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ELECTIONS

GOP Debate Takeaways: Nikki Haley Takes Fire as She Jockeys for Second Place Candidates fail to find a breakout moment at Miami forum; ‘You’re just scum,’ Haley tells Ramaswamy. By Alex Leary and John McCormick

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/gop-debate-takeaways-haley-takes-fire-as-she-jockeys-for-second-place-27ee6cb0

MIAMI—Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has shown momentum in recent weeks, came under sustained attack in Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate as she competes with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to be the leading alternative to former President Donald Trump.

She also delivered several of her own shots at DeSantis, who tried to float above the fray, but engaged with her on China, energy policy and a handful of other issues. A confrontation between the two had been brewing, amplified by a closely watched poll that recently showed Haley and DeSantis tied for second in Iowa, where nomination balloting starts Jan. 15.

But second place may not be worth much given Trump’s commanding lead in the polls. After an opening question that asked candidates to make a case against Trump, who skipped the event, the debate centered on testy exchanges between those on stage.

“You’re just scum,” Haley said at one point to biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, after he said her daughter had used TikTok, amid a discussion of banning the widely popular Chinese app.

Here are key takeaways from the debate, moderated by Lester Holt and Kristen Welker of NBC News and Hugh Hewitt of the Salem Radio Network:

Rivals Try to Slow Haley

Haley was a top target throughout the evening as others tried to slow her momentum. She took heat over her foreign-policy positions, attempts to spur Chinese investment in her home state and earnings from Boeing and other corporate boardships.

After These Disastrous Polls, We Hope To God Dems Stick With Biden

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/07/after-these-disastrous-polls-how-long-will-dems-stick-with-biden/

In our decades of experience covering politics, we’ve never seen a poll as devastating to an incumbent president as the one CBS News/YouGov poll published over the weekend.  

The short version is that more voters think they would be better off if Donald Trump returns to the White House than they would if Joe Biden stays there. Think about that for a moment.  

Then there’s the New York Times/Sienna College poll, also published over the weekend, showing that Trump leads Biden in five key swing states, and by wide margins: 10 points in Nevada, 6 points in Georgia, 5 in Arizona and Michigan, and 4 points in Pennsylvania. 

The Times poll also found that 59% disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president, and 71% said he was too old, while only 38% said Trump was too old.  

Both polls have sent the mainstream press scrambling to reassure their readers that either the polls don’t mean what they seem, that Biden can “improve his position,” or that, fingers crossed, Trump gets convicted. (The New York Times Monday story carried the headline: “Trump Indictments Haven’t Sunk His Campaign, but a Conviction Might.”) 

But of the two, the CBS News/YouGov poll is far worse for Biden. Instead of just asking who they’d support, CBS News asked likely voters a series of questions about who they think they’d be better off with in the years ahead, Biden or Trump.  

This Might Be The Time That Determines If Biden Drops Out “Only one has the guts to announce it.” by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/this-might-the-time-that-determines-if-biden-drops-out/

Democrats spent the past few months mocking those who looked at Biden’s poll numbers and suggested he should drop out as ‘bedwetters’. There’s now a prominent new bedwetter joining the ranks.

Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod said it’s the last moment for President Biden to check if he should drop out of the 2024 presidential race, after suggesting he should do so.

On Sunday, Axelrod, in the wake of a new poll showing Biden trailing former President Trump in key swing states, said Biden needs to decide if it’s wise to continue his run. The poll found Biden trailing Trump in five out of six battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

“As I’ve said for like a couple years now, the issue’s not — for him is not political, its actuarial. You can see that in this poll and there’s just a lot of concern about the age issue, and that is something I think he needs to ponder. Just do a check and say, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’” Axelrod said.

“Is this the best path? I suspect that he will say yes, but time is fleeting here, and this is probably the last moment for him to do that check, and it’s probably good if he does,” the Obama alum added.

What’s also significant is that during a foreign crisis, presidential poll numbers usually go up. (Then they drop back down afterward.) That does not seem to be happening here.

No one really wants Biden. Most think he’s too old. And life in general is miserable. That’s what people who fixate too much on political issues don’t entirely understand. When life is bad, much of the electorate, which isn’t Dem or GOP, turns against whoever is in the White House. And it takes hard work for an incumbent to survive that.

And life is really, really bad now. Maybe not quite as bad as 2020, but a good deal worse than 2012. And Biden is no Obama.

Running an unpopular incumbent is just a death wish. Most Dems know it. And with Trump in ascendance, they’re much more likely to want to dump Biden and bet on a fresh new candidate. And that would be a good bet. Much better than sticking with the old nag.

So Sen. Fetterman just took a shot at Gov. Newsom for running a shadow campaign.

