It’s so strange how the press covers Nikki Haley like she actually matters.
I’m so glad young people no longer watch cable news. I hope it continues
I’m not sure that getting your “news” from random TikToks is any better…
They’re not random, they’re likely carefully curated (by algorithm) to maximize profits and promote the interests of it’s owner, who is that again?
It definitely is, seeing as TikTok viewers are more likely to oppose the genocide in Gaza than any other news viewers.
Before you downvote this comment, look at the data about how this genocide is covered. Mainstream news is providing misinformation about Gaza at this point: see
Citations Needed had an excellent episode about this point specifically.
‘Israeli children are killed by brutal terrorists’ vs. ‘people under the age of 18 in Gaza die in blasts’
The article I linked is by Adam Johnson. I think they discuss it in the episode.
Lol
If Trump is unable to be president because of Court cases that should rule that way (will they? Flip a coin…), then Haley has a pretty good chance of beating DeSantis. So yeah, she does matter.
I’d rather her over the others because she’s not so MAGA and far-right.
I’ll be voting for Biden either way.
None of those cases is going to be decided by November, or even January. He may have a ‘convicted pending appeal’ or two, but those appeals will be postponed until 2028. Hell, even if he loses, I doubt he’ll exhaust his appeals before 2030.
I’d agree with this if you were saying there’s a clear possibility of this, rather than treating it as a foregone conclusion. Because we don’t know for sure how it’s going to go at this point. But yeah, I don’t feel comfortable counting on these court cases taking Trump out of the equation at all.
Trump is well on track to croak before he has to seriously answer for anything.
People are complaining about not having better options than two old guys, but are also complaining that their rivals are getting coverage during the primary season.
Pretty tone deaf take here.
She’s been backed by a few mega donors who are able to push media coverage if I recall correctly
She is easy on the eyes and can generally make coherent points. That makes her a very small minority within the GOP.
“The Civil War was about state rights.”
Coherent.
Pick one.
You understand what she is trying to communicate, it’s s shitty hateful lying message but you understand it. Compare it to the rambling insanity we have all had to deal with since 2016.
By the way to be clear I am not going to vote for her.
24 hours a day of drama to fill. Gotta cover something
This comment has not aged well.
I’ve been waiting for this day, to throw off all my shackles and be my most petty of selves.
*ahem*
It’s not even New Hampshire yet and the Republican primary race is effectively down to only two people and she’s the option that’s not Trump.
She’ll probably win every state that has an open primary at very least.
He most certainly is not.
330 million people in the US and both parties are going to run a candidate who should, by rights, be considered medically unfit for office.
I hate it here.
“The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
One of my favorite books, but depressing people were pointing shit out 50 years ago and society at large is still ignoring it today.
It’s obvious from this excerpt that Adams was mostly talking about British Prime Ministers, who are elected by the government and do not wield much (if any) power beyond that of being a figurehead. Of perhaps the Royalty, who aren’t elected but hold even less power and are even more of a distraction.
The US president, by contrast, is not elected by the government and has a shit-ton of power, and increasingly so as the US congress is less and less able to govern due to Republican infighting. The US president can start and win a foreign war in less time than it takes congress to even form an opinion on the matter.
Zaphod spent two years in prison for fraud, meanwhile the US president is protected by more military firepower than literal nukes and has a chain of succession longer than most Kings because the US government literally cannot function without a President.
Adams was mostly talking about British Prime Ministers, who are elected by the government and do not wield much (if any) power beyond that of being a figurehead
That’s not true though.
I’m not British so I might be off-base, but my understanding is that like other European parliamentary monarchies, the PM is the effective head-of-state but their title rests entirely on the good graces of the MPs who can (and often do) replace the PM.
Furthermore the Executive branch of government isn’t particularly powerful, unlike the US. Maybe I’m fundamentally misunderstanding things but I don’t often hear about a British PM spending billions or starting wars without parliamentary involvement, which US presidents regularly do even if they don’t enjoy a majority in Congress (which is not a situation that British PMs can find themselves in by definition).
