Wednesday Edition

With Donald Trump almost certain to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, let’s take a look at the Republicans floated as potential Trump running mates. (Puck)

Tim Scott: The South Carolina senator has a +28 favorability rating with Republicans, while the American public at large has a slightly negative view of Scott. Scott’s gained a reputation for likability and inoffensiveness.

Vivek Ramaswamy: 36% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Ramaswamy, compared to 24% who view him favorably. Ramaswamy’s favorability rating with Republicans is +17. The tech entrepreneur’s unfavorability rose steadily as his national profile increased, suggesting the more the public sees of Ramaswamy, the less they like him.

Kristi Noem: Only 1 in 4 South Dakotans think their governor should be Trump’s vice president, according to an October poll from Emerson College. Noem’s overall approval rating is at 43%, while 73% of Republicans approve of her job performance. Her approval is 17 points higher among men than women.

J.D. Vance: We don’t have many recent polls on the Ohio senator, but exit polling from the 2022 election shows he’s particularly strong with older, white and non-college-educated voters (probably a lot of overlap with Trump).

Kari Lake: The consensus on Lake is the base loves her but her aggressively “MAGA” style turns off moderates. A Noble Insights poll on the U.S. Senate race in Arizona shows Lake underwater by a 46% to 38% margin.

Katie Britt: 74% of Republicans approve of the Alabama senator’s job performance. She’s also the most popular freshman senator in Congress with a 33% net approval rating. The rap on Britt is “MAGA” voters like her and she’s capable of picking up support in the suburbs.

Puck political reporter Peter Hamby: “With the possible exception of Sarah Palin’s chaotic turn on John McCain’s ticket, running mates usually don’t have a measurable impact on elections. It’s something that generates rare consensus among political operatives and political scientists: The choice on the ballot is really just the one between the two nominees. At best, a good running mate does no harm. His or her job is to convey the nominee’s values, survive a single semi-important TV debate, help raise money, and maybe energize the party’s political base without offending too many swing voters in the process.”

Conservatives say the latest controversy involving Snopes demonstrates a pattern of bias in the fact-checking industry. (Fox News)

Snopes, a fact-checking website, initially rated claims President Biden wore a hardhat backwards during a recent Wisconsin visit as “false.” In the wake of social media backlash, Snopes reversed its former rating and labeled the claims “true.” You can read Snopes’ explanation here, and see the referenced photo below to judge for yourself.

It’s not unheard of for fact-checkers to get things wrong:

• A number of fact-checking sites issued corrections or retractions over ratings on the COVID-19 lab leak origin theory.

• Snopes last year incorrectly rated claims the Titan submersible (which imploded) had used Elon Musk’s Starlink technology as “true.”

• In 2021, Snopes retracted 60 articles plagiarized by the site’s co-founder.

• The Washington Post’s fact-check on the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop reporting contained multiple errors.

The fact-check industry is growing, but allegations of bias remain: Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform, announced in 2018 it was partnering with 24 fact-checking organizations in 14 countries. The number of fact-checking groups worldwide increased by 239% from 2014 to 2018, according to the Duke Reporters’ Lab. A 2013 study found PolitiFact, which Facebook uses as a third-party fact-checking partner, rates claims by Republicans as false three times more often than Democratic claims. The number of CNN fact-checks on Donald Trump and Republicans far exceed those of President Biden, according to a Fox News analysis.

Journalist Ben Smith in 2011: “At their worst, [fact-checkers are] doing opinion journalism under pseudo-scientific banners, something that's really corrosive to actual journalism, which if it's any good is about reported fact in the first place.”

Are college degrees overrated from an economic value standpoint? Not according to a new study. (American Enterprise Institute)

The study:

• Bachelor’s degree holders earn a median of 75% more than those with only a high school diploma.

• The college wage premium (the extra money earned by people with a college degree compared to those with just a high school diploma) has leveled out but remains significant and higher than it was in 2000.

• College graduates enjoy benefits like higher levels of health, community engagement, and job satisfaction.

On the other hand, buying into those benefits has become much more expensive thanks to the skyrocketing cost of tuition.

How did we get to the point where conservatives view Superbowl-winning athletes and pop stars as the enemy? (NYT)

From Fox News hosts to Vivek Ramaswamy to former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a wave of conservative media figures have come out against Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the “it” couple of the moment. Some point to Swift’s past support for President Biden and Kelce’s status as a Pfizer vaccine spokesman. Others have suggested Kelce and Swift’s relationship is a propaganda plot meant to build support for Biden.

Swift, the NFL and Budweiser are some of the most popular things in America, but conservatives generally aren’t fans:

• A 2022 Los Angeles Times/Survey Monkey poll found almost half of Republican or Republican-leaning independent respondents said their interest in the NFL has decreased over the past five years.

• Only 23% of Swift’s fans are Republicans, compared to the 55% who are Democrats.

• 66% of Republicans support a boycott of Bud Light, which faced backlash last year after hiring a transgender spokesperson.

Conservatives have distrusted the media for a long time, but most mainstream institutions are becoming unpalatable to them. Between 2018 and 2021, Republicans' confidence in U.S. institutions declined across the board, except for a slight increase in confidence in local police, per the American Institutional Confidence poll.

$0.02

Conservatives aren’t crazy to feel alienated from mainstream culture. A lot of the distrust has been a reaction to institutions veering leftward or taking political stances. But as is the case with many things, sometimes the reaction gets taken too far.

The total costs of owning a car have hit all-time highs. (The Guardian)

A new Cox Automotive report:

• Since 2020, new car prices have increased by 31%, and used car prices by nearly 40%.

• Maintenance costs for car owners have risen significantly; for example, oil change costs have doubled or more.

• Average car insurance costs rose by over 14% between the end of 2021 and 2022, then soared another 20% by the end of 2023.

A big reason for the bump in prices has been a change in the car market. Automakers have reduced production, leading to fewer cars available at higher prices. There's been a shift towards making more profitable luxury cars and SUVs, reducing the availability of cheaper models.