2016 Presidential Primaries: Senator Agua Bottle vs Senator Aqua Buddha

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > 2016 Presidential Primaries: Senator Agua Bottle vs Senator Aqua Buddha

«‹›2 »

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

tetrapyloctomy posted:

I have to preface this by saying that I literally have next to no idea what Bloomberg's ideologic stances are. That said: I would love to see him run as an independent simply so we could see how far an independent candidate with big-party levels of funding could go nowadays. Perot '92 got, what, 20% of the popular vote? If Bloomberg is less insane (and chose a better running mate) he could net a bit more. My enthusiasm for Bloomberg 2016 would be tempered by whether his candidacy would result in a far-right monstrosity winning because of Democrats splitting their votes, but goddamn if I don't want viable third-party choices.

He's basically a technocrat. I think he's a good mayor and I think he'd wilt on the national stage. He's short, he isn't really a natural politician, he'd probably get painted as a New York City limousine liberal, and he'd be 74 in 2016.

pangstrom fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Nov 13, 2012

# ¿ Nov 13, 2012 05:40

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 12:58

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

jeffersonlives posted:

InTrade just closed to American customers after the CFTC finally filed against them, so that's something we'll be hearing a lot less about next cycle.

BOOO

edit: this is the lame parry of someone caught speeding but drat, is this really the most important thing they can find to go after?

pangstrom fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Nov 26, 2012

# ¿ Nov 26, 2012 23:13

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

monoceros4 posted:

Isn't it some law of the Universe that a mayor of New York will never make a good presidential candidate? The Lindsay-Giuliani Law or something like that.

Basically, though the fact that a lot of them get considered in the first place would have to be corollary.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2012 04:28

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Lightning Knight posted:

Why? Is the machine behind NYC mayoral kingmaking corrupt enough that anybody who wins wouldn't survive a presidential run because of the resulting skeletons?

Election "laws" are mostly about few observations, especially the ones about "X type of person can't be president..." because there are a lot of types of people and very few presidents. So I don't really believe it, but if I need to give a reason it's that NYC isn't like the rest of the country and it will elect non-"folksy" people who seem like cold assholes because they are.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2012 04:47

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Regarding Christie's weight, I'm just guessing but it seems like it would especially pollute all those Iowa state fair and the just-dropping-in-on-a diner / ice cream shop / etc. politicking and photo ops. As in, no matter what Christie was saying the same "fat person eating" thoughts would be the only things running through peoples' minds. I don't know if you can run a campaign without a lot of those events but I doubt it (if you can they should have done so with Romney).

# ¿ Dec 10, 2012 19:36

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

ReindeerF posted:

And the HP takedown of the author, via Wonkette, isn't so bad either:

Haha. That is some terrible terrible journalism (by Zernike). Is there consensus to "motive"? I suppose the default guess is "story given to her in a bow by someone else with motive" and she lazily stamped it as her own?

# ¿ Dec 18, 2012 18:41

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

PPP please stop helping the Republicans by testing all these superficial non-politicians for a potential Reagan 2.0.

# ¿ May 10, 2013 21:52

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

You guys are forgetting the rabid "Amy is 48" folks.

# ¿ May 16, 2013 18:18

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Adar posted:

Reminder that the first guy to declare for the GOP nom in 2011 was this guy (pro-click for the hilarious aftermath)

Yes, seconded. I don't know how I missed this story (or if I just forgot it, which I also don't know how I would do), but while the whole signatures unraveling thing is great that TV script part is awesome. It's like Threat Level Midnight from The Office. Guy even plays guitar. I feel like I "get" Thaddeus McCotter, now.

# ¿ May 28, 2013 15:22

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Word on the street is that there is a MAGIC ignore list that will make specific posters seem SILENT to you, but you didn't hear this from me.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2013 03:17

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

FMguru posted:

Just because a guy calls 50 out of 50 states correctly in a Presidential election (an election that we referred to as a "squeaker" and a "toss-up") doesn't mean he knows anything about anything.