Of course the UK has the problem of FPTP voting which leads to (quasi) bipartism which means the PM has a rather symbiotic relationship with over half of parliament, but it’s still a very different dynamic.
The King would be the figurehead you’re thinking of. The PM may seem at the behest of his MPs (or the MPs of parliament in general), but, as we saw with Boris (fucking) Johnson and David (oink) Cameron, they can whip MPs, expel them if they defy the whip, prorogue parliament, call referenda, and many other acts which allow them to do as they wish if they wield their power in the ‘right’ way. There are things which the PM can do outside of parliament, as with any leader of a country; this includes starting wars, appointing members of the cabinet (and other branches).
This does a decent job of explaining it:
https://theweek.com/100451/is-the-british-prime-minister-too-powerful
No, that’s the monarch (where it still exists) or the president in parliamentary democracies (not presidential democracies).
The PM is in fact the leader of government and relies on the good graces of the governing party or parties, not unlike the US president candidate effectively needs to unite his party behind him.
The difference is mostly the ability to get removed/replaced hy his party but usually no term limits, where presidents are term-limited and there are explicit regulations how the parliament can remove them (something that is already inhently given in parliamental systems where the government leader is selected via parliamental majority in the first place).
I think you brush over a detail too fast. The US president needs to unite his party… until the last ballot is cast. That very instant, this stops being true for four years. Combined with a powerful executive that keeps the president very powerful even without legislative support.
Of course by definition any democratic system has checks and balances and ultimately ends up being representative of the will people in some way, but my point is that British PMs are a lot closer to being “harmless distractions” such as Zaphod than US presidents (also Douglas Adams was English).
But then several books later we see the person who’s really in charge and he was great
Do you have any proof at all that Biden is mentally unfit, or are you just repeating what TikTok says?
All I see is that he’s old, his stutter has gotten worse, and he tripped over a sandbag once.
his stutter has gotten worse,
He was a favorite in the 1988 presidential primary because he was such a a great public speaker…
He got over his stutter when he was a child, and a stutter doesn’t make someone say something completely different than what they meant to. Hell, he wasn’t even doing it while Obama’s VP, and he was in his 70s then.
Stop pretending he just has a stutter, he’s 80 years old and he gets confused sometimes. It’ll happen to all of us if we’re lucky to live that long.
That doesn’t mean he’s still fit to be presidet, and he sure as shit isn’t the best option for a Dem candidate even if he is mentally fit for office.
He was a favorite in the 1988 presidential primary because he was such a a great public speaker
Were you alive back then? As I remember it, he was a perennial also-ran because he couldn’t help but stay stupid shit now and then. It’s as if the word “Gaffe” in politics was invented to describe stupid things Joe Biden said. And saying stuff like that stopped campaigns cold back then. (remember when Howard Dean’s campaign got killed over screaming the wrong way?)
But then Trump happened, and all of a sudden saying stupid shit all the time was no longer a liability.
I was alive and eligible to vote in 88 but I was a dumb kid that voted but didn’t pay attention to the primaries so I don’t remember him at all.
And he wasn’t a “great public speaker” in that he was known for saying dumb shit as you say. (If anything gaffe was a term that applied earlier to Dan Quayle, former VP).
I don’t recall for sure if the stutter was present then or to what degree.
I also don’t see a lot of evidence that he is mentally unfit (for his age) as far as I am aware.
I also don’t see a lot of evidence that he is mentally unfit (for his age) as far as I am aware.
Curious, have you even heard of his gaffes and other funny stuff (Corn Pop, pony soldier, trueananashabadapressure, falling, not knowing where to go after a speech)? There are so many funny moments from his speeches. People put together “best of” compilations on every video site. They don’t get reported on CNN and stuff, you do have to look for them.
