If anybody's bored shitless and wants to watch the Trumpless Clown Car Debate....

[FORD]

Billionaire Writes BEYOND CRINGE Song For Nikki Haley

[Seshmeister]

They are so unlikeable. I didn't like anything about anything GW Bush ever did apart from some aid to Africa but in another world I could have had dinner with him happily I'm sure. I bet most Republicans could have with Clinton or Carter or Obama.

Cruz and DeSantis are such unlikeable people I don't understand how they get past the early stages of politics. I guess it's maybe nothing new, Nixon and maybe Johnson were out there.

[Terry]

Like Ted Cruz ignoring all politics I really don't understand how these guys who have such terrible interpersonal skills and come across so badly ever became governors of big US States.

With DeSantis, he won by a squeaker in 2018, even after having Trump very actively campaigning for him.

In 2022, DeSantis being re-elected was probably a foregone conclusion given his 2020 gamble re: bucking covid protocols didn't turn out disastrous. Also, having an opponent as weak as Charlie Crist also helped.

In 2018, DeSantis initially wasn't too dickish in terms of his style. Center-right, to be sure, but he rarely lived up to his red-meat rhetoric in terms of what he actually did. After 2020, he went all-in with the hard-line social conservatism. Anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-woke, all democrats = liberals = socialists = communists = baby killers = criminal coddlers = gun banners = pro-illegal immigration advocates.

Sad thing about it for GOP primary voters is that DeSantis had the focus and discipline to possibly achieve much more of what they wanted for America had DeSantis been elected president vs. Trump who is easily distracted and too consumed with massaging his own ego to really deliver. But, DeSantis isn't an entertainer, can't come across well in an interview setting and can't stop being a Type A bro douche personality.

[Seshmeister]

It wasn't a shock that DeSantis didn't have the juice.

Like Ted Cruz ignoring all politics I really don't understand how these guys who have such terrible interpersonal skills and come across so badly ever became governors of big US States.

[FORD]

TYT's live New Hampshire Primary Coverage

Will Nimrata's victory in Dixville Notch set the tone for the "Live Free or Die" state, or will the slogan turn ironic when voters side with the Orange dictator wannabe.

And with Sleepy Joe not even on the ballot, will Democrats write him in, or will they vote for Marianne Williamson, Cenk Uygur, or go third party with RFK(god damn, is his dad embarrassed) Jr.??

[FORD]

Nimrata Haley "sweeps" Dixville Notch (first results from New Hampshire primary)

apnews.com
Nikki Haley sweeps Dixville Notch's primary, winning all 6 votes
AP News
NICK PERRY
Updated 2:43 AM PST, January 23, 2024

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP) — The six registered voters of tiny Dixville Notch in New Hampshire all cast their ballots for Nikki Haley at midnight on Tuesday, giving her a clean sweep over former President Donald Trump and all the other candidates.

The resort town was the first place in the nation to vote in the 2024 primaries. The voters were outnumbered more than 10-to-1 by reporters from every corner of the globe — not to mention by a pile of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

Dixville Notch has a tradition of first-in-the-nation voting that dates back to 1960, with the results announced just a few minutes after midnight.

With such a tiny sample of voters, the results are not typically indicative of how an election will end up. But they do provide for an early curiosity.

In some previous elections, a couple of other tiny New Hampshire towns have also voted at midnight, but this year Dixville Notch went it alone.

The voting took place in a new location, the living room of Tillotson House, with the Balsams Resort undergoing renovations. It made for a congenial setting, with an 11-month-old golden retriever named Maxine greeting media and voters.

Les Otten, the principal owner and developer of the Balsams Resort, said he was excited to cast his ballot.

“It’s special. It really is,” Otten said. “It’s what ought to happen in every community in the United States, where there is 100% participation, everybody votes. None of the six of us can complain about the outcome of the election, because we’ve participated.”

Otten said he didn’t agree with those saying the New Hampshire primary had fallen flat this year, with President Joe Biden not on the ballot and Republican contender Ron DeSantis withdrawing at the last minute.

“It always does boil down to just a couple of people at the end of the day,” Otten said. “We’ve got two viable candidates on the Republican side.”

Dixville Notch caters to snowmobilers and Nordic skiers in the winter, and golfers and hikers in the summer. For the primary, it had four registered Republicans and two undeclared voters.

[FORD]

[Nitro Express]

It wasn't a shock that DeSantis didn't have the juice.

Having a front-row seat down here, Trump barely pulled DeSantis over the finish line in 2018.

I will say DeSantis won a resounding re-election in 2022, but the guy has always been a charmless douche with no larger agenda beyond anti-woke/anti-gay social conservative red meat stuff. Charisma-free, as well.

