comment: >
  
  I agree. I don't like him but I think '24 is his best chance
context: Well the thing you must consider is will RD still have his popularity in 2028 or will he be old news and replaced by another rising star. 
  In politics all it takes is a few really good moments for you to rocket up and take everyone’s a attention and more importantly funding and support 
  So while it may seem better to wait as a young politician if he waits to long he may be old news especially as much of RD fame comes from his covid policy which may be a dead issue by 2028 and therefore will only help in a primary in the best case scenario >
  
  Remember how fast Bobby Jindal went from rising Republican superstar to person non grata? >
  
  We'd probably be talking the same way about Obama if he hadn't run when he did. >
  
  I think in many ways the Democrats wasted Obama. A ham sandwich could have beaten McCain after five years of R failure/malfeasance in Iraq. I'd have loved to see Obama run against Trump in 2016 with the Dem base nominally exhausted/complacent after 8 years of governing. >
  
  I think Trump was in large part a backlash to Obama. I'm not sure he gets nominated (or even runs) if Obama had not been president. >
  
  Obama goaded Trump into running by humiliating him at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2011. I'm sure Obama regrets that night more than any other in his life. >
  
  Obama became an emblem of the cultural and demographic shift away from total white dominance to partial/tenuous white dominance. And Trump made himself the figurehead of the fight to hold back that tide. I'm sure it didn't hurt that Trump had contempt for Obama personally, but I don't think it was the main thing that caused him to run in 2016. >
  
  Trump also tapped into the resentment of those that found the post-great recession recovery to either be anemic or didn’t restore their personal economic situation. >
  
  No one was voting for trump for his excellent economic policy.  That's just the excuse the out of touch journalists came up with post facto so that they wouldn't have to say the r word. >
  
  IMO it was the exact opposite. The out-of-touch journalists in their upper class urban bubbles had no concept of the recovery not reaching middle America, whereas “conservatives be conservatives because racism” is about the most boilerplate take out there. It’s not like they were refusing to factor race into his rhetoric on immigrants. >
  
  Three scenarios.
  
  Trump gets out of the race for one reason or another. Maybe he's just in it for the grift and doesn't intend to carry on into the primaries. Or maybe he's indicted? Something.
  He runs for and wins the nomination, then goes on to lose spectacularly in the general.
  Hr runs for and loses the nomination, after which he will devote himself to tearing down the Republican candidate, causing them to lose spectacularly. >
  
  True. RDs best bet is to play keepalive, hope the guy goes down somehow, and withdraw if Trump is still active when the primaries heat up. >
  
  IMO RD has to run now. He is the heir apparent to the Republican Party and nomination. He has spent his time as gov fashioning himself in that way. Based on the midterm results the party is slowly moving away from Trump. 
  In 4 years issues will change, so his platform may not be appealing to the voter. Waiting leaves the door open for new rising stars in the party to overshadow him. He may not be the golden boy he is now. 
  He was a representative now he’s a Governor the upward mobility is either President or VP. Youth in office doesn’t hurt.