The Constitution was written before George Washington became president, so… this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/4vppAEpQXF

— VoteVets (@votevets) February 20, 2023

boognish_bear said:

---

The Constitution was written before George Washington became president, so… this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/4vppAEpQXF

— VoteVets (@votevets) February 20, 2023

---

Washington's army was also not "unstoppable"

And I say that as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Gen. Washington was able to prevent his army from being destroyed and keep the war going until Britain gave up.

The Continental army was far from unstoppable against the well trained British royal army.

"General Washington fought in 17 battles in the Revolutionary War, winning 6 of the battles, losing 7 of them, and fighting to a draw in 4 battles."

2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley says Florida’s Don't Say Gay law “doesn’t go far enough”:

“When I went to school, you didn’t have sex ed until 7th grade, and even then your parents had to sign a permission slip. And my dad wouldn’t sign it, so I was the uncool kid.” pic.twitter.com/VcasbU4Ens

— The Recount (@therecount) March 2, 2023

Redbrickbear said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

The Constitution was written before George Washington became president, so… this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/4vppAEpQXF

— VoteVets (@votevets) February 20, 2023

---

Washington's army was also not "unstoppable"

And I say that as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Gen. Washington was able to prevent his army from being destroyed and keep the war going until Britain gave up.

The Continental army was far from unstoppable against the well trained British royal army.

"General Washington fought in 17 battles in the Revolutionary War, winning 6 of the battles, losing 7 of them, and fighting to a draw in 4 battles."

---

That is what makes Abraham Lincoln so amazing. The adversity. Overcoming long odds. You don't always win the battle, but you keep fighting. In the end, good prevails over evil.

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

Redbrickbear said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

The Constitution was written before George Washington became president, so… this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/4vppAEpQXF

— VoteVets (@votevets) February 20, 2023

---

Washington's army was also not "unstoppable"

And I say that as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Gen. Washington was able to prevent his army from being destroyed and keep the war going until Britain gave up.

The Continental army was far from unstoppable against the well trained British royal army.

"General Washington fought in 17 battles in the Revolutionary War, winning 6 of the battles, losing 7 of them, and fighting to a draw in 4 battles."

---

That is what makes Abraham Lincoln so amazing. The adversity. Overcoming long odds. You don't always win the battle, but you keep fighting. In the end, good prevails over evil.

---

Lincoln had every conceivable military and economic advantage…against a numerically smaller enemy with a completely agrarian society.

Washington's achievements were against far worse odds and against a much mightier military super power.

The Union out number the Confederacy 3 to 1

Britain outnumber the colonies 5 to 1

And Washington probably only had core patriot support among 50% of the colonial population.

Loyalists were at least 20% of the pop. with another large portion who wanted to sit it out.

"Historians have estimated that during the American Revolution, 20 percent of the white population of the colonies, or about 500,000 people, were Loyalists."

Washington did amazingly considering what he has to face and what he was working with.

It took an exceptional man to win that war in 1776…I can't imagine anyone else doing it.

Redbrickbear said:

---

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

Redbrickbear said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

The Constitution was written before George Washington became president, so… this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/4vppAEpQXF

— VoteVets (@votevets) February 20, 2023

---

Washington's army was also not "unstoppable"

And I say that as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Gen. Washington was able to prevent his army from being destroyed and keep the war going until Britain gave up.

The Continental army was far from unstoppable against the well trained British royal army.

"General Washington fought in 17 battles in the Revolutionary War, winning 6 of the battles, losing 7 of them, and fighting to a draw in 4 battles."

---

That is what makes Abraham Lincoln so amazing. The adversity. Overcoming long odds. You don't always win the battle, but you keep fighting. In the end, good prevails over evil.

---

Lincoln had every conceivable military and economic advantage…against a numerically smaller enemy with a completely agrarian society.

Washington's achievements were against far worse odds and against a much mightier military super power.

The Union out number the Confederacy 3 to 1

Britain outnumber the colonies 5 to 1

And Washington probably only had core patriot support among 50% of the colonial population.

Loyalists were at least 20% of the pop. with another large portion who wanted to sit it out.

"Historians have estimated that during the American Revolution, 20 percent of the white population of the colonies, or about 500,000 people, were Loyalists."

