Joe Walsh Believes He Is The Reasonable Alternative To Trump In 2020
[guest post by Dana]
He wants you to believe it too!
Joe Walsh says he is seriously considering a run against Trump because someone has to do it:
Former Illinois GOP Rep. Joe Walsh, who has been publicly mulling a 2020 primary challenge to President Donald Trump, said Thursday he is “strongly, strongly considering” entering the race.
“I’m strongly, strongly considering it. That’s — again, I’m not trying to be cute or coy. I’ve told you before — if somebody’s going to get in there and go after him … it’s got to be done soon,” Walsh told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.” “You’re running out of time. But more importantly, these are not conventional times. Look at the guy in the White House. These are urgent times.”
Now a conservative radio host, Walsh apologized last week for his role in helping elect an “unfit con man” to the presidency. During an interview on CNN, he said he voted for Trump in 2016 only because Trump wasn’t Hillary Clinton. His support for the President changed, he said, after Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, last year in which he sided with the Russian strongman over his own intelligence community’s assessments of interference in the 2016 election.
But is he a candidate worthy of your vote? Well, let’s just say that you might want to think long and hard about that:
It would be beneficial to the country and conservatism as a whole if a viable conservative candidate challenged President Trump for the 2020 nomination.
One-term congressman, conspiracist, right-wing provocateur, radio host, and supposed Tea Party stalwart Joe Walsh is not that person. Not even close.
[…]
Though the radio host tries now to present himself as some sort of compassionate and reasonable conservative alternative to Trump, not all of us have such short memories. Did Walsh really think people would forget that he made his name with the same sort of demagoguery, conspiracy-mongering, and right-wing bomb-throwing for which he now condemns Trump?
In 2014, for example, he tweeted: “It makes Dems seethe and my fellow Repubs uncomfortable when I say it out loud, but so what? It explains everything. Barack Obama is Muslim.” He was also very annoyed that year over the fact that he would most likely get into trouble for using racial slurs.
Later, in 2015, after a gunman murdered five servicemen at two separate military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Walsh said, “Obama won’t call Chattanooga what it was – Islamic terror. Not confusing at all. Obama is a Muslim.” He also said that year, “Barack Obama doesn’t love America & is Muslim,” adding elsewhere that the then-president is a “pussy” and a “traitor.”
“I’m sick of [Sean Hannity] not understanding why Obama wont’ criticize Islam. Sean just said Obama is clueless. He’s not clueless. He’s Muslim,” Walsh tweeted.
And then there was the time in 2016, when: “Walsh called the president of the United States an “enemy” and a “traitor” for skipping Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral.”
Walsh also said in 2016 that “Obama is not on our side. He’s our enemy.”
We shouldn’t forget that in 2017, Walsh encouraged the Russia-sponsored Seth Rich murder conspiracy.
This is the person who believes he is the more reasonable and stable alternative to Trump in 2020.
Good luck, Republicans.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
I’m seeing a pattern here…
Dana (fdf131) — 8/22/2019 @ 5:22 pmYeah, no.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/22/2019 @ 5:57 pmUsing alice in wonderland rules:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/08/21/gabbard_victimized_by_dncs_dubious_debate_criteria_141055.html
Narciso (222325) — 8/22/2019 @ 6:01 pmLet’s not rush to judgment, here. With Walsh paring away the Pittsburgh shooter/Charlottesville wing of Trump’s primary voters, and Bill Weld the meth-heads, and maybe one more the rich jerkoffs might want to throw some money at, it could open the field for a decent person to challenge Trump head to head for the normal voters. He only got 45% of the primary vote the last time and it included the three above-mentioned groups.
nk (dbc370) — 8/22/2019 @ 6:21 pmLoved him when he was with The Eagles.
Ripmurdock (5a5600) — 8/22/2019 @ 6:45 pmThe EggaMcmuffin/Kristol/French supporters pine for their “decent” person… a candidate who talks a fairly good game but seldom, if ever, delivers.
Keep an eye peeled for your Poncey Prince on a Pony.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/22/2019 @ 6:47 pmThe bottomless barrel.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/22/2019 @ 6:48 pmThere are a few alternatives. None of them will run as they are looking at 2024, one way or the other. Cruz, Haley, even Rubio have enough heft to force debates. Assuming that the GOP allows primaries this year.
Then again, let a no-name hurt Trump in Iowa or NH and it’s Katie-bar-the-door.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/22/2019 @ 7:03 pmI may vote for Weld if the Florida GOP allows a primary.
