Still not over the fact that "Dems should replace the incumbent President whose party continues to win most of its elections, because there is a remote chance that his fortunes have decoupled from that, something that never happened in modern politics" is a valid pundit opinion.
the crazy pills part for me is that donald trump will be on trial in multiple states on multiple charges all the way through the campaign and this goes totally unmentioned in any of these analyses
Trump *is* better positioned, though. Remember, we're comparing to *other Republicans*, and if Trump had quit politics it'd be DeSantis or Kristi Noem or someone else and they'd all be having a deathmatch to win over hardcore anti-abortion evangelicals.
Remembering when he said in 2016 that he would jail doctors and women for having abortions while a bunch of christofascists ghouls in bow ties were mouthing "No! No!" because they know that, even though that's the only logical conclusion to their arguments, it's toxically unpopular.
Hoping Trump will exercise incisive message control is like hoping your Inflatable Tube Man will do a good job explaining your dealership's financing options. That's not what an Inflatable Tube Man is for!
he's the best in the sense that he's the only one mendacious enough to lie in the face of LITERALLY everyone about what his position on abortion REALLY is, AND he will force the evangelical right to eat shit if/when he compromises on abortion, because he knows they have no other option
The problem is basically that it turns out that "I will do whatever the evangelicals want but I'm so libertine I'm obviously for abortion" is now almost (though not quite) as viable as "I am personally against abortion but will protect the right to it."
Checked Threads, Hayes is responding directly to post. The article linked in post is about an NYT poll question on how conservative respondents think Trump is and pundit’s belief they’ll swallow Trump’s BS that he’ll “make all the best deals” re: abortion
plus.thebulwark.com/p/who-won-la...
So, one of the notable deviations Trump has had post-Dobbs has been his willingness to say that abortion bans are bad politics and particularly attacked DeSantis on this.
Why? Because Trump doesn't care about the issue, only that evangelicals will vote for him regardless because they crave power.
Trump only cares about winning the election, which, for better or ill, has allowed him to have heterodox positions that his base has simply ignored, either because they know he won't be held to them or because they don't care.
Trump, unlike his primary opponents, knows the issue is a dog. Just being the guy who appointed the judges doesn’t put him in a worse place than his opponents because everyone understands they would have done the same.
Exactly. He knows that the specifics don't matter because he's outsourced that to the conservative legal movement, so he can totally take a stance that is heterodox to the party line knowing it makes no difference.
Part of Trump's past success is he says anything about anything even if it contradicts what he said and his fans glom on to the whatever appeals and ignores the dichotomy. He will take credit for ending abortion while taking credit for the votes that protect it. Maybe that's what they mean?
