"When this race began last summer, Glenn Youngkin was unknown in Virginia politics. Those who did know his name remembered him as a high school basketball star in the Tidewater area whose father played hoops at Duke. Youngkin himself played collegiately at Rice before going into business. With wealth accrued as a partner in a private equity firm, Youngkin was able to self-fund a Republican primary campaign in which he dispatched with not one, but two, Trump disciples. But he managed to do so without alienating the former president.
Trump might have preferred one of the others, especially when Youngkin quietly rebuffed his offer to come campaign. But Trump clearly appreciated that Youngkin never bad-mouthed him, and the 45th president responded accordingly: He told his supporters to flood to the polls.
Successfully negotiating the mine field of Trump’s prickly ego not only helped Youngkin win on Tuesday. It also illuminated the path for future GOP candidates competing in states and districts that aren’t deep Republican red."
By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter? Maybe one way for Democrats to stage a comeback would be for Twitter (and Facebook) to put Trump back where people are going to see him all the time.
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48 comments:
I am thinking that Trump is better off as a fundraiser and endorser.
DeSantis is by far the leader in the clubhouse for '24.
But no matter who it is, if an R president is not ready to go into full attack mode (like hiring someone like Grenell as AG), then it's all just pantomime...
And if McCarthy ends up being speaker, someone needs to sit him down and have a come-to-Jesus talk. He's squishy as hell...
It's funny to think the Dems would benefit from more of the speech they object to, rather than less. Heads up asses, can't figure out what's in their self-interest, etc.
Republicans have won some nice gifts when they don't have much to say about exactly what is wrong with the Biden Administration ("mismanagement"--years ago in Canada a campaign flak said his candidate should win because every so often we need a new broom to take a fresh look, etc., and do things like take out the garbage. A paper ran the story: Operative says Bob Stanfield needs to take out the garbage). They're afraid of the woke, or of youthful idealism, they don't want their houses to be egged, they think they can get campaign donations from big business while making some peace with the woke, etc. If they just wait for the Dems to screw up, the fruit may fall for them. Would the Dems be better off if the weaknesses of Republicans were just as evident as their own? The Republicans have their own crazies. Bring back Alex Jones.
By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter?
Maybe with Virginia Whine Moms but I'd bet many of those would like a do-over on their 2020 'mean tweets' boycott vote...
In 2016 it was a choice of personalities, as was 2020.
This is the first time Trump's policies have been put to a vote.
When you get past all the demonizing and name calling, it turns out people want jobs, low inflation, low taxes, safe roads and bridges, and kids who can read and write.
The Democrats, right now, don't seem interested in any of these things.
"Maybe with Virginia Whine Moms but I'd bet many of those would like a do-over on their 2020 'mean tweets' boycott vote..."
To say nothing of the elderly Covid Panic voters. Who knew there wasn't a magic wand that Trump was refusing to use?
the only people bothered by Trump's tweets were not supporting him or the right anyways. This is such a silly argument
There's a lesson here for Trump if he can see it.
By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter? Maybe one way for Democrats to stage a comeback would be for Twitter (and Facebook) to put Trump back where people are going to see him all the time.
an amusing thought, but I don't think it's true.
Most people aren't on Twitter, and really don't give a shit about what is on Twitter.
The problem Dems are running into is two fold:
1: Trump's not President any more. To the voters who decide swing elections "but Trump" just doesn't matter any more
2: The more we see of Biden and the effects of his* policies, the better Trump looks.
If you're not a "climate crisis" fanatic, then the massive increases in the cost of gas since the Democrats took over hurt, suck, are a bad thing
If you're not massively rich, then the inflation is hurting
If you have no money worries, the supply chain issues mean you can't get things even when your'e willing to pay for them
All these are things that people rightly blame on the Biden* Admin and the Democrats. All these are things that make people miss Trump.
"I'd rather have mean tweets and $1.95 gas". It's probably only Trump supporters who are saying it out loud. But I believe a lot of voters are thinking it
Contrary to this article, there is no evidence that:
1) Trump has a prickly ego
2) Youngskin declined Trump's offer to campaign for him
3) The two men like - or dislike - each other.
4) Trump cared or was upset that Youngskin got the nomination
ITs just the usual WaPo mindreading. Trump behaved exactly as the leader of the party should have behaved. Cannon also does the trick of pretending the "Trump supporters" are a small fraction of the R party. He's the ex-President who got 95% of R votes in 2020. The RNC and Republican establishment have never liked Trump, but there's zero evidence that represents anyone else in The R Party.
"By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter?"
I would think so, if for no other reason than it left the spotlight on McCauliffe where it belonged.
