Via GatewayPundit comes this survey result:
And what I think this means is that’s the Trump who got the Arabs and Izzies to talk nice to each other, who started to build a wall on our southern border, who got corporations to pull back from China, who lowered taxes, who got Keystone XL going, who caused the economy to boom, energized crowds and all that. The Trump we’re not interested in is the poltroon who shot his mouth off on Twatter, let his mouth run away from him in important speeches and allowed the Left to demonize and attack him.
So just as a thought exercise, and realizing that it’s four years till the next election where we get to toss Kamala Harris out of the Oval Office, let’s talk about this a little. I think we should forget about Trump ever running (or for that matter winning) for POTUS again. For one thing, he’ll be too old in 2020 and for another, I think that while he showed the way, his race is run. Time to move on.
I know it’s way premature and others may arise in years to come, but as I see it, the politicians who right now seem to be most like Trump (and without all those annoying little ego quirks) are as follows, in no specific order:
“Establishment” candidates:
Ron DeSantis (FloridaGov). My Floriduh Readers may be able to shed a little more light on DeSantis, but from what I’ve seen so far, with the proper grooming he could be Trump’s heir apparent. Most tellingly, from the depth and viciousness of the Left’s attacks on him right now, I think they see him as a dangerous opponent. I prefer my presidents to have executive experience (unlike, say, Obama) in politics or even in business (like Trump), and DeSantis has that.
Mike Pompeo (ex-SecState and CIA Director under Trump). Brilliant foreign policy formulator, always has America’s interests at heart, no-nonsense attitude, and has Congressional experience as a former Congressman.
Kristi Noem (SDGov). I think I’d prefer to see her as the VP, simply because running a tiny state like South Dakota isn’t comparable to the same job in Texas or Florida. But she’s strong on values (conservative values) and she was also in Congress so she’ll know how that snakepit functions.
Richard Grenell (former ambassador and acting head of DNI). I like this man’s attitude and my only concern is that he has had no executive experience — but I think he’d be a real quick learner. I understand that if CalGov Newsom is recalled (I wish), Grenell wants to run against him in the follow-up election, and if he wins and gets any kind of success in pulling California away from the pit, he’d be a really string contender in 2024.
Rick Scott (R-FL senator and ex-FLGov). On paper, he has it all: executive experience in business and government, strong conservative credentials and he understands how Congress works. He’s now 68 and would be 72 in 2024, if that matters.
Scott Walker (ex-WIGov). He gets up the Left’s collective nose, and has actually had good conservative results despite rabid opposition from the Commies. Also has executive experience, and is a full-blown Midwesterner.
Mike Pence (ex-VP under Trump, ex-INGov and congressman). I think that Pence has the character aspect sewn up, and none of the Left’s attacks on him have worked. Ordinarily, the VP is the heir apparent, but he’s definitely not Trump II — which is both good and bad. He certainly has all the experience anyone could bring to the table. Under any other president than Trump, Pence would be a shoo-in for the next election. He still might be.
“Wild Card” candidate:
Dan Crenshaw (R-TX congressman, ex-SEAL Team 3). He looks like a pirate, has few if any equals in terms of military cred, and his no-bullshit attitude is better than Trump’s. He has little executive experience other than in the military. Definitely a long-term prospect.
I don’t care about any of the associated characteristics of the above (DeSantis is Hispanic, Grenell is a homo, Noem has a vagina etc.) because none of that matters. What matters is the next Republican candidate’s closeness to Trumpist philosophy and governing style (minus, as I said, the silly tweets and non-Presidential extemporaneous remarks).
As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Walker was my guy during the primaries last time around. Solidly conservative, & his performance in Winsconsin would’ve been impressive even without the truly despicable conduct of his opponents there – conduct that showcased his skill as a brawler who gives better than he gets. I’m curious why Cruz doesn’t make your cut.
Wow! Great list. Also curious why Cruz did not make the cut.
The thing is, I don’t know if I’ll ever bother voting again, I tend to see this list in the same vein as my daydreaming about winning the PowerBall.
The left flat out stole this election (there were 14 million more votes cast than registered voters), and the state legislatures did nothing. The Congress did nothing. The courts did nothing. The Press acted like the Democrat Party’s Pravda. And now you are censored, or even fired for even questioning the election results.