The mental fitness stuff is exaggerated for the most part, but he does lose track of his line of thinking when speaking off the cuff, without a teleprompter. He will start reciting a story he’s told 1000x, then he just sighs and says, “anyways…”
I would say, as with Trump, to go to as original of a source as you can. Watch an hour long campaign really or whatever to hear the whole speech in context. Don’t just read a headline or synopsis from the media.
Were you alive back then? As I remember it, he was a perennial also-ran because he couldn’t help but stay stupid shit now and then
Actually, yeah.
But why does that matter? Sure, Biden is old, but his first presidential.primary isn’t ancient history, we don’t have to have actually seen it to know about it.
Biden was initially considered one of the potentially strongest candidates as campaigning began in 1987.[6] This was because of his image as a political moderate, his speaking ability on the stump (rated second only to that of Jesse Jackson), his appeal to Baby Boomers, his high-profile position as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, looming for the Robert Bork confirmation hearings, and his fundraising appeal—his $1.7 million raised in the first quarter of 1987 was more than any other candidate.[7][8] By the end of April he had raised $2 million, using not just contributions from Delaware but also establishing a base of support among young professionals and Jewish voters in a number of urban- and suburban-oriented states.[9] He had no campaign debt, and Fortune magazine termed his “most impressive start” a “surprise”.[9]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_1988_presidential_campaign
The only speaking difficulty Biden has had up till the last decade, has been when media press him on a challenge, he gets pissed and starts insulting them. The deathblow to the 88 campaign was when his speech plagiarism lead to reporters finding out he cheated in school and lied about being active in the civil rights movement.
He might have survived that, but he started insulting reporters when they asked. A pissed off presidential candidate yelling about how much better he is than the worker man sells a lot of newspapers and it’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to get out
He was still doing it last campaign, he’ll do it next time.
He was still doing it last campaign, he’ll do it next time.
No, he won’t do it this time because he isn’t going to campaign with the public. The instances he got angry with the public were pretty early in the primaries mostly. They won’t let that happen this time. It will be even smaller audiences than last run (heavily vetted people) or zoom speeches from the basement.
In 2020, his campaign had to stop scheduling evening events with Buden because he would start sundowning. He’s an 80 year old man who is clearly starting to show signs of his age.
I agree with you that he’s showing signs of his age, but isn’t it possible he simply gets tired by 8PM, and since hes the boss, he can simply say “Dont schedule me for late nights thst arent necessary”?
There’s a whole lot of daylight between that and “sundowning”.
Shit am I unfit to be president since I get tired at 8pm too?
Sorry, you and me both and I’m a lot younger than Joe.
Source?
Edit: 1 day later. There is no source. Consensus wins. They pulled it from their ass.
His ass.
I could believe though of not having events past 8pm. Anyone with good sleep hygiene would do that though.
My favorite part about all this is both sides just kind of ignoring that their candidate can’t string together a coherent sentence, gets confused a lot, and mistakes people for others all the time as if those aren’t signs of cognitive decline.
Cheers. Thank you for doing your part to ensure this never changes.
Here’s an excerpt from the very beginning of Biden’s speech two weeks ago:
In the winter of 1777, it was harsh and cold as the Continental Army marched to Valley Forge. General George Washington knew he faced the most daunting of tasks: to fight and win a war against the most powerful empire that existed in the world at the time.
His mission was clear. Liberty, not conquest. Freedom, not domination. National independence, not individual glory.
America made a vow. Never again would we bow down to a king.
And here’s an except from Trump’s speech from his most recent rally just a few days ago:
By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley … did you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it? All of it, because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security, we offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, national guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.
Biden is old, just like Trump. Nobody denies that. But surely you aren’t trying to “both sides” this one by equating the two mentally or physically, right?
In the winter of 1777, it was harsh and cold as the Continental Army marched to Valley Forge. General George Washington knew he faced the most daunting of tasks: to fight and win a war against the most powerful empire that existed in the world at the time.
Wtf, is this gibberish even English?? /s
Sure feels like astroturfing going on around the campaign with all the people making completely bullshit claims like “both sides can’t string words together”. But maybe far more people talk out their asses than I realized lol.
