So, according to the Washington Post , the 101 Republican presidential candidates are struggling to assemble a “potent political argument” against the twice-impeached, twice-indicted sexual abuser Donald Trump. (See what I just did with that sentence?)
The most obvious line of attack is that Trump is a deranged psychopath who incited a violent assault on the Capitol just three years ago. He hasn't exactly mellowed since then, like when the Joker on "Harley Quinn" transitioned from supervillain to socialist mayoral candidate.Just last week, Trump accused the sitting US president, whom he once called "Sleepy" Joe, of snorting coke — hardly known for i ts anesthetic properties — in the White House and has not-so-subtly threatened the lives of special prosecutor Jack Smith and his family.
That's an easy "don't let this loon near the nuclear codes ever again" ad, but instead these morons want to test how many times they can say "woke" without their tongues twisting into a knot.
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Some smarty-pants Republicans suggest the problem is that the candidates lack a coherent strategy for taking out Trump.
"What’s the opposite of cohesive?” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who has not endorsed in the GOP primary but has questioned Trump’s general-election chances. “There’s too many of them,” he said, speaking of the candidates.
That's technically true, but the larger issue is that these also-rans stand for nothing and repeat the same sub-MAGA talking points. Chris Christie is so far the only candidate who's directly attacked Trump as unfit to lead a tour of the White House, let alone serve another term. Everyone else just tiptoes through the tulips around him.
Mike Pence, from "Hang Mike Pence!" fame, has boldly declared — in front of people and everything — that Trump was “wrong” when he pressured him to violate the Constitution and help him overturn the 2020 election. He stops at just the tip of actual criticism, though, rarely hammering the point that Trump almost got him killed.
Instead, Pence has taken the “more forced birth” than thou approach and claimed that Trump is not as aggressive as the loyal Mother lover on antiabortion policy. This is doubly absurd as Trump appointed the three hacks who overturned Roe v. Wade . Trump is happily taking victory laps over the Dobbs decision. Also, pressing the issue further and pushing for an unpopular national abortion ban is almost an in-kind donation to the Biden campaign.
Tim Scott actively refuses to criticize Trump and seriously suggested Republican primary voters “are starving for a message filled with optimism, hope, anchored in conservative values with a backbone.” Even if that were remotely true, the existence of Scott's own backbone is not readily apparent.
Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have both pointed out that Republicans consistently face planted in national elections after Trump’s upset 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton. They seemingly hope that voters will connect the dots and ditch the big loser, but that’s not how cults work. The MAGA mob is more likely to believe Trump was failed rather than failed spectacularly
Here's Nikki Haley humiliating herself further on Fox News, when she insisted that Republicans must "move forward" from Trump but wouldn't dare articulate why .
"I just speak hard truths," said the coward. "You have some people that are mad that I don’t love Trump 100 percent of the time. I don’t love my husband 100 percent of the time ... I call it like I see it. I think he was the right president at the right time."
But please PICK NIKKI as the next president for this current time, I guess. "I love Trump as much as my own husband" is perhaps the weirdest argument against a political opponent in modern history. Maybe that's why she spends more time attacking Barack Obama. She's sent several recent fundraising emails contrasting his innocuous comments on race with her own tap-dancing jive. However — and I can't believe I have to explain this — she's not running against Obama. I mean, if she were, he'd easily beat her ass, too, but she should focus on the ass-whooping she's actually receiving, not the one in her imagination.
[ Washington Post ]
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