Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Trudging toward New Hampshire

James Pindell/The Boston Globe:

The unimaginable, shrinking New Hampshire major

No different state within the nation will seemingly have such a consequential presidential major this yr.

So are candidates criss-crossing the state in a flurry of last-minute exercise?

Oddly, no.

This 2024 New Hampshire major is kind of actually small in each metric.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ marketing campaign introduced on Wednesday that it’s successfully ceding the state, leaving solely two candidates actively working within the GOP major, versus the standard six or seven.

Barnstorming schedules with 4 or 5 stops alongside the way in which have been changed with an off-the-cuff tempo. For instance, one rally a day and one photo-op together with some nationwide media interviews has been a typical itinerary for former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Trump has developed a routine of showing in New York courtroom through the day earlier than flying to New Hampshire to carry a rally.

One cause for that’s as a result of the first is successfully over. Additionally, the first is successfully over. Did I point out that the first is effec—…?

The Boston Globe:

New Hampshire Republican major monitoring ballot outcomes

The Boston Globe is monitoring the ultimate days of the New Hampshire Republican presidential major marketing campaign. Every morning at 5 a.m., new polling information from Suffolk College, The Boston Globe, and NBC10 Boston might be launched on this web page.

It’s fairly clear that no matter curiosity in Nikki Haley that New Hampshire voters have, it’s not about her. I think that’s true elsewhere as effectively. 

POLITICO Journal has some political consultant-on-political marketing consultant verbal violence:

The DeSantis Group Ran the Worst Marketing campaign in Historical past

Curt Anderson is a veteran of the Reagan White Home, former political director of the RNC and a founding father of OnMessageInc, a Republican promoting and polling agency.

Alex Castellanos is a Republican strategist, a founding father of Purple Methods and a veteran of 4 presidential campaigns.

Expertise. Actually, most staffers and consultants who labored for DeSantis are earnest, well-intentioned individuals who served him to one of the best of their talents. However we’d as effectively be trustworthy: The celeb marketing consultant often called Jeff Roe loses nearly each race he touches and, in response to his personal boasts, makes mad cash within the course of. His string of losses in Senate races over the previous few years distinguishes him: Adam Laxalt (Nevada), Carla Sands (Pennsylvania), Dave McCormick (Pennsylvania), Jim Lamon (Arizona), Josh Mandel (Ohio) and Martha McSally (Arizona, twice). Some consultants imagine the subsequent neatest thing to successful elections is to generate profits dropping them. So, if dropping whereas hemorrhaging cash is your imaginative and prescient, Roe is your man. (Editor’s word: Roe is the founding father of Axiom Methods. Rob Phillips, president of Axiom Methods, had this to say in response: “On Message spends extra time parading as specialists on Sunday reveals than on successful campaigns. Axiom Methods had extra victories within the final six months than On Message has had within the final six years. Nobody’s taking severely the musings of a Bob Dole Democrat or the brains behind Bobby Jindal’s failed presidential marketing campaign.”)

Remarkably, some near DeSantis allege Roe was employed to “take the marketing consultant off the sphere” and hold him from serving to Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin or one other DeSantis competitor. If that is true, DeSantis ought to have paid Roe to work for Nikki Haley.

Once you lose …

Greg Sargent/The New Republic:

Trump’s Indignant Rant About His Authorized Mess Reveals an Ugly MAGA Reality

His immunity protection isn’t merely a authorized argument. He’s priming his base to again wanton lawbreaking if he wins again the White Home.

This would possibly sound like bluster or desperation. However make no mistake: Trump is making a real declaration right here about his intentions for a second time period. He needs his voters to listen to him loud and clear.

To know the total power of this, think about a few of Trump’s extra concrete threats. Trump has reportedly advised mates and allies that he needs the Justice Division to analyze a spread of former Trump advisers turned critics. Time and again, Trump has publicly vowed to prosecute Joe Biden and his household based mostly on a collection of invented crimes.

