Does anyone believe DeSantis could be elected for President...

[Septua]

..assuming for whatever reason(s), Trump is NOT the GOP candidate?

DeSantis is going around bragging on how he led Florida to new heights of freedom and anti-woke wokeness, when in fact he has mostly taken an authoritarian stance popular only with the anti-woke, MAGA type crowd.

[tanyev]

1. Don't ask me, I didn't believe Trump could be elected.

[dutch777]

2. Yep, any crazy can be elected has been proven. DeSatan fits the Trump populist mold so sure.

[Buckeyeblue]

15. I remember saying in 2000 that this country would never elect someone like W

I have a long history of being wrong about politics. It makes me unique, since so many others are always right...

[Meadowoak]

3. The rest of the country is not Floriduh, so no.

[Tommy Carcetti]

35. Please don't use "Floriduh"

Thank you.

[Meadowoak]

36. Sorry, no offense meant.

[barbaraann]

4. I don't think he could win the popular vote, but he could "win" the Electoral College vote

with enough tampering/cheating.

[toesonthenose]

5. 100% yes and any decision to think he can't does us a disservice.

Plan and prepare to fight the battle with everything. If turd can get elected, then so can Desatan. The moment you take your enemy/opponent for granted, or think there is no way they can win, then you take your foot off of the gas pedal and they beat you. Never, ever underestimate any opponent.

[Meadowoak]

10. I think a lot of casual voters learned their lesson in 2016. They won't just stay home ever again

[Wednesdays]

6. It's quite do-able.

DeSatan would just need all the states Rump won in 2020, and merely add Georgia, Arizona, plus any ONE of these: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin or Virginia, and he's clinched it. There are many possible avenues.

Which means we have to execute a once-in-a-lifetime effort this next cycle, because our democracy depends on it.

[crud]

7. If he wins the nomination...

don't assume that trump will disappear. trump is going to plague all the R's for the foreseeable future.

[gulliver]

61. +1

[Irish_Dem]

8. Yes we know the PutinGOP can install whoever they want into the WH.

[jcgoldie]

9. trails trump by 28 points in new GOP primary poll

...Morning Consult survey

[Bucky]

11. Yes. People are scared and scared people will vote for a strong man. That's exactly why

the Republicans and their Fox leaders are constantly trying to get people even more scared.

[StarryNite]

34. Yes, many people can be easily manipulated with scare tactics and

conspiracy theories.

[BannonsLiver]

12. This country elected an orange game show host as president. So yes.

[Samrob]

13. After 2016 a ham sandwich could be elected President of the US. Not much hope in voters anymore.

I want to stand and fight back but it gets harder every day as I watch the cult in action with their lies and nothing happening to stop them.

[sarisataka]

14. What is it when it happens three times?

[Silent3]

16. Of course I believe it. Everyone should believe it.

In case you haven't figured it out, the American voting public isn't that smart. All they need is to be sufficiently dissatisfied with Biden at the time of the election, whether or not that dissatisfaction stems from real or propaganda-induced imagined faults of the Biden administration, or merely coincidental problems in the world beyond Biden's control, and they will vote in whatever fascist thug the Republicans nominate.

Not nearly enough Americans are sufficiently aware or afraid of the current authoritarian threat.

Some people who you think would be on our side simply won't show up to vote, or will vote for a third-party candidate, if they petulantly feel Biden hasn't "earned their vote", like those rightfully pissed off about the Willow project but not smart enough to realize how much better off the country and the environment will be with Biden anyway.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

50. B- poll today, AP, our President dropped precipitously

from 45 to 38. Hope it's an outlier. Don't understand why this happened. Thought we were moving up!

[themaguffin]

17. YES.

[LiberalFighter]

18. I wonder if the change of control at Disney will increase prices.

Can blame that on DeSatan.

[LiberalFighter]

19. Would anyone consider Boris Johnson crazy?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. Incumbency comes with a lot of benefits.

He would be the underdog.

[dsc]

21. Pretty much any GOP candidate is one badly timed recession away from winning

and we would be fools to believe otherwise. Reagan was arguably more out of the mainstream in 1980 than DeSantis is now and we know how that went.

[pwb]

22. No. We don't like little guys for President.

Little men are assholes. Think Putin?

[Polybius]

30. Ehh, DeSantis is about the same as Carter

5'10, pretty average, not tall or short.

[MyMission]

23. On paper his credentials seem impressive

That scares me, but it could actually hurt him with the maga crowd. But as others wrote, never expected shrub or tfg to get elected, yet they did.

He attended Harvard and Yale, served in the military, and is young, which might appeal to a wide range of voters. Hopefully his impressive credentials will fail to impress the GOPQ base.

[JHB]

24. He could shoot Trump on 5th Ave and still have the Republican Party behind him

Because that's what Republicans do -- fall in line.

Anything else would let the Ultimate Evil reign free. Y'know, Democrats.

Hell, it would probably win him votes: "Dang, I didn't think he was that ballsy! He's got my vote now!"

[madville]

25. Sure

It’s typically a 50/50 shot, many variables in play.

[Chakaconcarne]

26. Nope

not legitimately anyway.

[PufPuf23]

27. DeSantis has what looks to be a golden resume.

I take his successes as more an indictment of what is wrong in the USA, that such a cetin can repeatedly rise to the top here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_DeSantis

Do not find Trump is favored by GOP over DeSantis close to reassuring.

One would hope rump is legally a non-entity regards POTUS in the near future.

We have much work for 2024.

DeSantis is scary as probably the powerful that own the media will benefit more from DeSantis than Trump.

We do not want DeSantis to be POTUS. Take no chances (and as many prisoners as possible).

