate as time goes by. What has he got to lose!

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Trump supporters that he will never get.

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What do you think John of states that have decided to have their electoral votes go towards the candidate that won the national popular vote? Now that MN Dem's have taken the house, the senate, and the head of state, it's coming here.

Second two cents; I thought DeSantis should have never run this coming election year. He has the challenge of facing Trump but winning over his loyal supporters. That's impossible. What strategy John would you advise him on? My advice would be as I stated above, stay out.

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>>What do you think John of states that have decided to have their electoral votes go towards the candidate that won the national popular vote?

I'm against it, and voted against it when it was on my state's ballot in 2020. Unfortunately, it passed.

>>I thought DeSantis should have never run this coming election year. He has the challenge of facing Trump but winning over his loyal supporters. That's impossible.

I think a lot of people convinced DeSantis that his time was now, and it was definitely worth a shot, because the notion of re-nominating Trump is absolutely perverse. Unfortunately, DeSantis has run a terrible campaign. He's been trying to out-MAGA Trump (which, like you said, was never going to work), and in the process has been alienating persuadable voters.

>>What strategy John would you advise him on?

At this point, I'm not sure anything can revive his campaign, but if he's going to stay in, he's got to stop running to Trump's defense when it comes to Trump's legal issues, and remind voters over an over that Trump has been a genuine electoral disaster for the Republican party, and it will be only worse going forward. DeSantis does well when he's talking about policy. He should do more of that, even if much of the base no longer cares about such things. Sounding knowledgeable and competent can only help.

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The funny thing about the whole "award the state electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote" is that it would only in theory help Republicans, because only Democratic run states - i.e. state sthat would vote for the Democratic candidate - are pushing for this. No Red states would even consider this, so the only states it would effect are blue states, in the event that a GOP candidate wins the national popular vote. The last time that happened was almost 20 years ago, so there's that......

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You're right John. And I don't see a GOP candidate ever winning the popular vote. Well at least in my life time.

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I think if someone other than Trump wins the Republican nomination (unlikely), the only thing stopping that person from going on to win the popular vote would be a sore-loser Trump telling his loyalists not to vote for him/her (likely).

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Yes, and I believe if someone else did win the nomination that Biden would be talked out of running. The best chance would be if Trump loses the nomination and Biden was to stay in. But not happening unfortunately.

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The electoral process is there as a speed bump. In the event of a calamity, the states can send in whatever they want. Most states have in their constitution that follow the will of the voters. It’s uneven, with some doing a proportional submission. So it is not absolute. I don’t think the previous was at the calamity level. But that’s that. You need to deal with half the electorate not having confidence in voting without authentication.

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Thomas, on what grounds could Pence have "sent it back to the states"? Which states, and why. And which state legislatures have come out and said that the certificates they sent to Congress were wrong, and needed to be re-certified?

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He doesn’t “send it back” . He can request a review- the State has the final determination. We’re mixing up general speak without precise language. Again what we have is a Covid election that created votes without authentication. It’s a broadside vote without confidence. The count was “good.” They counted a lot of unauthentic ballots.

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“To the effect” means almost nothing here. Request a review with the idea that some sort of calamity will change the count. Desperate and legal. Arguing is not illegal. Annoying but not illegal. There’s so much distortion now - the republic is over. Every man for himself..

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But Trump made the statement to the effect that if Pence had sent the votes back to the states - requested a review, etc...- that "we" i.e. Trump, would win. What is the logic behind that statement?

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