Dem
51
GOP
49
Donald Trump lit into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his boutique and overpriced ($41.54 Friday) social media site. This is clearly a sign that Trump's polling is telling him that Kennedy is hurting him more than Kennedy is hurting Joe Biden. Given that some of Kennedy's biggest funders are Republican billionaires, clearly the train has derailed. This was not the game plan. And once again, this is before the Democrats start ratf**king and running ads saying Kennedy is the only politician a God-fearing anti-vaxxer can trust.
In the posts, Trump called Kennedy a "Democratic plant" designed to help Biden. Speaking of plants, Kennedy is pro-weed. If word gets out, he could cost Biden some votes among people who are friends of Mary Jane. It makes no sense for Biden to support someone who could cost him votes.
Kennedy responded to Trump's tirade by saying: "When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged. President Trump's rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate." Smart move, Bobby Jr. By calling him "President Trump" rather than "Trump," "Donald," or "Mr. Trump," you score brownie points with Trump's supporters.
Historically, support for third-party candidates shrivels when we get to November. In the spring, voters can "send a message" by telling pollsters that they hate both major-party candidates, but when it is time to do the deed, most of the double haters hold their noses and pick the least-bad candidate. Kennedy used to be an environmental lawyer, but his former colleagues are running a newspaper ad in the swing states saying that he has now turned his back on the environment. There is little else that left-wing double haters might see in him. Also, if they really can't stomach Biden there is Jill Stein again.
One problem for Kennedy is that he is on the ballot in only three states so far. He's working on that, but even with his running mate's millions, it won't be easy to get on all the swing state ballots, let alone the others.
But the fact that Trump is now going after Kennedy shows that the public polls with Kennedy taking more votes from Trump than from Biden are probably right, at least for now.
As long as we are on the subject of third-party candidates, it is worth mentioning that the Constitution Party has just nominated outspoken anti-abortion activist Randall Terry. His entire platform can be summed up in three words: "Abortion is murder." He said: "We are running for President in the effort to make child killing by abortion the number one voter issue in America. We will show the horror of aborted children to the American people, and call on Christians to REPENT for having voted for Joe Biden." Unlike Kennedy, no ambiguity here at all. If you would like to do some personal ratf**king, you could make a donation to the Constitution Party. We are not sure if www.terry2024.com is Terry's actual campaign website or a parody of it run by some cybersquatter. If you make a donation to any campaign, be sure to first sign up for a spare e-mail address at gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, ProtonMail, etc. and use it to collect the 10 e-mails a day you will get from the campaign forever. (V)