That "admired how he built up his franchise" is backhanded, too. It's basically saying he's a nothingburger who schemed and self-promoted his way into creating a nothingburger brand. It's the only way people can compliment Paris Hilton and the Kardashians. "Well, they've made a name for themselves and they're making money!" Harris doesn't think this way about his own endeavors, naturally, it took him a long time to come to terms with the possibility that people could be so shallow and opportunistic before he realized what Nate Silver was up to I bet.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 17:27

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

FMguru posted:

The Gay Wizard responds to Poltico's harumphing about Silver thinks he's soooooooooooo smart just because he predicted 50 out of 50 state results in the 2012 election without spending any time transcribing background quotes from Mitt Romney's deputy director of press relations. The tl;dr version: lol, u mad?
He actually does nail them - nail them good and hard - in that last paragraph.

Yes, exactly. The telling aspect to that interview was how they go all Stanley fuzzy Fish every time the interviewer tried to connect what they were doing to some principle or goal.

FMguru posted:

e: Charlie Pierce, on Politico: "These guys are one small step away from telling people that, if they can draw this pirate, they can be political reporters."

loving LOL

# ¿ Jun 19, 2013 15:06

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Joementum posted:

It's a pretty interesting switch for Captain Catholic Family Values and I doubt he'll be able to pull it off because nobody will be able to forget his last two decades in politics.

I think people could forget it, but I doubt he could create a memorable impression of anything positive.

That Allen West stuff is great.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2013 19:28

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

The Warszawa posted:

Goddammit. Cruz and Rubio are actually strongly positioned to combat the xenophobic and racist elements of the Republican Party, and it's a shame to see Cruz give into the campaign equivalent of Stop-and-Frisk.

No Republican is strongly positioned in that fight or will be until the "GOP rebuilding" thread contains content that isn't just Frum articles or ironic "wow they really aren't rebuilding" posts. If anything the minority candidate is just going to paper over those elements in the short term--longer term those elements are combated by the slow progress of society at large and (hopefully) crushing electoral defeats.

Or maybe they go fascist I don't know anymore. I used to say the above confidently, then I thought it was a "market being irrational longer than you can remain solvent" type of situation (i.e. I was right just too early), but now it's probably been long enough that I should be wrong in a different way.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2013 16:45

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

whoops sorry

pangstrom fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Aug 28, 2013

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 23:13

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Orange_Lazarus posted:

Is there any chance the Democrats are grooming an unknown "up and comer" to go against Hillary like they did with Obama? I wasn't into politics until Obama won the primaries so I really don't know if he was actually a surprise for the political junkies as he was for the rest of America.

If I was in charge I would have my pick in a virtual reality training room debating holograms of Hillary and conservatives all day.

It's hard to talk about "the Democrats" as an entity of action while excluding Hillary and Biden. There could be some sentiment to that effect and that matters sometimes, but that's it. Nobody was grooming Obama, really, he was showing signs of being a rising star himself and had a good story and so he got the DNC keynote and then he impressed people again etc. There's always luck involved but there probably won't be a recruitment effort like there was for the GOP in 2012.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2013 14:35

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Yeah, in general you have to take your shot because 4 years later who knows what things will look like (not to mention that if you fail now you can take another run then anyway). In the meantime an Obama can come along, and even if you don't make any mistakes yourself a huge political liability can just land on you. Plus, there is no indication that the 2016 competition will be much better than the 2012 cast.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2013 19:10

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

StarMagician posted:

Then do I have some bad news for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0Hpa44f3c

Well, the fact that Norm MacDonald is considered disorganized unreliable and eccentric FOR A COMEDIAN still trumps any politics, in my mind. I can't remember the last time a press secretary said anything worth remembering (in a positive sense) so there's really nowhere to go but up.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2013 00:47

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Palin in an Anglerfish

# ¿ Nov 1, 2013 20:07

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Captain_Maclaine posted:

I'd think Remora is more her style, what with the latching on to the more powerful to advance herself. Or maybe something like Lamprey.