[Polybius]

28. Against Biden? Probably not.

Against Harris or Newsom? Absolutely.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

29. As noted by Wednesdays above, the electoral college system makes every presidential election

danger-filled. So if DeSantis gets the GOP nomination, we can't be relaxed.

That said, I don't understand his appeal (even beyond the obvious differences in politics). He seems charisma-free to me. Yet he won the governor's race by a huge margin. So I dunno.

On our side, I could not feel better than having Joe Biden as our nominee. I love him and I think he will win in 2024, no matter who the Republicans nominate.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

49. Totally agree... "Charisma free". Love that!

[Just A Box Of Rain]

52. I've tried to evolve beyond "name-calling," but in my youth DeSantis would definitely have been

tagged as a "dork." Not a remotely interesting personality, as I see it.

And I doubt I'll ever get the white boots he wore during the hurricane recovery out of my head.

I simply do not understand his appeal, even leaving his odious politics out of the equation.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

55. Yes. To me he 100% lacks

Authenticity and sense of humor. Has none!

[Just A Box Of Rain]

58. These seem like critical flaws in a politician.

Yet he was re-elected in a landslide in his race for governor. I don't really fathom how that happened from the remove of one living in California.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

59. Good point. Would be interesting to hear Floridian's take! nt

[maxsolomon]

31. I have zero faith in the American voter, so yes.

By and large, the people who decide our elections are low-information flibberdigibbets in 4 or 5 purple states who shouldn't be trusted to cross the street by themselves, let alone vote.

The Electoral College is an antiquated curse, like much of Our Dumb Constitution.

[sakabatou]

32. I don't think so, but you know how the EC can be f*cked up.

[liberal_mama]

33. I definitely think DeSatan could be elected president and then our country will be done n/t

[Celerity]

37. Too many variables for a definitive answer atm but there are multiple scenarios where he could be,

unfortunately and nightmarishly, elected.

[MissMillie]

38. After 2016, why would anyone say "no"?

Seriously... ?

[2naSalit]

39. Not without massive cheatin'.

[GoodRaisin]

41. Sure, if he's the Rs nominee.

He’ll get the R vote from the bulk of the R voters like is always the case. The race will be won or lost on the margins and the circumstances. We will have to GOTV again.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

47. Exactly! Approvals like 7 points higher. No one wants

to acknowledge that but at this point in time true.

[redstatebluegirl]

42. Only if we think it is a slam dunk and we do not show up.

FYI it has happened before..

[Laura PourMeADrink]

46. Who would be a slam dunk?

[redstatebluegirl]

60. People here and elsewhere believe polling numbers.

If it is Trump and Biden, I think the polls will show Biden beating him soundly nationwide, not in the bright red areas like where I live but nationwide numbers will be horrible. The lines at the polls will be horrible because of all the things the GOP has done to supress the vote including but not limited to closing polling places to make it harder and longer times in the voting lines.

I never once thought Hillary was a slam dunk, but I know a lot of people who read the polls, listened to the tv nuts and decided not to show up and vote.

This time we all MUST vote, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it is.

[Septua]

43. Yeah, it's very possible.

Whether the GOP candidate is Trump, DeSantis or Louie Gohmert, the same people who voted for Trump will vote GOP...unfortunately.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

44. Hmmm. Not popular opinion... But our poll #s really

bad. Thought we were on a rise. Hope so. Bottom line , know it will change, any R dipshit *could* win

[obnoxiousdrunk]

45. Yes

[ecstatic]

48. If they cheat, yes.

It seems like ever since drump started promoting the big lie and all of his completely ridiculous conspiracies, our side ended up silenced by default with regard to legitimate discrepancies. How the fuck did a fascist asshole like desantis beat his opponent by 19 points when just 4 years prior, he barely beat Gilliam? It was a virtual tie! Come on now. Make it make sense. Is there any other example of that large of a swing before? And he won Miami too? Come on now.

[Skittles]

51. if TRUMP can be "president", fucking ANYONE can

Trump lowered the bar so it is pretty much UNDERGROUND

[Raine]

53. Absolutely ... if he gets the nomination he can win. nt

[Withywindle]

54. Yes, I do

I made the mistake of thinking Trump couldn't win. Obviously I was wrong.

The anti-woke MAGA type crowd is much, much larger than I wanted to admit at that time, and now they control a lot of state legislatures and judicial position that influence laws about how elections and voting happen.

The difference between us and them is that we respect democracy, and they just fucking don't. They will fight as dirty as they have to because they want power at all costs.

[Crunchy Frog]

56. I believed that Trump couldn't get elected. I'm not making that sort of mistake again.

[ZonkerHarris]

57. Nightmares can come true. It keeps happening to me. Reagan. Bush 2. Trump. Literal Nightmares

[sarcasmo]

62. Larry Hogan is making a mistake, he could run on being the "Sane" GOP.

[gulliver]

63. He looks like he's angling for veep

DeSantis is young. He can angle for veep on the GOP (losing) 2024 ticket and hope for 2028. The primaries are free showbiz, so DeSantis will definitely want to play.

If DeSantis really wants to be elected President in 2024, he has no choice but to destroy Trump or get his blessing. They've both been playing political kabuki with each other to date.

[Kaleva]

64. Yes. Anything can happen

Turnout is key. If our turnout is low and his turnout is high, he could win.

There are historically only a few states that determine the winner. Trump won in 2016 by seeking out victories in PA, MI and WI.

There are states that will vote Red and others that are solid Blue. The fight will be limited to the purple states

[EnergizedLib]

65. After 2016, I've lost all faith in humanity

It’s slightly restored after 2018, 2020 and 2022, but I’ve seen all sorts of callousness in this country I never thought I’d see.