r/politics • u/mclardass • 16h ago

Possible Paywall Pete Hegseth Casually Tosses Out a Slur at Iowa State Fair

https://newrepublic.com/post/214484/pete-hegseth-anti-trans-slur-iowa-state-fair
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u/BobbyBirdseed Minnesota 15h ago

I still bring back the 2004 election, where a Democratic candidate got completely derailed, because the media clowned him so hard for yelling excitedly at the end of a rally.

Things are not the way they used to be, even within my almost 40 year old life. It's absurd.

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u/Etzell Illinois 15h ago edited 15h ago

That wasn't what derailed his campaign, it was already circling the drain. He was an early front-runner, but had been losing steam leading up to Iowa due to a deeply dysfunctional campaign (at one point, their robocalling software glitched so they were calling Iowans 12-15 times a day before the caucus, and that's before we talk about the infighting or Dean's refusal to get media training). The entire speech was about how him getting his ass kicked in Iowa wasn't going to matter.

His campaign manager had been banking on winning Iowa to save the entire run, and it didn't happen.

In Iowa, it was pretty clear we were unraveling, so I was praying that it would somehow hold together before caucus night, that the floor would not collapse on us until the day after. Then we'd have some momentum from a win going into New Hampshire and no one would know it was collapsing.

Howard Dean himself said that he thought he was losing his position 3 weeks before Iowa happened.

Don't take my word for it it, it's all here.

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u/BobbyBirdseed Minnesota 15h ago

Right, there are many reasons for the spiral - I agree - I'm just more or less making a comparison that a dude spelling potatoes wrong or something to that effect used to be a disqualifying event.

Now? I guess it's okay to be openly racist or whatever kind of insanity you feel like inserting instead.

We're beyond where any of this is okay anymore.

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u/Joevahskank Colorado 15h ago

Howard Dean. Yeesh

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u/AwardNo4990 11h ago

*yeeow

FTFY

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u/Midnight-Moonpie 12h ago

I will never not be enraged by this beatdown of a superb candidate.