That's pretty good, too. I still like anglerfish but I agree that that it seems like too clever a strategy for Palin. Even though it is a strategy being employed BY A FISH.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2013 20:17

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Grit your teeth and Octuple down

# ¿ Nov 1, 2013 20:37

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

The older I get the more I think that 70% of most worlds (professional, political, commercial, whatever) boil down to who gets along and who doesn't. The only exception that comes to mind now is professional sports.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 17:00

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

computer parts posted:

For team sports at least it seems like getting along would be more important.

I'm thinking mostly men's football & soccer here, because those are the sports I know, and of course being overly general, but while locker room stuff is a "plus" (which itself says something) it's basically a meritocracy regarding what you can do on the field and you have to be a complete terror before the getting-along aspect matters. (Also professional athletes tend to be man children and thus the standards for getting along are pretty low.)

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 17:50

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

More generally, Penn is a pollster and a PR flack and he embodies the worst possible version of those. I assume he is hated around here because Rachel Maddow called him out (or at least Burson-Marsteller, the PR firm he worked for) a few years back and there were responses and counter-responses etc.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 18:43

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

ReindeerF posted:

He's also just kind of smarmy, fat, self-promoting consultant teat-feeder, but the kind who doesn't win.

It's like the Werner von Braun scene from The Right Stuff where LBJ asks what's holding things up and he replies, "No, Senator. Our Germanz are better zen zere Germanz." Turd Blossom was just as big a smarmy, fat, self-promoting consultant teat-feeder as Penn, but he won while Penn squandered everything in the face of open revolt by other senior Clintonistas who were calling him out openly (Ickes, I think?). You can be fat and loud and stupid, but you can't be fat and loud and stupid and lose big elections and still be taken seriously. Amusingly, he had released a book on microtrends or something around the same time as his national embarrassment.

The thing I wonder, from the outside, is whether Rove is just two coin-flips away from being in the same boat.

Well, okay, I know he's basically two coin-flips away from being a failure. I guess I wonder if he is competent and his skill got Bush from a close loss to a tie/close win or if he's just incompetent.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 20:44

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Ugh David Weigel's brain is missing a piece or something (fine, AKA a libertarian). Everything longer than a few paragraphs takes a couple trips into War of the Ghosts territory.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2013 15:52

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

notthegoatseguy posted:

What's with the several Warren 2016 articles the past few days? I thought she already endorsed Hillary.

New Republic ran a "Hillary's Nightmare" piece last week and then Politco reacted with a "Wall Street's nightmare" piece the next day and then there were a bunch of other reactions. (I don't think Warren has endorsed Hillary, she's just said she isn't running.)

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 20:29

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

ReindeerF posted:

Yeah, that's true. Thing is, that base element is completely self-destructive. At some point, someone's going to find a way to circumvent it by bringing in a bunch of people who are activated by another issue. I don't really think Huckabee is that guy, but someone will be.

Yeah I've had a couple uncomfortable conversations with rich conservatives over the past year where I ended it with slightly apocalyptic "you better hope you don't get your desired policy because if things keep going in that direction some actual socialists are going to start getting elected and/or the poor are going to rise up and tear down the gates on your communities".

People always over-estimate how much support for their personal sentiment is "out there" but I do think there is going to be a correction regarding policy towards the poor in the coming years.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 19:07

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Kenlon posted:

What? How the hell does that make any goddamn sense?

I think what he was going for was: "this underwhelming everyman patriotic-seeming domestic gift means she is slumming a persona in preparing to run nationally". Fineman is basically the Thomas Friedman of DC.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2013 15:04

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Joementum posted:

Guys, he's very obviously joking in that tweet.

I trust you but I also don't get that vibe at all, for what that's worth.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2013 15:31

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

dorkasaurus_rex posted:

Nice racism against Italians in this thread, makes me feel like I'm back on the 30s.

