Tucker & Trump vs. Fox News & The GOP + Listless Vessels – Top 3 Takeaways – August 21st, 2023
- Tucker and Trump vs. Fox News and the GOP. This week figures to be a fascinating week. For starters, it’s the week where presidential politics evolves from being the equivalent of an event where pitchers and catchers have reported to camp, to one in which spring training games officially begin. It’s the week where it becomes more than just the diehard fans tracking the every move of their favorite team, into one in which even the casual fans begin to take notice of their team’s prospects for the upcoming season. Wednesday night’s Republican Presidential debate ushers in the official start of a process which will culminate in a presidential election which will be decided 14.5 months from now and under unprecedented circumstances in so many different ways. We have the oldest incumbent president running for reelection in US history on one side and we of course have a former president of the United States on the other side. But that isn’t unprecedented, what is of course are the four indictments and 91 charges which have been leveled against him. So too is the Republican front-runner opting not to be on the debate stage...opting instead to share a set with Tucker Carlson in an interview designed to operate as counter programming to the Republican Presidential debate. On one side you have the two biggest names in Republican politics. On the other side you have the biggest name in news and the Republican Party’s event. Tucker clearly has an axe to grind with Fox News and what’s somewhat less clear is the extent to which Trump may have an axe to grind with the Republican Party itself. It’s hard to know if the Republican Party’s mandate for debating candidates to sign a loyalty pledge to support the party’s eventual winner made a difference as to Trump’s decision not to debate...
- But it’s not something which should be lost on voters either. It’s been well over a year, July 29th of last year to be exact, since I said this: First, my preference would be for Governor DeSantis to be fully focused on being our governor for the next four years. Especially since at least half of that time will be spent with Joe Biden as President of the United States. I think it’s hard to argue that anyone could be as effective traveling the country while running for president as they would be if they were focused on the job they were elected to carry out. And if he were to win, we’d lose our governor after only two years of his 2nd term. None of that is ideal from where I sit. But then there’s the political calculation I’ve referenced as well. Let’s say for a moment DeSantis were to run against Trump and managed to win. Do you think Trump simply rides off into the sunset having lost a Republican primary? I don’t. I think the potential for an indie bid at that point would be high along with the desire to take DeSantis down with him. Perhaps the biggest change over the past 13 months is whether DeSantis will end up being Trump’s top challenger after all. But as for the underlying points that I referenced back then... I don’t know what I don’t know about Trump’s mindset, however his first key decision in this presidential election cycle was not to sign the loyalty pledge and not to debate on Wednesday. That is completely consistent with my supposition last summer. Speaking of DeSantis...
- Listless vessels. In my experience, President Trump’s most loyal supporters are the most energetic, dedicated and passionate people in politics I’ve ever come across. In other words, the anthesis of being listless vessels. Yet the implication as such in a Friday interview with the Florida Standard, has the potential to be an issue that may be hard for him to overcome – especially since his odds are already long. The quote from the interview in question is this... The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people and that’s got to be based in principle, because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that’s just supposed to follow … whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement. Now, in defense of DeSantis let me say that the premise of what he’s saying is 100% correct. At most Donald Trump will be president for four more years. If one is rooted only in support for the person as opposed to the movement, what happens then? On the other hand, suggesting that Trump’s supporters, which by way of the average of national primary polling stands at 55% of the party’s electorate, may be listless vessels, can and already is being used against him by people who were once referred to as a “basket of deplorables” by Hillary Clinton. The comment strikes me as one in which DeSantis knows he must do something to turn the momentum of his campaign and thus is becoming more aggressive in his effort to do so, but that is also a byproduct of a frustrated man who expected to be battling Trump for front-runner status heading into the first debate as opposed to fighting Vivek Ramaswamy to attempt to retain status as the top contender to a prohibitive favorite. The bigger story seeking to drag DeSantis down through the weekend was the New York Times posting an alleged leak of debate prep from his Super PAC. DeSantis has denied ever seeing the alleged leaked material. I believe him btw. When attempting to discern what is real and what isn’t, I’ve always implored people to consider the source. What inner-circle DeSantis campaign official who’d have access to that kind of information would be inclined to run to the New York Times with it? That doesn’t pass the smell test. The listless vessels comment...that happened.