DL Open Thread: Saturday, March 18, 2023
Conventional Wisdom: DeSantis Is Flaming Out Already:
But the DeSantis salad days appear to be over. Perhaps Republican voters have already forgotten that Trump almost singlehandedly doomed their Senate takeover last cycle—they do tend to like alternative realities. Or maybe Trump’s unchallenged broadsides have truly begun to take effect.
Whatever the case, DeSantis’ star has started to fall in consecutive polls taken by the same pollster.
A Quinnipiac University poll this week, for instance, put Trump over DeSantis by double digits, 46% – 32%. In February, the same outlet saw a tighter race between the two frontrunners, with Trump leading DeSantis by just 6 points, 42% – 36%.
But Quinnipiac isn’t the only pollster that has found DeSantis slipping. The New York Times‘ Nate Cohn crunched the numbers from about a dozen outlets over the past several months and found an “unequivocal” trend away from DeSantis.
“Every single one of these polls has shown Mr. DeSantis faring worse than before, and Mr. Trump faring better,” Cohn wrote.
Don’t think DeSantis’ ‘territorial dispute’ characterization of Russia vs. Ukraine did him any favors either. Still (a) it’s early; (b) even Trump supporters have expressed a desire for a less divisive alternative, and: (c) the conventional wisdom is almost always wrong. In fact the ‘horse-race’ press is just setting DeSantis up for the ‘Comeback Kid’ meme.
Is Michigan The ‘Anti-Florida’? It’s trending in the right (meaning left) direction:
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) this week signed landmark legislation to protect the state’s LGBTQ community.
In the process, she and her allies sent a message about the kind of state they want Michigan to be ― and how they hope to fend off the agenda of the far right, both within Michigan’s borders and beyond.
Advocates have been trying to pass something like this for about 40 years. They have finally broken through because, in the 2022 election, voters returned Whitmer to office while giving complete control of the legislature to the Democrats. That hasn’t happened since the Reagan era.
The new House and Senate majorities have been working at a breakneck pace. The initiatives they have enacted or are on their way to passing include a new tax credit for the working poor, repeal of anti-union legislation and several initiatives designed to curb gun violence ― something very much on the mind of Michiganders following February’s mass shooting at Michigan State University.
So that there be no mistake on my position: Gretchen Whitmer For President!
Cali Homes Crumble. They never should have been built in the first place. Who’s gonna pick up the tab that should be borne by the mega-wealthy owners?
Another Police Cover-Up–This Time In Millsboro. Did the cop eat the evidence, or just steal it?:
A Millsboro Police Department officer is under investigation for potentially tampering with a controlled substance in evidence, the department announced Friday.
The officer, whose name has not been publicly released, has been put on paid administrative leave.
Millsboro police said that the officer was found “unresponsive” in his patrol car at 11:20 a.m. on Feb. 19. He was taken to the hospital for possible exposure to fentanyl, according to the department.
When asked about why a press release was not issued until nearly a month after the investigation began, the chief of the Millsboro Police Department declined to comment.
I will: “Because we didn’t want anybody to know.”
What do you want to talk about?
Wait for it…
I’ve sworn off declaring that anyone is “unelectable” but looking at the disease that is DeSantis, even Republicans recoil in disgust. That said, this checks out: “In fact the ‘horse-race’ press is just setting DeSantis up for the ‘Comeback Kid’ meme.”
If Trump proves anything it is that the media can create a viable candidate where there is none.
On the eve of the Mifepristone ruling, Chis Coons would like you to forget that he helped Trump pack federal courts with lunatics.
@ChrisCoons
For 20 years, Mifepristone has shown to be safe—but that may not stop one judge from overruling the FDA and blocking access to it for the first time in 23 years. Nearly a year after the fall of Roe, women’s health care continues to come under attack.
I think you are wrong about DeSantis. I’ve said for a long time that his charisma-free personality makes him unelectable anywhere outside the South, and I stand by it. He will no more be a comeback kid than all the other early-flameout frontrunners (Giuliani, Jeb, et al).
Yes, it’s still early, but other alternatives to Trump will emerge.
Agreed. Zero charisma, non existent stage presence, zero eye contact as he stares at his script and a voice that lends itself to mumbling. Dare say he has an assortment of vocals coaches, all now contemplating suicide.
I have always felt DeSantis’s fascism won’t travel well, although I always assumed the MAGA dead-ender 33% would embrace him if Trump were not an option.
But I have never watched a long clip of DeSantis, so I am pleased to hear the consensus that he is also an insufferable bore.
El Somnambulo, mi amigo, pleased to make your digital acquaintance! Spot-on analysis, trenchantly and wittily delivered, with just the right touch of droll mordancy.
As for Governor DeShitball, all I can say is that under current circumstances if you (the generic “you”) wind up in Florida and I wind up in hell, it would be because I got first pick.
For those who don’t know (and why should you?), I went to high school with Rusty Cloud. He’s a KILLER piano player who toured with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes forever, plus toured Japan and Europe with the likes of Steve Cropper.
Due to a happy coincidence, we just reconnected.
I recall Rusty perhaps we had a class or 2 together. I do remember that the nickname was spot on. Always nice to dredge up a youthful memory:)
Trump posts that he’s being “arrested” Tuesday. Kinda true kinda not, but the indictment is imminent.
MAGA morons (and those moron-adjacent) are claiming is “guarantees” his election. This makes no sense to me or any rational person. Will is endear him to the perpetually faux-victimized base? No doubt. But there’s no world where this helps him win a general election after a primary. As it’s been the case for two years, by far the most likely person to be president in 2025 is Joe Biden, whether we like it or not.
Nonetheless, I still want that Trump mugshot, framed. My birthday is coming up in less than a month (the big 4-0), and it would be a lovely present.