Washington did amazingly considering what he has to face and what he was working with.

It took an exceptional man to win that war in 1776…I can't imagine anyone else doing it.

---

Washington and Lincoln both ROCKED under dire circumstances! Just look at the silliness and gross incompetence of our leadership today. Biden , Garland, Austin, and Milley embarrass us all. They are terrible.

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

Redbrickbear said:

---

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

Redbrickbear said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

The Constitution was written before George Washington became president, so… this is awkward. pic.twitter.com/4vppAEpQXF

— VoteVets (@votevets) February 20, 2023

---

Washington's army was also not "unstoppable"

And I say that as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Gen. Washington was able to prevent his army from being destroyed and keep the war going until Britain gave up.

The Continental army was far from unstoppable against the well trained British royal army.

"General Washington fought in 17 battles in the Revolutionary War, winning 6 of the battles, losing 7 of them, and fighting to a draw in 4 battles."

---

That is what makes Abraham Lincoln so amazing. The adversity. Overcoming long odds. You don't always win the battle, but you keep fighting. In the end, good prevails over evil.

---

Lincoln had every conceivable military and economic advantage…against a numerically smaller enemy with a completely agrarian society.

Washington's achievements were against far worse odds and against a much mightier military super power.

The Union out number the Confederacy 3 to 1

Britain outnumber the colonies 5 to 1

And Washington probably only had core patriot support among 50% of the colonial population.

Loyalists were at least 20% of the pop. with another large portion who wanted to sit it out.

"Historians have estimated that during the American Revolution, 20 percent of the white population of the colonies, or about 500,000 people, were Loyalists."

Washington did amazingly considering what he has to face and what he was working with.

It took an exceptional man to win that war in 1776…I can't imagine anyone else doing it.

---

Washington and Lincoln both ROCKED under dire circumstances! Just look at the silliness and gross incompetence of our leadership today. Biden , Garland, Austin, and Milley embarrass us all. They are terrible.

---

I disagree about Lincoln. He had no real military or command experience.

And his call for 75,000 volunteers to invade the Deep South is what set off secession in the upper south and lead directly to a war that killed more than 600,000+ men.

And with every possible advantage it took him years to find commanders who would not get beat.

Nikki Haley is getting a very warm welcome from CPAC.

Oh wait… they’re yelling Trump at her 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/6PuJ6606Ph

— Ada Lluch 🇪🇸 (@ada_lluch) March 3, 2023

i voted for Trump twice. He is cancer.

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

i voted for Trump twice. He is cancer.

---

A cancer that is still better than Nikki

Redbrickbear said:

---

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

i voted for Trump twice. He is cancer.

---

A cancer that is still better than Nikki

---

He is better than NO ONE, except maybe that George the liar fella. He may lie more than Trump.....nah

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

i voted for Trump twice. He is cancer.

---

A spontaneous cheer of "We Love Trump" from a small group of mostly young women supporters in a forum is cancerous jeering? Ever been to a political convention? Don't fall for the spin.

Haley had an embarrassingly small crowd at her speech at CPAC.

A least the media came to this one ... https://t.co/4YsTHlbsmg

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) March 3, 2023

And very little buzz generated by her or Pompeo.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/haley-pompeo-tepid-response-cpac/story?id=97610505
(and, not mentioned, also Don Jr.)

Don't fall for the spin. None of this should be a surprise. Trump is in a dominating position. Saw one poll (forgot to bookmark) yesterday that his GOP polling numbers on the "want him to run" is back in the mid-60's. He was hovering at 80% summer 2021. He went below 50% in some polls last fall. So, he's recovered a lot of ground and is on track to consolidate. Most of the challengers currently declared or mentioned are really competing for a VP slot, except for DeSantis, who actually does have a reasonable shot at an upset.

Now do you believe me that Nikki Haley is a political non-entity? https://t.co/QrlF7Avdt9

— Old Tory Right - Bulltard Strength-📈🐂🇬🇧 (@rightwingnutrs) March 4, 2023

Brave GOP woman will run on a platform of “dems are the real racists” and “dems are the real sexists” https://t.co/pPctmhNlBh

— Zero H.P. Lovecraft 🦅🐍 (@0x49fa98) March 5, 2023

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/nikkis-niche/

[Nikki's Niche

State of the Union: Is Nikki Haley running to the left of Don Lemon or to the right of Donald Trump?

