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On George Will’s Bold Prediction
National Review ^ | 07/14/2023 | CHARLES C. W. COOKE

Posted on 07/14/2023 8:06:23 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

In the Post, George Will predicts that neither Donald Trump nor Ron DeSantis will be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024. Inter alia, Will bases this on what he considers to be voters’ inevitable “rebellion against inevitability”:

Voters, however, become contrary when told that the game’s outcome is known in the top of the first inning. Hence what G.K. Chesterton called the game of “Cheat the Prophet”: People listen politely to explanations of what is inevitable, then make something else happen.

As a rule, there’s a lot to this. Americans did not like being told in 2007 that the next election would “inevitably” be between Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, so they ensured that it was not. In 2016, they did not like being told that the “inevitable” Republican nominee in 2016 was Jeb Bush, so they rejected him. And, as Will notes, they did not like it in 1980 when Ronald Reagan took Iowa for granted:

In the 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan, who was not considered the inevitable GOP nominee, made only eight Iowa campaign appearances, spending a total of 49 hours in the state (according to Steven F. Hayward’s “The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980”). And Reagan skipped the Des Moines Register’s Jan. 5 debate, which 58 percent of Iowa voters watched. Voters do not dislike inevitabilities more than they dislike politicians who seem to feel entitled to special dispensations. Reagan’s post-debate support plummeted from 50 percent in November to 26 percent a week before the caucuses, which he lost to George H.W. Bush.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: bold; george; georgewill; oldfoureyes; prediction; thebowtiebros; will
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Weird article to me with no point
1 posted on 07/14/2023 8:06:23 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
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To: ChicagoConservative27

What is George Will’s track record in prophecy? What is it in wishful thinking?


2 posted on 07/14/2023 8:08:20 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will is as senile and worthless as Biden.

And equally out of touch with conservatism.


3 posted on 07/14/2023 8:09:50 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: rightwingcrazy

No one listens to this bitter atheistic Democrat anymore.


4 posted on 07/14/2023 8:11:51 AM PDT by alstewartfan ("She looks like she's 19 years old, sitting there like a lady with her lbegs crossed." Creepy Joe)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

The dope cites 2-3 examples from the last 11 presidential elections and acts like it is a “trend.”


5 posted on 07/14/2023 8:12:10 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've just pissed in my pants and nobody can do anything about it." -- Major Fambrough)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Will should stick to watching baseball and STFU.


6 posted on 07/14/2023 8:12:33 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Delay Trump’s trial, delay. Elect Trump President. Trump pardons himself.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will is still around?


7 posted on 07/14/2023 8:13:26 AM PDT by old-ager
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Nobody cares what George Will says.


8 posted on 07/14/2023 8:15:59 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Nobody cares what George Will says.


9 posted on 07/14/2023 8:16:06 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will... Prissy little faggot.


10 posted on 07/14/2023 8:16:35 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will has demonstrated a deep lack of understanding of the modern voter. He’s been way off since the Clinton administration.


11 posted on 07/14/2023 8:17:26 AM PDT by Repealthe17thAmendment
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Trump cost him millions of dollars from his wife’s campaign business.


12 posted on 07/14/2023 8:18:22 AM PDT by bray (You can tell who the Commies fear.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27
--- "George Will predicts...."

Is it not interesting that today's mainstream media and ancillary op-ed sites are all involved in PREDICTION.

The Covid "event" began with utterly incorrect predictions from Ferguson (UK) and WHO.

The "climate change" jackasses from Maurice Strong through to Michael Mann to today's "Climate Idiot" Kerry are deep into predictions called "modeling."

The future outcome of the "officially" non-NATO Ukraine-Russia war is filled with predicting tomorrow's outcome today.

The next "pandemics" are being predicted in advance.

The environmentally-caused famines are being "Earth Day" predicted from decades of Paul Ehrlich being wrong, and wrong and wrong, but publicized nevertheless.

And let us not forget Obama's prediction in ballyhooing Solyndra -- which went bankrupt -- that the future is Solyndra's. Oddly that last one came out to be an accurate prediction in terms of bankruptcy, though Obama did not intend that.

If one erased all the predictions and forecasts and models foretelling the future -- a week from now or a century from now -- the media would have to actually report what IS happening, rather than what will be. Or in the case of George, what Will be happening. George Will so-o-o wants to remain in the "slimelight."

13 posted on 07/14/2023 8:18:38 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will has lost his mind, and so has the National Review.


14 posted on 07/14/2023 8:19:46 AM PDT by LuxAerterna
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will? Riiiiiggghhhttt


15 posted on 07/14/2023 8:19:49 AM PDT by goodnesswins ( We pretend to vote and they pretend to count the votes.)
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To: old-ager
George Will is still around?

Yes, he lives in a Golden Girls style apartment with Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg and Peggy Noonan. It's gross because they're old and rotten and joke about getting laid a lot.

16 posted on 07/14/2023 8:22:12 AM PDT by dead (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vFiUUcBkc)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

“Will bases this on what he considers to be voters’ inevitable “rebellion against inevitability””

Will is stupid enough to confuse the pounding of the supposed “inevitability” of Hillary, for example, that occurred with the MSM as indicative of the sentiments of the American people.

Will is just proud of the “inevitable rebellion against inevitability” line and sought to write a piece to parade it around.


17 posted on 07/14/2023 8:28:55 AM PDT by odawg
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To: old-ager

Yeah he’s been somewhat absent in mentions here on FR for a while. I met him briefly back in 1991. Seemed prissy to me.


18 posted on 07/14/2023 8:29:34 AM PDT by xp38
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To: ChicagoConservative27

George Will’s Prediction + Biden’s Word = -0


19 posted on 07/14/2023 8:34:46 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: rightwingcrazy

George Will is a clown who hates president Trump. Anybody who know anything about this little man knows he doesn’t want Trump to win the republican primary. If Trump wins it means little George has to join with his liberal buddies to attack the republican nominee Donald Trump. It exposes Will as the tiny little weasel he really is.


20 posted on 07/14/2023 8:36:44 AM PDT by Rdct29 (The Democrats Are The New Nazi Party )
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