Who Will Face Trump in 2024? Democrat Hopefuls Jockey for Pole Position
In this March 15, 2020, file photo, former Vice President Joe Biden prepares for a Democratic presidential primary debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at CNN Studios in Washington.
James TweedieDonald Trump’s long-anticipated announcement of his 2024 presidential bid has thrown down the gauntlet to would-be Democrat challengers to President Joe Biden’s presumed run for a second term.Trump announced his bid for a third run at the White House on Tuesday following mixed results for both Republicans and Democrats in the midterm elections.With his most credible Republican rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, yet to declare his own candidacy the spotlight turns on the Democratic Party and its choice of who to run in 2024.
The Continuity Candidates
Current White House occupant Joe Biden has insisted he will run for a second term in 2024, despite concerns that he is showing the signs of senile dementia.As the incumbent he would be the natural favourite. His supporters would argue that he has a track record of winning as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008 and 2012 and as presidential candidate in 2020 — although only 55 percent of Americans polled by Axios in January of this year believe that result was legitimate.While Biden’s repeated garbled pronouncements and apparent confusion have prompted a crisis of confidence in his leadership, a move by Congress to invoke the 25th constitutional amendment and declare him incapable of governing would hand power to his giggling and equally-incoherent Vice-President Kamala Harris.The Biden campaign’s choice of Harris as his running-mate was hailed as a victory of sexual equality and ethnic diversity. But she was one of the least-popular hopefuls in the Democratic presidential nomination race, dropping out before the first primary after failing to garner campaign donations.Discounting both the sitting president and VP from the 2024 ticket would blow the whole race wide open.
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California Dreaming
The last governor of California to be elected President was of course a Republican — former Hollywood actor and McCarthyite stool-pigeon Ronald Reagan.The current chief in Sacramento, Gavin Newsom, is being heavily touted by US media as the great white (and male) hope of the Democrats after he saw of a recall election.He has made headlines outside the Pacific coast state for his ultra-liberal stance on a variety of Democrat shibboleths such as gun control, abortion and transsexual rights.
Los Angeles Breaks Record Gas Prices, Newsom Calls out Big Oil for ‘Price Gouging’8 October, 03:09 GMTCalifornia has some of the harshest firearm restrictions in the US — and even issues public health cancer warnings on bullets.Following the Supreme Court’s decision which overturned the 50-year-old Roe vs Wade ruling — which effectively annulled anti-abortion laws — Newsom took out public adverts in Republican-governed sates offering abortions to women there in California.And he has also supported the controversial practice of encouraging children to self-identify as transgender. In September he signed legislation to make California a “refuge” for runaway children from other states whose parents do not support them “transitioning” using puberty-blocking drugs and irreversible gender-reassignment surgery. But those touchstone positions for metropolitan liberals are in turn likely to alienate the socially-conservative swing voters the Democrats need to win the crucial mid-west and Florida.
The Vague Left
The so-called left wing of the Democratic Party has mounted strong challenges for the nomination at the last two elections, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — who sits as an independent but caucuses with Democrats — coming a close second to establishment favourites Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.Sanders has refused to rule out a third bid for the White House if Biden chooses not to run. But the veteran campaigner is even older than the often-befuddled Biden and will turn 83 before the next election.The young rising star of the Democrat left is New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or AOC, an advocate of the ‘Green New Deal’ plan that Biden partially appropriated.
ViralDisgruntled NY Post Employee Fired After Hijacking Paper’s Twitter, Calling for Assassinating AOC27 October, 22:59 GMTAOC is the most high-profile member of the so-called “Squad” of radical young Democrat representatives — which expanded to platoon size after the 2020 elections. But that faction recently discredited itself after 30 of them signed an open letter to Biden in late October calling for peace talks with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine — only to hurriedly retract it within hours on a flimsy excuse.Some pundits have also blamed the Republicans’ failure to take control of the Senate and win a respectable majority in the House on their failure — with a few exceptions — to oppose spending billions of taxpayer dollars on military and financial aid to the Kiev regime with no accounting for whether it reaches the front line.
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Hillary’s Turn Again?
Hillary Clinton treated the Democratic candidacy and the presidency as her birthright in both 2008, when she lost out to fellow Democrat Barack Obama, and 2016, when her “basket of deplorables” speech and threats to go to war with Russia in Syria helped Trump to victory.She has since been in denial about her failure, blaming everyone from Bernie Sanders to Russia for her defeat. Biden’s apparent cognitive decline has even emboldened Clinton’s supporters to suggest she could replace him before the next election.While the former secretary of state ruled out another run at the top job in September, a former aide to her husband Bill said the following month that she was planning to challenge Biden for the nomination in 2024. Dick Morris said Clinton would attack the president from the right over his border policy that has seen the rate of people-trafficking from Mexico skyrocket.
AmericasFormer Clinton Aide: Hillary is Planning 2024 Presidential Run3 October, 03:23 GMTTrump himself has welcome the prospect of a rematch with the candidate he beat in 2016. “The woman is crooked as can be,” he said last December. “She cheated in the election, they spied on my campaign.”
