Time for Lesser Candidates to Step Aside?
I would love to have any of you as president, but it isn’t going to happen. By Readers Aug. 24, 2023 3:32 pm ET A sign promotes the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., Aug. 22. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg News Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum, please wake up (“Culling the Republican Herd,” Review & Outlook, Aug. 18). Every day that goes by with all of you in the field, the Trump and Biden teams celebrate. Although I would love to have any of you as president, it isn’t going to happen. Please get out of the way for either Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin, who have a chance of beating both former President Trump and President Biden. Democrats, you are playing a very dangerous game hoping that Mr. Trump wins the Republican nomination. Don’t forget
A sign promotes the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., Aug. 22.
Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg News
Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum, please wake up (“Culling the Republican Herd,” Review & Outlook, Aug. 18). Every day that goes by with all of you in the field, the Trump and Biden teams celebrate. Although I would love to have any of you as president, it isn’t going to happen. Please get out of the way for either Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin, who have a chance of beating both former President Trump and President Biden.
Democrats, you are playing a very dangerous game hoping that Mr. Trump wins the Republican nomination. Don’t forget that Mr. Biden is 80 and sliding, has a son named Hunter and a vice president named Kamala Harris. Which would you Democrats choose—a slightly less than 50% chance Mr. Trump is your next president, or a slightly greater than 50% chance Messrs. DeSantis or Youngkin is your next president?
John Kistler
Naples, Fla.
If a Republican candidate really wants to avoid an early exit from the presidential campaign, he or she would be well served by announcing at the first debate a “prospective pardon” for both Messrs. Trump and Biden regarding any crimes they may have committed while in office.
This would reassure voters on both sides of a desire to move the country forward rather than staying bogged down in vendetta politics. It would demonstrate courageous leadership, in addition to staking out a centrist position well ahead of the general election.
Bill Helenberg
Seattle
Your editorial makes all the sense in the world—just not this world. The other Republican candidates have egos too, and Democrats will spend advertising money and switch parties in the primaries to guarantee that Mr. Trump is the nominee. This is a strategy Democrats employed several times in 2020 to win Senate seats in which they fielded vulnerable candidates.
Watch the early voting, and when the former president outperforms his polling, he will claim it’s because he has the support of the masses and that the media are against him. What it will really mean is that many who have absolutely no intention of voting for Mr. Trump in the general election did so in the primaries.
John Trickett
Charleston, Ark.
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