By Maris @Adobe Stock
Donald Trump @ the Machine Shed – Nimble, More Organized
Love it or hate it, how can it be? Two old men running for president? Again?
As Charles C.W. Cooke notes, no fooling, “Joe Biden really is fatally unpopular. Donald Trump really is hated.” At NRO Mr. Cooke has a suggestion: Maybe call off the whole thing? Given that a canceling the presidential election is not likely, let’s look at some of the why’s and how’s of what did happen.
Some Iowa caucus members have been showing up to this “curious exhibition of representative democracy for more than 50 years,” which inspires them to take very seriously their roles as First-in-the-Nation ambassadors.
Take Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, who perhaps is a bit biased. He was a frequent witness to the campaign’s Iowa operations in 2016, as Zaun has been this campaign cycle (2024), reports M.D. Kittle in The Federalist.
Mr. Zaun, the first state elected official to endorse Trump in 2016 and again this year, observes a professionalism and an organizational focus from team Trump this go-round that wasn’t there eight years ago.
… if the 2024 presidential campaign and the past eight years have taught us anything, it’s that there are people in this deeply divided republic who would crawl through broken glass, barbed wire, and solid ice to vote for the former president.
From the New York Post:
Trump’s supporters get why he’s not been as present on the campaign trail as his rivals. The former president has had his share of distractions this campaign season, with a host of legal problems tying up much of his time. He’s been busy fending off a long list of charges across four indictments that threaten to send him to prison for the rest of his life — charges brought by Democrat President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice and his leftist prosecutor allies in a naked political quest to dispose of Biden’s No. 1 political opponent.
Meet @ the Machine Shed, Urbandale, Iowa
Attacking Donald Trump and the rule of law is causing a brouhaha. Why else would Trump’s Iowa supporters be willing to brave the brutal cold?
Beyond their concerns about the economy, inflation, and the debacle at the Southwest border, Trump backers at the Machine Shed Thursday afternoon said they’re tired of what they see as a two-tiered system of justice under Biden.
Addendum: Us vs Them
Michael Brendan Dougherty notes in NRO how voters have not been able to find many issues of substance from either party. Policy issues have been “denuded.”
Neither party is even pretending to offer a suite of policies aimed at solving our pressing problems. Instead, the election is turning into a raw contest of two aged men: Trump vs. Biden, which somehow represents the rawest of all political contests: us vs them.
