Democrats have three paths to victory next November, all being eagerly embraced by Republicans.
PLAN A: Enrage Republicans by bringing a string of ludicrous indictments, civil suits and ballot disqualifications against Donald Trump, thus tricking the GOP into making him the nominee.
RESULT: Joe Biden easily wins a second term. If Trump behaves as we know he will, Biden wins even if he’s dead.
Wait, but why would Republicans make Trump the nominee just because -- OH MY GOSH, IT’S WORKING!!!
When Trump declared his presidential run on Nov. 15, 2022, he was dead in the water. November, December, January, February -- polls all put liberal-slayer Gov. Ron DeSantis in the lead, or within striking distance. He wasn’t even a candidate yet.
Then the indictments started rolling in. The media went back to 24-7 unhinged Trump commentary, and the former president’s numbers soared. The more liberals indicted him, the more it juiced his presidential campaign. (And they get to enjoy themselves while doing it.)
Red line marks when news of Trump’s first indictment broke.
Defying all expectations, by me at least, Republicans have reacted to these garbage prosecutions by saying, Watch this, liberals! We’re going to punish you by handing Democrats the presidency, the House and the Senate. You disqualified Trump from the ballot, Colorado? We’re going to put Democrats in a position to pack the court!
I can’t enstupid myself enough to understand why being the victim of legal persecution is supposed to make someone a great candidate for president. Please draw a diagram from “These Trump indictments are outrageous!” to “Let’s make him our nominee!”
Lots of people -- or at least several -- have been victimized by viciously unfair criminal prosecutions.
The Innocence Project framed an innocent black man, Alstory Simon, for a double murder in Chicago in 1999. He sat in prison for 15 years until a couple of federal agents reinvestigated and exposed the rotten truth. (Watch the documentary "A Murder in the Park" -- free on Prime!)
Should Simon be president?
Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three men who were trying to kill him in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was the victim of a blatantly political prosecution. He could have gone to prison for life.
Should he be president?
The only way Jake Gardner could possibly have been indicted for defending himself during a BLM riot in Omaha, Nebraska, was to create an all-new legal system just for him. The Democratic district attorney concluded it was self-defense, then -- for no legal reason -- abdicated his responsibility and appointed a sleazy black prosecutor to indict Gardner.
Should Gardner be president? Too late! With the deck stacked against him, he committed suicide.
And by the way, did any of you warriors for Trump -- I’m looking at you, Clay Travis -- ever make a peep about these other miscarriages of justice? [Answer: No.] What was done to Simon, Rittenhouse and Gardner was a million times worse than anything being done to Trump.
You want to punish liberals for their maniacal pursuit of a standard-issue, extra-obnoxious Republican ex-president? Nominate a candidate who will win, not the guy who’s lost the last three elections for us and is guaranteed to lose again.
PLAN B: Keep telling the public that Trump is the prohibitive front-runner. Talk about him as if he were already the nominee. This will discourage sane Republicans from voting. What’s the point? It’s going to be Trump anyway; the media say so.
RESULT: Trump’s the nominee; landslide for Biden. (It’s very similar to Plan A.)
To be sure, the polls are grim for those of us who would prefer a GOP nominee who could conceivably win. But most poll respondents don’t even know who’s running for president right now. Saying “Trump” is just another way of saying “Let's Go Brandon” or “FJB” (and just as clever!).
People think polls are IQ tests. They’re afraid to get the answer wrong but know absolutely nothing. Literally nothing. This week, two liberals independently told me they liked Nikki Haley, but thought she was “too isolationist.” Yes, the neocons' Frankenstein, who couldn’t care less about America but has demanded war on three continents at every debate, is too “isolationist.”
They know nothing.
As I keep saying, polls the year before an election are mere name-recognition contests -- and the media are never going to let anyone forget Donald Trump. They’ll still be talking about Jan. 6 in the 2064 election.
Another media bete noire, Newt Gingrich, was crushing the polls, at least before the voting started. These were the polls in December 2011, just a few weeks before Iowa and New Hampshire:
“Gingrich sits atop the Republican presidential field in Iowa ... according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. ... [W]ith 33 percent support among likely caucus-goers in the new poll, Gingrich runs well ahead of his two main rivals, Romney and Paul ... at 18 percent.” -- The Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2011
“[According to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll] ... Mr. Gingrich ... would be supported enthusiastically as his party's presidential nominee by more voters than any of his rivals, the poll found.” -- The New York Times, Dec. 7, 2011
“Gingrich also leads Romney in Iowa polls and has been gaining on him in New Hampshire, the state holding the first primary.” -- The New York Post, Dec. 9, 2011
“Gingrich is leading the field in Iowa [and] closing fast on Romney [in New Hampshire], raising the possibility he could score a stunning upset in a state long considered Romney's firewall.” -- The Boston Globe, Dec. 12, 2011
“Gingrich ... recently rocketed to the lead in Iowa, which holds the first caucuses Jan. 3, and he is in second place in the polls in New Hampshire, which votes Jan. 10.” -- The Boston Globe, Dec. 16, 2011
Two weeks later, Gingrich came in fourth in Iowa, and a week after that, fifth out of five in New Hampshire. Apparently, before actually casting their ballots, voters did some reading.
My message of hope to Republicans who prefer winning to losing: Ignore the media. They haven’t made Trump the nominee yet.