Biden is playing the game and reading off a teleprompter, Trump is riffing
Therefore Trump sounds like the actual idiot that he is, and Biden is performing as expected of a president.
Not sure what your point is here beyond just playing yourself and shutting down your own argument.
Then maybe Trump should quit “riffing” until he can string a coherent sentence together.
Because Biden is over here giving solid speeches on how this moment reflects American history, while Trump is so completely confused (and, let’s face it, that’s being fucking generous) that he doesn’t even know that Nicky Haley (who worked in his cabinet and who is running against him as a Republican) isn’t Nancy Pelosi.
Am I cherry-picking? Has Trump said anything coherent in the last 12 months? On prompter or off. That’s a serious question by the way.
Time to face the facts, Biden may be a bit old and doddering, but Trump is now straight-up demented.
It’s no wonder he’s afraid to debate, because he seems to have barely any idea what’s even going on anymore. Why else do you think his handlers have him taking cognitive tests?
I don’t see anyone ignoring it. In fact, it appears to be all some folks can talk about.
Judging by the lack of a primary on the Democratic side and Trump winning in Iowa, I think it’s perfectly fair to say that people are ignoring it.
Judging by the fact you are commenting on a national article on the topic, I’d say you’re wrong, and people are doing the opposite of ignoring it.
I’ve already demonstrated why it’s silly that you think that way. Thank you for the discussion.
They’re ignoring it by writing every other article on it? Right. You sure “demonstrated my silliness.”
🙄
A mental aptitude test for all politicians is a great idea actually
This could be weaponized as a tool of discrimination to keep minority groups or the impoverished out of office by constructing purposefully confusing questions. Just like the Jim Crow Era laws requiring people pass literacy tests to vote.
This.
It has to be something really really unassailable. Age would be a good starter.
Requiring candidates to release their IRS records in order to appear on the ballot is another close second.
I get the problem, but I don’t think it’s really applicable. Voting is a basic right of every citizen of the country. Presidency is not for everyone. You wouldn’t want a translator who doesn’t know the languages they’re supposed to translate? Why would you accept a president who is, let’s say mentally challenged?
I could understand objecting to specifics, like why should mental aptitude get tested, but I don’t understand being against the whole idea. IMO presidency is like a job and like most jobs there are specific requirements that a person needs to meet to be fit for that job. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have certain expectations of people who are running for president.
It’s a good idea but completely meaningless because the “tests” will be biased and run by sycophants on both sides.
Think about it this way. Many LGBTQ+ identites have been considered to make people “mentally unwell” (even to this day, the way stuff like being trans or asexual is talked about is… >.<). Or what about, say an autistic person who may do exceptionally well in one part of the test but fail some other parts (or even be unable to complete them).
This isn’t even starting on the issues of socioeconomic and cultural biases (which have been discussed elsewhere in depth).
The problem is “mental competency” is a pretty damn flexible concept and one that is frequently weaponised en-masse against various groups of people to strip away agency >.<, as it is often based on ideas which have primarily been from very specific perspectives, which can be malicious (see disenfranchisment of black people), or dehumanisation (see the fact that the Double Empathy Problem associated with autistic people was only really acknowledged in the past 10 years when they actually considered how their behaviour could appear from autistic people’s perspective, and only really because autistic autism researchers got some publishing and papers <.<), or simple incompetence, or any combination.
There’s many more examples of this, that I haven’t even started covering. The fact is that any “mental competency” requirement for a public office implies some kind of testing and barring process, which is ripe with all the flaws listed many times :p
Wow. I never thought about this. I doubt there will be a time anytime soon where I’d be ok voting for a president who isn’t fluent in english. I’d almost be ok with a grammar test including diagramming sentences from the Constitution.
But since I’m a liberal I’d accept the test also being done in a relevant First Nation’s language.
Just publicize the questions results, judges/proctors, etc.
