After visiting all 99 counties in Iowa and failing to win a single one, specifically because he visited all 99 counties in Iowa, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared the dark, unknown and mysterious forces of universe tried to stop him, “threw everything at him,” yet he alone stands victorious.

Yeah, he actually said that.

The DeSantis campaign put most of their resources into Iowa and gained a total of 23,000 votes (roughly 21%), quickly declaring victory in a tenuous 2nd place finish and proclaiming their victory ticket has been punched.  The cognitive disconnect is exceptionally strong; but hey, everyone has a role to play – right?  WATCH:

IOWA – DeSantis took the stage for a few minutes at a campaign party in West Des Moines after he secured second place.

“Because of your support, in spite of all of that they threw at us, everyone against us — we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” he said.

DeSantis spent millions in the Hawkeye State, visited all 99 counties and cultivated the endorsements of popular Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting his candidacy, also spent more than nine months building a ground game and appointing 1,600 precinct captains across the state. (MORE)

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Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are locked in a tight race for the coveted first-loser title.  However, the DeSantis campaign is very upset with the media for declaring President Trump the Iowa winner.

[Story Here]

Big sad.

Tonight, all the Ron DeSantis conscripts, and paid influencers start to realize there’s not going to be any income potential for them in a few weeks.  It’s a cold look in the mirror when “learning to code” applies to your collapsed career.

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As we will do with each primary contest, this is the dedicated thread to the results from the primary caucus in the state of Iowa today.

Forty delegates are up for grabs. Delegates are distributed ¹proportionately.  Caucusing begins at 8:00pm ET. We can expect results from the first-reporting precinct caucuses around 8:45pm Eastern Time tonight.

There is no Democrat primary caucus in Iowa this year as the DNC changed the primary contest. A few people, me included, have long suspected the DNC primary change was not necessarily about the DNC, but rather a change to provide space for Iowa and New Hampshire Democrat activists to influence the first two republican primaries as a block Trump strategy. We await the data to see what happens.

Associated Press Election Results Here

Politico Election Results Here

New York Times Election Results Here

CNN Election Results Here

¹Delegates are proportionally allocated to Presidential contenders based on the statewide vote. Each candidate receives (candidate’s statewide vote) × 40 ÷ (total statewide vote) delegates. Round fractions to the nearest whole number. If there are too few delegates allocated, the candidate nearest the rounding threshold receives the additional delegate. If too many delegates are allocated, the candidate furthest the threshold loses a delegate.

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I doubt this guy is going to come in second place, maybe third; yet there’s a possibility he could even drop to a devastating fourth.  The short answer about why is in this closing message.  The Florida governor shows who he is.

Giving his closing message to Iowa voters, Ron DeSantis attacks Donald Trump by saying, “if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful.  You can be the strongest, most dynamic successful Republican and conservative in America, but if you don’t kiss that ring, then he’ll try to trash you.”  This comes after Ron DeSantis was desperate in 2018 and likely to lose the Florida governor race to a drug fueled porn addict, so his team begged Donald Trump for assistance.

American voters are not stupid.  The labeling and attacking do not work when it is full of fraud, sanctimony and hypocrisy.  That said, this is also why DeSantis has very few friends and even fewer endorsements amid those in the Florida delegation who know him best. WATCH:

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You know what the strange thing is…. I doubt strongly that Ron DeSantis has any idea just how much damage he has done to himself with this campaign.  The echo-chamber around DeSantis is so necessarily isolating, only after he drops out will he personally begin to absorb just how small, pathetic and insignificant he has become.

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This is more than a little funny.  The stuff people do can just make you laugh out loud sometimes.

Some guy interrupts Ron DeSantis as he begins to start his remarks at a campaign event to present the Florida governor with an actual participation trophy.  It took a few seconds for people to realize DeSantis was being trolled.  Making matters all that much funnier, Casey DeSantis eventually plays the role of security and stands between Ron and the guy with the trophy.  WATCH:

Ouch, what this guy did was brutal; however, the reality of the Iowa situation makes his snarky trolling that much more effective.

Team Ron DeSantis put all their chips into winning the Iowa caucuses.  They visited all 99-counties and spent more time in Iowa than any other candidate.  However, all of that effort exhausted, all of that money spent, all of that strategic planning and DeSantis is now in third place and likely to get beaten by Nikki Haley for the first-loser trophy.

[DATA HERE]

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The most watched CNN broadcast in all of 2023 was a townhall with President Donald Trump.

Last night as President Trump appeared on Fox News and Ron DeSantis/Nikki Haley held a debate, the audience for Trump almost doubled the CNN audience for Haley/DeSantis.

(Via The Hill) – Fox’s town hall with Trump averaged 4.3 million viewers from 9-10 p.m., according to early data from Nielsen Media Research, while the CNN debate featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley averaged 2.5 million during the same hour.

[…] Wednesday night’s ratings returns are the latest signal that live events featuring Trump remain one of the largest drivers of audience for the nation’s cable news channels, all of which are facing major headwinds in the form of increased cord-cutting and changing media habits on the part of consumers.

