mtutiger

That would require compromise. And there are few people in today's day and age willing to accept any compromises politically. Different example, but as someone who just moved from Texas (ie. the most gerrymandered state in the country) to Illinois (ie. the second-most gerrymandered state in the country), it's why I kinda laugh when conservatives complain about how the lines are drawn here - gerrymandering is a scourge, but if we are being honest with ourselves, it's not going away nationally without some sort of consensus or understanding between the parties. But that's not gonna happen, so....

Bump... Genuinely curious about why this guy keeps getting floated.

Jenna Ellis with a New York accent, this one...

Trump isn't sinking, but I also dont think everything he does is brilliant politically and that his brand is almost entirely built on holding a certain percentage of the GOP Primary electorate (which, no, is not a representative sample of the American public). I would argue that some of the poor performances in Midterms and Special Elections since 2020 are a pretty good example of the liabilities he presents... candidates who pushed the big lie in swing states tended to do a lot worse than normal counterparts, for instance. I just think some folks people (those who support him and who don't) attribute God-like qualities to him when he really doesn't deserve that kind of regard. He's eminently beatable and not well liked in his own regard, and there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that.

This appears to be going well

The general contours are the same, no doubt. I'm just not going to pretend he's an electoral powerhouse like FDR when he's clearly not. He has liabilities too.

Right, because Republicans primary voters (who aren't a representative sampling of the overall American electorate) like the guy.

The very same poll that we are talking about, in 5 of the 6 states, had Nikki Haley doing better than Trump, and had Generic Republican doing 10-15% better than Trump in matchups against Biden. It's an overread of the data to look at the results and conclude that is says anything about Trump's popularity. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Nah, I don't see the relevancy in a discussion about Donald Trump's popularity with the general public.

Case in point (from a different poll). The Siena polls are terrible for Biden, but they saya lot more about Biden's standing at the moment than Trump IMO

Most Americans still do not like Donald Trump and don't necessarily believe everything he says. Him doing better than Biden in these polls doesn't inherently make him popular.

I would also like to reiterate that there is a power that comes with incumbency, and that if Biden steps aside, that advantage goes away. Particularly if there ends up being a competitive primary. Just think people are overlooking that when they fantasize about alternatives.

In my view, the polls demonstrate that age is his biggest issue... views on Trump haven't improved in any of these polls, but rather it's almost like he is being treated like a "Generic Republican", particularly with younger voters who would clearly like to move onto something else. What concerns me is that, unlike certain issues coming and going from the public consciousness or even just policy course corrections to respond to weaknesses on certain issues (which you're starting to see more of in a couple of areas), there isn't much that can be done about his age. None of us can ever reverse the turn of time. Ultimately as rough a go as things have been, I don't see Biden being even with young people come 2024.... they will come home to a degree. But still, the polls shouldn't be ignored either. And if I were in his shoes, I'd be thinking long and hard about how 'fixable' his problems are.

Theoretically, yes, probably. In practice, a bloody protracted primary fight would end up being no better than the status quo.

Setting aside the disaster that an open primary process would be (again, people are underestimating the fallout of bypassing Harris, particularly with AA voters), I have never understood why people think Gavin Newsom would be a good candidate for President.

Terrible indeed, and really has me questioning whether he should reconsider his decision to run (although I doubt he will). The only thing I would add is that while this is another piece of evidence for a certain type of pundit (ie. Bill Kristol, Mike Murphy, etc.), all of these folks also think Harris is a bad choice as well and apparently desire an open primary process. Which would be, to put it mildly, a ****ing disaster.

Not sure the degree to which it was hit on during the season, but the lack of backup for Torkelson was an issue at time early this year

For sure.. And Mark Canha's transaction history over the last two years should comfort some people as well. The Mets and Brewers, both seen as competitive teams at the time of acquisition, traded for his services. Clearly they didn't think he sucked.

Probably, but I also don't think people should read *too* much into it either... Depth is a good thing... going into the offseason with the idea of just running back last years OF or banking purely on untested talents (ie. Malloy) was never going to happen. Particularly if one believes (as I do) that they want to build on last season or try to compete. Whether Canha is the right guy or not, we will have to see what next year brings. But that's reality. And I kinda expect they don't plan on doing the same thing on the infield (with Colt Keith) either, so they will find someone to bring in.

Yeah, it's not a sexy move. It's not like they traded Julio Rodriguez or anything. And sure, there is age risk. But they paid a fairly small price for a veteran with a pretty good resume... that's something I felt they needed to do this offseason and they did that. We just don't agree, sorry.

They may trade from their OF pieces and, if there's someone (save Greene anyway) who might help them in another area of their roster, that sounds great to me.

That's a fair question - but again, I think that for what they gave up, that is a risk worth taking.

Where does Colt Keith fit into the picture? Are people thinking 2B or 3B these days?

I think he’s a better player than you are portraying him to be, and his OPS+, which exceeded that of most (all?) of the 2023 Detroit Tigers demonstrates that. And they obtained him for a fairly small price. We just agree to disagree on this one. They needed a veteran OF bat, they acquired one, hopefully this allows them to shift their focus to other needs (another infielder, a couple of starters, etc.)