He had enough juice to get his wife pregnant and that’s a huge accomplishment for a dick less wonder.

[Von Halen]

You think you and a lot of others were shocked in 2016? You're really going to be shocked this time. But it's your own Dumbocrat party's fault. Shame on them for putting that brain dead old corrupt sap up against Trump again.

Make America Great Again, Again!

Yes, I'm quoting myself. When it's that profound, it deserves to be quoted.

Not sure how you Libtards are going to survive another Trump term. It's nothing short of insanity you people have let this guy hurt your feelers for what will be 12 straight years by the time he's done. You dipshits built him a platform, and maintain it for him. He's only still relevant, because of you.

[FORD]

[Terry]

It wasn't a shock that DeSantis didn't have the juice.

Having a front-row seat down here, Trump barely pulled DeSantis over the finish line in 2018.

I will say DeSantis won a resounding re-election in 2022, but the guy has always been a charmless douche with no larger agenda beyond anti-woke/anti-gay social conservative red meat stuff. Charisma-free, as well.

[FORD]

Meatball MoRon Deathsentence Drops Out!

reuters.com
Ron DeSantis, once Trump's biggest threat, ends 2024 White House run
Gram Slattery, James Oliphant


WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Presidential contender Ron DeSantis, who was once viewed as Republicans' best shot at moving past Donald Trump, dropped out of the primary race on Sunday, a relatively early exit that underlines the iron grip the former president retains on the party.

DeSantis, 45, endorsed Trump in a video posted to the X social media site.

DeSantis had been widely seen as a top contender for the 2024 Republican nomination and a natural heir to Trump due to his combative style and deeply conservative views. Early in 2023, he led several head-to-head polls against Trump.

But the Florida governor's support has been declining for several months, due to flawed campaign strategy, his seeming lack of ease with voters on the campaign trail and Trump's so far unshakeable hold on much of the party's base.

The end of DeSantis' bid means that former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, is now the last Republican in the race with a shot - albeit a long one - of denying Trump the nomination. The winner of the Republican nominating contest will take on President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, in the general election in November.

More than 70% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Trump, according to most opinion polls. That put DeSantis in a position where he had to appeal to voters that still admired Trump, as well as those who passionately disliked him.

DeSantis failed on both counts. He never successfully articulated to most Trump supporters why he was a better option, while Republicans looking to ditch the former president split their votes among multiple candidates. Haley, in particular, has been emerged as the favorite among moderate Republicans as the field has consolidated.Where DeSantis differed from Trump on policy, it was almost always to stake out a more conservative position. He signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida in April, which he eventually embraced on the campaign trail, even as it made some donors and moderate Republicans wary.

DeSantis opposed additional U.S. military assistance to Ukraine and took punitive actions against the Walt Disney Co. after the company spoke out against Florida legislation that limited discussion of gender and sexuality in classrooms.

The Disney fight was one that pro-business critics within the party said DeSantis didn't need to wage.

While many major donors threw their support behind DeSantis early on, they began to rebel as early as the summer.

Robert Bigelow, who gave millions to the super PAC fundraising group backing DeSantis, told Reuters in August he was cutting off funding, turned off by the governor's uncompromising position on abortion.
CAMPAIGN ERRORS

DeSantis' troubles began before he ever entered the race.

In March, when Trump was indicted in New York on charges he conspired to conceal hush money payments to a porn star, the former president received a significant bump in the polls as Republicans rallied around him. Many of them believed Trump's claims that law enforcement officials were targeting him to keep him out of office.

Several DeSantis allies say the governor waited too long to become a candidate, finally throwing his hat into the ring in May, over six months after Trump had done so. That left DeSantis open to blistering attacks by Trump, while the governor himself did little to defend himself, insisting he was not a candidate.

When DeSantis did formally launch his White House run in May 2023, it was a glitch-filled disaster on Twitter, now known as X, an inauspicious start for a campaign predicated on the governor's executive competence.

The campaign then overhired, burning through cash at a rapid rate. DeSantis let go of some 38 staffers in July and ousted his campaign manager in August, sowing a narrative of internal chaos that proved hard to shake.

He outsourced much of the traditional work of a campaign to an outside super PAC, which can accept donations of unlimited size, but cannot coordinate with the campaign itself.

The campaign and the PAC, known as Never Back Down, came to distrust one another. A series of back-to-back departures of senior staffers from the PAC in November and December created a sense of turmoil that furthered the narrative that the governor's campaign was mortally wounded.

Reporting by Gram Slattery and Jim Oliphant, Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell

[Nickdfresh]

If you have the clap then clap your hands!

[FORD]

[FORD]