Iowa Poll Shows DeSantis, Not Haley, Is Trump’s Only Real Competition By: Jeffrey H. Anderson

https://thefederalist.com/2023/11/03/iowa-poll-shows-desantis-not-haley-is-trumps-only-real-competition/

Establishment Republicans are hopeful Nikki Haley can win in Iowa, but the latest polling of likely Iowa caucus-goers crushes that dream.

The corporate media’s headlines from a recent Des Moines Register poll in Iowa are that Nikki Haley has caught Ron DeSantis, and that she’s on the rise while he’s falling. In truth, the poll reveals that the Hawkeye State continues to look like a two-horse race between DeSantis and the clear front-runner, Donald Trump.

Yes, Haley’s support rose from 6 percent in the prior Des Moines Register poll (taken in August) to 16 percent in this one, while support for DeSantis dipped from 19 to 16 percent. (Trump’s support rose 1 percentage point, from 42 to 43 percent.) But essentially every other indicator in the newly released polling suggests that DeSantis is Trump’s only real competition in this pivotal opening state.

When likely Iowa caucus-goers were asked to name the two candidates whom they like the most, Trump was listed as the first or second choice by 55 percent of respondents, DeSantis by 43 percent, and Haley by 33 percent. (Tim Scott was listed by 17 percent and Vivek Ramaswamy by 13 percent, with everyone else in single digits.) DeSantis was the second choice of 27 percent of respondents, compared with 17 percent for Haley. (Trump was the second choice for 12 percent of respondents, Scott for 10 percent, and Ramaswamy for 9 percent.)

The poll also found that DeSantis had higher favorability ratings among likely caucus-goers than Haley did. DeSantis’ net favorability rating was +43 points (69 percent favorable to 26 percent unfavorable), which is up from +37 in August and is the highest of any GOP presidential candidate. Meanwhile, Scott is at +39 (61 to 22 percent), Trump is at +34 (66 to 32 percent), and Haley is at +30 (59 to 29 percent). (Ramaswamy is only at +6, with 43 percent favorable and 37 percent unfavorable.)

In all, the poll found that two-thirds of likely Iowa caucus-goers are “actively considering” Trump (67 percent), the same percentage who are actively considering DeSantis (67 percent). Only about half are actively considering Haley (54 percent) or Scott (49 percent). About a third (32 percent) are actively considering Ramaswamy.

Kentucky Democrats Go Full Racist Against Daniel Cameron Chris Queen |

https://pjmedia.com/chris-queen/2023/11/03/kentucky-democrats-go-full-racist-against-daniel-cameron-n4923601

Democrats love to refer to themselves as the party of diversity. It’s always important for leftists to display how many different demographic categories are among their ranks. But what we don’t see on the left is diversity of thought.

Black conservatives become the targets of disrespect and outright racism from the left. Just ask Clarence Thomas, Tim Scott, and Condoleezza Rice. The latest example of this phenomenon is taking place in Kentucky, where Democrats are going full racist in attacking GOP gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron, who is black.

Cameron has trailed incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear until recently. According to RealClearPolitics, the latest Emerson poll shows Cameron with a narrow one-point lead over Beshear, while a poll from the same outlet from the beginning of October showed Beshear with a 16-point lead.

Cameron’s surge must have the Democrats scared because a new ad is using racism to target Cameron as insufficiently black. 

Fox News reports:

Black Voters Matter Action PAC, which FEC filings show received millions from [George] Soros’ super-PAC, has been running the radio ad on a local R&B station based in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, describing Cameron as “Uncle Daniel Cameron,” and accusing him of betraying his race by declaring “all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”

“What’s up Kentucky? It’s election time, and all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. Over the past few years, we’ve taken to the streets to demand racial justice, to demand healthcare, and the right to make decisions about our body. And now, Uncle Daniel Cameron is threatening to take us backwards, the same man who refused to seek justice for Breonna Taylor now wants to run our whole state,” the ad says.

Let that sink in. It’s so racist that it is wilder than parody.

Judge Orders New Democrat Mayoral Primary in Connecticut After Seeing ‘Shocking’ Ballot-Stuffing Videos By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2023/11/02/judge-orders-new-democrat-mayoral-primary-in-connecticut-after-seeing-shocking-ballot-stuffing-videos/

A Superior Court judge in Connecticut has ordered a new Democrat mayoral primary in Bridgeport after surveillance videos showed a Democrat official apparently stuffing absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot box ahead of the original primary.

Incumbent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim won the election by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast, and absentee ballots reportedly played a deciding role in his margin of victory.

