Out in the political world, it seems everyone has their misperceptions. For example, the Democrats seem unconscious of the damage their botch of the handling the transgender issue has, and continues, to do them. In fact, misperception is the topic of Erick Erickson’s post today, which is both important for both sides, and ironic since he had the balls to write this piece of complete bullshit:
It would also be silly for the GOP to put in office a man who’d be no younger than Joe Biden is now. The GOP has a remarkable bench with deep experience. Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Doug Ducey, Kristi Noem, Ron DeSantis, and Mike Pence all have tremendous experience and all are younger than either President Trump or President Biden. Regardless of what you think about any of them individually, it would be a bit nuts to give up a potential eight years for any one of them for no more than four years for a second Trump term.
With the possible exception of Governor Ducey (R-AZ), who carries around the anchor of having ignored President Trump in his hour of fellatio and thus is probably a lost cause when it comes to capturing the GOP nomination in 2024 – although Erickson would argue differently – ask any one of them about their list of accomplishments and it’s very short, undistinguished, and, in many cases, items will be presented as an accomplishment when they’re blunders. This is especially true of Noem and DeSantis, who bore keen responsibility during the pandemic and did not cover themselves in glory.
And, I might add, this is a repeat of the 2016 Presidential nomination run, where the exact same phrase was deployed, and that huge field of 16 or more candidates was wiped out by then-candidate Trump, a political amateur who then proceeded to blunder away his victory in the general election with bad rhetoric and no follow-through. Erickson, et al, frantically repeating “remarkable bench” doesn’t make it so, just as it didn’t eight years ago. The fact of the matter is that then and now the field was a pack of ineffectual ideologues from the Senate, feel good amateurs from the business world, and incompetents from governors’ chairs, all with no accomplishments to speak of.
I think it’s a bit early, but I suspect in two years we’ll start seeing business leaders stepping into the race and rattling the cages of Rubio, Cruz, and whoever else is in the race, and, if they’re wise, asking what accomplishments to which they can point. The list will be embarrassingly short.
And Haley, perhaps the most accomplished of the lot, will come in fourth.
