I don't think it was as bad as this point last year. Like we had the post-covid inflation bump on prices, and people understood that and mostly accepted it, but it just has not stopped. Almost everything has doubled in price from before the pandemic. I went to Penn Station (the chain restaurant, not train station) the other day and a sandwich + fries with no drink was $19. That used to be a $9 trip with a lemonade included! Every trip to the grocery store is $50 minimum and I don't even have any dependants. It's completely absurd. Unfortunately for Biden, it's much easier to blame the man in charge then to question the system.

Dems also had momentum from the Ukraine war being very popular and the abortion ban being very unpopular. The abortion thing will carry on, but I think people are over the Ukraine war.

Though, most importantly of all, I think being Trump-like is a bad label to have right now. Half the voters are immediately repulsed and the other half still need to be sold on them being Trumpish enough. Look at the response to Lauren Boebert's meltdown at the theater. People hate her. Even the biggest critics of AOC still think she is hot, which shouldn't be a big factor when it comes to electability but it certainly is. In a way things have become reversed where liberals can now count on the youth to turn up while conservatives have a hard time drawing angry old white men. Cause why would those angry white men want a Trump-like candidate when they really just want to vote for Trump himself? It's the reason none of the other Republican candidates have a chance.

Thinking that over, I think another brilliant move he could make is consolidating power by making Junior his running mate. Would also help the legal transfer of power when Trump Sr. passes.

Maybe I am crazy, but I felt the inflation burn much more last year than this year.

How long before Newsom appoints a replacement for Feinstein?

RIP though. She seemed like a nice lady.

Wasn’t Feinstein super corrupt? Like didn’t she make her money off of insider trading? I don’t wish death on anyone, it is a somber subject not matter the person, but I was never a fan of her.

Would RFK Jr getting 5% running 3rd party cost the Democrats the election?

I don’t think he’ll run third party. Sean Hannity pushed him on the issue in an interview the other day and RFK Jr really didn’t sound like he wanted to do that

EDIT: it sounds like he is going to run third party afterall. I hear as a Libertarian

Wouldn't an anti-vax libertarian be more appealing to non-Trumper conservatives?

RFK feels perfect for the “Joe Rogan/Bill Maher lefty” who are too afraid to really cross over to the dark side.

Bill Maher made a decent point (this used to be a common phrase but not so much anymore) about how Biden can just barely competentlyish perform the tasks of a president, but campaigning against Trump in 2024 is gonna be brutal.

And since there's no time to build another decent candidate the answer has to be Kamala. She indicates the administration won't change even if the face in front of it will be. While her unlikability would kill a normal campaign, next year is just gonna be a Yes or No on Trump and thus I don't it will be too much of an impact.

Again, the frustrating part is how after the Afghanistan debacle (which was a horrible moment by the way) and the unconstitutional push of the vaccine (which I support despite admitting it was wrong) he has been a great president starting with the Ukraine War.

Hillary talking is great for 2024 Republican campaign ads

Fuck Hilary Clinton.

My biggest political miss was picking her over Bernie because she was the "safer" candidate. What a mess.

DeSantis with a highly effective trashing of Trump recently. He had a good debate performance and needs to bring way more of this energy. He must say this on the debate stage. Haley-DeSantis combo ticket would do pretty well.

https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/sta ... 2648738236

Gavin Newsom could do it tomorrow if he had to, for starters. People will say "Oh but Newsom would get crushed on his record in California". If he is running against Trump's record? Newsom would get like 80% of suburban women voters, lets be serious. He would be Biden on policy but younger and more telegenic.

Beyond that, Biden is underrated at this point. He will (again) surprise people.

She was no more corrupt than anyone there but she should have left office long ago. She accomplished a lot in her life. She found the dead bodies of Harvey Milk and the mayor, and plugged one of their bullet wounds with her finger. Remarkable life.

Pence dropped out already

Makes sense. If there are any reasonable conservatives left they should throw their support behind Haley. Not that it will matter though. If Trump did lose the primary (which he won't), he'd just run as a third party, sabotaging any republican on the ballot and basically handing the election to Biden or (hopefully) Kamala. Whether they are willing cult members or just ideological hostages, Trump has the entire party by the balls.

Haley and DeSantis teaming up a combo ticket at the same time Trump's legal world collapses could be pretty potent TBH.

I feel like it’s clear Republicans are still deeply obsessed with Trump unfortunately and will only be able to win national elections again once he’s off the ballot.

Starting to believe that Biden will beat Trump if it is 1 on 1, Biden will lose if he faces Haley or possibly DeSantis, and Newsom as a moderate messenger of Dem platform would win all.

Republicans keep showing they suck in elections without Trump.

Another big election night for Democrats, or at least protecting abortion rights. They've done great at the ballot over the past year+, and most of it's linked to voters being upset over Roe v Wade being overturned.

-Beshear gets re-elected Governor in Kentucky, and by a bigger margin than 4-years-ago. If he choses, he might be a name to consider in 2028 or beyond. Also, Cameron and Republicans spent $30 million on this race too.

-Ohio passes abortion rights (by double-digits) so it can be amended in their state constitution (keeping the streak going of abortion rights passing in every state so far when on the ballot) as well as legalizing marijuana.

-Dems keep control of the Senate in Virginia AND flip the House (assuming that 52-48 race holds up), giving Youngkin a lame duck second-term either way. And of note, giving the current political climate, included electing the first openly transgender state senator too. Youngkin was pushing for a 15-week ban on abortion with exceptions (incest, rape, etc.), and since that's proven to be a losing strategy for Reps, probably not the best idea even if it's far less restrictive compared to other southern states.

-A Democrat won the Rhode Island House special election to make the U.S. House even narrower (221-213), so now the House GOP can only afford to lose 3 votes instead of 4 moving forward.

The only big "win" for Republicans looks to be Reeves being re-elected Governor in Mississippi, but the fact it's still too close to call after over 80% of the vote is in is very telling. Reeves had the scandal of taking welfare funds and giving it to the wealthy that hurt him, and a win is a win, sure, but winning this race by maybe 5% or so (maybe even less) is rough.

Republicans aren't going to suddenly be "pro-choice" of course, but they need to think about what to do in a post-Roe environment now because it's costing them greatly. Unless losing at the ballot box is an acceptable cost of finally getting Roe overturned, that is, because they did elect one of the most "pro-life" members in the House as their new Speaker, so not sure if they're too concerned about losing in 2024.

Was so thrilled about most of the results last night, including obviously my state of Virginia ensuring that Glenn Youngkin's agenda will be blocked for the rest of his term.

IT's at least better to have voters choose abortion than have it shoved down by the supreme court.

Just shows we have work to do in convincing people of the evil of abortion.
The Rhode island election isn't an upset, that's the heavy blue RI district. It's the second district that's purple.

Once the Utah vacancy is filled, we'll be back to the same 222-213 makeup we were at in Nov 2022

Go Ohio! We freedom-loving liberals rejected the big-government-should-tell-you-what-to-do conservatives!