2024 GOP Presidential Race (4 Viewers)

coldseat said:

I've said this many times before, but I just don't get Trump’s appeal on any level. I even used to watch The Apprentice when it first came out and never found him to be particularly charismatic. I watched it more for the contestants, and that was before I knew much of anything about him.

Everything people find entertaining about him, I find to be boorish, egotistical, ridiculous and bombastic. The most repellent thing about him is all the sycophants around him.

I used to think that it must be a white thing, because I don't get the appeal of televangelist either and that's the closest thing I can compare to Trump with a lot of added stupidity and belligerence, but he seems to appeal to Latin people in certain parts of the country.

I guess there are just somethings I'll never understand. Trump’s appeal is at the top of the list.

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I am so in agreement with your inability to grasp why some people find him charismatic. You accurately mention words like boorish, egotistical, bombastic. I am so with you on those three. I'd just add "annoying" to round out your list.

DaveXA said:

It's lazy politics. DeSantis really hasn't done anything other than try to out-Trump Trump. He doesn't know or understand nuance and how to have thoughtful positions on a given campaign issue.

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This 100%. He doesn't have his own identity - his personal political instincts are terrible (see, e.g. "I would launch drone strikes against cartels in Mexico").

DaveXA said:

Yeah, for all of Trump's faults, he has never been boring. DeSantis is a wallflower in comparison.

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If I remember correctly, Gilliam almost beat DeSantis (aprox. 1pt) in FL Gov race despite his colossal personal collapse leading up to that election.

superchuck500 said:

This 100%. He doesn't have his own identity - his personal political instincts are terrible (see, e.g. "I would launch drone strikes against cartels in Mexico").

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And his war on Mickey Mouse-followed up by asking Disney to drop their lawsuit against him because he’s “moved on”. Lol. He has zero idea who he forked with.

coldseat said:

I've said this many times before, but I just don't get Trump’s appeal on any level. I even used to watch The Apprentice when it first came out and never found him to be particularly charismatic. I watched it more for the contestants, and that was before I knew much of anything about him.

Everything people find entertaining about him, I find to be boorish, egotistical, ridiculous and bombastic. The most repellent thing about him is all the sycophants around him.

I used to think that it must be a white thing, because I don't get the appeal of televangelist either and that's the closest thing I can compare to Trump with a lot of added stupidity and belligerence, but he seems to appeal to Latin people in certain parts of the country.

I guess there are just somethings I'll never understand. Trump’s appeal is at the top of the list.

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I agree 100%. I would say though that not boring and having a personality doesn't necessarily mean it's good. His personality is terrible, but sort of a dumpster on fire terrible, or train wreck terrible where you can't not look. He appeals to people's most base instincts and what you and I find repulsive is actually entertaining to other people.

I've always thought Trump was a shallow and self absorbed narcissist. But he does know how to manipulate people, and I don't think he's dumb, but he has severe tunnel vision.

I never got on the bandwagon when he first came down that escelator and announced his run for President. Didn't like the guy, all the way back when he was a celeb in the 80s. He just never appealed to me. But a lot of people like him. Baffling to me.

DaveXA said:

I agree 100%. I would say though that not boring and having a personality doesn't necessarily mean it's good. His personality is terrible, but sort of a dumpster on fire terrible, or train wreck terrible where you can't not look. He appeals to people's most base instincts and what you and I find repulsive is actually entertaining to other people.

I've always thought Trump was a shallow and self absorbed narcissist. But he does know how to manipulate people, and I don't think he's dumb, but he has severe tunnel vision.

I never got on the bandwagon when he first came down that escelator and announced his run for President. Didn't like the guy, all the way back when he was a celeb in the 80s. He just never appealed to me. But a lot of people like him. Baffling to me.

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He can work a crowd and schmooze. He speaks at a 4th grade level, using direct statements without nuance.

He's the opposite of a "politician", which makes him God in some people's eyes.

Nikki Haley article...
*

DeSantis more relatable than we thought?

I'd be more sympathetic if he wasn't so awful in addition to awkward
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After watching awkward videos of Ron DeSantis, Derek Guy had a horrifying realization.

Guy, a fashion writer known as the “Menswear Guy” to his large following on social media, had noticed people on X, formerly known as Twitter, making fun of the Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful for throwing off weird vibes on the campaign trail.

Some of these moments have been captured on video, as things tend to be during a presidential campaign: DeSantis struggling to make small talk with voters; bursting into strange paroxysms of wide-mouthed laughter; appearing to sugar-shame a child drinking an Icee at an Iowa fair.

“What’s your name?” DeSantis asked a voter in a recent clip from a New Hampshire diner.

“Tim,” the man responds.

“Okay,” says DeSantis.

In another video, from a party after the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner, DeSantis stands ramrod straight, taking gulps of beer and checking the time on his phone and telling potential voters that normally he would already be asleep.

As he sought to connect with voters and donors, critics said DeSantis had resembled — to quote a couple of posts — “a robot put together from scrapped spare parts from Disney’s The Hall of Presidents” or “an extraterrestrial in a skin-suit trying to learn to be human.”

But when Guy, the menswear writer, watched a video of DeSantis cycling through four different facial expressions in about three seconds during a news conference, he saw something even more disturbing.

