First Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan from the centre….
Now we see Senator Cruz and Cottom moving from the right of the Grand ole’ Party…
And?
Donald Trump hasn’t left the stage yet….
The manoeuvring on the next stimulus/virus bill has the things in clear sight…
And President Trump WILL have to bend his political juice ALREADY slipping away….
Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) suggested at the lunch that the GOP needs to be willing to keep racking up debt to maintain power. He argued that the full conference needs to focus on protecting their most vulnerable members. Cotton postulated that Democrats would spend more money if they win the Senate majority in November and, therefore, it is cheaper in the long run to allow the size of the spending package to grow with more goodies to benefit incumbents who are up for reelection.
Cruz and Cotton are among the small clique of ambitious Republican senators in their 40s who have been laying the groundwork to run for president in 2024, along with Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and JoshHawley (Mo.). The dueling stances Cruz and Cotton staked out behind closed doors offer an early taste of the ideological battles we can expect as Republicans increasingly vie to take the torch from President Trump. These fights will flare up faster and hotter if the president loses in November. Others outside the Senate, such as Vice President Pence and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, are also expected to compete for the nod.
Trump, who has proudly pronounced himself “the king of debt” and drove multiple businesses into bankruptcy before entering politics, has shown little personal concern, beyond occasional rhetoric, that the country is drowning in red ink on his watch. When Trump accepted the Republican nomination four years ago last night in Cleveland, he was campaigning on the promise to eliminate the national debt altogether in eight years. As president, though, Trump has grown the size of the debtfrom $19.9 trillion when he was inaugurated to $26.5 trillion….
It has not begun yet.
The only way that might seem to be true is if it were likely Trump was going to win.
Since it *appears* he will not, there will never have been a time when there was as much uncertainty about the direction of a party. It will “begin” in 2023.
Generally speaking though, tough losses can lead to surprise turns within a party. I do not many people would have predicted Bill Clinton for Democrats after their 1988 loss and we all know that nobody (with the exception of SE) thought Donald Trump was even a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2016.
I agree that it hasn’t started yet
Having said that ,those mentioned here will surely be talked about as candidates over the next few years and most of them will probably take the plunge.
There will probably be about 25 candidates.
Not counting the Democrats.
Cruz was the runner up in 2016.
I see him as the early frontrunner.
I don’t at all. Even the Trumpists view him as a laughingstock for the way he folded. He barely beat Beto in Texas.
The people that had him as their first choice before may move on to Cotton or Hawley.
Few people, except inveterate political junkies even know who they are,particularly Hawley.
Cruz and Pence have the most name recognition and that’s all the early commotion will be about.
You don’t want Cruz to be the frontrunner because you don’t like him.He is twice or three times as known as Cotton and Hawley.
I don’t like any of them at this point and its far too early to assign a frontrunner (though it would be Pence I suppose, and also perhaps Haley near the top of the tier.) I just do not see much of a market for Cruz in either a pro-Trump party or a post-Trump/forgive us party.
He came away from 2016 with just about everyone in the party down on him.
Hawley and Cotton seem pretty much interchangeable at this point.
Both young douchey college Republican types.
People can say what they want about their political beliefs or positioning, but Cotton is a Harvard Law Grad who enlisted in the Army after 9/11, served in combat and won the Bronze Star.
He’s a bit more accomplished than the College Republican douches I knew. Also, he has virtually no personality.
Yeah and he also wants to bomb his fellow Americans so I’m not sure if I should applaud his military service if he sees someone like me as the enemy.
You can acknowledge his service and also criticize his beliefs or statements, such as I do for people like Tammy Duckworth and others on the left.
Show me where Tammy Duckworth suggested using American forces against American people or compared those protesting to Confederate traitors as Cotton has done and you’ll have your “both sides” argument
Till then I’ll not praise nor condemn Cotton’s military record.
Deal?
I do not know what Cotton exactly has or has not said. I was making a general point. He has an impressive bio. You can acknowledge that and still despise him if you wish.
CG–Google is your friend
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html
More Google is your friend https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-tom-cotton-compares-portland-protesters-are-just-like-confederate-insurrectionists
I disagree with the crux of the Op-Ed that Cotton wrote (though he had the right to state his opinion and the NYT brouhaha over it was ridiculous.)
While I disagree with him, I do not think what he said was quite how it was portrayed here.
On the issue of violent lawlessness at federal property or installations, I think there is a place for trained federal agents to act in a security capacity
The issue of federal agents acting as local police is far different and more troublesome.
I will be doing a post on that very subject soon
A Latino Republican as the Grand ole’ Party Presidential nominee?
THAT is gonna be interesting for the anti-anybody but white ones in the party…
And a Latino has won a Democrat Presidential primary when exactly?
How about the Last Democratic President?
Is Latino part of his “mix?”
Sure…
I disagree CG…..
I see it already beginning with Hogan, Christie, Cotton , Cruz , Healy and others ALREADY making political moves as the piece points out….
And Trump IS gonna be bending more in the next two weeks….
Mitt Romney says he has no idea where the Republican Party is heading.
In his statement to The Deseret News, he said that cozying up to dictators was the norm and character no longer seems to matter in the party.
It sounded like a man really torn and self consciously questioning where he even fits in the party presently , noting that he ,and implicitly those like him (CG?) ,make up but a small slice of the party anymore.
Sounded rather plaintive really.
At least he gets his own planet when he passes on one day.
In fact I’d bet Romney has a LOT of company …
But as u pint out Jack?
Lawmakers in his party are afraid to speak up…
How long this lasts going into the fall is my question…
Will other Republicans in the swing/battleground states risk their jobs or walk away from Trump?
If Romney were to switch to the Dem Party and I was living in Utah, I would vote for him in the Primary without reservations.
Romney switching would doom his career…
Remember ?
He DOES tend to come back in the fold on important GOPer votes
Yeah but would CG?
I’ve already voted for Mitt Romney in a Democrat primary!
Here is an interesting visual representation of Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party four years ago:
https://twitter.com/Yolo_Tengo/status/1285766946932142080/photo/1
Call me when Mitt Romney announces he’s voting for Biden and then maybe we’ll have a profile in courage. You know, like John Kadish. Until then everything he’s done to oppose Trump has been one step forward, two back.
It’s clear Trump will burn this place down to get re-elected. Time for Saint Mitt to step up to save the country and maybe his party.
On another topic, interesting to see Trump wishing a pimp well. Anyone who doesn’t think that wasn’t a message is either hopelessly naive or lying.
Be careful not to read more into what I said than what I said.
First I qualified by saying “if I were living in Utah”. Utah is one of the reddest states in the country in which a real Democrat cannot win. So getting Romney as a Senator is as good as we can expect – and I recognize that in a heartbeat.
I am proud of my past vote for Obama over Romney as President. With that said, History will treat Romney well. Romney certainly has his flaws, but compared to the rest of the GOP …?