2024 USA Election: Wishin' and Hopin'

"Trump was never a "bestie"".

Remember when Trump said this -

""I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Trump told New York magazine in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."".
Everything Donald Trump Has Said About Jeffrey Epstein Relationship - Newsweek

I can't vouch for their authenticity, but Wolff says he has the tapes-
Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’

Trump claims he broke with Epstein after an incident in Florida when Epstein hit on the teenage daughter of a friend. But if Trump knew that Epstein was having sex with underage girls, why did he not tell the FBI or law enforcement? And every time Trump is asked about Epstein he goes pale, and either doesn't answer the question, or ends the interview.

Jeffrey Epstein sleeps with the fishes. I wonder, who did the angling?

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Originally Posted by Stavros

"Trump was never a "bestie"".

Remember when Trump said this -

""I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Trump told New York magazine in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."".
Everything Donald Trump Has Said About Jeffrey Epstein Relationship - Newsweek

I can't vouch for their authenticity, but Wolff says he has the tapes-
Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’

Trump claims he broke with Epstein after an incident in Florida when Epstein hit on the teenage daughter of a friend. But if Trump knew that Epstein was having sex with underage girls, why did he not tell the FBI or law enforcement? And every time Trump is asked about Epstein he goes pale, and either doesn't answer the question, or ends the interview.

Jeffrey Epstein sleeps with the fishes. I wonder, who did the angling?

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Donald Trump always says that everytime one of his friends or associates gets in legal trouble. More than likely Trump did.

epstein's dead - and I do not believe foe a second that it was suicide, and what's her name is keeping quiet lest she suffer the same fate, so the world will never know the full truth.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

There will always be a post election debate touching on various aspects of the campaign. This summer an American I met told me the Americans will not vote for a woman to be their President. I have mentioned this before somewhere, but I see no debate about it in this coverage. I would go further and suggest that just as a lot of Republican politics is determined to roll back the reforms of the 1960s, with Abortion the leading issue, so if you dig deeper, the 'Moral Majority', the 'NeoCons' and now the 'Trumpits' are just as focused on ending same sex relations and marriage, and moreover they would if they thought it possible make divorce illegal. At the root these policies suggest that the US has gone too far in giving women equal rights, for the simple reason the people who vote Republican don't think women are, or should be treated as equals. The almost total focus on transgender rights and why they should be abolished everywhere, is concerned with male to female people to the exclusion of female to male, though I might be wrong on this.

Key question: would any other woman have done better than Harris?

If Trump and his allies in the Federal Govt, Congress and the State legislatures get their way the next 4 years may see women the biggest losers of this phase of American history.

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I think there is something to be said for the fact that on his way to Presidency, Donald Trump is 4-0 against women candidates. Yes, I'm counting Jill Stein. You can also make the case that Harris losing was just continuing the trend of voters rejecting the incumbents in the most recent elections that took take place in a post Pandemic world. I also saw an argument recently that said Biden's unpopularity played a part in Harris' defeat as well.

Having said all that, one of the reasons why Kamala Harris lost is because she was a flawed candidate who became the Democratic nominee through a dubious process. A nominee that it looks like Obama didn't want and George Clooney is having buyer's remorse about. Despite how well she did for being on the top of the ticket for only 3.5 months, she ran a flawed campaign that seemed to be only good at two things. Going into debt and racking up celebrity endorsements.

To answer your question though. If Nikki Haley would won the Republican nomination, I think she could have beaten Biden or Harris.

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Originally Posted by blackchubby38

I think there is something to be said for the fact that on his way to Presidency, Donald Trump is 4-0 against women candidates. Yes, I'm counting Jill Stein. You can also make the case that Harris losing was just continuing the trend of voters rejecting the incumbents in the most recent elections that took take place in a post Pandemic world. I also saw an argument recently that said Biden's unpopularity played a part in Harris' defeat as well.

Having said all that, one of the reasons why Kamala Harris lost is because she was a flawed candidate who became the Democratic nominee through a dubious process. A nominee that it looks like Obama didn't want and George Clooney is having buyer's remorse about. Despite how well she did for being on the top of the ticket for only 3.5 months, she ran a flawed campaign that seemed to be only good at two things. Going into debt and racking up celebrity endorsements.

To answer your question though. If Nikki Haley would won the Republican nomination, I think she could have beaten Biden or Harris.

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Yep!
And Blacks didn't support Harris during the 2020 primaries so why on earth did people think Blacks would support Harris now is most strange!

