Nothing much makes Ron DeSantis smile these days. We mean a genuine smile not his crafted sneer or his maniac laugh. We’ll talking about a real smile. But this will warm his heart. DeSantis’ messed up Twitter launch with Elon Musk was considered a disaster but alongside this, it doesn’t look so bad, really.
People have relied on this man for his internet researched medical advice for nearly three years. https://t.co/PlsuO9V9Kh
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 9, 2023
Another political moment that would be laughed out of a Hollywood script.
Now this is heartwarming. Shades of Paul Gosar.
— — • 𝗖 𝗛 𝗘 𝗘 𝗞 𝗬 • — (@andreagail_k) October 9, 2023
Well do I remember 1968. Bobby was our hero. Bobby was going to be bigger than Jack. Richard Nixon used to fume, “That goddamn Bobby, they treat him like a rock star.” Yes, we did. Up Up And Away With RFK said the campaign signs. And then it all ended brutally in the kitchen of the now-razed to the ground Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. An era ended that night. They got Jack in 1963, they got Dr. King April 4, 1968 and 61 days later, June 5, they got Bobby. So we lost our visionaries in a five year span, all three of them.
Then along comes RFK, Jr., and I guess he’s a KINO, a Kennedy In Name Only. Maybe we should coin that meme here and now.
RFK Jr. is married to Cheryl Hines, who stars opposite Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Or he was. They separated in June of this year so that RFK, Jr. could shield her from the scrutiny of his political statements. Maybe also shield her from him making a laughing stock out of himself like today.
And supposedly this is bad for Trump. Newsweek:
Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk suggested on his show last week that the reports about panic from Democrats over an independent Kennedy run are a “strategy” to conceal the threat that Kennedy would pose to the Republican Party.
“Far more of the ‘I don’t trust the government’ brigade would vote for RFK Jr. if he were run as a Libertarian,” Kirk said, adding that “Libertarians being on the ballot almost always hurt Republicans.”
Kennedy, a candidate running for the Democratic nomination thus far, is expected to drop his challenge to Biden on October 9 and launch an independent bid instead. Despite being the closest Democratic threat to Biden and garnering double-digit support, Kennedy trails Biden by 50 points, multiple polls show.
Democrats have feared that should Kennedy run as an independent, the shakeup could deal a blow to the president in a Biden-Trump rematch, where Kennedy could take more centrist votes from Biden and further weaken a Biden advantage over Trump. […]
A poll conducted by the American Values 2024 PAC found that in a general election between Trump, Biden and a generic “independent candidate,” Trump would come out on top with 40 percent, Biden lagging behind at 38 percent and the independent candidate down at 17 percent. But, if the race were to be Trump, Biden and Kennedy, Kennedy would see 19 percent support and leave Trump and Biden tied at 38 percent.
“RFK cant win but he can deny Trump the White House and hand it to Dems,” far-right activist Jack Posobiec wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum also argued to her colleagues that Kennedy “has a lot of support among [Joe] Rogan listeners, Jordan Peterson listeners, and what he’s talking about in this video is that there has to be a different path.”
“He has a lot of people, young people, very interested in what he’s saying,” she said.
I realize that 2023 is not 1968 and that the now-14-year-olds are not boomers like I was back when Bobby ran. Bobby had a tremendous appeal to youth because he was uplifting and optimistic. His son, on the other hand, is a downer and a conspiracy theorist. If in fact young people are listening to him, then maybe our species is simply too stupid to continue to exist.
But others disagreed, saying that the idea that Kennedy running as an independent would be good for Biden and bad for Trump is false.
“Bannon & Co are spreading fake ‘studies’ showing that an RFK Jr third-party run wd help Biden & hurt Trump. If you buy that, I have a bridge to sell you, cheap,” attorney Laurence Tribe said on X.
“RFK Jr is a huge threat in 2024,” Tribe wrote in another post. “He’s backed by a massive and growing war chest and Cambridge Analytica on steroids. And he’s taking dead aim at the Biden/Harris ticket as a 3rd party spoiler. He could assure a Trump victory and the end of the republic.”
It’s a law of political physics that an Independent candidate bleeds votes from the Democrat. I think that’s what Laurence Tribe is responding to here. On the other hand, Kennedy represents a kind of right-wing crazy that may in fact bleed votes from Trump. With him in the race, who knows where this will end up? And we don’t even know if No Labels is going to be on the ballot or in how many states.
If 1968 was Up Up And Away, 2023 is Down Down And Depraved. The apple not only fell far from the tree in this instance, it rolled down hill, fermented in a toxic dump site and is now something out of a grade-Z 50’s sci fi movie.
There’s a young couple in our neighborhood, who have a RFK jr for President 24 sign in their yard. They also have a friend who comes over with an “arrest Fauci” on the rear window of his car. This is my view of the demographic that supports him.
Thank you. If that’s the case, they may be taking votes away from Trump. Now we’re seeing MAGA splinter, possibly. Let’s see what Trumpty Dumpty says about RFK, Jr. That will be revealing.
This guy was never seriously “running” against President Biden and he damned sure wasn’t any kind of threat to him. Someone ought to clue bannon in to this: the Democrats might be the big tent party but they’re really not into the right-wing, bat-shit crazy, democrat wannabes any more. Much of that left the party when the dixiecrats turned republican. What was left is slowly being voted out of office.
I really don’t get these people who think Democrats desire pols who are anti-everything except for white, male, xtians, anti-choice, pro-wealthy/business welfare whenever possible, and anti-education/pro-religioso (same thing really). Except for very rare exceptions, Tester come to mind, these people get primaried from the left and if the voters truly are cons, they vote republican. The Blue Dog Democrat is almost extinct. I can’t say I’m sad to see it go.
To me, the fact that his siblings jumped right in on day one to denounce him says it all. He’s Paul Gosar sprung from Bobby’s loins. How that can be, don’t ask me. I’ve known some lovely people who have weird kids and I’ve known interesting people who have weird parents. I don’t claim to understand any of that.
Middle children. Democrats and animal lovers.