Believe what? That it was a Democrat plant? Yeah, probably. But whatever. The question is the question regardless of who asked it. It’s a weird response to the controversy, after a weird response to the question. I give Christie credit for being pretty blunt, which is obviously something Republicans don’t want.
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i kinda feel like she knows damn well it wasn’t a democrat plant and somebody smart told her to say it. like, trump would 100% convince himself. but nobody is giving anyone but him the benefit of the doubt lol.
It was one of those cheap “gotcha” questions that Republicans hate, like “what do you think and what will you do with power”?
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If that happened, I think it’s bad advice. Her point is what? She shouldn’t have to be ambushed by questions from Democrats? She’s going to be President for all the people, as long as half of them don’t ask questions? "What caused the United States Civil War is not a gotcha question. Christie assessed Nikki’s error pretty well. Better than he’s assessed his own fatal mistake (in the eyes of Republicans) of giving President Obama a hug.
I think almost all Republican politicians have now been reflexively conditioned to attack Democrats for everything. In addition to playing well with the base, I think it’s also an intellectual coping mechanism. She knows she flubbed the answer but rather than beat herself up she’ll try to convince herself that her poor response doesn’t matter because it was an unfair question asked by a “plant” and therefore does not reflect anything that “real voters” care about.
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Wait seriously? Oh noooooo
What answer do you think she wishes she had given? It seems clear that she thinks it’s a political liability to say “slavery”, but that’s also the only non-absurd answer.
Probably the optimal answer is to briefly mention slavery (so she can say that she said it), and then pontificate about states rights and local government for a minute or two.
Also I don’t think that saying slavery is quite the liability that she thinks it is. But I guess they have people who poll and study these things, so maybe she is right and I’m wrong.
To me the initial answer was a error, but nothing that would really hurt her too much. She got hung out to dry a lot more with her follow up interractions. Asking the questioner what they think the cause was seems like a strange deflection, and when he specifically references slavery you should have some canned riff on slavery and race ready to go. Instead she froze up and seemed surprised that he referenced slavery or thought it should be brought up when talking about the civil war.
I think the ideal answer for her crowd is probably what @Melkerson said. Some basic acknowledgment that slavery was a major issue, but that it was also about fundamental questions regarding the relationship between different states and between the states and the federal government. And then pivot to talking about how the issue of slavery has been resolved, but questions of Federalism remain and here’s why I’m for smaller gov’t and local control over X Y Z issues today.
She’s the Governor who stopped flying the Confederate flag at the state Capitol, so I don’t think she’s ever going to win over somebody who would get mad that she acknowledged that slavery contributed to the civil war. The important part is how you pivot and if you can make a credible argument for your philosophy.
She should have simply said “Democrat slaveholders caused the War, and our greatest President, Republican Abraham Lincoln, ended it”
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At this point she knew he was a plant, got mad, and lost script discipline.
Lol?
She’s not giving a dissertation defense. She’s talking to a bunch of high school C student lawnmower business owners.
She is better off saying “the Democrats” and moving on than this indulgent tripe.
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The optimal answer is probably to be combative and say “You come in here with your `gotcha’ questions and think you’re so smart, but I know that the American people have had enough of you liberals trying to divide rather than unite” or some horseshit like that.
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That’s a great alternative. Sounds like you have a promising future as a political consultant.
This one is also sneaky good.
Its really hard to go the “states rights” avenue now though when they are shitting their britches about Colorado deciding who gets to be on their ballots.
You underestimate their ability to connect those two things. States rights and local government are only important when it’s stuff that they want. If it’s stuff they don’t want, states rights are forgotten. It’s really not a problem for them at all.
could have even snuck in a “joe biden is so old I think he personally might have been responsible for it”
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Except that is not the lane she is running in. She’s running to be the champion of the college educated swing voter who likes their politics to be calmer and more nuanced [unfortunately that group is too small to win a Republican primary]
Listen to her talk about abortion or foreign policy or see the way treated Vivek like an annoying child during the debates. She still sees herself as a serious, “adult in the room” type candidate (which is also why the Democratic plant line sounds a bit fraudulent from her, but would be totally expected from Vivek or Desantis or Trump), so I think her natural in the moment instinct was always going to be a more wonky answer, not the “Democrats are the true racists” response.
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Yeah, this is true too.
The problem with the LFS and NMW solutions is that they are great in a vacuum, but she is going to have to pull them off as Nikki Haley. And while she is drawing dead, the people that are backing her (especially financially, but also voters) don’t like that. So even though she might win over the room in the moment, once that clip is replayed things probably don’t go great for her.
It might be possible for her to have her cake and eat it too somehow. But she would have to be pretty fucking adept. I’m not sure that’s in her range.