....a ballroom of conservative boomers is an environment where any Republican presidential candidate should do well; even Nikki Haley. But Haley was often caught waiting for spurts of applause to spread after delivering one of her tortured lines.

"In case you didn't notice, the liberal media's heads are exploding about my run for president," Haley said to open her speech. "And we all know why the media can't stand the fact that I'm a conservative. Think about it. I'm a woman. I'm a minority. I'm the daughter of immigrants. I am proof that liberals are wrong about everything they say about America."
Haley might think this now, but it won't be long until they'll use her bid for the GOP nomination as proof that they were right all along: When Haley's presidential campaign spectacularly fails, it will be because the Republican base is sexist, racist, or xenophobicmost likely all three. CNN's Don Lemon is already laying the groundwork for this narrative, suggesting the former South Carolina governor is no longer "in her prime," which could serve to her detriment.
The former U.N. ambassador had her own message for Lemon: "Hold my beer." Only a few laughedeven the Boomers knew the meme didn't really fit. A meme that did fit the moment: Steve Buscemi's "How do you do, fellow kids?"
Haley told the attendees, "I'm 51. That's younger than Don Lemon," who she later called a "sexist middle age [anchor]."

Is her plan to win the GOP nomination by outflanking Don Lemon to the left? Or is she going after her two main opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, from the right?
Previously, she suggested that DeSantis' "Don't Say Gay," bill didn't go far enough. And though she never mentioned the former president by name in her CPAC speech (because if she did her presidential campaign would have ended then and there), she suggested that the president did not do enough to cut foreign aid to countries who vote against the United States in the United Nations. Furthermore, she suggested that Trump's populist message wasn't popular enough. "We've lost the popular vote in the last seven out of eight presidential elections," Haley said. "Our cause is right, but we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans. That ends now. If you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation."
Haley is running for president. From which lane, we don't yet know. Neither does Nikki Haley.]

That's GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley and U.S. Rep Tony Gonzales who are down on the Texas border today doing a tour. Haley has a press conference planned for 2 p.m. at the Eagle Pass International Bridge later pic.twitter.com/0oE68h3nuq

— Jeremy Wallace (@JeremySWallace) April 3, 2023

From the eye roll-inducing “freedom v. authoritarianism” framing of the Ukraine conflict to today’s pathetic apologia for Mickey Mouse the Groomer, the verdict is in:

“⁦@NikkiHaley⁩, BoomerCon Archetype.”

My latest ⁦@CenterClipAudio⁩. 👇 https://t.co/vIdv24lV0S

— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) April 26, 2023

Haley: "Businesses were my partners, because if you take care of your businesses, your take care of your economy, your economy takes care of the people, and everyone wins. And so that’s the way we dealt with it."

— David Wright (@DavidWright_7) April 26, 2023

boognish_bear said:

---

Haley: "Businesses were my partners, because if you take care of your businesses, your take care of your economy, your economy takes care of the people, and everyone wins. And so that’s the way we dealt with it."

— David Wright (@DavidWright_7) April 26, 2023

---

Is there any industry or business that crosses a line that should not be crossed and would not be welcome in South Carolina?

He Hate Me said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

Haley: "Businesses were my partners, because if you take care of your businesses, your take care of your economy, your economy takes care of the people, and everyone wins. And so that’s the way we dealt with it."

— David Wright (@DavidWright_7) April 26, 2023

---

Is there any industry or business that crosses a line that should not be crossed and would not be welcome in South Carolina?

---

Nikki would welcome NARAL or Planned Parenthood in South Carolina if it boosted jobs.

Its hard to think of someone more a corporate pet than Nikki Haley.

I remember that she let it slip in an interview around 2015 that she decided to push the legislature to take down the Confederate Battle flag after a call with some national business leaders. Not because actual voters in South Carolina wanted that or even because Republicans office holders in the legislature wanted that....but because some executives in New York on a conference call told her she better do it.

