Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

It is a given that anything Kurt Schlichter writes is worthy of your time and it’s also a given that a piece that brings up the possibility of the Trump vs DeSantis primary is going to draw eyeballs which is a good reason for me to write about it.

In contending that DeSantis has an advantage over Trump Kurt makes two points both ironically in throw away sentences in larger paragraghs, one of them is excellent and the other, not so much.

First the excellent point:

In contrast, as kingmaker, he will tower over the race – this would support him not running.

This is in my opinion the best argument for Trump not running.

I recall back in 2010, during the time of the last big red wave Sarah Palin had just resigned from office and the left decided she was finished:

on July 3rd 2009 Sarah Palin called a news conference and shocked the world by announcing she was resigning as Governor of Alaska. She maintained that the constant barrage of frivolous complaints was costing the state money and time. Pundits around the country added “quitter” to their less printable pejoratives and pronounced her power and influence at an end. Rush Limbaugh didn’t think so. He believed that this freed her from the constraints of office and allowed her to advance the conservative cause nationwide.

However instead of being finished she worked hard for Tea Party Candidates in 2010

Sarah Palin campaigned tirelessly for Republican candidates all over the country targeting 20 specific democrats for defeat and raising money to keep help support others. The effect was electric in states such as Massachusetts where uncontested seats were a fact of life suddenly every race was contested from the 10 congressional seats all the way down to auditor. Candidates like John Olver, Richard Neal and Barney Frank who had spent previous elections campaigning and donating to fellow democrats all over the country found themselves spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend seats that had never been at issue before. 

and this was the result:

CBS news pointed out Sarah Palin endorsed 43 house candidates of which 30 won while winning 7 of 12 Senate endorsed candidates. Senator Jim Demitt said “she’s done a lot of good for the Republican Party, and for our country.” And Rush Limbaugh, having none of the spin of the majority of the Mainstream media on the 4th said: “If anybody is an obvious winner here, aside, of course, from me, it would be Palin.”

So to conservatives who are basking in the joy of a historic question I say to you : “Never forget that it is to Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin that you really owe these victories.”

And this didn’t stop in 2010. Just eighteen months later Sarah Palin endorsed a down in the polls former state solicitor general for an open senate seat over a sitting Lt Governor. He would come from behind and win and since that day Senator Ted Cruz has been the scourge of liberals everywhere.

Donald Trump is in the same position that Sarah Palin was in 12 years ago. He is an unapologetic booster of conservatism, a tireless promoter of candidates who support that cause and a terror to RINO republicans who seek to gain and hold office.

If Donald Trump chooses not to run he will be in a position to exercise this power to an incredible degree and I suspect with even more success. This is an excellent point that is worth emphasizing.

But Schlichter also states something that is a mistake:

DeSantis would run on the fact that he has the same lib fighter vibe as the Bad Orange Man but that he actually governs, where Trump was (and would be again) tied up with all sorts of investigations, impeachments and, yes, mean tweets

While there is no doubt that the media and the left would do all they can to bog Trump down a 2nd time have we not learned that if DeSantis or Cruz or anyone else got the nomination that that the entire Democrat left establishment would go after him the same way that they have Trump? And unlike Trump they don’t have the advantage of being known to the county outside of the political bubble which meant he was already defined.

Every single person who is a threat to the power of the left becomes the greatest villain in the world since Hitler. Do not doubt that for one single moment.

By Christopher Harper

After a year in office, Brandon has some embarrassing numbers.

14. That’s the percentage of voters who have changed from Democrat to Republican, according to a Gallup poll. When Brandon took over last January, 49% of those polled supported Democrats to 40% who supported the GOP. A year later, 47% supported Republicans, while 42% favored Democrats. Such a huge swing hasn’t occurred since 1991.

7. That’s the massive percentage increase in inflation, a 40-year high. Gasoline and groceries cost more, and most economists said higher prices were a sign that Brandon’s relief package was too large.

13. That’s the number of American troops who died in a bombing at Kabul’s airport during the U.S. evacuation of more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan. At least 169 Afghans were killed, with the evacuations leaving behind scores of Americans.

1.78 million. That’s the number of border crossings in the Southwest. Illegal immigrants began streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border once Brandon became president. That’s four times the number under Donald Trump.

9. Brandon has been remarkably press-shy. He has held nine news conferences (six solo and three joint) and 22 media interviews during his first year. That’s fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their presidencies and fewer media interviews than any of his recent predecessors.

32. “Not a joke” is one of Brandon’s favorite speech lines. Among the things he said were “not a joke”: Civil rights icons, labor unions that built the middle class, air pollution from Delaware chemical plants, climate change as a national security risk, and California voters.

78. That’s Brandon’s age upon becoming president, making him the oldest ever.

2024. Hopefully, the year Democrat control of the White House ends.

Kinda H/T to the Associated Press