RFK's campaign (will run as independent/third-party) (2 Viewers)

[samiam5211]

It looks like he's going to be on the ticket in November. I think he should get his own thread. He's about to become well funded, and it's going to be a professionally run campaign no doubt. I don't think it's out of the question that he get's Perot like numbers, and even if he get's 1/4 of that it could be a disaster for the Biden campaign that is probably looking at a few thousand votes in a few states turning the election anyway.

There is going to be money behind this campaign from all sorts of angles. No matter what anyone thinks about RFK, it would be a terrible mistake to not take this campaign seriously. He might take some from Trump for sure, but he's going to take more of the anti Trump vote from Biden, and Biden can't really spare any votes. Not all people who were going to vote for Biden would disagree with the things RFK has said about vaccines, and he's not going to be spending his time campaigning on just vaccine skepticism.

There are many more people voting for Biden who aren't enthusiastic about Biden than there are on the other side.

MSN

Asuper PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has begun polling his support as an Independent, one of the strongest indications to date that the long-shot Democrat is set to announce a party affiliation switch.

The poll, conducted by the firm John Zogby Strategies and commissioned by the American Values 2024 PAC, comes amid growing speculation — fueled by Kennedy himself — that he will leave the Democratic Party in the upcoming weeks.

 

[superchuck500]

Given that most of his financial support and ideological base is right of center, it makes sense that he wouldn't pursue a Democrat nomination.

 

[CoolBrees]

He doesn't matter. He won't pull any independents.

If Manchin runs there are problems.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[CoolBrees]

Always a good start to a candidacy with being disavowed by your family.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Always a good start to a candidacy with being disavowed by your family.

Maybe he and Paul Gosar can ride off into the sunset together and commiserate.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Once upon a time, it seemed that Sean Hannity was excited about no presidential candidate more than Robert F. Kennedy Jr.


In June, the Fox News host marveled that Kennedy was “surging in the Democratic primary,” potentially meaning that President Biden’s bid for renomination was in jeopardy. Kennedy wasn’t surging in the polls — at least not among Democrats — but Hannity seemed perfectly happy to try to will such a surge into existence…….

“Many of his fellow Democrats and others in the media mob, make no mistake, they are right now furious with RFK Jr.,” Hannity said as he was introducing his guest. “They seem to loathe his stance on medical freedom and privacy” — a sanitization of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance.

“They are angry he does not toe the party line on the war in Ukraine and former president Donald Trump. They can’t seem to stand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a free thinker with classic liberal principles. And today, well, today’s Democratic Party is about compliance. It’s about going along. It’s about groupthink.”……

Then Kennedy announced that he would run not as a Democrat against Biden but as an independent — against both Biden and whoever wins the Republican nomination for president.

That almost certainly means running against Hannity’s friend Donald Trump. It also may mean pulling more support from Trump than from Biden, which is very much not what Hannity or other Republicans would like to see.


So, when Kennedy again joined Hannity on Tuesday night, he earned a much briefer and colder reception……

“You’re pretty liberal,” he continued. “You’ve called for curbing logging, oil drilling, fracking. You wanted to eliminate it and call it a ‘victory for democracy.’ You want to curb U.S. fossil fuel extraction, keep it in the ground. You once tweeted you want a ban on fossil fuel extraction, a ban on fracking. You called the NRA once a terror group. You supported over the years Democrats [Al] Gore, [John] Kerry, [Barack] Obama, Hillary [Clinton]. You praised Bernie Sanders multiple times. You support affirmative action. So why is this party of yours, why didn’t they even allow you to compete? Because that’s as pretty liberal of a record as anybody I know!”


Kennedy responded to this unsubtle line of questioning with a chuckle, noting that Hannity didn’t really ask any question.


“Do you want to talk about my positions, Sean,” he asked, “or do you want to read talking points from the Trump campaign?”……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/11/sean-hannitys-predictable-heel-turn-rfk-jr/

 

[MT15]

This should be shoved in Bobby Jr’s face at every campaign stop:

 

[SaintForLife]

This should be shoved in Bobby Jr’s face at every campaign stop:

I'm curious. Do you know what RFKs position on vaccines is? It sounds like you don't.

 

[MT15]

I'm curious. Do you know what RFKs position on vaccines is? It sounds like you don't.

I know he claims that the polio vaccine didn’t eradicate polio. I know he went to Africa and discouraged vaccine use after which the death rate from measles went up quite a bit. I know enough to know he’s a dangerous narcissist who desperately wants to be relevant and will say and do anything to get that attention he craves.

 

[zztop]

lol

 

[Optimus Prime]

When 12-year-old Braden Fahey collapsed during football practice and died, it was just the beginning of his parents’ nightmare.

