Mike Luckovich for November 14, 2023

Joe Manchin? He is close friends with Joe Biden; he really detests Donald Trump and, for all his waffling, actually is a partisan Democrat who has done what he had to do to stay viable in a state Trump carried in 2020 by 69% to 30% (a margin of 39%). I do not believe Manchin will run unless he determines that he could draw more votes from Trump than from Biden, which may be the case.

Cornell West? He is highly respected by PROgressives, like Ralph Nader — now a liberal pariah — once was. If he runs and provides the margin for Trump to return to the White House, he will be scarred with the same political infamy as Nader.

Robert F Kennedy Jr? Once a respected (if raspy) voice for environmentalism, he has gone totally nuts and his bizarre anti-science views have been repudiated even by his own family. If he becomes a serious threat, he will be revealed for the mental collapse he has suffered. While he has his share of the Kennedy fortune, he is also being heavily funded by the same conservative donors who have been so generous to Clarence Thomas. While some might still associate him with his father, when his views become known he may draw more from Trump than Biden.

Jill Stein? Stein was a pro-Trump Putin Trojan horse puppet in 2016 and hopes for a reprisal of her 2016 sabotage. Stein is no PROgressive, nor is she “green” as in pro-environment. She famously traveled to Russia with Trump loyalist Mike Flynn, where they sat at the same dinner table with Vladimir Putin himself (Google the photo). She has called Putin a great man, and there is video footage of her defending her association with Putin. Stein never criticizes Putin, and dismisses Russian interference (which was thoroughly documented by Robert Mueller as well as a Senate national security report compiled when Republicans had the majority) as a “conspiracy theory.” Her investment portfolio skews heavily to Big Carbon, the financial industry, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Defense contractors, etc.

I’m thinking this also shows how much of a threat Biden is to any opposition.

Who going to vote jill stein

Also where marianne williamson?

I think at least some of them (most of them?) will be dropping out soon.

All of Putin’s trulls and traitors

Add a super libertarian candidate and we might avoid 4 more years of discord. Otherwise, Manchin has my vote if it a rerun of 2020. I honestly believe Biden will not be the democrat candidate.

These people are all financed by GQP donors. The uber-wealthy are wasting their money if they think those of us who vote for Democrats are as stupid as their own voters.

They all need to move on, nothing to see here.

The small-handed egotist club.

Surely Lucko is not advocating that Democratic voters be limited to a choice of one ?

Morning DD, thanks for the review of these characters, I always appreciate your knowledgeable reviews, especially in this day and times where their are so many nut cases like trump and a large number of the gop and supporters are pushing to put an idiot like trump back in office too possibly kill half of the world’s population due to his well documented statements of lunacy.

Trump assets.

5 of America’s top attention “seekers”!

The 5 Stooges. A Confederacy of Dunces.

As IF TFG would ever say thank you to anyone.

Funny weren’t y’all complaining and saying how authoritarian was of trump criticizing ppl of his own party for running against him or criticize him?

This is utter (expletive deleted).

All of them are losers.

3rd party dictator authoritarianism supporters

Nice caricatures!

I can understand the basic incompetence of Stein, Manchin, and WV Doofus accounting for their decisions to mount campaigns which may well guarantee the ascendancy to the Presidency and majorities in both Houses of Congress of Christian Nationalist zealots easily capable of legislating to replace Constitutional government with a Christian theocratic totalitarian government.

I’m going to have to take some time to try to learn what possible reasoning Cornell West bases his campaign on, and what beneficial outcomes he expects his appearance on the ballot (certain to end in resounding defeat) might produce. He is highly competent intellectually, so I have difficulty imagining how he thinks a resounding Far Right victory (resulting from a sufficient number of votes his campaign siphons away from the Democratic Party official candidate) could be anything but extremely harmful to the immediate existence of this country (not to mention the threat it will pose to the democratic republic project), or what possible benefit will result.

Maybe West genuinely believes he has a shot at winning the Party nomination next summer. I would not oppose that, but he has a long hard row to hoe to get there, and I have yet to see any progress made since his initial announcement of candidacy.

They don’t stand a chance.

JFK Junior Schmunior.

All four: If I can’t get everything I want, I’d rather blow up the whole system

Nobody who ever ran for president of the United States has ever been accused of lacking a good self-image.

5 people who all hate America

Right now our main hope lies with a Trump conviction in the Jan. 6, or Trump having an incapacitating physical and/or mental blowout. Between Biden losing a lot of Millennial and Zoomer support over rubber-stamping Israel, and all these third-party candidates pulling away votes, I’m getting increasingly pessimistic about the election otherwise.

Don’t think I’ll vote for this stouge