This makes sense when it comes to voting restrictions. I’d say anyone seeking office in the U.S. should be able to speak fluent English (as that’s the language their job will be conducted in) and be able to pass an aptitude test.
This test should be taken alone, in public view, and on camera, probably only after winning an election and failure means the runner up gets the position assuming they can pass the test.
failure means the runner up gets the position
It has to be before even filing to run for office if we bother with such a thing. I’m skeptical of the idea as a whole, but doing it after the election would cause a crisis of faith and legitimacy in the government. Not only are you depriving voters of the chance to learn the mental fortitude of candidates before they cast their vote, but you’re also invalidating their votes after the election.
You might be right, I’m skeptical as well that anything like this could actually be accomplished while minimizing corruption. There would be a different set of problems if done before the election.
This could be weaponized
COULD, not WOULD.
If you don’t make any rules that the fascists might want to abuse, you don’t make any rules.
Your slippery slope fallacy does not invalidate the need to make sure that public officials are fit to carry out their duties.
pretty sure the last century of American politics has borne out that any statutes related to politicking that could be weaponized HAVE BEEN. nice try tho!
I mean… Trump did take a mental fitness test, and failed so miserably he genuinely thought he had passed it. Person-woman-man-camera-tv, anyone? And that was years ago, he’s certainly lost even more of his faculties since then.
Toss in drug testing and annual financial audits as well.
And monthly tests if they test positive for drugs, daily if they within the last two terms have voted to criminalise that drug.
And toss in a breathalyser test for everyone before entering to vote.
Alcohol would be something. Nixon was a raging alcoholic and look at the damage he did
There’s basically 3 rules to be president:
- Born in the US
- Over the age of 35
- Never lead an intersection against the United States
If Trump can’t be barred from running for his role in Jan 6, there’s no way adding more requirements will somehow fix things.
Man, woman, person, camera, TV
The doctors were so impressed with how well I did on that intelligent test.
Fwiw, he passed a cognitive stroke exam 4 years ago.
Whatever, really. She’s probably 6-8 weeks from turning around and endorsing him anyway.
She’ll bend the knee like the rest.
Knees.
Haha cuz she’s a woman I get it good joke dude
DeSantis dropped out of the race today and is already slobbering all over Trump’s knob and she’ll be doing the same thing in a few weeks.
Pretty sure being a Trump fellator is gender neutral, but you think what you want.
Narrator: of course he’s not fit.
But neither are his voters, who would rather burn the world down out of hatred and spite than accept defeat.
Haley needed to be saying this stuff 2 years ago.
She’s clearly just a spineless flip flopping politician.
Just look at loser Ronny. He waited far too long to be negative about Trump and his dreams ended in kissing Donnie’s ass and walking away with nothing. Best case scenario he gets to be the wannabe mango Mussolini’s puppet VP
Aka a politician.
Yes yes they’re all the same, right, and that’s why you vote Trump. Tell us more.
All republicans are mentally defective.
So would the most mentally defective be their leader? Or the least?
Why is that even a question in 2024
Haley waited too long to go in for the kill, and that just shows she isn’t the right material. She’s going to pander to Trump’s base who believe his obvious lies. They will vote for Trump. These clowns don’t have the first idea about strategy or commanding power or assessing the electorate.
The kill-shot should’ve been to point out that he’s a loser who lost the election… but they can’t get his base if they do that because his base doesn’t think he lost.
Who could’ve known casting doubt on the veracity of the election would lead to such inconvenience?
No. The answer is no.
Go gloves off you pussy bitch Nikki Haley. You think your orange idol would hold back?
Questions it? The answer to that question has been thoroughly documented.
What is with america and demented old fools as presidents? You guys have some kinda fetish or what
In his defense, I see the resemblance. Plus, they both enjoy policymaking as a medium for enriching themselves and their friends!
She’s going to be his VP pick and then she’ll stop all the criticisms
Eric said it was gonna be Tucker Carlson.
