[tomder55]

He has announced that he will not seek reelection next year . My guess is that the Dems would've put up a radical to challenge him in the primaries and he doesn't want to deal with it

“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia. I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate,But what I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”

Manchin: I Will Not Seek Re-Election, I Will Fight To Unite The Middle | U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia (senate.gov)

If the Repubs play their cards right ,they can flip the seat .

He is toying with the idea of doing a 3rd party run with the No Names ooops I mean No Labels .

They said
The Senate will lose a great leader when he leaves, but we commend Senator Manchin for stepping up to lead a long overdue national conversation about solving America’s biggest challenges, including inflation, an insecure border, out-of-control debt and growing threats from abroad.
Regarding our No Labels Unity presidential ticket, we are gathering input from our members across the country to understand the kind of leaders they would like to see in the White House. As we have said from the beginning, we will make a decision by early 2024 about whether we will nominate a Unity presidential ticket and who will be on it.

No Labels Statement on Sen. Joe Manchin's Decision - No Labels

His entry would make the elections much more interesting .

He would join RFK Jr ;Cornell West and soon to be announced Jill Stein as independents who have thrown their hat in the ring.

I would seriously consider voting for him depending on the nominees for the major parties. The fact that Clueless Joe and Trump are both unpopular has opened the possibility .


But IF he decided to team up with Mittens Romney ;as has been speculated ;then that is a non-starter .


Will there be a Romney/Manchin presidential ticket? - Deseret News



The two are teaming up in calling for a national debt commission. I support that because only a bi-partisan effort has a chance to break the political deadlock that is contributing to the our of control debt .

What is really needed is something along the lines of the BRAC base closing commission. Bases needed to be closed . BRAC gave Congress the cover to say that the decisions on which bases to cover were non-partisan.

But that is where my support for the dynamic duo end. If he wants to create a fusion ticket there are many better Repub options than Mittens .

[tomder55]

The prospect of another 3rd party candidate has the uni-party's panties in a wad.

Opinion: A third-party run is a risk we can’t afford | CNN

Clyburn is a progressive Dem . But what he says has equal weight with swamp dwelling Repubs.

[jlisenbe]

The two are teaming up in calling for a national debt commission. I support that because only a bi-partisan effort has a chance to break the political deadlock that is contributing to the our of control debt .

That sounds like a good idea in theory, but I wouldn't expect much from it. The deficit has become so large that only really substantial cuts in spending has any hope of erasing it. Tax increases can be a part, but that has the very real risk of depressing economic growth and thus resulting in but a meagre increase in revenues while increasing the supposed need for fed spending.

Only God can get us out of this hole.

[tomder55]

Tax increases can be a part, but that has the very real risk of depressing economic growth and thus resulting in but a meagre increase in revenues while increasing the supposed need for fed spending.

There is enough evidence to make the case that tax cuts increase revenues. The issue is the spending that is not curbed .


It is also true that US debt before 9-11 ;GWOT including Afghanistan and Iraq ;the Great Recessions giveaways ;Covid ; and Clueless Joe's spending was in comparison a manageable $5.674 trillion.

A commission can recommend long term planning solutions in a bipartisan way.

[jlisenbe]

Perhaps the day will come when pols will make decisions that are painful and yet in the best interest of the country, but this current crop won't, and the American people, having become accustomed to the short-term pleasures of deficit spending, will not be likely to tolerate it as long as the good times continue to roll.

[jlisenbe]

[tomder55]

It is interesting that Clyburn thinks having more democracy endangers democracy

From his op-ed

History foretells that a third-party candidacy would only serve as a spoiler and, I maintain, could fundamentally endanger our fragile democracy. That is a risk we simply cannot afford to take.

What he really means is that it endangers HIS democracy. That being the swamp dwellers hold on government.

This is the same Clyburn who wants the John Lewis Act that would prevent states from installing legitimate safeguards to ensure an honest vote ;like REAL voter ID. ;and to manipulate redistricting to the advantage of the Democrats .
A full explanation is in this 'Heritage' article

Destroying Election Integrity: The Unnecessary and Unconstitutional John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (S. 4/H.R. 4) | The Heritage Foundation

He makes debatable claims about the Ralph Nader factor in 2000 . But he goes off the rails in claiming that it was the Jill Stein vote that cost Evita 2016 .

“Jill Stein and Gary Johnson ran third-party campaigns in 2016 that arguably siphoned off enough votes to cost Hillary Clinton the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and with them the presidency.”

It is a false narrative about what he says about Michigan Wisconsin and PA ;that the 3rd party factor swung the states to Trump. What was their impact on other states ? It is more likely that without them Trump would've also won Nevada, Maine, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. The failure is his presumption that every Stein and Johnson vote would've gone to Evita.

She won the popular vote nationally ONLY because California gave her a 4.2 million vote margin in the state.
As for 2024 .... it is just as ;if not more likely that Kennedy votes would go for Trump as Clueless . Greens who vote for Kennedy would likely vote for Clueless. But Trump and Kennedy share many of the same anti-establishment messages . So a good portion of the Kennedy vote would likely vote for Trump

Would anyone voting for Cornell West ever vote for Trump ? No .So his argument carries some weight .

What about a fusion No Label ticket ?

Votes could easily be siphoned from either major party candidate . That effect is unknown.

The impact of 3rd party runs will remain unknown until the vote is cast . To call having more choices undemocratic tells more about the undemocratic instincts of the Democrats .

[tomder55]

NO LABELS is NO MAS because they have NO POSITIONS and NO SPINE .

“Americans remain more open to an independent presidential run and hungrier for unifying national leadership than ever before,” No Labels spokesperson Maryanne Martini said in a statement Thursday.
“But No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down,” she added.

No Labels will not field third-party ticket | CNN Politics


I don't know . With many people voting for 'None of the Above' in the primaries ,maybe they think their best chance is to offer NONE .

They could not offer a viable alternative because they could not offer an alternative vision . In fact they offered NO VISION except they were not Trump of Joe.

WSJ reported that they went 0-30 in their selection process. Among the NO CANDIDATE list were Manchin ;Nikki ;Christie ; Sinema ;Lieberman ;Dean Phillips and Larry Hogan .

Their platform ;such as it is ;is a 30 point bowl of mush.

Common Sense Policy | Common Sense (commonsensemajority.org)

Take energy . It calls for an all of the above approach AND also the building of so called "clean energy"

Take abortion .
America must strike a balance between protecting women’s rights to control their own reproductive health and our society’s responsibility to protect human life.
WAY TO TAKE A FIRM POSITION !!!!Reading it sounds like a watered down version of the Dems' extreme views .
A Manchin -Romney fusion .

We are told that the nation hungers for a moderate candidate. Then we saw the Repub primaries where hard core conservatives could not get traction.

This is my take. Trump was never a true conservative. Despite the harsh and divisive rhetoric . He is actually the moderate alternative. I supported the conservative choices in the primaries ;and they all got trounced .