The Dems have been caught on their back foot. Many of them want Biden out, but little thought has been given to what comes next. It’s proving to be an entertaining time to observe the Dems.

For better or for worse, Kackling Kamala would be the natural heir. She checks the intersectional DEI (Didn’t Earn It) boxes. She would legally be able to assume the Biden/Harris campaign organization and the $212 million pot of cash that the campaign has. BUT she never made it to Iowa in the 2020 primaries, she acts like a buffoon, and many Dems hate her.  Her polling is atrocious. And no one has suggested her.

There are a number of substantive criticisms that can be made of Donald Trump. Most recently his utterly graceless remarks about his former GOP opponents. (I wish I had the power to make Mr. Trump watch videos of Ronald Reagan gutting his adversaries but doing so without losing gravitas or stepping away from an overriding positive vision. Showing to be followed by a quiz and assignments.) But taken individually or as a whole, Trump’s obvious defects do not justify an endorsement of Joe Biden as issued by the increasingly pathetic David French.  

Pre-Obama, losing a presidential election usually meant a shift to the right or left within known parameters. Welfare and defense spending would be affected at the margins but the federal bureaucracy did not see itself as a partisan enforcer no matter who won.  Public debates and litigation about sexual freedoms did not involve silencing and active suppression of dissenting majority opinion and values.

This is going to be listed as one of the most effective campaign ads ever:

https://rumble.com/v4g29zi-new-trump-campaign-ad-drops-youre-not-safe-in-joe-bidens-america..html

Although the raced was “called” about a minute after the polls closed in South Carolina by the networks and poll tracking entities, I have waited until nearly all the votes have been reported. It’s obvious that South Carolina Republicans want President Trump in the White House again. This is not a shock. The only mystery was whether Nikki friendly PACs who pitched Democrats to cross over if they didn’t bother to vote in the uncontested Democratic primary would succeed in padding her Republican support with Democrats. Have no idea how many did, but it certainly didn’t make the outcome close.

Nikki says she is going to press on. Uh, why? There is no super secret groundswell of support amongst Republicans that are going to assert themselves shortly. Nikki is wasting somebody’s money.

It is no longer a question of if but when Biden will be pushed aside by his party. Direct opposition in a primary would be messy and potentially divisive.  Better to wait until closer to the convention to have the nice men in white coats take him for a secret rendezvous with Mitterrand and Meir with lots of tapioca.

Waiting and pulling a Torricelli also has the advantage that the successor nominee will not have to undergo sustained scrutiny under campaign pressure but will instead be whatever image package is handed to CNN and the NYT at the time of nomination. A clean slate and a vague promise to fix the Biden disaster with an explicit promise to be anti-Trump and to save democracy by doubling down on oppressive use of power against the MAGA threat cannot help but create a large surge in the polls.

“The difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable. It is the way we look at them – through faith or unbelief – that makes them seem so. We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good.

Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.”

Brother Lawrence (1614 – 1691) – Practicing the Presence of God

I heard the starter pistol and race is on!

Megyn Kelly is supporting Nikki Haley, reasoning that Trump needs someone to shore up support in the establishment. The Trump base, would get over it. (Eventually.)

This is not a post I wanted to write. Ron DeSantis came in a poor second in Iowa and barely beat out Nikki Haley . Haley somehow announced it was now a “two person” race (between her and Trump) even though she came in third, probably projecting forward to the New Hampshire balloting. Nevertheless DeSantis said —

“Because of your support, in spite of all of that they threw at us, everyone against us — we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” he said.

There is a little spat going on on X: Vivek positively tweeted the following picture —

Nikki Haley apparently experienced a gaffe in a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Wednesday evening by failing to mention “slavery” in  response to an audience member’s question about the cause of the Civil War. (Haley has navigated these waters before when as then-Governor of South Carolina the Confederate Battle Flag was removed from the State Capitol building.) Apparently she underlined the omission:

“What do you want me to say about slavery?” She then asked for the next question.

Charlie Kirk posted the following on X:

President Trump will be on the Colorado ballot. That’s the determination in the case where some Democrats and NT Republicans sought to have Trump banned under an interpretation of the 14th Amendment barring insurrectionists from public office.

That’s the good news. The bad news? According to the Associated Press —

I didn’t watch the debate Wednesday night, nor was I planning to. Every candidate is going to say they won, and every pundit is going to let you know their preference with their critique. For example, we have this “hot take” from Mary Katherine Ham (whom I like, though I also think she has lost touch with the base).

https://twitter.com/mkhammer/status/1722421008353693934?t=mVwEPeVBazP46s777-yuEA&s=19