PLAN C: Get Republicans to nominate Nikki Haley.
RESULT: Either way, a Democrat wins.
COPYRIGHT 2023 ANN COULTER
Please everyone share this article with every GOP or independent voter you know.
Trump will lose if he is the nominee and probably take the Senate, House and who knows how many state governments with him. Kiss America goodbye if we have a Biden second term.
Dear Ann,
I know you occasionally enjoy a glass of white wine or two. But your latest Substack sounds like you just downed a case of $2 Chuck.
I agree with Tucker Carlson: Trump became the nominee when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and went through Melania's underwear drawer on a bogus classified documents charge.
Trump has enormous momentum, and even more now that Democrats in five states have tried unsuccessfully in their attempt to keep him off the 2024 ballot. Colorado's latest attempt will also fail, as will California's. The Democrats keep getting their lawless asses handed to them precisely because Trump hasn't been convicted of any crime. Nor should he be since none of the other cases have any merit.
Why haven't you written a detailed article explaining why all these cases are bogus? You're an attorney.
Plan A isn't tricking the electorate. It's enraging them. Especially black men, who in interview after interview say they're on the Trump Train. He's their _________.
Massive cheating is the only path to the Democrat's victory. That's why the Democrats keep trying the keep-Trump-off-the-ballot ploy because their polling shows Joe losing in a landslide, with The Donald possibly even having California in play. T
DeSantis has the utterly preposterous notion that the attempt to keep Trump off the ballot is a scheme to secure his nomination.
I'll tell you why the legal persecution makes him a great candidate: People see it for the intentional fraud it is, deliberately being perpetrated to deny the people's choice. They know Trump is innocent. Do you? Most Americans take big exception to tyrants trying to bully their opponents. That's what happens in communist countries and banana republics - not America.
Plan B - Trump continues to hold a massive lead over his closest rival, Nikki "the warmonger" Haley, and your horse, Governor DeSantis, keeps putting that JAG foot in his mouth so that Ramaswamy now is polling second behind Haley.
I'll say again, if the Democrats plan to have 70% of the vote done by mail-in ballot the chances are high Biden wins but not because Trump is the nominee. Voter fraud makes who the nominee is irrelevant. It doesn't matter who the GOP puts up if voter fraud is the strategy again.
But the conventional wisdom says the Democrats do NOT want a President Harris. Biden's cognitive decline is exponential now and many believe they are going to swap Weekend-at-Biden's out for Governor Gavin "the Joker" Newsom, the evilest Democrat in politics.
But if there is no pandemic keeping people from the polls and there are no late-night ballot dumps permitted to sneak through, and if counting the votes doesn't take weeks, and if there's no broken water pipes or similar issues, and if the turnout by the GOP is going to be like attendance at a Trump rally, the Democrats are going to be in for a rude awakening on Election night.
People are tired of being manipulated. I say that applies to a lot of Democrats too who aren't on the Crazy Train with the uber-woke radicals. They're feeling it in the wallet.
Yes, the Democrats will keep trying to pretend J6 was an insurrection, but the videotape proves otherwise. Thousands of men just forgot to bring weapons when they descended on the Capitol. The weapons were all in the hands of the feds, not citizens. Oops!
Trump will sweep every, single contest. Not because they're fooled by the Democrats but because they're PISSED their rights are being denied. Haley will come in second in most of the contests and maybe third in one or two. Ramaswamy will do better than expected. DeSantis should have been loyal and nice to the man who made him governor of Florida. Had he been he might have been Trump's VP choice. Better still would have been Ron not running at all and endorsing Trump early. That might have gotten him tapped by Trump for VP. Trump will now choose Governor Kristi Noem, a very good choice, not because she's female but because she's MAGA. She's going to prove very tough for the media to assail and she would run rings around See-Spot-Run Harris, should Harris not be bumped, which word is that the Democrats are desperate to get rid of her, not because she's DEI but because she's an idiot.
Plan C - Nikki Haley is DOA. Trump's base likes her even less than it likes Ron "Meatball" DeSantis. I'd hold my nose and vote for her because she would be better than Biden but as you say in the end of your piece, Biden would beat Haley, too. I know you think DeSantis is the only unbeatable candidate but I disagree. Haley and DeSantis are both Bush Republicans. They're closer to McCain and Bush and light years from MAGA, the people tired of hearing they are white supremacists, racists, xenophobes, nationalists, nativists, deplorables, chumps, dregs, etc. MAGA makes the country hum. MAGA is why we have the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and independence from a tyrant.
On Trump's worst day, he's light years better than Biden. Haley, Ramaswamy, or even DeSantis or even Christie, as much as I loathe him, would be as well.
If Republicans lose this one, it's over. This election is for all the marbles. If we lose the radical Woke DEI wing of the Democrats will complete their destruction of the country or plunge us into another CW.
Republicans better plan to show up at the polls like illegals have been showing up at the border this time around. If we do Trump is President 47 and that suits me just fine. No WWIII, no endless money to Ukraine, and no endless waves of illegals at the border suits me fine, too.
And yes, the wall will be finished.
I'm still waiting for you to interview Victor Davis Hanson, Charlie Kirk, and Tucker Carlson, Ann. I'd love to hear their reactions to some of the stuff you've been saying.
You write as if you want Trump to lose. Is that your position?