The State of Play - October 25, 2023
In this edition: Argentina's election, Biden's approval rating and Big Oil.
A little apéritif - The circus in the House rolls along
The following are New York Times push notifications I received yesterday
Tuesday October 24:
12:21 - Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 House Republican, is the latest G.O.P. speaker nominee. He faces an uncertain House vote.
16:07 - Tom Emmer’s bid appears to be in peril, with Donald Trump and others on the hard right pushing back after his nomination. Follow live.
16:39 - Tom Emmer dropped his bid for House speaker hours after he was nominated. A backlash from the right, including Donald Trump, sank his candidacy.
22:31 - House Republicans chose Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana as their next nominee for speaker as the deadlock continues.
******
So Emmer lasts just over 4 hours before withdrawing his name. And now we have Mike Johnson, one of the architects of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Reports suggest there could be a House vote today.
My own simple rule of thumb: if you think Trump won the 2020 election, you shouldn’t be Speaker.
Mike Johnson, hard pass.
Argentina is going to a runoff
In a bit of a surprise, Sergio Massa, the economic minister and Peronist candidate, finished in first place in Argentina’s general election on Sunday.1 However, since he did not achieve 45% of the vote (or 40% + a 10% lead), Massa will face-off against second-place finisher Javier Milei, the fire-brand libertarian who was the pre-election talk of the town, in a run-off election held next month.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Nuance Matters to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.