I mean, since there were ABSOLUTELY no consequences for this brazen election theft, why would I bother going to the polls again? It was infuriating watching this theft legitimized. It would be embarrassing to vote again knowing all the while, the commies are saying, “Isn’t that cute? They think their votes count.” Frankly, I think I’m done with it. Absent some serious jail time for lots of people over this last election (there’s the PowerBall lottery thing again), I don’t ever intend to bother voting again.
Yeah pretty much. And there were no consequences for coup attempt by the Organs of State Security either. This is as alarming as the election theft.
I find two of the people on the list unacceptable (Pence and Crenshaw) who were found wanting in the crisis.
And, right on cue!
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/02/our_supreme_court_goes_full_nicaragua_in_pa_election_case.html
I don’t know how many of me there are, but after watching the shenanigans of the 2020 election, I don’t think it’s even worthwhile filling out and mailing my Oregon ballot. I’ve read SciFi voraciously since I was 7½ (it wasn’t a good summer), but not even the most advanced Nostradamus Asimov was able to predict the situation in which we find ourselves today – essentially pre-printed ballots. I’m beginning to think that the 2024 (if not the 2022) will simply see the ballot itself discarded and the vote tallied to the the Socialist-Progressives candidate.
Sorry to sound so optimistic but I just can’t envision any way out of this current predicament.
Like trying to predict Trump himself as candidate in 2012, this will be a hard one. Of the list I could only vote for Pompeo and Noem. Pompeo as you mentioned based on experience AND effing loyalty to Trump. Don’t forget top of class at West Point and a number of years in military. Noem as you said for VP. Like Sarah Palin I believe most guys pop’d a woody on first sight. Until she opened her mouth and revealed a bumbling stumbling brain. Noem possesses not only a certain hotness BUT is flat out smart and articulate. An anti-Palin so to say. Again she showed staunch loyalty and that package adds up to huge point count !
So that would be MY ticket. But 4 years of blow torch politics can come up with all sorts of surprises.
Pence has some issues, or at least he did, as governor. Example: signing a bill that pretty much outlawed any company except one from making vape products in Indiana. He was by no means our worst governor, but not the best either.
A month ago I’d have expected to see Ted Cruz on that list, but he’s already showed a pretty shocking lack of awareness with his little Mexico trip. I know there’s nothing he can do in Texas that he couldn’t do by phone, but he has to know that the press would be watching him, and he really should know how they’d spin that trip.
Out of your group, I’d go with DeSantis, with Noem as VP. I’d settle for Crenshaw as a substitute in either role, but I’d prefer to see him as Press Secretary. I’d love to see him face down some of the press weenies and make them cry.
Florida Man here:
Rick Scott doesn’t deserve to be a dog catcher, much less a Senator or, God forbid, President. That asshole is the reason we have our horrendous red flag law, no one under 21 can buy ANY kind of gun, and bumpstocks/binary triggers/potentially even trigger jobs are illegal here.
Fuck him sideways with a rusty pitchfork.
See, now THAT’S the kind of input I was looking for.
Strike Scott from the list.
As a fellow Floridian, I have to agree. Also, due to alleged Medicare/Medicaid fraud when he was still in the corporate world, he is unelectable on a nation wide scale.
Agreed on Rick Scott. He’s not the worst governor we’ve ever had, but DeSantis is head and shoulders above. As for DeSantis, anyone my mother-in-law hates as much as she hates Trump is all right in my book.
So, that’s eight politicians, five of whom have demonstrably sold out and three who have not done so yet, at least not obviously. Although you could argue that we just don’t know how Pompeo sold out yet. He was operating at the highest levels for long enough to suspect him, unlike other patriots who were attacked by the antibodies of the corrupt system and purged within weeks or months (see Flynn). As for DeSantis and Noem, one would like to imagine they are the real thing and not just controlled opposition like all the others turned out to be. Wait for it.
If Trump proves anything, he proves that no single champion, even in the ostensibly highest office in the land, will be able to solve this thing. One is tempted to just snark … what part of TINVOWOOT don’t you get? However, it won’t be that simple and it will take leaders in states and localities to succeed (secede?) in what’s coming and we will need them after. But it won’t be anyone on that list.
IDK what “TINVOWOOT” means, FFS.
There is no voting our way out of this.
People who want a shooting war usually use that term.
“There is no way voting our way out of this.”
People who WANT a shooting war? Allow me respond. I don’t WANT that. They have PUSHED us to that. I wanted to be left alone, the constitution to be followed and my vote to count. That is all.