So I'm guessing you're Italian. You probably do feel like you're in the 30s because getting upset about this would be justified back then

# ¿ Jan 12, 2014 20:10

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Joementum posted:

It's not as dumb as the Time cover was, I suppose, but uhhh

Haha. The NYT magazine is usually beautiful and the writing quality is usually great, even if the substance is sort of eh. Going to call that one a miss even on the style, though

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 17:06

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

skaboomizzy posted:

The big issue with Giuliani was that the more time he spent in any state, the lower his poll numbers got there. He was a terrible candidate, nothing could have saved him. Biden's "noun, verb, 9/11" quip helped to bury him.

Yeah, the "focus on Florida" strategy wasn't a plan born of choice, it basically doubled as spin when he got murdered in the states they knew he was going to get murdered in. It wasn't a race where you were going to get away with "abortion is bad but also okay" unless you had everyone running interference for you and even if it were he had lived with gay guys and had three marriages and dressed up as a woman for a joke one time etc. And yeah "'handled' 9/11 ~seven years ago" sounds great when other people say it about you but wears thin almost instantly when you say it about yourself. If there was a big national uptick in crime or some large terrorist attacks or something then maybe he could have got somewhere. BUT ALAS.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 13:11

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

ReindeerF posted:

I always assumed they meant an elevator that lets you store cars one on top of the other, like you see here in Bangkok installed in these townhome shophouses. Or, in the case of really decadent Dubai/Moscow/NYC level poo poo, one of those deals where people in townhomes wait while their car is fetched from a parking storage cell by a valet using an elevator.

I've never heard of anything having to do with accessibility referred to as a "car elevator" but then I'm not disabled, so I could easily be out of the loop.

Yeah it wasn't an accessibility thing it was a drop the garage floor to stash cars in the basement and bring it back up to make room for more thing. Because that exists and as far as I know the other thing doesn't

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 13:20

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

AreWeDrunkYet posted:

The beachfront lot his mansion is on actually isn't all that big and he has a large family.

if I were in his position I would do the same thing. I am sure a lot of what I am doing now is ostentatious to your average person in say Haiti. The gist is "rich people have big beachfront houses" and doesn't offend me. (Now the horse stuff is maybe too far even for me)

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 15:00

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

OAquinas posted:

When you're desperately trying to portray yourself as "understanding the common man's plight" as Mitt was, its just another resonating reminder that no, he has no clue how regular people live. It's more of an assault on his image control than an actual "this is a terrible thing" attack. People know he was rich; having a special elevator for the number of cars he owned is a nice tangible reminder people can grasp.

Yeah I know, it's certainly within bounds to talk about it and certainly more germane than say DIJON MUSTARD, but political race stuff aside once I see someone is worth $250 million (probably more but whatever) the rest is usually variations on a theme. Basically, if you flip out about a car elevator you're going to be flipping out about a lot.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 18:34

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

Thanks, Joe. I'll give it a shot though I tend to prefer a bit of analysis in addition to purely objective reporting.

Most of the shows obviously cover much of the same ground, but there are pearls here and there. I get bored easily and love to have this stuff on in the background and am lucky to have to opportunity to be able to do so.

Agree with Joe that Decode DC is too noncommittal about the truth. ReindeerF has a thread with recommendations:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3573801

# ¿ Feb 4, 2014 20:34

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

The Entire Universe posted:

"Well I don't hear all that horsepower you say this baby's got "

Why does the new train control room look like the 1980s KFC flight simulator from Community?

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 00:52

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

It's risky to say "people aren't going to fall for this poo poo again" but just to keep myself sane I'm telling myself that. White House Staffers for Truth!

# ¿ Feb 10, 2014 22:18

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 12:58

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

That "time for some caucus problems in Iowa" is pretty good.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 18:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > 2016 Presidential Primaries: Senator Agua Bottle vs Senator Aqua Buddha

«‹›2 »