You have to wonder: Is this woman is running for President or head lobbyist for Disney? https://t.co/87WmMUfpgF

— 𝕾𝖜𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖊𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖓 🇺🇸 🏴‍☠️ (@Camelback71) May 9, 2023

I swear some politicians have to be smoking the lowest quality crack.
Either that or these presidential "runs" by candidates who will never get the nomination are nothing but grifts. https://t.co/KdPtmmmaH6

— Cardinal Curmudgeon (@Gimblin) May 15, 2023

New Rule: Any Republican who uses the phrase "limited government conservative" unironically should be summarily rejected in GOP primaries. https://t.co/dQx4W6gArD

— Andrew Smith (@AndrewSmithClub) May 19, 2023

Redbrickbear said:

---

New Rule: Any Republican who uses the phrase "limited government conservative" unironically should be summarily rejected in GOP primaries. https://t.co/dQx4W6gArD

— Andrew Smith (@AndrewSmithClub) May 19, 2023

---

Race Bannon would not let Disney try to make Jonny Quest into Joanna Quest.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/no-more-losers/

[In the presidential election of 1996, the leader of the Senate Republicans was pummeled into oblivion by the slippery incumbent, who would face a shameful impeachment before the term was up...

Bob Dole, that is, was the last massive loser put forward by either major party. What does it say, then, when his campaign manager returns from the grave to foist another candidate on a divided GOP?
Scott Reed, who led Bob Dole and the party to electoral humiliation 27 years ago, was announced this week as co-leader of "Allies of Mike Pence," a Super PAC set up to fund the former vice-president's long-shot candidacy for the 2024 nomination.

Since the bungling of 1996, Reed has slinked from swamp role to swamp role, among the most recent of which was political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (He was terminated for cause in 2020 after "an internal review…revealed that Scott repeatedly breached confidentiality, distorted facts for his own benefit, withheld information from chamber leadership and leaked internal information to the press.")
The choice is poetic, if not much else. Who better to lead a failing campaign than a man with an ironclad track record? Who better to force out the last gasp of the dead consensus than an alumnus of Dole/Kemp?

And make no mistake: Pence will run a dead consensus campaign. His stint as Trump's V.P. did nothing to bring him around to Trump's Buchananite, old-school American conservatism. (Dole himself, who endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, grew wiser with age and reluctantly endorsed Donald Trump in the general election.) Mike Pence in 2023 is exactly Mike Pence in 2015: a mediocre acolyte of the libertarian fusionism that grafted itself onto the Grand Old Party in the wake of the Second World War.

That means, among other things, that he does not stand a chance. The particular blend of economic laissez-faire and foreign policy hawkishness that Pence represents is a platform virtually without a constituency.
In the first high-profile comments of an as-yet-unofficial campaign, Pence took aim at Social Security and Medicare, criticizing populists' unwillingness to strip these programs away from the American workers who have paid into them for decades....

This is supposed to convince us, somehow, that Pence checks off the Buckley rule. Yet a candidate who promises that multibillion-dollar corporations will be allowed to groom your children into members of the rainbow cult while your hard-earned dollars are funneled into the advancement of that cult and the channels of corruption in Ukraine is neither right nor viable.

The men and women of middle America who came out in droves for Nixon and Reagan, whose more hopeful vanguard threw in with Buchanan, and who dropped off en masse when offered a squish like Bob Dole, will not be voting for Mike Pence. But if we let him go on, we will have to worry whether they'll ever vote for a Republican again.]

This woman needs to be deported ASAP. https://t.co/owjMXaM8dy

— SouthernAnglo (@AngloSouthern) June 7, 2023

Redbrickbear said:

---

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/no-more-losers/

[In the presidential election of 1996, the leader of the Senate Republicans was pummeled into oblivion by the slippery incumbent, who would face a shameful impeachment before the term was up...

Bob Dole, that is, was the last massive loser put forward by either major party. What does it say, then, when his campaign manager returns from the grave to foist another candidate on a divided GOP?
Scott Reed, who led Bob Dole and the party to electoral humiliation 27 years ago, was announced this week as co-leader of "Allies of Mike Pence," a Super PAC set up to fund the former vice-president's long-shot candidacy for the 2024 nomination.