Superior Court Judge William Clark ruled that challenger John Gomes’ claims of absentee ballot fraud warranted throwing out the results of the Sept. 12 primary, the Connecticut Mirror reported.

“The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all of the parties,” Clark wrote in his decision.

The video clips show Town Committee vice chairwoman Wanda Geter-Pataky placing what appear to be multiple absentee ballots into one of the four absentee ballot drop boxes in the city.

“These instances do not appear to the court to be random,” Clark wrote in his opinion.

“The issue in this case is not the applications or even the push to deliver absentee votes. The issue is whether that advocacy crossed a line of the established laws. Specifically, whether individuals who were not the voter and were not authorized under statute handled ballots,” Clark said. “Based on the video and the numbers of absentee votes submitted through the drop box method in Districts 136 and 139 in particular, this court finds that such violations did occur.”

The Case for DeSantis over Haley as the Alternative to Trump By Dan McLaughlin

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/the-case-for-desantis-over-haley-as-the-alternative-to-trump/

Like it or not, if there is a path forward from Trump right now, it still runs through Ron DeSantis, not Nikki Haley.

Nikki Haley has been increasingly consolidating a segment of the Republican primary vote, largely the most devoted anti-Trump voters, be they traditional Reaganite conservatives or moderates. This is still not close to a winning hand: In the RealClearPolitics polling averages, she is currently at 8.3 percent and third place nationally, 11.5 percent and third place in Iowa, 14.8 percent and second place in New Hampshire, and 17.7 percent and second place in her home state of South Carolina. It has, nonetheless, produced a boomlet of commentary from people who would prefer Haley to Ron DeSantis, such as Michael Strain’s “Case for Nikki Haley” in these pages. Noah Rothman has written on why he thinks Haley’s strategy of differentiating herself from Donald Trump on policy and style and focusing on appealing to voters who dislike Trump has been superior to that of DeSantis’s.

I get the instinct to be frustrated with the DeSantis campaign, and I understand why some of the traditionally Reaganite elements of the party — let alone Republican moderates — would like to use the present moment to grind axes against not only DeSantis but the whole nationalist/populist “New Right.” But the effort to promote Haley is likely to simply divide the opposition to Trump and strengthen the hand within the party of not only the nationalist/populist Right in general, but its most irresponsible elements in particular. Like it or not, DeSantis is still the best game in town — not only for any prospect of stopping Trump from winning the nomination, but for any long-term hope of restoring purpose and sanity to the Republican Party.

Moreover, in the immediate term, neither DeSantis nor Haley is dropping out of the race, so those of us looking to settle on a single opponent for Trump should first emphasize the urgent need for Tim Scott, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, and Asa Hutchinson — none of whom any longer has a remotely plausible case for being in the race — to follow the statesmanlike lead of Mike Pence and drop out. I’d add Vivek Ramaswamy to that list if I didn’t think he was running essentially as a stalking horse to aid Trump.

The Choices

I put my own prior assumptions on the table here up front. I would happily go into battle in the general election behind either Haley or DeSantis, and would be thrilled to see either of them as president. Both boast strong records as conservative governors. Both are prepared to be commander in chief, Haley due to her tenure at the U.N., DeSantis from his time in the House and serving as a legal adviser to Navy SEALs in Iraq and a prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. Both represent my generation, born in the 1970s and ready to move on from the seemingly endless grip of those born in the 1940s on our politics. Both cut their teeth in politics during the Tea Party era, when there was a bumper crop of talented Republicans looking to merge populist energy with conservative principle. Either of them would be the most conservative nominee since Ronald Reagan.

As a traditional Reaganite, I probably agree more with Haley than with DeSantis on the few areas where they actually disagree. I’ve been a longtime Haley booster going back to her first campaign for governor in 2010 and was openly discussing her four or five years ago as my preferred candidate to lead the party after Trump. She managed to get out of the Trump administration on good terms with Trump and with her dignity intact — not an easy thing — and if the party had chosen a new nominee in 2018, it might well have been Haley.

I’ve soured a bit on her political judgment since then, as she has struggled to navigate the innumerable pitfalls of a political landscape dominated by Trump, exemplified by a spectacularly ill-considered (and swiftly walked-back) interview with Tim Alberta in Politico in 2021. I saw her stump speech in Iowa in August and was unimpressed with its simplistic and gimmicky proposals (a competency test?) and overreliance on her gender. The debates have been a godsend to her campaign, allowing her to sink her teeth into more serious stuff and find a foil in the haplessly shallow and irritating Vivek Ramaswamy. They have reminded many of us why we thought she was a real talent in the first place.

That Old Republican Brawl By Amity Shlaes

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/that-old-republican-brawl/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=capital-matters&utm_term=second

Republicans should learn from their own history to avoid a replay of the 1912 election in 2024.

