2024 US Presidential Elections Megathread

[viper37]

In 1874 South Carolina went woke.

I shouldn't laugh given the current political climate...

[Savonarola]

From NPR:

After indictment, majority want Trump to drop out, but he's getting stronger with GOP

Maybe Trump is actually is a very stable genius who is playing five dimensional chess.  His popularity amongst Republicans has increased both after his house was raided and after both indictments.  That would explain why he kept secret documents when he had every opportunity to return them and avoid any legal consequences. 

In any event, I can't see how Trump could lose the nomination.  If mind bogglingly reckless behavior with government secrets makes him more popular with Republicans, what can the other candidates do?  Promise to sell nuclear secrets to the Iranians?

[Syt]

Question, how serious is RFK jr's bid?

[Josquius]

He's totally serious.

It's sad as RFK would be good to have right now... Alas the apple was taken from the tree and shipped to Uganda.

[Tonitrus]

Alas, if not for an unfortunate accident, we could have had JFK Jr instead.

[mongers]

Alas, if not for an unfortunate accident, we could have had JFK Jr instead.

So what's the Chappaquidic (sp??) guy's son or dauther like?


* The name is on the tip of my tongue, Charles ???
It'll come to me, eventually...
Maybe this post should be in the 'Old Geezer Thread' instead?

[Admiral Yi]

Ted

[mongers]

Tedward

Thanks.

[Valmy]

RFK Jr is not a serious candidate. Unless something takes down uncle Joe before Christmas I don't think there will be any serious candidates for the Democratic Nomination.

It says it all that he isn't even bothering with something so lame as running for Senator or anything. Just running for President in a year where we have an incumbent running for his party.

I think he is a handy reminder that health-based conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine bullshit was largely a leftwing thing in the US until recently.

[Barrister]

RFK Jr is not a serious candidate. Unless something takes down uncle Joe before Christmas I don't think there will be any serious candidates for the Democratic Nomination.

It says it all that he isn't even bothering with something so lame as running for Senator or anything. Just running for President in a year where we have an incumbent running for his party.

I think he is a handy reminder that health-based conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine bullshit was largely a leftwing thing in the US until recently.

Doesn't everything you just said also apply to Trump in 2015?

[Valmy]

RFK Jr is not a serious candidate. Unless something takes down uncle Joe before Christmas I don't think there will be any serious candidates for the Democratic Nomination.

It says it all that he isn't even bothering with something so lame as running for Senator or anything. Just running for President in a year where we have an incumbent running for his party.

I think he is a handy reminder that health-based conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine bullshit was largely a leftwing thing in the US until recently.

Doesn't everything you just said also apply to Trump in 2015?

There was no Republican incumbent running in 2015. This would have been like Trump running for the Republican nomination in 2004.

I don't think most Democrats even know who RFK Jr is unless they are really plugged in to political junkie discourse or obsessed with the Kennedy Family (and I doubt many people under 50 really care about them). I don't think he is comparable to Trump.

But I guess now that Trump happened every wingnut who runs for President should be taken much more seriously than before.

[Valmy]

It is kind of funny just how desperately Gavin Newsom and Greg Abbott want to run for President. I just think it would be hard to overcome the California and Texas brands to have a national appeal being governor of those states these days. But maybe we will find out in 2024.

[Barrister]

RFK Jr is not a serious candidate. Unless something takes down uncle Joe before Christmas I don't think there will be any serious candidates for the Democratic Nomination.

It says it all that he isn't even bothering with something so lame as running for Senator or anything. Just running for President in a year where we have an incumbent running for his party.

I think he is a handy reminder that health-based conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine bullshit was largely a leftwing thing in the US until recently.

Doesn't everything you just said also apply to Trump in 2015?

There was no Republican incumbent running in 2015. This would have been like Trump running for the Republican nomination in 2004.

I don't think most Democrats even know who RFK Jr is unless they are really plugged in to political junkie discourse or obsessed with the Kennedy Family (and I doubt many people under 50 really care about them). I don't think he is comparable to Trump.

But I guess now that Trump happened every wingnut who runs for President should be taken much more seriously than before.

Every wingnut who has enormous name recognition, yes.

I think most democrats know who RFK Jr is - he's RFK's son and JFK's nephew.  All the stuff about the wacky vaccine beliefs, probably not - but they know who he is.

Now I don't think at the end of the day he'll win the Democratic nomination, but I don't think that was ever the plan (since this is largely being bankrolled by Steve Bannon).  It's just enough to weaken Biden for the general.

I had thought RFK Jr would run as an independent - but now I'm not so sure that he wouldn't take away more votes from Trump than he would from Biden.

[Valmy]

Wait he is being bankrolled by Steve Bannon? What a crazy world we live in. That is kind of weird since the main thing RFK Jr is known for is being a big environmentalist. Didn't know Bannon cared so much about the planet.

As I said I don't think most Democrats care about the Kennedys anymore. Our prime base is what? Minorities? LGBT? Union members? Urban hipsters? I don't think too many of them care about the Kennedys. We do have the suburbanite demographic but that is not our base, more a group we fight with the Republicans for. Those suburbanites probably do know and care about the Kennedys, we'll see if they all show up for the primaries.

Iowa and New Hampshire probably will not be kind to Biden but I doubt those votes will all go to RFK Jr but we will see.

[OttoVonBismarck]

RFK doesn't worry me, he has no shot in the primaries and Joe won't even have to show up.

Remember Joe Kennedy lost a primary challenge against Ed Markey, in Massachusetts, with the full Kennedy name and money behind him. I don't think there's a big demographic of people who will just vote for a random Kennedy.

On top of that most voters don't know that RFK has a serious physical defect that makes it so he can barely speak, he will look terrible under the spotlight--and a lot of voters also don't know he is primarily known for anti-vaxx shenanigans.