I must confess that every time I see the name, I automatically think of the Eagles.
Kishnevi (770d0f) — 8/22/2019 @ 7:52 pmThe Dems would love another Ross Perot.
harkin (58d012) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:01 pmCruz and Rubio are nobody I would vote for now. If either entered the race, I would view him as a spoiler, out to make Trump the nominee, which is all they turned out to be the last time. Rubio more honestly than Cruz who held on to his “Please, sir, don’t touch me there” coy maiden role until it was time to get reelected.
nk (dbc370) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:02 pmCheck out this roster of maybes:
Dana (fdf131) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:08 pmDid Sanford ever marry the Appalachian Trail? Not that I care, even if he is a Chicagoan now. No, he is not the decent person I have in mind. Flake would be a spoiler in favor of Trump. Kasich is a little old at 67 but he is the one I respect the most.
nk (dbc370) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:19 pmLoved him when he was with The Eagles.
I have a hankering
For the White House
I want to live there
And kick out the louse
I’m on the airwaves
In half of the states
I have folks from Breitbart
To tell me I’m great
I guess I’m running
‘Cause it beats reading books
It’s nothing different
From the rest of those kooks
Life’s been good to me so far
I knew Obama
Was deep in Islam
Sandy Hook victims
Are such a dumb scam
So I’ll get coverage
At least until spring
My name on tee-vee
You know it’s my thing
They say I’m crazy
But I’ve got nothing to do
(Everybody say “Oh shit, not this dumb fool”)
I’ve got low chances
But Beto does too
Life’s been good to me so far.
(Apologies to the great Colonel Haiku.)
JVW (54fd0b) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:23 pmNo, nk, he didn’t marry her. And wow, the story is like something out of a bad romance novel. PS, He was a real weenie. (She was too but not on the level that he was…)
Dana (fdf131) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:28 pm14… outstanding, JVW!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:34 pmYes, that last paragraph in the article, the excerpt from his Facebook ….
nk (dbc370) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:35 pmBrilliant, JVW!
Dana (fdf131) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:41 pmReal weenie, nk.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/22/2019 @ 8:45 pmI never did and never will vote for Trump, Weld was a sketchy choice 4 years ago and now he’s a clear “no”, Walsh is now a clear “no”, so all that’s left in the running is Sanford. Sigh. Sure, why not. Him, or a write-in.
Paul Montagu (a2342d) — 8/22/2019 @ 11:44 pmGruber/mittens/2020
mg (8cbc69) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:05 amWrong joe walsh is running. Libertarian conservatives have been run out of republican party as 90% of party populists. As AOC said they have got the money we have the votes, same for republican party.
lany (7c26c1) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:43 amLany, try not to get too exuberant:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/david-koch-billionaire-philanthropist-and-prolific-gop-donor-dead-at-79
urbanleftbehind (0c98b8) — 8/23/2019 @ 6:04 amWho wins a primary in 2020, if it isn’t Trump? Surely not Weld or Kasich, as there is no appetite in the party for someone who can get called Liberal. Sanford — let’s be honest — is an oddball.
If Trump flames out over something or other (and that always seems possible, though it never really happens), someone like Walsh is there to pick up the pieces. He says the same outrageous stuff, but doesn’t have a libertine past or the dictator love.
Maybe — maybe — there is a chance that someone does to Trump what was done to LBJ in 1968. I doubt it though. Nobody in the GOP is willing to risk their career to give it a go. So what’s left are the party’s cast offs and failures.
Appalled (c9622b) — 8/23/2019 @ 6:06 amJVW you magnificent bastard!
Russ from Winterset (e1b4f6) — 8/23/2019 @ 7:02 amThis is the election, if any, for a third party presidential run. Someone hopes that Trump gets defeated by someone someone other than one of those Democrats, that’s what it has to be.
Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a) — 8/23/2019 @ 7:46 amI agree, Sammy. And what I’ve seen of Howard Schultz I like.
Not to mention that my daughter and her mother have already maxed out the family campaign contribution limit at Starbucks. 😉
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2019 @ 7:53 amIf these guys are remotely serious, they shouldn’t be bothering with a primary challenge – they should be running in the general as independents, where they can actually chip away at Trump’s already razor thin margins. And the Tom Steyers of the world should be bankrolling them.
Leviticus (df0275) — 8/23/2019 @ 8:05 amPeople who stood for nothing, stand for nothing, and risked nothing, offer themselves as an alternate to the man who did all those things.
