How Many Haley Voters Can Biden Win?
How Many Haley Voters Can Biden Win?
Plus: The World Sees America Falling Apart
Recently in The Bulwark:
BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: ‘Time to Unite,’ Say Trump’s Last GOP Holdouts
JVL: The Definitive Answer to the Question “Are You Better Off Today Than You Were Four Years Ago?” 🔐
JOE PERTICONE: What to Expect at the State of the Union Address 🔐
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WILL SALETAN: How Many Haley Voters Can Biden Win?
NIKKI HALEY IS GONE. The last of Donald Trump’s Republican challengers bowed out on Wednesday, hours after getting shellacked on Super Tuesday. With that, the next phase of the presidential election has begun: a race between Trump and President Joe Biden to recruit Haley’s voters.
Some of Haley’s supporters were independents or Democrats who crossed over to vote in Republican primaries. But many were registered or self-identified Republicans. To beat Trump, Biden will need some of these Republicans.
RON RADOSH: The Roots of the Right’s Love of Dictators.
IT’S HARDLY NEWS THAT the intellectual alliances of the Cold War are falling apart. At the end of World War II, a coalition of conservatives, anti-totalitarian liberals, and centrists put aside their philosophical and political differences to limit the growth of Soviet and Chinese Communist power. Nowhere was this coalition stronger—and the divisions within it therefore more inconspicuous—than in the United States, the one nation strong and wealthy enough to provide the economic, political, and military power to hold the Western alliance together and keep it safe from Soviet aggression.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Tom Nichols: The GOP Needs a Fake Joe Biden [Ad-Free🔐]
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Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
BILL LUEDERS: Taking MAGA Death Threats Seriously.
A FEW FOLKS OUT THERE might want to murder me for saying this but, in my experience, reports of death threats are often greatly exaggerated. People in the public eye say they are inundated by calls and letters and emails threatening their lives; but, when you look into it, as I have done as a reporter and editor, what it usually comes down to is that they’ve gotten a whole bunch of vulgar, unhinged, and outrageously meanspirited communications, as well as one or two that hint at the possibility of physical harm.
WILL SELBER: The World Sees America Falling Apart
“Will Sahib is America ok?”
That was the first text I read on January 7, 2021. I didn’t understand what it meant. I was in Afghanistan, a day ahead of the East Coast. At first, I thought the U.S. embassy in Kabul had been hit by a suicide bomber or shelled. But there were no texts from my boss or the embassy’s regional security officer.
I scanned through my Afghan phone and realized nearly all of my Afghan contacts had reached out. They were worried.
I turned on the television and watched in horror the dreadful scenes from the Capitol. Here I was, on the other side of the world, protecting America from attack, yet the seat and symbol of American democracy was under attack by its own citizens. I could hardly believe my eyes.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy SOTU Thursday! Make sure you follow Joe Perticone tonight as he’ll be in the room and in statuary hall reporting on all the interesting guests people are bringing. I’m old enough to remember when members used their spousal SOTU ticket to give to staff, instead of bringing human props. (I never won.)
Sign me up… For Sing Sing. Per Julie Mason’s recommendation, my post-SOTU Netflix choice will be The Octopus Murders.
In Defeat, Haley Voters Have Power to Build On… writes Amanda Carpenter(!) in Time.
“Yep, he did it again…” Rupert Murdoch, 92, is engaged.
Is our Children Learning? Bad news from The Nation’s Report Card: “Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics.”
A vice president suitable for Trump… Bulwark+ member and old friend of the newsletter John William Schiffbauer writes in the NYDN that “There is one potential short-lister who ticks all the based boxes…” And it’s not who you might think.
Quote of the Day:
“It’s because the Governor of Missouri is a Chiefs fan, went to the Super Bowl, went to the after parties, went to the parade and the rally and even has a Chiefs tattoo,”
—Attorney Tom Porto, on the highly inappropriate commutation of Britt Reid, son of Andy Reid by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.
Navy demoted Ronny Jackson… after probe into White House behavior. A Rear Admiral no more, he’s now a retired Captain (WaPo).
In local news… Reagan National Airport Received Almost 7,000 Noise Complaints In One Year From A Single Household (Jalopnik).
The Cocoon Election… Matt Labash asks: Do we have to do this again? (Yes.)
The TikTok flood… As the House passed legislation to require divestiture, the social media network pushed its users to call Congress. It went about as well as you’d expect: kids who sound under the age of 13 calling, and a TikTok fan threatening to go January 6, 2.0 if it goes away. It passed 50-0, sorry kids!
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