USA 2024 presidential election

Watch out.She's right be-hind you!

That was 4 years ago, she was against one of the shrewest politicians in the US

Add to that most primary's in the US especially as a first time candidate is about structuring your campaign towards 4-8 years time. Biden choose her as his running mate so she must have had some fairly decent attributes

It's interesting that all of those Harris examples are from 3+ years ago. She is a lot more comfortable in her skin nowadays. In that 2019 campaign and the beginning of her time as VP she seemed to be trying to be someone that she was not. Ever since the Dobbs supreme court decision though she appears to have found her groove. Biden's withdrawal from the race offered her an opportunity and she's taken it in her stride so far.

Meanwhile Trump is a shambling wreck. His speeches from the past few years are unwatchable - full of miserable griping or incoherent rambling. His crowds have the energy of people who are going to see their favourite band from years ago on their comeback tour - who only realise midway through the performance that they just don't have it anymore. I put it to anyone reading this - try and watch 20 minutes of a recent trump speech - not just some 30 second clip. He is a dreadful speaker.

Anyway. Trump has accepted the ABC debate (after trying initially to back out of it) so I guess we'll see which one of them "has it" next month.

Man, that's some paragraph

In the past six weeks, Kennedy has apologized for an alleged sexual assault, has been forced to explain why he staged the death of a bear cub in New York City’s Central Park, and has had to deny eating a dog.

The vanity fair takedown of RFK, Jr is pretty impressive.

I don't want to say it was a great convention because I drifted in and out , but yeah overall it seemed to go down a storm and that's the most important thing.

Michelle is box office and was probably the highlight from what I seen.

On Josh Shapiro I know the Obama comparisons are obvious, but he's clearly trying to copy Obama rhetoric and speaking style and that's going to be a serious issue for him if he ever has presidential goals of his own.

The one small downside was despite trotting out Republicans, not one of them matter a jot in the real world, so it was a shame they couldn't snag someone who today's GOP base has some of liking for .

That's kind of a logical impossibility though. Today's GOP is the MAGA base. The MAGA base is a cult of personality. As soon as someone goes against Trump they are cast out. The people who the base adores, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, are never going to turn their back on Trump. If she did however, then she'd be a dead woman to them.

There is literally no Republican who could speak at the DNC who would make any of the Republican base think twice about voting for Trump. The very act of doing so would immediately render them a RINO in the base's eyes and they would only see them a despised traitor.

People like Adam Kinzinger, Stephanie Grisham and the Republican mayor weren't there to try and pursuade the GOP base who were hate watching the DNC to switch their votes. They were there to try and pursuade Independents not to vote for Donald Trump.

There isn't really a precedent for the sort of cult of personality movement that Trumpism is in the USA. There is however in many developing countries. Typically what happens is some kind of heir takes up the mantle but that the movement is never as strong again. That doesn't mean that they won't get back into power though. When tens of millions of people are ideologically wed to your movement that's very useful for future elections.

Donald Trump Jnr taking the reins? There's a possibility that he would be even more rancorous than his father, and there is no way he is appealing to anyone BUT the MAGA crowd.

Couldn't see it being Don Jr. He has all of his father's worst qualities but doesn't have the reptilian instincts that have enabled Trump Sr. to be successful at politics. Don Jr. is just a coke-addled boor with all the charm of someone shouting into your ear in a pub.

It wouldn't necessarily have to be an actual family member. They'll just need to pay homage to Trump in the same way that Republicans in the Bush era paid homage to Ronald Reagan.