They’ll be popular- with people who elevate manners over competence; brain dead geniality with freeloading “allies,” over blistering them with the truth–they’re undermining NATO and they need to put their money where their endless pieties about collective security are.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 8/23/2019 @ 10:15 am28… yes, the Lefties’ wet dream.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/23/2019 @ 11:01 amSeth Rich was murdered in a robbery in which none of his belongings were taken. And Seth Rich, a DNC worker, also was a major source for Wikileaks. His murder is still unsolved. Could it be that the robber(s) were scared off and didn’t get a chance to pilfer his wallet? May be. But raising a question that his death might have been related to his Wikileaks activity is not beyond the pale. As with Epstein’s suicide, asking questions is not the same as stating things not proven. And it both cases, not proven either way.
Walsh was pro-Trump, and now, suddenly, he is not. As with Scaramucci, appears to be a very dramatic transition. Now, today, the guy’s demeanor shocks you? As to both, NOBODY who supported and voted for Trump thought he was a choirboy nor a paragon of virtue. We knew while Trump remains an imperfect vessel, he is nonetheless a much-needed monkey wrench across the forehead of the American body politic. And that remains so. There may come a time a reasonable intelligent Republican picks up his policies (our policies!) and advances them without the…nonsense. Someday Josh Hawley or Dan Crenshaw or Tucker Carlson may do that. But that day is not happening between now and November 2020.
Bugg (024e40) — 8/23/2019 @ 11:20 amscaramucci had a bid with hna to buy out skybridge, but as we found out last spring with their dropping their block of deutsche bank stock they don’t want the dead weight, it’s too convenient a year ago he was extolling the president, now he’s lipsynching evan McMillan, as for joe walsh the less said the better,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/23/2019 @ 11:33 amOh look, the Russians are back!
Dave (1bb933) — 8/23/2019 @ 11:40 amsoviet designed educational models, yes they’ve been around since the 70s,
http://invisibleserfscollar.com/epiphany-moment-education-as-cultural-transformation-using-heart-and-mind-manipulation/
narciso (d1f714) — 8/23/2019 @ 11:44 amKasich is a little old at 67 but he is the one I respect the most.
I would vote for David Souter before I voted for Kasich.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:08 pmKasich does not rank highly on any presidential preference list of mine, but I wouldn’t go that far…
Dave (1bb933) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:15 pmMaybe — maybe — there is a chance that someone does to Trump what was done to LBJ in 1968. I doubt it though. Nobody in the GOP is willing to risk their career to give it a go. So what’s left are the party’s cast offs and failures.
Yup. What I said, too. I don’t know of any Republican who could take on Gene McCarthy’s role of “respected back-bencher.” Then again McCarthy always said that he could never have run with campaign-finance laws like today as anyone who donated to him would have had the world fall on them.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:15 pmKasich does not rank highly on any presidential preference list of mine, but I wouldn’t go that far…
Kasich tries to take 9 sides of every issue, which reminds me greatly of Souter.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:19 pm‘Monsters from the Id…’
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:22 pmWalsh ran as pro-choice moderate in the 90’s then switched to social conservative to win his Congressional seat. He then lost his seat, partly because he wasn’t paying his child support and got arrested for DUI. In 2018, he called Trump a Traitor and could no longer support him because he “sold out to Putin”.
What does the guy have to do, before peeps realize he’s a Conman? But anyhoo, be sure to listen to his radio show – and send in the those Never-trumper dollars!
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:45 pmNo one talked about Lincoln Chaffee, the liberal Republican/Democrat/Independent who is now mysteriously a Libertarian. ‘Cause nothing says libertarian like “Big spending liberal who supports gun control”.
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:46 pmBill Weld is back being a Republican, so he can challenge Trump – maybe. Kasich – the son of a mailman – abortion supporter or opponent (depends on the time of day) and big time spender or fiscal scrooge (it depends on what time of day) – is also in the mix. My personal favorite is Appalachian trail Sanford. I’d love to hear the “Character above all” Conservatives justify supporting him (which they will).