A town hall CNN hosted with Trump last year averaged north of 3 million viewers, the single largest ratings night for the network of 2023. (read more)

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In this video [see below], presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is essentially describing the “splitter strategy” CTH has discussed and outlined in granular detail for years.  Essentially, a process where the billionaire donors, hedge fund managers, corporations and multinationals – what we define as the Sea Island group (SIG), control the private corporation known as the RNC.

On this facet of his commentary, Ramaswamy is correct.  However, from there he gets things wrong.

Yes, as we have said, the Chris Christie exit is part of the continuum.  Remember, within mutually aligned motives the candidate doesn’t need specifically to be an active participant; they only need to be looking out for their individual interests, usually financial.

When the ‘time to exit’ tap on the shoulder is received, it comes via a key backer saying, “there’s no longer a path.”  The money stops, and the candidate suspends their campaign.  That’s how the process works.

Did Christie get that tap on the shoulder, at the specific time needed to retain the “never Trump” effort, thereby creating further support for Nikki Haley?  Yes, absolutely – again, that’s how it works.

The SIG moved all their poker chips to Nikki after they realized the weird behavior of DeSantis meant he was no longer a viable option.  When Brian Kemp began creating distance with DeSantis, that’s when the shift to Haley began.

Immediately preceding the shift to Nikki Haley, and specifically because DeSantis was not gaining traction, the evangelical brothers Mike Pence and Asa Hutchinson also received their tap on the shoulder and withdrew from their Iowa effort.

Within the plan of the SIG, Pence/Hutchinson were only camped in Iowa to pull a coalition of evangelicals together to hand them to DeSantis.  But that part of the effort never gained traction.  As a consequence, the SIG shifted to New Hampshire, where their allied Democrats could assist.

Ramaswamy is correct in the statement that the billionaire donors within the SIG want a head-to-head between President Trump and Nikki Haley, but only because that’s all that remains of the collapsing roadmap.  Where Ramaswamy is wrong is that when Haley loses, the SIG/Never Trump group will shift to supporting Biden (Newsom).  That’s the UniParty.  Ultimately, in the big picture, the foundational effort is not about supporting DeSantis or Haley, it’s about stopping Trump.

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There are several layers around this story that are interesting and funny.

The obvious story is how Chris Christie is talking to Wayne MacDonald, a former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party, and discussing the futility of Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.  The lesser obvious story speaks to the reason for the entire RAT team’s effort; they each had/have a role to play on behalf of their corporate benefactors.

“She’s gonna get smoked,” the former New Jersey governor said of Nikki Haley. “And you and I both know it. She’s not up to this,” Christie continued.  Chris Christie also claimed Ron DeSantis called him about Iowa while “petrififed” at the prospect of coming in third.  LISTEN:

The Latest Iowa Poll:

Trump: 52% (+7)

Haley: 18% (-1)

DeSantis: 18% (-4)

Ramaswamy: 5% (=)

Christie: 3% (-1)

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An interesting poll out of New Hampshire [UML Poll Here] [Topline pdf Here] shows something perhaps many expected.

President Donald Trump still dominates the field with 52% and leads in every demographic.  Nikki Haley comes in second with 22%, and Ron DeSantis third with 10%.   However, if you dig into the demographics of the respondents, what you discover is that Nikki Haley has gained her support from Ron DeSantis’ primary support base.

[Source]

Previously DeSantis’ main support base was from wealthy, older, white males.  DeSantis has now lost this base to Nikki Haley, as her demographic support shows the rich, older, white males, what you might call the country club circuit, have dumped the Florida Governor in favor of the former UN Ambassador.

The rich, older, white males now support Nikki Haley over Ron DeSantis.  This explains why Haley’s gains are all DeSantis losses.

Additionally, 27% of the DeSantis support is locked in (73% willing to change), while 47% of the Nikki Haley supporters are firm for her (53% could change mind).  Not only has Nikki Haley taken DeSantis’ base of support, but she has also locked in most of that stolen base.

While neither Haley or DeSantis stands a chance at a New Hampshire victory, it’s interesting how the dynamic has rolled out.

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This guy really is a piece of work.  During a CBN interview, DeSantis was asked about the politically motivated DOJ attacks against President Donald Trump.  Within his response, the Florida governor found a way to make himself a victim, claiming the persecution of Trump skewed the GOP primary race and hurt the other candidates. WATCH:

As the career light dims to a slow fade away in the corner of DeSantis’ eye, it remains important to keep focus on why this catastrophic collapse was beneficial to the MAGA movement.

DeSantis had no option but to run in this ’24 race, because that was the design going back to when he left Congress in 2018.  However, we dodged a bullet, because Ron would have likely been a shoo-in for 2028 if the Sea Island multinationals had chosen to play the Nikki Haley card first.

If there’s one lesson to be learned in all of this, it would be to remind ourselves that the GOPe club never stops working on the illusion of choice.

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