Since the bungling of 1996, Reed has slinked from swamp role to swamp role, among the most recent of which was political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (He was terminated for cause in 2020 after "an internal review…revealed that Scott repeatedly breached confidentiality, distorted facts for his own benefit, withheld information from chamber leadership and leaked internal information to the press.")
The choice is poetic, if not much else. Who better to lead a failing campaign than a man with an ironclad track record? Who better to force out the last gasp of the dead consensus than an alumnus of Dole/Kemp?

And make no mistake: Pence will run a dead consensus campaign. His stint as Trump's V.P. did nothing to bring him around to Trump's Buchananite, old-school American conservatism. (Dole himself, who endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, grew wiser with age and reluctantly endorsed Donald Trump in the general election.) Mike Pence in 2023 is exactly Mike Pence in 2015: a mediocre acolyte of the libertarian fusionism that grafted itself onto the Grand Old Party in the wake of the Second World War.

That means, among other things, that he does not stand a chance. The particular blend of economic laissez-faire and foreign policy hawkishness that Pence represents is a platform virtually without a constituency.
In the first high-profile comments of an as-yet-unofficial campaign, Pence took aim at Social Security and Medicare, criticizing populists' unwillingness to strip these programs away from the American workers who have paid into them for decades....

This is supposed to convince us, somehow, that Pence checks off the Buckley rule. Yet a candidate who promises that multibillion-dollar corporations will be allowed to groom your children into members of the rainbow cult while your hard-earned dollars are funneled into the advancement of that cult and the channels of corruption in Ukraine is neither right nor viable.

The men and women of middle America who came out in droves for Nixon and Reagan, whose more hopeful vanguard threw in with Buchanan, and who dropped off en masse when offered a squish like Bob Dole, will not be voting for Mike Pence. But if we let him go on, we will have to worry whether they'll ever vote for a Republican again.]

---

Pence is making a play for donor support as his base, and will make some headway. A former VP has a pretty good rolodex. Jeb Hensarling is co-chair of the Pence PAC (with Reed). That's two pretty solid fundraisers. Reed, a legendary insider operative, was fired for leftward drift of the Chamber, after it endorsed a bunch of congressional Dems in a mid-term cycle. Hensarling was chair/ranking of the Banking committee for most of his time in Congress and was exactly the kind of wonk one would want to see in the role - he knew his stuff and did a good job working on issues of interest to big swathes of the donor class. So perhaps moreso than anyone in the field, Pence is a threat to RDS. Better connection to donor class, more experience at national level, longer years of party connections, former VP, etc...... My sense is that RDS is ahead in that arena at the moment, but be better not stumble.

The article is correct that Pence has been weighed and measured and found wanting by movement conservatives. And his actions on J6....playing along with efforts to right the wrongs up until the last moment......comes off as exactly the kind of "lack of fortitude leadership" that grassroots conservatives have come to expect from establishment types. SAYS all the right stuff, but is never on the battlefield when blood is shed.

I just cant summon any enthusiasm for Pence. He is not the guy to defeat wokeness. He had his chance to do exactly that as Gov in IN but cut & ran. And then I get an unmistakable whiff of a persona problem. it strikes me he is ALWAYS acting, posing, trying to look/sound the ultimate statesman, not the same guy who can keep the table thoroughly entertained with jokes & mocking impressions of Washington luminaries (which he can do). The difference between "off-duty Mike" and the "central casting statesman Pence" is off-putting. Some better connected people I know feel the opposite, like he's probably the best all-round talent on our team. I understand their points, but my spidey senses just won't quit tingling when I see him.

whiterock said:

---

Redbrickbear said:

---

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/no-more-losers/

[In the presidential election of 1996, the leader of the Senate Republicans was pummeled into oblivion by the slippery incumbent, who would face a shameful impeachment before the term was up...

Bob Dole, that is, was the last massive loser put forward by either major party. What does it say, then, when his campaign manager returns from the grave to foist another candidate on a divided GOP?
Scott Reed, who led Bob Dole and the party to electoral humiliation 27 years ago, was announced this week as co-leader of "Allies of Mike Pence," a Super PAC set up to fund the former vice-president's long-shot candidacy for the 2024 nomination.