I wouldn’t say “want”. No one really wants a shooting war, but that’s not the same as preparing for the possibility or recognizing the necessity, if things continue to go as they are. It just seems a realistic view. Do you expect to ever see an unstolen election again in this country? Do you expect the courts to enforce the rule of law? Do you imagine totalitarians will give up power once obtained? Just questions. You have to answer them for yourself.
Crenshaw is a RINO in training. He’s already proved to be a squish. Yeah, he’s got badass cred and makes kewl commercials, but he’s backed red flags, doesn’t think there was any meaningful election fraud and believes Trump started the riots (he also apologized for not voting for impeachment).
He wants a long-term political career and has positioned himself squarely in the GOPe camp. I doubt he gets re-elected. Down the road, I can see him switching to Democrat if he finds it politically expedient.
Not. A. Fan.
Any combination of DeSantis/Pompeo/Noem for the top 2 slots and Ric Grenell as head of the FBI, with General Flynn as Cabinet Secretary for Department of Payback is a Bitch and Her Stripper Name is Karma.
I like your close.
No love for Nikki Haley? She has the prestige of being a former ambassador to the UN and is untainted by Trump amongst his detractors.
As a dark horse candidate, how about Markwayne Mullin?
No love for Nikki, but some lust.
Nikki was OK @UN, but she’s still got a lot to learn and not say.
Perhaps Sarah Huckabee as a veep candidate? Be good training for her to move up the food chain. As a former Press Sec., she already knows how the machine works, where the cracks exist in the system, etc.
She’s running for Gov in AR in ’22.
Grinnel as governor of California could do a lot of good for the entire country. So, I vote to send him there.
Right now, probably DeSantis for Pres with Noem as VP.
Count me as a hard NO against Crenshaw. That bastard’ll sell your gun-rights for thirty pieces of silver in the blink of an eye. He’s on board with Red Flag laws, and like many ‘mil-elite, sees no reason for we mere non Special Forces types to have access to much of a Black Rifle selection of shootery. He’s a member of a big club, and WE’RE not in it.
Add in his apologetics to the Never Trumper world, and he’s not even just in a grey-area of doubt, but full-on, hard core NOPE, from me.
Such potential. Such disappointment.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
He and Nikki Haley are both weak on mass immigration, which ties in to Wallace’s comment below… They’re both bad news.
Have to go with the first few posters.
Will YOU trust the outcome of ANY future election given what has just happened. If not, why vote at all. This is and has been one of the the left’s wet dreams for a long time. Eliminate the ‘need’ for elections by eliminating the voters or, more accurately, their desire to participate and vote. They ( the left / Democrats / deep state / bureaucrats etc. ) have, to a degree, succeeded !
Now, one thing already in the pipeline ’30 MILLION NEW DEMOCRAT ‘Citizens’ with voting rights’ who will vote FOREVER for those that ‘gave them’ the citizenship ( along with other goodies – ie $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ in various forms and amounts.’ Don’t believe me ? Just watch. It takes TIME.
With those numbers ‘in the bag’, combined with the apathy toward elections and voting, the left won’t HAVE TO CHEAT AGAIN !! EVER !!
Secondly, Donald Trump had, and still has, enough money already that he could not be bought or bribed and the Left / Democrats / career politicians KNEW it. Hence their hatred because of lack of ANY control or influence over him. If the next ‘republican candidate’ does NOT have that same ‘shield’ if you will, he / she / it WILL be bought and paid for eventually in some way. Most of the politicians / bureaucrats / drones can’t wait to get in line to start lining their pockets. Donald Trump couldn’t have cared less because he already had all he needed.
Without SOME SORT of PUBLIC punishment or consequence for what just happened in November there is no reason whatsoever to believe that ‘the next election’ will be better or more accurate or anymore honest etc.etc.etc.!
Keeping in mind your “early days yet” point, I suggest that a Noem/DeSantis ticket offers several advantages. First, a small state Governor necessarily must develop a more creative approach to policy due to the inherent relative lack of resources compared to larger states. Additionally, coping with the more numerous claims on a President’s attentions can be successfully dealt with by intelligent staffing choices. Of greater importance to my mind is Gov. DeSantis’ executive experience with space, industry and otherwise, which is the VP’s remit. It seems unarguable that any realistic hope for alieving monetary concerns must involve expanding US growth of domestic space industries into the civilian/non-military market(s).
