Campaign 2024 is just beginning . . .

[ex-khobar Andy]

I suppose it's been going for while of course - don't know if TFG still plans to make a big announcement in a few days. He said he would and he's a man of his word so . . .

Speculation about who the Dems would choose is heating up. I personally hope we can retire Biden - well done Joe, thank you for the monumental gift you gave us all by beating Trump, now go back to Delaware and take it easy.

Good NYT piece today - let know if you want me to c&p it into a post if you are firewalled out - about the relative merits of those who are emerging as front runners: VP Kamala Harris, Indiana's Pete Buttigieg and Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer. Harris just has not impressed me as VP but I don't know if that's her fault or Biden's. I really like what I have seen of Buttigieg but I really do not know if the country will ever go for a gay man with an unfortunate name. Does that make me a homophobe? I hope not and I don't think so, but I understand how some might see it that way. If de Santis is the R candidate I want someone who can beat him and if Buttigieg automatically starts with a 5% handicap because there are Ds out there who will just sit on their hands rather than vote for a gay man, then I want another candidate.

Any candidate is a compromise for any voter (sorry: I forgot that compromise is an ugly word these days and use of the word automatically labels you as an ineffective woke softy and therefore of no consequence) and maybe Whitmer is the best candidate. Rightly or wrongly, the 10% of the male population who would never vote for a woman President are probably balanced out by the 10% of the female population who will vote for her just because she's a woman. It's going to be an interesting year or so until that first primary in NH - March 2024.

[Crackpot]

Why Whitmer? Don’t get me wrong I think she’s competent and a Good Governor and would have probably voted for her even if her competition wasn’t an anti abortion election denying conspiratorial nutbag. Is it her relative lack of scandal? The fact that she can win a purple state? Don’t get me wrong there are definitely worse choices. Biden probably can’t win against anyone but Trump. (and possibly DeSantis not that I’d like to take that gamble)

[Gob]

I really like what I have seen of Buttigieg but I really do not know if the country will ever go for a gay man with an unfortunate name. Does that make me a homophobe? I hope not and I don't think so, but I understand how some might see it that way.

In no way can that make you homophobic. But, worry not, there's a whole host of snowflakes willing to give it a try.

[MajGenl.Meade]

And it's beginning in the Battle of Florida - asswipe Trump against junior asswipe DeSantis.

I'll be watching with interest. If the Republicans can come up with a sensible candidate for 2024, I'll probably support her/him. It might even be DeSantis if he can truly ditch the need to act like a Trump-wannabe and settle down to attract swing voters and Dems who don't like the tin-ear "only extreme minorities deserve approval" mantra of the left.

And no, I wouldn't vote for Buttigieg any more than I'd vote for Mitt Romney. Don't support either of their beliefs. Despite all the efforts to make it illegal for me to say such an appalling thing

[Jarlaxle]

DeSantis 2024.

[BoSoxGal]

I’d love to see Trump and DeSantis go down in flames in a battle with each other, while Cheney/Baker win the GOP nomination in 2024. But alas the party is far too sick for that kind of rapid return to sanity. I think the rest of us will spend the next decade plus fighting back on this extremism and depending upon the circumstances we may still lose. Climate change will continue to create misfortune and economic distress on a mass scale and if our leaders don’t act quickly it will likely drive us to a bleak political future.