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Evans W's avatar

Vivek probably gained the most traction IMO.

Nikki Haley is just another pro war Bush era neocon who will undoubtably keep the country in perpetual conflict.

DeSantis performed pretty good but he didn't get challenged by any of the other contenders, plus he's looking more and more like another establishment DC elite.

The rest looked like a bunch of blow-hards & wannabes.

So once the RNC & DNC finishes screwing Vivek & RFK Jr out of any chance of running on their respected tickets, I'd love to see RFK Jr tap Ramaswamy as VP and run as independents. That would throw a gigantic monkey wrench in everything and at this point I'm down for both monkeys and wrenches. Just sayin......

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

It's funny how many people (me included) who would support either Vivek or RFK, Jr. Neither belongs in their party of choice.

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Shirley G's avatar

A conspiracy theory party??

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Sharon F.'s avatar

I’d like to see how Vivek and RFKJr would work out their competing ideas on climate change. There is lots of middle ground in what to do. But RFK, Jrs traditional allies are not particularly pragmatic.

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

I'm not sure their ideas on climate are as "competing" as you think. RFJ, Jr. has shown willingness to change his mind on important issues, including securing the border. If he could come around on nuclear, he and Vivek could find a lot of common ground. Further, Kennedy is against subsidizing energy companies, including "clean" energy. If subsidies were removed, the market would drive us toward nuclear, the legitimate clean energy. I have hope.

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Evans W's avatar

I agree. Both are well read and reasonable people. I think they would be a good match & they could learn a great deal from one another.

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Celia M Paddock's avatar

I think the third party option with RFK Jr and/or Vivek is the only hope this country has. I'm not counting on it happening. But I still think that it is the only path out of the dumpster fire we currently live in. The DNC's desired candidates will only send us speeding faster toward the edge of the cliff. Trump is gasoline that will likely turn the fire into a civil war.

I don't have much hope here. But what little I have rests on the rise of a centrist third party.

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earthy.bookworm's avatar

At this point, I'm not even sure that the third party would be considered "centrist." Vivek and RFK, Jr., both of whom I support, have a libertarian streak I find admirable.

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Evans W's avatar

Don’t get black pilled on us yet! Americans are resilient & determined when facing what look like insurmountable challenges. Hang in there!

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Celia M Paddock's avatar

I am a realist. And I am painfully aware that virtually every institution in American society has been captured from inside by the Left's Long March: Education (initially in Academia, but now at all levels); the Media; all parts of the (unelected!) Bureaucracy, including the FBI and the IRS; Medicine, particularly Psychology; Law and the Justice System; and even the Military.

In a very real sense, it scarcely matters who we elect, because unless they have the will (and the support of enough members of Congress) to completely gut the Bureaucracy and pass Civil Rights laws that place a person's political beliefs into the protected class, the Left will continue to control our lives in ways that no election can solve.

Remember how many ordinary Democrats wanted to put unvaccinated people in gulags and take their children away? That's the direction the Left is going now. It would take a moderate leader to have any hope of preventing that.

I'm afraid I've been black-pilled ever since I discovered that it wasn't *just* Education and the Media that are under the full control of the Left.

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Sally Sue's avatar

"Remember how many ordinary Democrats wanted to put unvaccinated people in gulags and take their children away? That's the direction the Left is going now. It would take a moderate leader to have any hope of preventing that."

Yes unfortunately true. I'm in a very Blue area & while I had to be vaccinated to keep my job, I firmly believe the vaccine should be optional & a person's choice whether they want it or not. I had many crazy liberal patients tell me things like "Doctor, I really wish all the unvaccinated people would just get sick with COVID and die. We shouldn't let them into the hospitals. They can just die in the streets." I blame MSNBC & liberal media for brainwashing these loonies into thinking this way.

Yes we need a moderate leader. We need someone who can get elected in the general election & who can bring this country together.

