‘Exclusive: Tucker Carlson Interviews Vladimir Putin’

Last Thursday [02.08.2024] evening, Tucker Carlson published to YouTube his exclusive interview with Russia president Vladimir Putin.

I posted it in the Comments section just after 03:30 a.m. ET on Friday [02.09.2024].

This is worthy of a given week’s blog topic. 

It is now published to Progressives Chat.

Election 2024: Nine Months Out

Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the scheduled date for the 2024 United States presidential election, is exactly nine months from the date of this week’s blog topic.

Given this week is also the caucus and the primary [Republican] in Nevada, this may be good timing for an update on my perspective.

Refer to the above electoral map. All states colored in red carried in 2020 for an unseated Republican incumbent Donald Trump. All states in yellow carried in 2020 for then-Democratic challenger and pickup winner—and, now, incumbent—Joe Biden.

This is important because, historically, no past electoral map has ever been duplicated. This means, at minimum, one state will switch color from 2020 to 2024. If this year was to end up a Democratic hold, for re-election for Biden, most likely to flip would be North Carolina. (I addressed that state in this 2023 blog topic: “Next In Line”.) But, over the last several months, no source has reported North Carolina as a tossup; commonly the state has been rated as, at a minimum, Lean Republican [hold].

This is why, for illustrative purpose, I show the above states in yellow as the ones which can feasibility switch color/party. They are all…2020 Democratic-to-2024 Republican.

Considering Biden’s job approval is struggling for 40 percent (Gallup’s 2023 end-of-year job-approval performance for Biden is 39 percent), and with no 2020 Republican/Trump state in a feasible position to flip 2024 Democratic/Biden, this has become obvious.

I am reminded of Election 2008. In November 2007, one year out from the November 4, 2008 United States presidential election, [ABC World News Tonight] had a report. Then-hosted by Charles Gibson, and in a discussion with George Stephanopuolos, the numbers were in with regard for Republican incumbent U.S. president George W. Bush. His job approval was below 40 percent. (Gallup, with its tracking history for U.S. presidents’s job approval, shows Bush was under 40 percent following the 2006 midterm elections—the year his Republican Party saw the Democratic Party flip both houses of Congress—through the remainder of his presidency.) Wrong track number, for Bush, was over 70 percent. Gibson and Stephanopoulos, with acknowledging Bush was term-limited, honed in on what the chances were for the incumbent party, the Republican Party, for being able to win Election 2008. To hold the White House. Stephanopoulos told Gibson he talked with some Republicans on Capitol Hill. They told Stephanopoulos, “[Election 2008] was the Democrats’s to lose.” That, as observed by Stephanopoulos, “the tide of history is against them [the 2008 Republicans].”

I recognize the polls which came in in early-November 2023, and which were reported by numerous sources (including videos by The Jimmy Dore Show and Due Dissidence), were already saying plenty. The timing is following a 16-year parallel—2007-to-2008 and 2023-to-2024—also involving a low-approval U.S. president. The differences: Election 2024 has an incumbent U.S. president who is not term-limited—and is eligible for possible re-election—and the incumbent parties are the inverse. The tide of history is against…the 2024 Democrats (with or without re-nomination for Joe Biden). Election 2024 is…the Republicans’s to lose.

UAW Endorsement—Not a Factor

Last week, the United Auto Workers endorsed for 2024 re-election U.S. president Joe Biden.

Some sources, given the UAW’s strike last fall, have tried to make this out to be a big deal. A part of the reason is because this is with respect to the bellwether state of Michigan. It is home to all three U.S. auto manufacturers, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Stellantis. The former two are headquartered in Michigan; the latter is headquartered in Amsterdam but Chrysler Corporation, its American subsidiary, is also headquartered in Michigan.

In this day and age, the UAW’s endorsement is not a big deal.

The UAW, which regularly endorses the Democratic Party, is not enough to persuade a sufficient number of citizens to vote for this party and to prevent the Republican Party from prevailing.

The circumstances of Election 2024, especially with the polls over the last two to three months, are bad for the 2024 Democrats and Joe Biden. They indicate enough citizens will not vote to re-elect Joe Biden. The issues are dealing with inflation and other economic matters; the continuous support and funding of the wars/conflicts; the border crisis; etc. Other factors, at this point, are a bonus for the 2024 Republicans and likely nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump. (It is not a help, to Biden/Democrats, people have told the pollsters their lives were better during the presidency of Trump.)

We need more unions. No doubt. But I also wonder if the UAW endorsing Biden casts them in a negative light. It has to do with the income level, the benefits, as experienced by members of the UAW having not spread to other working class citizens who are left behind. Being left behind also translates, to non-UAW members who are also among the working class, as being left behind by the Democratic Party. The working class are, in general, trending Republican while the professional-managerial class—people with six-figure incomes and up—are trending Democratic. That this endorsement may make the UAW comes across as…out of touch. 

(To the UAW’s credit: They opted to not endorse either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination—apparently due to members being divided over who to support—which suggests the UAW can be, when necessary, in touch.)

In an election year in which the Democratic incumbent U.S. president struggles to reach 40 percent in job approval…this endorsement by the UAW—more specifically by president Shawn Fain (above left, with Biden) and the people who are on the national board—will have no effect electorally.

New Hampshire the First and Second

Tuesday, January 23, 2024 is the date for the New Hampshire presidential primaries.

This is the first primary for the Republican Party. It is their second contest en route to determining the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

The Democratic Party made South Carolina their first primary. But, New Hampshire Democrats are forcing a contest. U.S. president Joe Biden is not on the ballot. Dean Phillips, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota, and author Marianne Williamson are on the ballot.

Truth be told…I don’t care about the Democrats.

The focus is on the Republicans.

Now that Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis are out…the race for this 2024 Republican presidential nomination is between Nikki Haley and 45th U.S. president Donald Trump.

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 UPDATE! 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

Donald Trump won the 2024 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, over Nikki Haley, by just over +10 percentage points.

Iowa the First

Monday, January 15, 2024 is the first politics-related blog topic of this new year. 

It is also the date of the year’s first presidential contest.

The Republican Party will have a caucus.

It is expected to be won by 45th president of the United States Donald Trump.

The state of Iowa, in general elections, realigned to the Republicans in 2016, a GOP pickup year for the presidency specifically to Trump, and the state is out of reach for the Democrats. So, in return, the Democrats are done with Iowa for leading the way for their party to be key in helping determine their general-election nominee.

My take is the 2024 Democratic Party is stuck with low-approval incumbent Joe Biden. (Fine.) So, in a future election cycle, more likely 2028, the Democrats will have to have primaries and caucuses. This year, for the process of nomination, the focus is on the Republicans. (On Donald Trump.)

⭐️🌟⭐️🌟⭐️  U P D A T E ! 🌟⭐️🌟⭐️🌟

Tuesday 01.16.2024: Donald Trump won the 2024 Republican Iowa caucuses by nearly +30 percentage points. Following is a screenshot of vote results. Source: New York Times.

Winter Break

Happy New Year 2024!