Not many Democrats are smart enough to understand that Trump back on Twitter might be an asset. The "cancel culture" impulse simply runs too deep.
Lloyd W. Robertson said...
Republicans have won some nice gifts when they don't have much to say about exactly what is wrong with the Biden Administration
That's some impressive left wing bubble thought there.
1: The Democrats' anti-fracking, anti-drilling, anti-pipeline policies have led to higher gas prices, and overall higher inflation
2: The Democrats' Covid policies have led to higher unemployment, less work being done, less goods, and more money chasing those goods: yet another cause of inflation
3: The Democrats' Covid policies have led to port issues, leading to supply chain issues, leading to inflation and lack of goods at any price.
4: The Democrats' utter incompetence led to the utter debacle in Afghanistan
5: The Democrats' racist CRT programs are an assault on human decency, and their fight to keep parents from being able to fight back is insane
6: The Democrats' anti-girl "lets let boys in skirts into girls' bathrooms, who cares if girls get raped / molested / otherwise sexually assaulted" policies are also insane
That's a quick start. There's a lot of things there for the GOP to run on, and we are doing so
It 100% helps if Trump is less visible. We no longer need him; he is now an impediment and a net negative.
Speaking of must read threads....https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/11/03/theyve-learned-nothing-conservative-mama-bears-must-read-thread-features-some-of-the-most-egregious-cries-of-racism-over-glenn-youngkins-win/
Youngkin loses without Trump, and could have lost with him more involved in the campaign. It is complicated in other words. My guess is Youngkin turns out to be a nonentity politically- the state he will govern, assuming his lead actually holds (more in the next paragraph), is irretrievably blue- I think had the Democrats run anyone else other than McAuliffe, that hypothetical candidate wins easily, even with Joe Shit-For-Brains Biden dragging them d
However, I don't think the Democrats have really conceded this race yet. Absentee ballots can still be counted that "arrive" before midnight Friday. I think McAuliffe's concession is simply for show right now as cover for the ground operation to harvest up/create enough absentee ballots to turn, at the very least, the AG race. If you start seeing stories in the next 24-36 hours claiming there are tens of thousands of absentee ballots expected to come in, then the game is afoot. In short, the Republicans had better be doing exactly the same thing- out harvested late ballots- they aren't called the stupid party for nothing.
By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter?
It did. But not in the shallow way you are imagining.
It is true that many women operate on a shallow level and hate to be disturbed by mean tweets. But most of those women if not all vote for democrats by wrote and don't bother their tiny little minds thinking. They are much too delicate.
But many women also notice that Twitter and the people behind the Biden Regime are working together to set up a corrupt autocratic state where their opponents are censored.
Government Corporate alliances against the Individual are the core tenet of National Socialism and many women correctly noted that our current government and largest corporations like twitter are following the Nazi script.
But yeah Trump is so icky and his followers are so low class. We get it Ann.
I'm sure the country club set would love to have Trump keep the rubes wrangled, but if they think that'll be enough for him they are FAR too stupid to be entrusted with power again.
Well, they are that stupid, and after a night like last night Trump will absolutely be emboldened. The Vichy set won't dare speak out against him for fear of primaries, and the Democrats are now in total disarray. They'll confuse tolerance for dominance, and help self-identify for purging.
Excellent.
By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter?
Yes, absolutely. But not at all by what Althouse posits in her next sentence.
But he managed to do so without alienating the former president. Trump might have preferred one of the others, especially when Youngkin quietly rebuffed his offer to come campaign. But Trump clearly appreciated that Youngkin never bad-mouthed him, and the 45th president responded accordingly: He told his supporters to flood to the polls.
Wow, what a concept! You don't act like a Democrat, and go out of your way to attack the former Republican President!
What kind of pinheaded idiot do you have to be to call yourself a Republican, and then attack him and his voters?
Seriously, when did "don't be a dick to your Party's voters" become something special?
All the postmortems, especially this soon, are virtually worthless. Trump-hating R’s will spin it to fit their view, angry progressives theirs … it’s all anecdotal cherry-picking at this point.
My postmortem, worthless as all the others, is that the zeitgeist is the only thing that matters: not campaigns, not money, not endorsements, just the spirit of the times. And Youngkin benefited from that. To his credit, he didn’t thwart that spirit.
"By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter? Maybe one way for Democrats to stage a comeback would be for Twitter (and Facebook) to put Trump back where people are going to see him all the time."
True. Because when Trump is not around sucking the air out of every room and having the focus of every camera and mic, Democrats are actually getting seen and heard. And what is being seen and heard is being rejected soundly. Democrats always succeed in stealth- when they don't actually tell you what they're about or what they want to do (i.e.- both Obama and Biden). When they tell you who they are and what they want, they lose.
Maybe one way for Democrats to stage a comeback would be for Twitter (and Facebook) to put Trump back where people are going to see him all the time.
Twitter and Facebook censure reflexively. When in doubt, censure!
Joe Smith: "I am thinking that Trump is better off as a fundraiser and endorser."
Political windows open and close and time marches on. The conditions that led to Trump winning in 2016 will never exist again. 2024 conditions? Who knows?
What we do know is the dems and their lapdog NeverTrump losers are working to hard to make permanent chaotic elections with no controls.
We also know that the morphing of the republican party into a more populist, working class family focused, freedom supporting and government constraining operation is the pathway to future success.
We will have to work our way thru lots of swampy/dem types on republican side of the aisle to make that fully happen.
"By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter? Maybe one way for Democrats to stage a comeback would be for Twitter (and Facebook) to put Trump back where people are going to see him all the time."
I can see where you're coming from here. I do think Youngkin benefited with his soft embrace of Trump.
On the other hand, Trump lives in the heads of these people anyway, Twitter or no Twitter.
MikeR: "It 100% helps if Trump is less visible. We no longer need him; he is now an impediment and a net negative."
Never too early to delete "hot takes" like this one.
Trump brought in rural and working class voters the republicans never could have reached and Trump is still needed to activate those important voting blocks.
But you go right ahead and keep thinking Trump is the problem and not the earned reputation of the establishment squish republicans.
Youngkin is Trump
Out of the private sector. No previously held political office. Rides public opinion to the executive's position in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He's a political outsider.
Will that handicap him as much as it handicapped Trump? Apparently the Republicans will control the assembly. Only one Democrat needs to perform a Jeffords for the Republicans to control the senate. The Lt Governor cast the deciding vote in case of a tie.
I suspect there will be chicanery afoot in the next few months in Virginia.
"By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter?"
This is a variation on, "How can I miss you when you won't go away?"
According to Matt Taibbi, this whole thing was so complicated that you can't begin to explain it accurately in a few sentences. One of the curious factors was the contradiction of Asian and South Asian parents in the Loudoun County suburbs being dismissed as white racists when they attempted to protect the excellence of the public schools. Trump certainly could have taken the spotlight off the Dems if he had been more of a presence.
I think the real message is to keep the focus on your opponent and his inadequacies. McAuliffe tried to invoke Orange Man Bad when Trump was nowhere in sight. There will be times and places for Donald Trump to step forward in 2022, and he will be a real help, but Virginia in 2021 was not one of those places.
VA was well played by both Youngkin and Trump.
I read somewhere that NJ should scare the Dems to death. The GOP candidate was essentially unknown. Voters just showed up in a deep blue state and voted Republican.
Youngkin indirectly trashed Trump when he pooh poohed the prospect of McAuliffe challenging the result as something only losers do.
Never mind the substance of your question: that is some of the most clumsy reportorial prose I've read in a while. "Collegiately"? Really?
What's obviously missing is an ear. The writer hasn't bothered, or isn't able, to sound out the words in order; to build them up from individual notes into a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph. It need not sound like a sonata, but equally it should not sound like a trainwreck.
For his part, Youngkin threaded the needle nicely on Trump.
For Youngkin's part, there was no needle threading. The only ones who have even raised the matter of Trump are those who are obsessed and fixated on him.
Including now.
how about?
Reason Number Zero: McAwful is a disgustingly slimy scumbag.. That makes people's skin crawl?
"I am thinking that Trump is better off as a fundraiser and endorser."
I tend to agree. He has been vilified to the point that the infamous suburban soccer Moms and politically moderate cultural elites (like our hostess) would never vote for him. His style just doesn't work for those voters.
Trump's main draw in 2016 was that he was not Hillary. That is not the case anymore. His main draw in 2020 was that he was a surprisingly good POTUS. I don't think people will recall that in 2024.
Republicans need someone who can calm anxious "moderate" voters while still not buying into the usual Media memes. Let Trump play the "bad" guy by challenging the Media and let the candidate be reassuring to those highly sensitive voters.
"put Trump back where people are going to see him all the time"
Yes, it would help Dems. Not to help Dem mobilization but to annoy nice with moderate women whose aversion to Trump trumps everything. The GOP needs some of them and therefore cannot run Trump again, if it wants to win. The goal should be to transition Trump to becoming perceived kingmaker--perceived in his own mind, primarily.
The key reason was Reason 3: It’s the parents, stupid. In 2020 Joe Biden carried Loudoun County by something like 85,000 votes. Last night Terry McAuliffe carried it by about 17,000 votes. Glenn Youngkin won statewide by about 80,000 votes. As I noted, with all the snark I could muster, Democrat women actually care about their kids’ education.
And that’s a difference between the suburban soccer mommies (or whatever the block of affluent, white, educated (or at least credentialed) mothers of school-aged children is called these days) and other components of the Democrats’ coalition. Democrats have learned they can abuse Jews, and not lose their support. They can abuse black people, and not lose their support. They can abuse Asians, and so far they’ve held onto their support. But soccer mommies will not tolerate their kids being psychologically abused, nor raped. So there’s a difference.
There is no truth to the rumor that Pelosi and Schumer have banned any further involvement with the "Stinkin' Project."
Trump was the reaction to Hillary. The whole fuckign country hates the Clintons, as we saw again today.
Northern VA residents are all bureaucrats. Of course they hate Trump.
Youngkin was wise to play to the audience he had.
I heard someone on Fox last night make this very point, that by silencing Trump on Twitter and Facebook, it made Democrats' efforts to tie Youngkin to Trump much harder.
It might be tempting to bring back the Mean Tweeter in '22, as a triple bank shot to defeat Republicans. But I suspect too many Democrats in MSM remember how Mika and Joe imagined they were giving Hillary an easy path to the White House by providing all the free air time to Trump in 2016.
"This Person said...
"By the way, don't you think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter?"
Certainly not having him as a distraction (despite the other side's attempts to bring him up) helped focus the race on the issues that mattered to voters. The temptation to continuously comment on Trump's latest tweet would be too much for the media to resist. Nothing Youngkin wanted to talk about would have gotten through.
Interesting the expectation for Republicans to bad mouth Trump, yet where are the Democrats bad mouthing Obama or Biden?
"Trump's not President any more. To the voters who decide swing elections "but Trump" just doesn't matter any more
2: The more we see of Biden and the effects of his* policies, the better Trump looks."
^^^^^THIS^^^^^
I've been trying to point out to the Trump obsessed for months that he's not in charge, Biden is. What's happening now is on him, not the real estate tycoon with really bad taste. Bringing up Trump doesn't bring down gas prices, keep store shelves stocked, or stop boys in skirts from raping girls in the girl's room. The voters in Virginia didn't give a flying duck about Trump, they cared about what the arrogant asses in government were doing to their kids.
Matt Taibbi's take on this election is very interesting:
"In certain suburbs, voting Republican while Trump still breathes air is an act that will put you 'a notch below child molester' in the community, to use the Woody Allen phrase.
The significance of Youngkin’s win is that it signals Republican competitiveness in those districts again, something that would have been unthinkable even a year ago. These white-collar, highly educated voters, the kind of people who get their shots, don’t watch wrestling, and send their kids to Harvard and Princeton, are the Democratic Party’s base. It took something pretty weird and intense to drive them to defection, and don’t trust anyone who tries to explain it in a tweet. This one really is a long story, and a wild one at that."
I look forward to his more in-depth analysis when it comes out.
I do think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter. As someone else said, it helped keep the focus where it belonged - on Virginia - even if the Dems tried very hard to make it about Trump. If Trump had been on Twitter, lots of Youngkin campaign energy would have been drawn to commenting on/defending/denouncing whatever Trump tweeted that day, no matter how innocuous or irrelevant to the situation.
Readering: "Youngkin indirectly trashed Trump when he pooh poohed the prospect of McAuliffe challenging the result as something only losers do."
LOL
Sure he did.
Sure.
But its nice you found something to make you feel better.
I do think it helped Youngkin that Trump wasn't on Twitter. As someone else said, it helped keep the focus where it belonged - on Virginia
Still, here in the progressive paradise of NoVa, there was plenty of natural leg twitching and seething without Emmanuel Goldstein's name even being mentioned because right-think is all thoroughly embedded in them.
Trump? Mc had it in the bag until Harris, Biden, and King Obama showed up with their
pathetic shuck and jive. Majority of populace are sick and tired of these lying losers.
Plus, a lot of Californicators moved to Virginia and voted against Mc.
Temujin said...
True. Because when Trump is not around sucking the air out of every room and having the focus of every camera and mic...
That's a funny way of saying the media and the Democrats (BIRM) obsessively focus on Trump even when it would be in their best interest to ignore him.
One might think it’s the loss of Trump’s voice on Twitter that was the reason Youngkin won: b/c of bloviation.
I say- it was the loss of Trump’s voice on Twitter that was the reason Youngkin won: b/c of the loss of Trump’s voice.
He was missed… bigly.
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