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Celia M Paddock's avatar

The sad thing is how many of them have never woken up to the utter inhumanity of that viewpoint. Probably, if you asked them, they would say they haven't changed their minds.

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Sally Sue's avatar

"Civil Rights laws that place a person's political beliefs into the protected class"

That's actually a great idea. I hope someone could do that. Needs to be done. People are being persecuted for their political beliefs. Maybe the Supreme Court??

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George Neidorf's avatar

You could probably pay them to do it.

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Evans W's avatar

Understand and you list every reason why we need a Kennedy or Ramaswamy. Hang tough!

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Ukraine will win the war regardless of what America does, but objectively Haley’s policies will end the war sooner and Ramaswamy’s will cause it to continue longer.

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234's avatar

If you think Putin is going to lose this war you're delusional.

Russia has 10x the land mass, 3x the economy, and 2.5x the military.

They will not allow NATO as their next door neighbor.

Ukraine has already lost 400k troops killed, 50k amputees, and many are being forced to surrender....that's about half their armed forces.

Putin has 350k troops in reserve in case Biden sends in our military.

For all the talk about the US never entering a forever war, here we are.

We need to stop the never ending support and exit now.

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Lee Morris's avatar

234, Russia already has NATO as a next door neighbor. Finland joined a few months after Putin crossed the Ukraine border. Great call by Vladimir..

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Evans W's avatar

I think Terence G Gain just ran out the door.....

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PeterM's avatar

Well put.

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Evans W's avatar

My prediction is this: Ukraine gives up everything it didn’t control before late February of this year. Russia withdraws from everywhere else. Which means recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and handing over the two breakaway regions of the Donbas to Moscow-backed separatists. That will hardly be a win for Ukraine but they'll have to compromise b/c they're losses are huge and the counteroffensive has been an utter failure.

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Honey Daly's avatar

Evans, had the Biden Crime Family Regime, along with the politicians (Left & Right!) & Big War Machine allowed, it would have already happened, as you say. War is a BIG MONEY maker for the elite. And remember “10% to the Big Guy”

HOW we can keep supporting Ukraine to the tune of billions, while neglecting our disabled Vets, our ever increasing homeless population, the poor folks in Maui + all the other disaster victims, ALL while flooding our open border with even more people to draw the lifeblood out of our country, is mind boggling! Oh yes, least we forget we should pay off student loans for people who got all those useless degrees in “Something Studies”

With our fast dwindling middle class tax payers, ever growing population dependent on government checks & food stamps, the government pushing their Green New Deal & Climate agendas costing jobs, while our utilities go up and goods & services go down, and our Fed printing more useless money, while our national debt soars is beyond belief!

Those are things that SHOULD influence voters to step away from their “I’ll ONLY vote for someone who thinks the way I do about abortion” or whatever!

Unless or until (if it isn’t already too late) we stop the insanity of voting in the same politicians,

I fear nothing will change, to our demise.

Perhaps our enemies are just waiting till we self destruct. Didn’t China once say they won’t have to fire a single bullet to take us over. They just have to be patient.

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Harry Potter's avatar

I think that’s the deal Trump would make. End this

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Evans W

Ukraine has rejected your proposed surrender.

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PeterM's avatar

The sad and tragic thing is the this could have been negotiated after the first month of the war.

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Evans W's avatar

Agree.....but Biden sent Boris Johnson over to kill the peace agreement.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

There was no peace agreement in Ukraine.

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Evans W's avatar

😂😂😂

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Jim Howes's avatar

They will? I believe RFK Jr stated that Russia losing to Ukraine would be like the US losing to Mexico. Just not going to happen in any universe.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Obviously you’re not following the war.

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Timothy G McKenna's avatar

I see it as more or less ending up like Korea circa 1953. This is not the Cold War and the West can’t just simply outspend Russia into the ground. The vast territory being fought over is immense and Russia still has too many people they can use as cannon fodder for cheap targets for expensive weapons to be spent on.