Since the bungling of 1996, Reed has slinked from swamp role to swamp role, among the most recent of which was political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (He was terminated for cause in 2020 after "an internal review…revealed that Scott repeatedly breached confidentiality, distorted facts for his own benefit, withheld information from chamber leadership and leaked internal information to the press.")
The choice is poetic, if not much else. Who better to lead a failing campaign than a man with an ironclad track record? Who better to force out the last gasp of the dead consensus than an alumnus of Dole/Kemp?

And make no mistake: Pence will run a dead consensus campaign. His stint as Trump's V.P. did nothing to bring him around to Trump's Buchananite, old-school American conservatism. (Dole himself, who endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, grew wiser with age and reluctantly endorsed Donald Trump in the general election.) Mike Pence in 2023 is exactly Mike Pence in 2015: a mediocre acolyte of the libertarian fusionism that grafted itself onto the Grand Old Party in the wake of the Second World War.

That means, among other things, that he does not stand a chance. The particular blend of economic laissez-faire and foreign policy hawkishness that Pence represents is a platform virtually without a constituency.
In the first high-profile comments of an as-yet-unofficial campaign, Pence took aim at Social Security and Medicare, criticizing populists' unwillingness to strip these programs away from the American workers who have paid into them for decades....

This is supposed to convince us, somehow, that Pence checks off the Buckley rule. Yet a candidate who promises that multibillion-dollar corporations will be allowed to groom your children into members of the rainbow cult while your hard-earned dollars are funneled into the advancement of that cult and the channels of corruption in Ukraine is neither right nor viable.

The men and women of middle America who came out in droves for Nixon and Reagan, whose more hopeful vanguard threw in with Buchanan, and who dropped off en masse when offered a squish like Bob Dole, will not be voting for Mike Pence. But if we let him go on, we will have to worry whether they'll ever vote for a Republican again.]

---

Pence is making a play for donor support as his base, and will make some headway. A former VP has a pretty good rolodex. Jeb Hensarling is co-chair of the Pence PAC (with Reed). That's two pretty solid fundraisers. Reed, a legendary insider operative, was fired for leftward drift of the Chamber, after it endorsed a bunch of congressional Dems in a mid-term cycle. Hensarling was chair/ranking of the Banking committee for most of his time in Congress and was exactly the kind of wonk one would want to see in the role - he knew his stuff and did a good job working on issues of interest to big swathes of the donor class. So perhaps moreso than anyone in the field, Pence is a threat to RDS. Better connection to donor class, more experience at national level, longer years of party connections, former VP, etc...... My sense is that RDS is ahead in that arena at the moment, but be better not stumble.

The article is correct that Pence has been weighed and measured and found wanting by movement conservatives. And his actions on J6....playing along with efforts to right the wrongs up until the last moment......comes off as exactly the kind of "lack of fortitude leadership" that grassroots conservatives have come to expect from establishment types. SAYS all the right stuff, but is never on the battlefield when blood is shed.

I just cant summon any enthusiasm for Pence. He is not the guy to defeat wokeness. He had his chance to do exactly that as Gov in IN but cut & ran. And then I get an unmistakable whiff of a persona problem. it strikes me he is ALWAYS acting, posing, trying to look/sound the ultimate statesman, not the same guy who can keep the table thoroughly entertained with jokes & mocking impressions of Washington luminaries (which he can do). The difference between "off-duty Mike" and the "central casting statesman Pence" is off-putting. Some better connected people I know feel the opposite, like he's probably the best all-round talent on our team. I understand their points, but my spidey senses just won't quit tingling when I see him.

---

Mike is a thoroughly decent man. But we need someone who can be a brawler.

Wrecks Quan Dough said:

---

whiterock said:

---

Redbrickbear said:

---

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/no-more-losers/

[In the presidential election of 1996, the leader of the Senate Republicans was pummeled into oblivion by the slippery incumbent, who would face a shameful impeachment before the term was up...

Bob Dole, that is, was the last massive loser put forward by either major party. What does it say, then, when his campaign manager returns from the grave to foist another candidate on a divided GOP?
Scott Reed, who led Bob Dole and the party to electoral humiliation 27 years ago, was announced this week as co-leader of "Allies of Mike Pence," a Super PAC set up to fund the former vice-president's long-shot candidacy for the 2024 nomination.

