11 Comments

Trump wins the Republican nomination for President, even if he does so in handcuffs.

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I think the rules to get on the debate stage will help cut out the bottom feeders and as the criteria to get on gets harder, it should help winnow the field.

That and money. But I wonder if Super PACs have allowed candidacies to last way longer than they should. All it takes is one sugar daddy to stake you.

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>It's not when you get in, it's when you get out

Title of my sex tape.

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As Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers said, “the secret to a happy ending is knowing when to roll the credits.”

Happy to subscribe for smart and funny, Lace!

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On the other hand, consider the Democrats in 2020. It was an awkward 28-entrant dance to get to the perfect compromise candidate, but before Super Tuesday in March, senior figures like Bill Clinton worked behind the scenes to convince top-tier candidates like Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar to strategically drop out (this was reported). What a great example of crowdsourcing!

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I am assuming these candidates are in because Trump will be out due to any number of possible reasons from health to DOJ to having to raise money for defense rather than election. The question is who will be the main contenders on he is out and whether they campaign to get his angry base or on some genuine GOP issues (stand by for sarcasm) like lowering taxes for the rich, bathrooms, no men dressed as women reading in libraries, no sex between same de consenting adults, forced birth.

When will we see polls of candidates if trump isn’t included? I predict very soon. Over under 10 days. I take under

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A lot of is money, and a lot of that money today isn’t rational, so campaigns can hold on long after they have any realistic chance. Online donors don’t know when it’s over -- there’s something to be said for hedge fund types’ pernicious influence, in that they don’t back lame horses for very long. Online diehards never give up, and their refusal to accept reality in many contexts -- some of it on the Dem side, too -- does real damage to the process.

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Yes, the online money keeps a lot of campaigns hanging on WAY after they should. Online donations -- especially small dollar donations -- are not strategic in any way. Which means they can keeping coming on long after it's clear the candidate has no chance of winning.

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The 2016 contest had that going on at least as much on the Dem side -- Bernie Sanders was competitively dead after March 1, but his online supporters were possibly even more fanatical than Trump’s at the time, which also made them willing accomplices when the Russians came along with conspiracy theories that he’d been cheated. This was swiftly followed up by cries of McCarthyism in the same circles when evidence of Russian involvement became clearer -- right up to a point of trying to pretend that Jill Stein sitting at Putin’s table at the 2015 RT gala across the table from Flynn and Putin himself could have meant anything.

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The current primary nomination process kind of makes me long for the smoke-filled backrooms of yore. I'm pretty sure TheRump would have never been allowed within miles of the nomination.

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