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Originally Posted by blackchubby38

I think there is something to be said for the fact that on his way to Presidency, Donald Trump is 4-0 against women candidates. Yes, I'm counting Jill Stein. You can also make the case that Harris losing was just continuing the trend of voters rejecting the incumbents in the most recent elections that took take place in a post Pandemic world. I also saw an argument recently that said Biden's unpopularity played a part in Harris' defeat as well.

Having said all that, one of the reasons why Kamala Harris lost is because she was a flawed candidate who became the Democratic nominee through a dubious process. A nominee that it looks like Obama didn't want and George Clooney is having buyer's remorse about. Despite how well she did for being on the top of the ticket for only 3.5 months, she ran a flawed campaign that seemed to be only good at two things. Going into debt and racking up celebrity endorsements.

To answer your question though. If Nikki Haley would won the Republican nomination, I think she could have beaten Biden or Harris.

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Completely Agree.

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Originally Posted by blackchubby38

I think there is something to be said for the fact that on his way to Presidency, Donald Trump is 4-0 against women candidates. Yes, I'm counting Jill Stein. You can also make the case that Harris losing was just continuing the trend of voters rejecting the incumbents in the most recent elections that took take place in a post Pandemic world. I also saw an argument recently that said Biden's unpopularity played a part in Harris' defeat as well.

Having said all that, one of the reasons why Kamala Harris lost is because she was a flawed candidate who became the Democratic nominee through a dubious process. A nominee that it looks like Obama didn't want and George Clooney is having buyer's remorse about. Despite how well she did for being on the top of the ticket for only 3.5 months, she ran a flawed campaign that seemed to be only good at two things. Going into debt and racking up celebrity endorsements.

To answer your question though. If Nikki Haley would won the Republican nomination, I think she could have beaten Biden or Harris.

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Your comment on Haley surprises me. but that is because I found her weak and just not impressive, something I also felt hearing her at the UN, but may also be due to my not living in the US and having so different a take on what happens there. Also, anyone hostile to Trump would as a reaction support any alternative, but I think it is now clearer how the Democrats screwed up.

Are the divisions in the US now so deep, that even if Trump makes a mess of the place, people who voted Republican will not flip, or not flip in enough numbers to make a difference? Here is a telling, if bleak assessment -

"Just a dozen years ago, there were Democratic senators from Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio, Arkansas, Alaska, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana (two!), and West Virginia.Today, there’s close to a zero chance of a Democrat being elected to the Senate from any of these states.
Surveys show that Americans find it increasingly important to live around people who share their political values.
Animosity toward those in the opposing party is higher than at any time in living memory. Forty-two percent of registered voters believe Americans in the other party are “downright evil.”".
How Trump could bring on a second civil war | Opinion

But is this a 'Cold' civil war rather than a 'hot' one?

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Are the divisions in the US now so deep, that even if Trump makes a mess of the place, people who voted Republican will not flip, or not flip in enough numbers to make a difference?

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It would take less than 1% of voters to flip to change the result, and more than that have been changing their minds in recent elections. This is actually the first time since the 19th century that the White House has changed hands three elections running.

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Originally Posted by filghy2

It would take less than 1% of voters to flip to change the result, and more than that have been changing their minds in recent elections. This is actually the first time since the 19th century that the White House has changed hands three elections running.

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But isn't this an aggregate statistic? The US resembles the UK before Blair, when elections were won or lost on swing constituencies and it was unthinkable that apart from a few enclaves, anyone south of London would vote Labour. De-Industrialization, elderly Conservatives dying, and abstentions gave Labour a stunning victory in 1997 in precisely those areas it had not won votes in before, while Brexit added another phenomenon to the mix known as the 'red wall'- once solid Labour constituencies in the North now voting Conservative.

I guess the argument is that there appear to be permanent Republican majorities in State elections, and in Texas because the boundaries are drawn to get by the demographic changes that some think make some districts naturally more Democrat than Republican, as may also be true in other States. And as States take over from the Federal Govt as the main Government in people's lives, it is surely elections in the States that matter most now/

But I am not a numbers type of person, so I don't know how solid these trends are. The irony is that if the new Trump experience is as bad as some think it can be, enough once Trump voters might flip.

And she burned through nearly 2.5 BILLION dollars doing it. That weasel lawyer Morgan, says she's done after this.

Haley - maybe. I would have voted for her, even over Trump, but I'm not a republican so I can't vote in my state's primary elections.