“Oh, God,” he remembers saying to himself. “That’s me.”

The governor’s anti-charisma — his apparent struggles to make small talk, his propensity for letting a smile fall too quickly from his face — reminded Guy of himself at parties. Or the time he had no idea what to say after a fan of his fashion writing recognized him at a tailoring shop.

“It was exactly like those DeSantis moments,” he said. “A normal human being would understand how to light up your face, how to engage, how to say the right thing. But DeSantis doesn’t have that. And I definitely don’t have that.”

Guy is not the only awkward American who has identified with DeSantis as he has emerged as the Awkward Candidate.

“Like Ron DeSantis, I spend every day trying to act like a human,” said Michelle Witherspoon, an environmental consultant in California.

“Every time I watch the videos, I cringe,” said Kate Ecke, a therapist from New Jersey who recently forgot to bring identification when picking up her child at summer camp and subsequently “really weirded out” a counselor by offering to show her C-section scar as proof of motherhood. “But I’m cringing because I’ve been that person.”

“It’s extremely relatable to me,” said Audrey Kamena, an incoming freshman to Yale University who said she once called her high school history teacher “Mom” and still thinks “about it every night before bed.”

Alex Whitlock, a stay-at-home dad and a “Never Trump” Republican from West Virginia, found himself relating to DeSantis after reading an article that mentioned that the governor made people uncomfortable with his “propensity to devour food during meetings.”

“I don’t always have an appropriate sense of when to eat or not eat,” said Whitlock, who also said he rarely knows when he’s supposed to shake someone’s hand.

There have been rare cases where the Awkward Candidate managed to make it to the White House.

Richard M. Nixon’s ability to make small talk was, according to New York magazine, “a talent at which he is as naturally gifted as, say, the late Harpo Marx.” (Harpo was the one who didn’t talk.) Calvin Coolidge once said that he was “as much interested in human beings as one could possibly be, but it is desperately hard for me to show it.”

Still, awkwardness is not the kind of relatability a politician necessarily wants. It’s safe to say the DeSantis campaign was hoping their man would be defined by attributes such as toughness or youth..............

MT15 said:

And his war on Mickey Mouse-followed up by asking Disney to drop their lawsuit against him because he’s “moved on”. Lol. He has zero idea who he forked with.

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thats something trump can never say. he has not gotten over losing in 2020.

Oh, my…..

MT15 said:

Oh, my…..

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So, our greatest threat is a Russia/China alliance, but we'll weaken it by allowing those countries to annex Ukraine and Taiwan? This guy is proof that being wealthy doesn't immunize oneself from being an idiot.

Booker said:

So, our greatest threat is a Russia/China alliance, but we'll weaken it by allowing those countries to annex Ukraine and Taiwan? This guy is proof that being wealthy doesn't immunize oneself from being an idiot.

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i watched it live last night.

RE: Taiwan- he wants to move semiconductor mfg to US. by 2028 he said he will have 50% or more produced in US which at THAT POINT- Taiwan, you on your own vs China ( he literally said our interest in protecting them would be over since we would now produce our own semiconductors ) Said Taiwan spends 2% of GDP on military- THEY SHOULD SPEND .....4% lolol



RE: trump/indictments- he emphatically said he will pardon Trump on day 1. Then asked about threats and classified docs- said "bad judgement- but lets let the courts decide" . At that point, Acosta said " but you just said you will pardon Trump Day 1 - if courts decide he guilty, isnt he guilty"?
Rams- Yeah but its, you know, conviction on false pretenses ( or something to that effect )


This dude is whack. Has ZERO geopolitical awareness.

And zero self awareness. He just gave more red meat to the other R's than anything.

That was amateur hour. His stance on Taiwan (you might as well come out and say we're only renting so we can trash the place) is offensive it's so absurd. He takes the slogan: "Run it like a business" literally. Which, you know, is authoritarianism and tells you all you need to know about his stance on social programs.

Fortunately he has no shot. Like none.

I have a better chance of being the Republican nominee.

Lol. DeSantis thinks asking Disney to drop the suit was a good idea. The mouse smells blood in the water now.

MT15 said:

Lol. DeSantis thinks asking Disney to drop the suit was a good idea. The mouse smells blood in the water now.

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someone should add mickey mouse ears on this

Lol, the ratings for the GOP primary debate are going to be laughingly bad. What are they going to have, like 3 people on stage with no front runner.

I doubt Carlson failing Twitter show is going to do good either.

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Former President Donald Trump is planning to skip the first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday and is instead expected to sit for an interview with former Fox News Host Tucker Carlson, multiple sources familiar with his plans tell CNN.

Over the last 24 hours, Trump has increasingly been informing those close to him that he has made his decision, and will not be on the debate stage next week.

The timing for the Carlson interview has yet to be determined, the sources said, but it is expected to air around the same time as the debate. The New York Times first reported the details of the Carlson interview.
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coldseat said:

Lol, the ratings for the GOP primary debate are going to be laughingly bad. What are they going to have, like 3 people on stage with no front runner.

I doubt Carlson failing Twitter show is going to do good either.

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going from the shirt show into the outhouse 10 feet deep head first.