On this spirit, Trump has explicitly advised his voters, “I’m your retribution.” Trump has baselessly declared that Biden’s Justice Division is prosecuting conservatives. In every kind of how, Trump has positioned his personal prosecution as an act of heroic martyrdom on behalf of his supposedly persecuted supporters.

Michelle Goldberg/The New York Occasions:

Trump Simply Retains Doing Appalling Issues, and the Ranks of the Disengaged Are Rising

Clearly, as a journalist, I’ve a vested curiosity in individuals caring concerning the information, however what actually scares me is much less the decline of income in my business than rising numbness and despair within the face of attainable political calamity. I hold pondering of the early Seventies, one other interval when broad-based, idealistic social actions had just lately fragmented, with some turning towards a militant sectarianism whereas others withdrew from politics, looking for self-realization in life-style experimentation. “Having no hope of bettering their lives in any of the ways in which matter, individuals have satisfied themselves that what issues is psychic self-improvement: getting in contact with their emotions, consuming well being meals, taking classes in ballet or belly-dancing, immersing themselves within the knowledge of the East, jogging, studying how you can ‘relate,’ overcoming the ‘concern of enjoyment,’” wrote Christopher Lasch in his 1979 guide, “The Tradition of Narcissism.” It wouldn’t be shocking if individuals react to a different Trump presidency in a similar way. (Already each psychedelics and polyamory are again in a giant means.) The reboot of the Trump present could be lots darker than the unique. Individuals who worth their equanimity would possibly determine it’s not price watching.

After all, the flip aspect of disengagement is that Donald Trump is boring and that doesn’t assist him recruit voters. Liberals dwell to have angst about their very own aspect however particular elections argue the thesis introduced right here simply isn’t true.

CBS Information:

Trump’s closing argument to New Hampshire voters pushes misinformation suggesting Democrats would “infiltrate” GOP major

Manchester, New Hampshire — Former President Donald Trump’s closing message to New Hampshire voters accommodates falsehoods concerning the upcoming major election, together with a baseless declare that Democrats are planning to “infiltrate” the first to assist former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

“Nikki Haley is relying on Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican major,” Trump mentioned to a small ballroom stuffed with supporters in Portsmouth Wednesday night, earlier than blaming New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu for the state’s major system, which permits undeclared voters — which make up 40% of the state’s registered voters — to vote in both the Republican or Democratic major on Jan. 23.

Trump repeated the identical unfounded claims to a crowd of over 1,000 in Atkinson, New Hampshire, Tuesday evening, and inaccurately said that Democrats wish to “cancel out” votes for him.

By legislation, undeclared residents might vote in New Hampshire’s GOP major, together with Republican voters. Registered voters might solely vote in a single social gathering’s major, and the deadline to change social gathering registration expired in early October.

Of the state’s greater than 873,000 registered voters, simply 3,542 voters modified their registration from Democrat to undeclared earlier than the state’s Oct. 6 deadline, and simply 408 Democrats modified their registration to Republican.

Conventional media is inching in the direction of calling Trump a identified serial liar. They aren’t there but.

Catherine Rampell/The Washington Submit:

Home Republicans attempt to blow up the border deal they declare to need

From what we all know concerning the deal up to now, there’s a lot to seek out objectionable, together with makes an attempt to hamstring the asylum and humanitarian parole methods. Which is unsurprising, provided that it’s being pushed by Republican hard-liners equivalent to Minority Chief Mitch McConnell (Ky.), James Lankford (Okla.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.).

However no matter results in this evolving deal, GOP Home lawmakers have already preemptively rejected it.

They’d somewhat spoil the nation than give President Biden a “win,” although it’s a barely palatable compromise. However whether or not it’s a shutdown or a invoice, the one means something will get accomplished in DC is that if Democrats do it.

Tony Michaels and Cliff Schecter on what Trump will do concerning the VP selection: