○On Tuesday night, Donald Trump emerged the winner of New Hampshire's Republican primary and projected Republican presidential nomination, handily defeating Nikki Haley. He became the first non-incumbent Republican to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Next month's South Carolina contest and the contests that follow will be formalities on the road to the crown.
The Republican Party is his. “As long as you can cloud the mirror, it has to be Trump,” Steve Bannon told ABC News' Jonathan Karl. Haley has vowed to stay in the race, but the fall campaign has begun. As voting closed in New Hampshire, President Biden said: announced Campaign renewal. This is not a well-oiled machine.
This will be Trump's third time as the party's standard bearer. Perhaps this driving experience will become an attraction. Perhaps for the first time he will win a plurality of the popular vote, if not an outright majority, something he has not been able to achieve before.
According to these metrics, Hillary Clinton surpassed him in 2016, and Joe Biden did the same four years later. The point is, no non-incumbent Republican has garnered this level of public support since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Rather, like George W. Bush in 2000, Mr. Trump owed his initial victory to the electoral college.
However, the 2024 election date could be different. Democrats needed to be best prepared for that possibility and the day after. For now, Biden is lagging behind Trump in the court heat. Among independents, the president has a lead of up to 10 points. More than that, Mr. Biden, 81, exudes vulnerability. His speeches are often dull and watched closely for signs of weakness rather than policy.
His belief that democracy is at stake in 2024 is true. But it fails again and again. Often he is dismissive of general public opinion. popularism, the idea that politicians should follow the polls and do what is electorally expedient is often respected in violation. The triangulation that Bill Clinton mastered is a thing of the past.
For example, Mr. Biden continues to fortify our porous border and keep it in the public eye. His victory Monday in the Supreme Court over Texas and its razor-thin barrier may ultimately prove to be politically self-inflicted. The Justice Department may have won a victory for federal supremacy and executive power at the expense of Biden's own position.
Beyond that, there are no Republicans in the Cabinet, breaking with tradition held by Democrats seeking re-election. Barack Obama placed Republican Robert Gates in the Pentagon and former Illinois congressman Ray LaHood in the Department of Transportation. Appointing Cindy McCain of Arizona, wife of the late Republican candidate and Trump's nemesis, and former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake as ambassadors has not been entirely successful. . Out of the country, out of mind.
A further reminder that Biden did not win by a landslide. Obama's vice president tries to portray himself as a “change-maker,” but he was not, and never will be, the second coming of FDR.
Trump, on the other hand, praises authoritarians. He vows to act as a dictator for at least a few hours from his first day. Let's take him seriously about that and consider whether he means it literally.
Is there any dictator who can remove himself from the dictatorship in just one day? Just before the New Hampshire vote, he mused about his remaining 12 years in office and uttered the word “fascist.” slip off his tongue.
America should be afraid, but less than a majority of people actually fear that Trump could become America's Caesar. The rest are exposed to arguments that Biden is crazy and that Kamala Harris should have starred in the HBO sitcom “Veep” instead of being the heartthrob of the Oval Office.
playing cards teeth A strong man that his base admired. Back in 2016, then-Maine Governor Paul LePage declared, “We need Donald Trump to demonstrate authoritarian power in this country.” So much for the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
As in Iowa, Haley's candidacy played the role of a magnet It is aimed at wealthy suburbanites whose influence within the Republican Party is decreasing day by day. Looking back, she didn't have a chance.
Haley considered cutting Social Security and raising the retirement age. Americans live medically difficult lives these days. Chronic diseases replace death in the final stages of life. Her pitch may have been designed for donors, but there are too few donors for it to matter.
Under the Trump administration, the Party of Lincoln has transformed into the octagon of mixed martial arts. The former president channels the anger of his core supporters better than anyone. They have a symbiotic relationship. Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning film Gladiator, about the dissolute and unhinged Roman Emperor Commodus, remains the film of our time.