We should have been pushing all of this (and more) for years now; 2024 isn’t “too late”, but it forces the country further down the slope of economic decline. I think a Noem/DeSantis administration has the best chance of working our way back up that decline better than the likely-seeming alternatives available today.
I wouldn’t be so quick to rule out a 2024 run by Trump. He’ll have 4 years of Creepy Joe screwups to run against or maybe 2 years of Kamala over-reach to rail against. MAGA will come back even stronger and maybe even as it’s own party because the RINO party will have lost all its influence.
Stay tuned for the CPAC speech.
Trump in 2024 will be the same age as Biden is now, so if Trump still has even half of the brainpower he currently has he’ll at least double what Biden’s got.
But I saw an interesting ‘what-if’ on another blog. Once the census is done, the Republicans may have enough new votes to take back the House. Trump could run for the House from Florida in 2022, and if the Repubs do take it he could be elected Speaker of the House. That would give him control of the budget and tax laws.
I don’t think that’s likely to happen, though. Trump doesn’t seem like the type to want to be a member of the House, even as Speaker. Still, it’s an interesting possibility.
Elsewhere, I saw a plausible scenario where Trump runs for the House, takes the Speaker position, and spanks the Democrats for the rest of his life.
That would work for me.
DeSantis/Noem!
Pompeo is a maybe, depending on what he does in the interim.
Crenshaw needs to run something first…perhaps DoD.
Kim, I love ya, but conversation about elections is just silly. When the elections are rigged – and this one was rigged AF – the good guys will never win again.
And Trump got at least 74 million votes – more than any other Presidential candidate in history. Tweets and all. He might have gotten more – there’s documentary evidence that his vote total actually DROPPED during Election Night.
So, WGAF who the Repubs run?
Florida Man II here,
Totally agree with Great Dane – Rick Scott is a spineless asshole.
Pompeo is probably part of the “deep state”, though I have no proof, yet.
I like Grenell, but the gay thing often has baggage. Ditto Pence; I don’t buy that gentleman persona.
Walker – don’t know enough, although he DOES piss off liberals!
Top 3:
Crenshaw is great!! Articulate, smart, doesn’t seem to take any shit either. I loved his commercials, but he needs to get more in the public eye. I don’t think POTUS material YET.
Kristi Noem – what a VP she’d make!! Smart, no-nonsense, does her own thing, BABE factor majorly. She and Ron agreed on covid-handling policies and came out shining. Especially liked her out in the field with a rifle (shotgun?) saying HERE’S how WE social distance in South Dakota. Brilliant.
As for muh guvnah, De Santis, YES. Compared to an almost equal population state (N.Y.), covid is falling quickly here due to an aggressive vaccination program (he said no, I haven’t had the vaccine yet; old people first, when asked a gotcha at a press conference). And his 4 step plan was brilliant. When local libs (like where I live) started to mandate masks and fines, he forbade it. We don’t have to wear masks except in local businesses which ASK us to! We have our share of Karens, but it makes me giggle to see their helplessness in the face of common sense and success.
It is so far ahead, but my dream team right now would be De Santis / Noem. And considering the hate they’re getting from the comrades, this might be reasonable.
I’m going with Kentucky’s good senator, Rand Paul. He hasn’t taken a position publicly that I’ve really disagreed with. Good conservative/libertarian credentials; isolationist/non-interventionist foreign policy; good on immigration, especially after observing how it played out during Trump’s term; doesn’t have Trump’s anarchistic personality.
What is needed more seriously than a good candidate is a list of demands by the Deplorable voters of what our candidate must accept:
Absolute support on 2nd Amendment, national Constitutional Carry.
Finish the border wall.
Trust-bust Silicon Valley to stop destruction of the First Amendment.
No foreign wars without a Declaration of War by 2/3 majority of both chambers of congress;
Constitutional amendment on congressional term limits: Representatives limited to 3 two-year terms (total six years), Senators limited to one 6-year term.
No lifetime pensions for congresscritters. Congresscritters not to be exempt from laws they pass.
Once every ten years (census years) Congress shall make no new laws (save for a national emergency), but instead will focus on repealing old laws no longer needed.
Other ideas appreciated.
Trump had them required to toss at least TWO for each one they want to pass. I read that it was running something like 22 for each one by the end of his service.