It’s amazing how quickly we got used to a presidential nomination fight starting almost two full years before the election, or more than a year before the first primary or caucus vote, but here we are. Seems too soon, but it is what’s happening, and more people have entered the fray in just the last couple of days that I thought it was worth taking another look at the field, and by “look” I mean a cynical look, because if these people can’t stand up to a little scrutiny from someone who’d happily vote for any of them over any Democrat, we’re screwed.
Let’s start at the top: Donald Trump. The big dog in all the polls, and he won’t let you forget it. If he spent half the time he spends talking about his polling or how he got screwed in 2020 talking about what he wants to do for the country….well, we’d know what he wants to do in a second term. Instead, we get platitudes and promises of only needing 6 months to complete the job. That last bit makes you wonder why, if he can make such a huge difference in 6 months, why didn’t do the things he says he will when he had 4 years?
Trump has promised to address birthright citizenship on his first day, which would be great. But he did promise to address in the first time he ran and had more than 1,400 days in which to do it and did nothing. I love the idea, I support the idea, but why wasn’t it done before? Why wasn’t the wall built? These are questions he’s going to have to answer at some point, and things he desperately wants to avoid.
I also think he’d be well-served by announcing some potential cabinets appointments early, so we can see who will populate a second term. For all the bluster, Donald Trump hired horrible people and took forever to fire them (not doing it himself, but delegating to underlings). You can say the first term was on a learning curve, but at some point don’t the training wheels have to come off? Demonstrating that he’s learned from his past mistakes would go a long way to assure people who remember his failings. Not for the people who believe he made no mistakes, but for the people he needs to win a general election, which seems kind of important.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has the new candidate smell people love…to knock down. He is the one chosen by people who make those choices to take on Trump. Those people, mostly in media, don’t really care who wins, they just want it to take a while before any knock-out blow lands. Ratings, my friends, ratings is all they care about, and by “they” I really mean all of them.
The best thing DeSantis has going for him is the absurdity of the attacks from Trump. They really are a special kind of dumb – with Trump praising disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over COVID, for example. “More people died in Florida than New York” is a dumb argument, especially when it can easily be turned around to point out that more people died in the United States under Trump than every other country.
But Trump is never worried about counter-punching, he just ignores it. And DeSantis is giving him nothing back anyway. It’s smart to ignore most of the attacks, they’re absurd, but at some point you have to prove you can hit back. Don’t campaign like a policy paper, be a human being. He’s doing it some, but not enough. Human beings hit back, sometimes even harder. Maybe point out how your wife is on the trail with you but not everyone’s is, then let that sit there. You can say a lot without saying much, but you can’t just sit there and say nothing. No one, no matter how effective they are in their job, is entitled to any votes, they must be earned.
Chris Christie is going to try to earn them, but he won’t. I doubt he polls well in his own family. No one wanted this. The only interesting part of his candidacy is to see how the other candidates react to his Tasmanian Devil-esque attacks on the trail. It’s good to have a sparring partner who’s a little crazy, keeps you on your toes. As far as being a legit threat to win, it’s just not happening.
Nikki Haley is a great concept, but so far has proven to be a lackluster campaigner. Don’t get me wrong, she’s won her share of races, so what do I know? Still, she needs to loosen up. I get that it’s a sad commentary on society that a candidate has to be likeable even more than honest of have good ideas, but having both is not impossible. Haley comes off as smart, but also like a 3rd grade teacher on conferences night – likes she’s talking to a group of kids even, and especially, when she’s not. Some people just have a weird cadence when they speak to a crowd, but it can be overcome with some work. She needs the work.
By every account I’ve ever heard, Mike Pence is a genuinely good man. That being said, no one asked him to run. There is no groundswell of support or lane for him. Maybe he sees something I don’t; issues that otherwise wouldn’t be broached were he not in the race, I don’t know. I just can’t imagine it going anywhere, and in many ways we’re worse off for a man like him not really having a lane.
Larry Elder. Did you remember he’s running? Yeah, me either. Again, seems like a good man, but parlaying a crushing slaughter in the California recall into a presidential nomination is as unlikely as, well, him winning that California recall.
You wouldn’t know the name Vivek Ramaswamy had he not been adopted by Fox and plastered all over their airwaves, which is a testament to marketing and hiring a PR firm with employees to drink with underpaid cable news bookers. But he’s all sizzle and steak. What has he done? Or, let me rephrase, what has he done that didn’t make him money? Nothing wrong with making money, but he’s got a string of unfulfilled promises in his wake – like his hedge fund that was going to take on “woke” corporations. Have they been taken on? He raised $300 million, reportedly, seems like enough to do something, right? Aside from millions in commissions, was anything taken on? Everyone can talk a good game, but if you don’t have any wins in your pocket…forgive me if I question the sincerity.
The Mayor of Miami, someone named Francis Suarez, is allegedly gearing up to run. That we’re one sentence past my giving you his name and you have to look back at it to remember what is was tells you all you need to know.
Then there is billionaire Governor of North Dakota, who I bet you also don’t know. His name is Doug Burgum, and he’s got the money to make a splash. I literally know nothing about him other than what I’ve written above, but I am curious to know more. I’m always down for a dark horse candidate. The little I do know about him seems pretty interesting, but he’s going to have to work his a$$ off to get any attention he didn’t buy. Again, possible – politics is full of candidates coming out of nowhere to win – but those candidates were special. Is Burgum? Time will tell.
No one has this thing locked up, nor should they. No one votes for 7 months, and blind loyalty to any politician is insane – they owe you the loyalty, not the other way around.
But I will say this again, that no matter what I’ve written here, or what I have tweeted or will tweet in the future, I would crawl over broken glass to vote for any of them, for all of them, over any Democrat. If you can’t say the same, and we lose, you can find fault in the nearest reflective surface.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
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