How the presidential primaries are shaping up
Let’s face it. “Gun to the head” honest, only 5% of the country would let Joe Biden watch their kid for an hour while they ran to the store. He has been the worst president of modern times. Even Jimmy Carter started comparing him to Jimmy Carter.
We have to get new nominees for both parties. If the 2024 election is a rematch between Trump and Biden, we all lose. Both men will be about 80 years old. If they have a debate, it might as well be held in the balcony box seats of the Muppet Theater. In full disclosure, Biden’s campaign ads might have to end with, “My name is Joe Biden, and I forget this message.”
Biden and his handlers have convinced the Democratic National Committee to get rid of Iowa as the first primary state and start with South Carolina instead. He says South Carolina will nominate a more “electable” Democrat – namely, him. They say Iowa does not represent their demographic as it is “too white.” For what Democrats need, Ghana is too white for their target voter.
As much as they talk about “diversity,” the Democrats of today tend to just produce the Hillary Clinton- and Joe Biden-type candidates. Their only Democratic primary rivals for their ability to produce whiter whites are OxiClean and Clorox.
Dems had to move their first primary out of Iowa. Iowa is one of the top 10 states in work ethic, literacy and graduation rates. There is no way that state should be picking the best Democrat nominee; it is the least representative of their current party.
The two problems Republicans have in beating a terrible sitting president are of their own making. First, they overplayed their hand on abortion and are not in sync with suburban women swing voters. Second, the RNC will allow so many candidates to run that Trump will get his zealous 30% of voters and win. With two candidates, he probably would not.
Here are the leading Republican challengers who have indicated they will run for president:
- Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. He is such a formidable candidate that CNN has already put out a casting call for a woman who can play someone he molested in high school. Trump so fears him that DeSantis is the only rival he has bothered to give an eighth grade-quality nickname.
- Nikki Haley, former UN ambassador and former South Carolina governor, is polling a close third behind Trump and DeSantis. She resigned as UN ambassador under Trump, citing her belief in term limits. Term limits are only a factor in Illinois politics, where governors spend just one term in office and then serve a term in prison. It is the only state where the current governor rides around in a limo whose tags were made by his predecessor.
- Fellow South Carolinian Senator Tim Scott has also declared. He was appointed to the Senate by Nikki Haley when she was governor. If elected president, Tim Scott will be the first bachelor to live in the White House since Bill Clinton.
- Rounding up the evangelical votes is former VP Mike Pence. He spoke at the famous “Roast and Ride” feast in Des Moines. The gluttonous and music-filled tradition kicks off the campaign season where Iowans devour thousands of ears of corn, fried potatoes, several hundred pounds of Iowa beef, and — most troubling — the musical quartet’s banjo player is missing.
- Chris Christie is rumored to be running. He is a guy you want on your side, unless you are in a canoe.
My favorite would be Ron DeSantis. He has all the policies of Trump without the polarizing ego. If Tucker Carlson does not run, for now Ron DeSantis is the best hope of winning a general election against Joe Biden or whatever “Weekend at Bernie’s” form of Biden he takes.
The only fly in the ointment for Democrats, who like to rubber-stamp both their candidates and ideas, is the scion of the Democrat Party, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has thrown his hat in the ring, which could disturb the rubber-stamp process the Democrats are used to in primaries. NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers endorsed Kennedy based on his anti-vaccination views. I like any candidate with a healthy distrust of government. They are seldom wrong.
RFK Jr.’s uncle, John F. Kennedy, was an iconic president and a brave man. He earned the respect of many of us when he took on Marilyn Monroe with such a bad back.
A libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron does commentary on radio and TV. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.