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/23/2019 @ 12:49 pm‘Monsters from the Id…’
But in reality it was pigeons.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:09 pmJoe walsh are you on dope or you are a dope? Koch brother just died no money for you joe.
lany (29503f) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:09 pmRep. steve watkins of kansas in trouble for sexually harassing campaign workers another gop jeffery epstein.
lany (29503f) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:10 pmIt’s a good thing Trump doesn’t harbor grudges.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:11 pmCompared to Trump, he’s a saint.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:11 pmIMO he’s no better than Trump. Walsh is a humorless blowhard posturing as a moral crusader. Trump at least has a sense of humor. I mean, I’m sorry but this sh*t is funny:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164975929598316544
Not, “he should be President” funny, but “I will grudgingly admit the troll in the White House is really very funny.”
JRH (52aed3) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:30 pmGotta wonder how cons would have liked it if Obama had mocked combat vets and laughed about plunging stock numbers though.
JRH (52aed3) — 8/23/2019 @ 1:43 pm@43. In actuality, it’s the ‘Pidgeon Party.’
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/23/2019 @ 6:09 pmDon’t forget “I hereby order …”!
Dave (1bb933) — 8/23/2019 @ 6:20 pmIl Arancia.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2019 @ 6:33 pmI feel like a serious challenger would have to be a sincere religious conservative who thinks Trump falls morally short, unacceptably. Someone like Michael Medved, but not him literally.
Walsh’s angle, I suspect, is that talk radio bosses right now are insisting on pro-Trump hosts, and he’s looking to a future beyond that, where he has everything they like except Trump fandom.
Luke Thompson (e35e3b) — 8/24/2019 @ 1:26 amTrump’s popularity with religious conservatives – to whom he should have been abhorrent if they actually believe what they say they do (never mind his crass and pathetic attempts to pretend to be a believing Christian) – is where things went off the rails in 2016.
If Cruz, who is a bona fide religious conservative himself, had carried that segment of the primary vote as he should have, Trump would have been nothing more than an amusing footnote.
But clearly Trump’s grievance-mongering and bigotry have only drawn that part of the electorate even closer to him, so I don’t see how a sincere religious conservative would have more success today than Cruz did in 2016.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/24/2019 @ 5:22 amIt’s Sunday service at the First Religious Conservative Church of Southville, and the pastor has a beef with his congregation. He steps up to the pulpit, but instead of getting right into the day’s lesson, he says: “Someone among you has been spreading a rumor that I am a member of Ku Klux Klan. I am not. It’s a shameful, baseless accusation, and before we go any further today, I want whoever it is to stand up like a man and confess why he’s doing it.”
The people are bemused. They all look around at each other, not knowing what to do. Finally, the choirmistress steps forward. She says: “I think I may have started the rumor, preacher. But, honest, I never said you were a member of the Klan. I only said you were a wizard under the sheets.”
nk (dbc370) — 8/24/2019 @ 5:42 amIts always hilarious when atheists/Agnostics and non_Christians are so CONCERNED about Christians supporting Trump. Why, they’re betraying their Christian beliefs!
Hey, thanks for the CONCERN
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/24/2019 @ 7:31 amI think some are separating their Christian beliefs from their political beliefs, perhaps following the scripture to “render under Caesar …” But I don’t understand also claiming Trump is God’s choice or chosen one.
DRJ (15874d) — 8/24/2019 @ 7:56 am― Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
Nietzsche paints with a somewhat broad brush, there, but I believe that what he says is largely true about the jacklegs who call themselves Christians and nonetheless support Trump. They love “Jesus and America too”, and they love Israel because Jesus won’t come again until The Temple is rebuilt, but they hate everything Trump hates, and even some that he doesn’t such as Jews, Catholics and homosexuals.
nk (dbc370) — 8/24/2019 @ 7:58 amBecause they are our brethren, in the Book, even as they fallen away from what the Book teaches, nietsche and freud’s observations are ironic at best,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/24/2019 @ 8:05 amGranted, but focus on this:
Nietzsche did not mean erectile dysfunction. He meant powerlessness. Is it or is it not claimed that the reason for Trump’s election is that the people who had felt powerless see him as their champion?
nk (dbc370) — 8/24/2019 @ 8:11 amMaybe because Bismarck, encouraged the german people to regard the state, as ultimate authority, that’s what hayek and von mises were pushing,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/24/2019 @ 8:14 amFunny how the Mueller said something completely different.
Paul Montagu (a2342d) — 8/24/2019 @ 8:36 amagain dubious assertions based on crowdstrike not first hand analysis,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/24/2019 @ 8:42 amI don’t think I ever heard of Joe Walsh before. One thing I checked and I found out he is not Joe Wilson.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 8/26/2019 @ 1:03 pm