Deep in their grief a few months later, Gina and Padrig Fahey received news that shocked them to their core: A favorite photo of their beloved son was plastered on the cover of a book that falsely argues COVID-19 vaccines caused a spike of sudden deaths among healthy young people.

The book, called “Cause Unknown,” was co-published by an anti-vaccine group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, who is now running for president. Kennedy wrote the foreword and promoted the book, tweeting that it details data showing “ COVID shots are a crime against humanity.”

The Faheys couldn’t understand how Braden’s face appeared on the book’s cover, or why his name appeared inside it.

Braden never received the vaccine. His death in August 2022 was due to a malformed blood vessel in his brain. No one ever contacted them to ask about their son’s death, or for permission to use the photo. No one asked to confirm the date of his death — which the book misdated by a year.

When the Faheys and residents of their town in California tried to contact the publisher and author to get Braden and his picture taken out of the book, no one responded……..

Many people have staked their lives and the lives of their families on the views espoused by Kennedy and others who oppose vaccines.

The AP spoke to mothers who once identified as anti-vaccine and counted themselves among Kennedy’s most devoted followers.

“I thought he was heroic, because he was saying the things publicly that other people were too afraid to say,” said Lydia Greene.

Greene, who lives in the Canadian province of Alberta, declined all vaccines for her son after buying into the claims by Kennedy and other anti-vaccine “gurus” that vaccines cause autism. When her son started to show signs of autism, Greene discounted it out of hand.

“I couldn’t even see his autism because in the anti-vax movement, autism is the worst outcome that can happen to a child. And when they talk about their vaccinated autistic kids, it’s often with a tone of resentment and how they talk about how their life is ruined, their marriage is ruined, and it’s just this kid is damaged,” Greene said. “And so when my son was different, I couldn’t see that stuff about him.”

She said she did not recognize his condition until she “came out of the rabbit hole of anti-vax.”

“I realized I had wasted so much valuable time where he should have been in occupational therapy, speech therapy, evidence-based therapy for autism,” Greene said.

Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense produces articles, newsletters, books, podcasts, even TV shows on its own CHD.TV. Greene said those articles often validate anxious parents’ fears – no matter how irrational – while making them feel like someone powerful is listening.

Today, Greene believes the group exploited her.

“That’s what CHD does,” Greene said. “They find parents when they’re vulnerable. And hack into that.”

Because of his national profile, Kennedy’s work has ripple effects beyond the most devoted anti-vaccine activists……….

RFK Jr. spent years stoking fear and mistrust of vaccines. These people were hurt by his work

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years disseminating false information about vaccines in a time when spreading conspiracy theories has become a powerful way to grow a constituency.

apnews.com

 

[MT15]

I anxiously await SFL’s defense of Kennedy here.

 

[Optimus Prime]

something about free speech and 1st amendment I'm sure

with a little 'do your own research' and 'never trust politicians' thrown in

 

[bdb13]

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to pull more support from former President Trump than President Biden in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to a new poll.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Biden narrowly ahead of Trump by 1 point, 47 percent to 46 percent, within the margin of error, in a head-to-head matchup. But with Kennedy in a three-way race, Biden is ahead with 39 percent to Trump’s 36 percent and Kennedy’s 22 percent.

Pollsters found independents are almost evenly split among the three candidates, with 36 percent supporting Kennedy, 31 percent backing Trump and 30 percent with Biden.

“With minority and younger voters seeming intrigued, Kennedy, for now, enjoys the kind of demographic support his charismatic father and uncles generated decades ago,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a release.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4289365-rfk-jr-trump-votes-biden-three-way-race-poll/

22% overall and leading with independents is nothing to scoff at.. it would probably be well advised to take him seriously as a threat or at least as a spoiler for one or the other of the major candidates.

 

[samiam5211]

How do they decide who gets on the debate stage for the General election?

I know Perot participated in debates in 92, but I can't remember how that ended up happening.

 

[bdb13]

How do they decide who gets on the debate stage for the General election?

I know Perot participated in debates in 92, but I can't remember how that ended up happening.

On October 1, 2019, the CPD adopted its 2020 Nonpartisan Candidate Selection Criteria. Under the 2020 Criteria, to receive an invitation to debate, a candidate must:
(i) be Constitutionally eligible to hold the office of President of the United States;
(ii) appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College;
(iii) have a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate, as determined by five national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations’ most recently publicly-reported results at the time of the determination. The polls to be relied upon will be selected based on the quality of the methodology employed, the reputation of the polling organizations and the frequency of the polling conducted. The CPD will identify the selected polling organizations well in advance of the time the criteria are applied.

CPD: Overview

www.debates.org