If Republicans have this much trouble choosing a speaker of the House, they can’t consider policy. If they can’t consider policy, they can’t build a strong platform. And if they can’t build a strong platform, they will have nothing to stand on in the next presidential election.

The default will be a mêlée of loyalists of various stripes — traditional Republicans, the odd libertarian, Trump revivalists — and of course, Donald Trump himself. The result is that policy itself will get neglected in the crucial 2024 year, to the enormous detriment of the American economy.

The price of such a free-for-all becomes clear when you go back to another point when Republicans brawled: the year 1912.

Playing the Trump role in that period was Theodore Roosevelt, though TR hadn’t started out as a powermonger. In his early years TR was a reformer, shining a spotlight on corruption in New York state. The early TR was also an American expansionist and a warrior — the Rough Rider who breached a steep ravine to emerge victorious at the Battle of San Juan Hill. Roosevelt became president after an assassin felled William McKinley in 1901.

And the presidency went to Roosevelt’s head. As president, he electrified the nation with impulsive forays — to call some of them “policies” would be a stretch. He forced a coup in Colombia to secure the Panama Canal, a step so brazen that Senator S. I. Hayakawa of California would comment of Panama, “We stole it fair and square.” But it was on the domestic front that most Americans focused. Here Roosevelt proved equally heedless, wielding the Department of Justice like a cudgel against business leaders he branded as “malefactors of wealth.”

Roosevelt selected as successor his friend William Howard Taft, who had a certain Burkean incrementalism. “We are all imperfect,” Taft once intoned. “We cannot expect perfect government.” Taft was also a fine jurist who could lay out the value of the separation of powers with all the skill of Montesquieu. “Wise deliberation,” Taft said, “may constitute the salvation of our republic.”

When it came to defending the Constitution, Taft managed to convert theory into action: persuading Congress to back legislation that gave the Supreme Court more independence to set its own agenda, as well as supporting funding for a symbol of that independence, a separate Supreme Court building. It is this champion of judicial independence some of us hope to learn more of in Walter Stahr’s forthcoming Taft biography.

Meanwhile we can study the Taft whom we know — the one who, against his own nature, opted to play the loyalist in his era’s electoral theater. As Jeffrey Rosen shows in his own perspicacious biography, after his 1908 election Taft devoted his first years in office to dignifying Roosevelt’s excesses by forcing them into a constitutional corset.

Democrats are pushing work authorization for migrants — so they can vote By Betsy McCaughey

https://nypost.com/2023/10/24/opinion/democrats-are-pushing-work-authorization-for-migrants-so-they-can-vote/

If you think offering migrants luxury hotel rooms, free meals, laundry service, transportation, health care and immigration lawyers is excessive, just wait until they can vote.

Democrats are pushing to give noncitizens the franchise in local elections in New York City, Boston and other municipalities, as well as statewide in Connecticut.

The number of migrants pouring across the southern border has hit a record high, according to data released Saturday.

Illegal crossings soared 21% over the previous month.

On a yearly basis, the figure reached 2.48 million.

Democrats may feign shock and distress. 

Don’t be fooled. 

Dems see these newcomers as their guarantee of a permanent voting majority in local elections. 

Not years from now, after the newcomers become citizens.

Right now.

Mayor Eric Adams’ rhetoric is typical. 

He warns that the overwhelming number of migrants arriving — 16,000 to 17,000 a month — will “destroy the city,” but he’s also leading the legal effort to turn migrants into voters.

Adams and other New York Democrats pushed President Joe Biden to expedite work authorizations for them.

They said it’s about making migrants self-sufficient. Maybe, but Dems have another powerful motive.

Video: Rep. Allred (DTX32) Threatens to Call Cops on Reporter for Asking Questions “Why are you standing with Hamas against Israel?”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/far-left-rep-allred-threatens-to-call-cops-on-reporter-for-asking-questions/

He is running for the Senate in Texas. Primary day is in March 2024…he leads thus far in raising funds and visibility….rsk

In the short video below, far-Left (aren’t they all?) Democrat Rep. Colin Allred attempted to brush off a reporter asking inconvenient questions in the halls of Congress, telling him “You’re on federal property. Stop doing this.”

The reporter repeatedly asked, “Congressman Allred, do you regret calling for the release of millions of dollars to Hamas?” and if Allred regretted voting against funding Israel’s Iron Dome defense system which protects against Hamas rockets. He also asked pointedly, “Why are you standing with Hamas against Israel?”

You would think that last question would prompt a Congressman to declare that he stands with Israel against terrorism, but a clearly irritated Allred just threatened to have the Capitol police deal with him. Why?

Check out the video below: