One of my ex-Army pals had a meme showing Beto's success running for office. I suggested that maybe he run for garbage collector.
I would agree. All that hat pie-in-the-sky MAGA crap, pom-pom waving rallies and pointing out problems without offering hard-hitting solutions was like taking a cap pistol to a gunfight.
I'd proudly vote for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for president. She headed the only state that didn't fall for the COVID shutdowns, for one thing. Despite DeSantis' arguments to the contrary, Florida was arresting people for going to the beach, and, later, after they opened the beaches, they were arresting people for not wearing masks at the beach. Yeah, he finally figured it out, but he was late to the game.
I really like her too, but I am not sure she is ready for D.C., and she has said in interviews that she just wants to do the best she can for the people of South Dakota.
She ran her reelection ads in some states outside of South Dakota. Clearly, she wants national visibility.
Many, if not most, Alaskans don't understand the new way of voting. It is a system pushed through last year by ballot measure by the international backers of Murkowski and Walker, and a lot of Alaskans fell for the "more say in the election" crap they spewed. Many thought Murkowski would lose any primary, so they pushed through a new system that would favor her. Palin stepped into the race at the last minute and attempted to displace the guy who had worked for over a year on his campaign. They both lost. I agree on your opinion of Abrams and Beto. Frankly, I don't understand how anyone could vote for Abrams. I have watched a few of her interviews, and she strikes me as an unattractive (physically and intellectually) person who comes across as very stupid. I don't know if she is truly that stupid. like "fetal heartbeats don't exist" stupid, but that is how she impresses me.
They don't get it in Maine either, and we've had ranked-choice voting longer than Alaska. Republicans prefer to pretend that it doesn't exist rather than playing it for whatever advantages they might get out of it. Democrats will run a weak candidate as an independent to give voters who don't like their candidate for whatever reason a second choice other than the Republican. When asked for a second, a third, or a fourth choice, many voters will put an independent or the opposing party candidate as their second choice, and so on. On the other hand, the Republican Party strong-arms anyone more attuned to the GOP agenda from running with the idea that they are taking votes from the GOP candidate. In a state where the Republican is likely to get more than 50% of the vote, there might be some sense in it, but that's not Maine. The Republican candidate is not likely to get 50% of the vote, so they need to play the RCV game as long as it's in effect. Every election year, Republicans complain about RCV, as they should, but I haven't seen any noticeable attempts to do away with it.
That's interesting. Do you know if she was RNC-supported, or was that her way of increasing her donor pool because she was not establishment-approved?
I don't know why, but they ran in some states that weren't even adjoining South Dakota, mostly key election states. Everyone running for reelection in their state will say that they have no interest in any other than the position their running for, but I think it's fair to assume that Kristi Noem has national aspirations. Maybe not in 2024, but she shouldn't wait too long.
Another unsolved mystery of politics; when Abrams first appeared on the scene she was in debt (credit cards) up to her eyebrows and had unpaid taxes. Now she's a millionaire and still hasn't worked a day in her life. Not a bad gig if you can get it. She was not equipped in ANY WAY to govern, so would have been just another liberal puppet. Same for Beto wh0 was a city councilman who thought he'd be a senator. Then president. Then Governor. I guess he'll have to go back to city council, his single success. The truly ignorant ones are those who sent MILLIONS to his multiple campaigns, most of it from out of state. Why don't they outlaw political contributions except from residents of the state? I resent all the outside interference in state elections.
I think I read about that; weren't those Facebook ads? "Political experts" said the states targeted by Noem will be among the key swing states in the 2024 election. Maybe she's hoping to be Trump's VP.
I would like to see prohibitions of outside-the-state donations as well. It is up to the politicians to do that in most cases, and they will not cut the throats that make them rich. I would also like to see foreign donations actually stopped as well. I think it is supposed to be somewhat illegal already, but the Chinese were the largest contributors to the Clinton campaigns laundered through Chinese-Americans. We had a question on our ballots asking if we should have a state constitutional convention (The question appears every 10 years) and campaigns against having a convention were financed by somebody in Switzerland and laundered largely through the NEA and the AFL-CIO. I have no idea what interest anybody out the state would have in the state constitution unless they were afraid outside contributions would be banned. Fetterman in PA has never worked a job, nor had Clinton or Obama. Pennsylvanians thought Oz was a "carpetbagger" in PA, as Hillary Clinton was in New York.
South Dakota doesn't get flooded with tourists at Spring Break and doesn't have the snowbirds Florida does either, so the states cannot really be compared in that way. I think both governors did what they thought was best for their respective states.