If anything, I think we’re already eyeing the political and fiscal calculus going on and countries just don’t have the capital to fight AND take care of their citizens (and immigrants) at home.

I’m scared. I don’t see any kind of a bright shining future ahead for America or anyone else, frankly, unless people get their heads out of their asses and figure out how to fight over what we’re for rather than what we’re for. And that doesn’t easily translate into sound bites that make clicks for websites.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

You might have a different opinion if you listened to Ben Hodges, Jack Keane or Denys Davydov. Russia isn’t advancing. It is losing ground.

Prighozin rebelled because he didn’t get enough support from Russia when he lost tens of thousands of his men in Bakmut. Russia does not have the willpower, troops or munitions to win.

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Timothy G McKenna's avatar

Oh, I don’t think Russia will win. I just think that things will grind to a halt because of inertia. Even the best sword can only hack so much of a giant iceberg.

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Sally Sue's avatar

Ideally someone would succeed in a mutiny against Putin. That would be the best scenario.

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Eli Squires's avatar

Follow his big money donors. And Haley's etc. Most truthful line was, 'you're all bought and paid for.

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Honey Daly's avatar

Eli, there should be no doubt we have the best politicians money can buy!

How else do they get elected over & over and become filthy rich? Being a politician pays very well!

Money = Power. Lord Actin said, “Power tends to corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (1887 & still true today!)!

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Harry Potter's avatar

They didn’t like that line. The establishment crew. As an old pol I knew always said “a stuck pig squeals”

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Said the immature punk who made his fortune from vaccines that were neither necessary or effective.

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Evans W's avatar

no doubt about it.

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JJoshua's avatar

Desantis has done great things in Florida. How can he be a DC elite when he's not even a Senator? He helped turn Florida from purple to red. He's done a lot of good things in Florida.

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George Neidorf's avatar

His whiny, nasally voice and humorless demeanor is unbearable.

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Harry Potter's avatar

DeSantis is my hero for what he did in Florida, during Covid and for going after the groomers, Disney etc. But he’s painfully awkward on the stump. Just doesn’t come across well. And I’m dying for him to do so, because I know he would govern well.

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LovingMother's avatar

Am I the only one who doesn't care if if DeSantis can come off awkward on the stump? We all like the way Biden handles himself? Are they campaigning to be in a Hollywood movie?

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George Neidorf's avatar

In one sense, yes. America is a Hollywood movie.

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Harry Potter's avatar

I hear you. I don’t care that he doesn’t come across smoothly. But lots of people will. And that’s why he has little chance of emerging from the primary.

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LovingMother's avatar

I hear you but hope DeSantis starts just being himself without trying to crack smiles.

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George Neidorf's avatar

That's the problem, he is being himself and himself is not attractive.

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Honey Daly's avatar

I agree, Harry P., and I do respect DeSantis for all he’s done to cause Florida to be Red! Thousands of folks have relocated there, and ironically, MANY WOKE Left Dems help support the growing economy by vacationing there! Gotta love those “DeSanta hating Dems”

Sadly, I don’t believe DeSantis could beat Biden, tho I am skeptical anyone can, at this point. If Biden “won with 81 million votes while sitting in his basement” and that “Red Wave” was a bust, I’m not sure anyone can succeed against the “Machine”. Just sayin’

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Celia M Paddock's avatar

The debacle with his campaign workers demonstrated that he has no better judgment at choosing people to work for him than Trump did.

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Carpe Vinum's avatar

DeSantis waited too long to fire his campaign manager.

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JJoshua's avatar

Definitely

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Evans W's avatar

I don't doubt that he did & does great things in Florida. I just don't think he'd make a great president & should remain serving as governor. IMO when he was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (2013–2018) he looked like the typical GOP congressman who just goes along with the status quo.

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JJoshua's avatar

Fair enough. For me he's the best of the bunch.

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