Since the bungling of 1996, Reed has slinked from swamp role to swamp role, among the most recent of which was political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (He was terminated for cause in 2020 after "an internal review…revealed that Scott repeatedly breached confidentiality, distorted facts for his own benefit, withheld information from chamber leadership and leaked internal information to the press.")
The choice is poetic, if not much else. Who better to lead a failing campaign than a man with an ironclad track record? Who better to force out the last gasp of the dead consensus than an alumnus of Dole/Kemp?

And make no mistake: Pence will run a dead consensus campaign. His stint as Trump's V.P. did nothing to bring him around to Trump's Buchananite, old-school American conservatism. (Dole himself, who endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, grew wiser with age and reluctantly endorsed Donald Trump in the general election.) Mike Pence in 2023 is exactly Mike Pence in 2015: a mediocre acolyte of the libertarian fusionism that grafted itself onto the Grand Old Party in the wake of the Second World War.

That means, among other things, that he does not stand a chance. The particular blend of economic laissez-faire and foreign policy hawkishness that Pence represents is a platform virtually without a constituency.
In the first high-profile comments of an as-yet-unofficial campaign, Pence took aim at Social Security and Medicare, criticizing populists' unwillingness to strip these programs away from the American workers who have paid into them for decades....

This is supposed to convince us, somehow, that Pence checks off the Buckley rule. Yet a candidate who promises that multibillion-dollar corporations will be allowed to groom your children into members of the rainbow cult while your hard-earned dollars are funneled into the advancement of that cult and the channels of corruption in Ukraine is neither right nor viable.

The men and women of middle America who came out in droves for Nixon and Reagan, whose more hopeful vanguard threw in with Buchanan, and who dropped off en masse when offered a squish like Bob Dole, will not be voting for Mike Pence. But if we let him go on, we will have to worry whether they'll ever vote for a Republican again.]

---

Pence is making a play for donor support as his base, and will make some headway. A former VP has a pretty good rolodex. Jeb Hensarling is co-chair of the Pence PAC (with Reed). That's two pretty solid fundraisers. Reed, a legendary insider operative, was fired for leftward drift of the Chamber, after it endorsed a bunch of congressional Dems in a mid-term cycle. Hensarling was chair/ranking of the Banking committee for most of his time in Congress and was exactly the kind of wonk one would want to see in the role - he knew his stuff and did a good job working on issues of interest to big swathes of the donor class. So perhaps moreso than anyone in the field, Pence is a threat to RDS. Better connection to donor class, more experience at national level, longer years of party connections, former VP, etc...... My sense is that RDS is ahead in that arena at the moment, but be better not stumble.

The article is correct that Pence has been weighed and measured and found wanting by movement conservatives. And his actions on J6....playing along with efforts to right the wrongs up until the last moment......comes off as exactly the kind of "lack of fortitude leadership" that grassroots conservatives have come to expect from establishment types. SAYS all the right stuff, but is never on the battlefield when blood is shed.

I just cant summon any enthusiasm for Pence. He is not the guy to defeat wokeness. He had his chance to do exactly that as Gov in IN but cut & ran. And then I get an unmistakable whiff of a persona problem. it strikes me he is ALWAYS acting, posing, trying to look/sound the ultimate statesman, not the same guy who can keep the table thoroughly entertained with jokes & mocking impressions of Washington luminaries (which he can do). The difference between "off-duty Mike" and the "central casting statesman Pence" is off-putting. Some better connected people I know feel the opposite, like he's probably the best all-round talent on our team. I understand their points, but my spidey senses just won't quit tingling when I see him.

---

Mike is a thoroughly decent man. But we need someone who can be a brawler.

---

Exactly.

muddybrazos said:

---

She is terrible and wont be nominated for anything.

---

What makes her terrible? Is it because she is not Trump.

Redbrickbear said:

---

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

i voted for Trump twice. He is cancer.

---

A cancer that is still better than Nikki

---

Nikki has not been indicted for any felonies

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

---

The above childish b u l l s h i t from Trump is exactly the reason I want to vote for someone else.

A lot of huge problems in our country that Trump could be talking about but instead, he insists on being a mean girl.

---

The above is why Trump loses in a landslide in 2024.