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FMguru posted:Yeah, once you LOSE a presidential election you are supposed to go away because you are a LOSER. Nixon's 1960/1968 doubleshot went down as one of the greatest comebacks in history because things like that are so rare. Romney already faced the voters once, and got decisively rejected. What possible logic (other than a total lack of other viable candidates) justifies giving him another bite at the apple? The problem the right runs into is that Romney is one of very few potentially electable people they have. They have a poo poo load of crazies and really old fucks and then bland, inoffensive, white bread R-Money. While the crazies are all cannibalizing each other Romney is just kind of hanging around, not doing much remarkable other than occasionally saying something dumb. Of course, the major issue is that, like you said, he already lost once. The Democrats would need to gently caress up hard to give Romney a win.
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Nov 11, 2014 01:31
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The Insect Court posted:The danger is that Democrats wind up with a Hillary campaign that refuses to engage in what it sees as pandering to the rabble and we see a repeat of 2014 where Democrats don't have any coherent economic agenda. The Democrats have never had a coherent economic agenda and never will. One advantage the GOP has on that front is that their plan is simple; remove regulations, lower taxes. It's simple and they can easily harp on "well yeah you'll take home more money and trickle-down economics will totally work this time, we swear."
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Nov 11, 2014 02:30
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evilweasel posted:Oh I know he wont win, but he'll spend the entire time throwing bombs. Its his entire strategy for getting ahead. Do you suppose he might be making it as miserable for the other candidates as possible to try to squeak out a win in future elections? I feel like he just assumes he'll be president some day. If not this cycle then the next one. He's completely unelectable as far as the presidency goes but I feel like he has the whole "plucky, young underdog" thing going on in his head.
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Nov 11, 2014 16:41
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evilweasel posted:What are they going to do, run a candidate arguing to Texas Republicans that Ted Cruz was too conservative? Really I think that sums up the biggest problem the GOP is running into right now. Their entire platform is "nobody is ever conservative enough and the only correct action is to shove America further to the right, all the time." Turns out that the crazies came out of the woodwork and said "hey that's a great idea, let's do that!"
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Nov 11, 2014 18:59
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CubsWoo posted:Again, look at 2014. The right wing wanted Broun or Handel in GA, McDaniel in MS, Wolf in KS, Brannon in NC, Bevin in KY, Carr in TN. They all lost to safer incumbents/establishment moderate Republicans. Even close race losers like Scott Brown and Gillespie were more moderate than the bigger losers in 2010/2012. If you're looking at that trend and thinking the GOP is going to go more right wing in 2016 I'm not sure what else could convince you. Huckabee and Cruz may run but I think the frontrunners have the discipline not to follow them into untenable positions that would jeopardize the general. The right wing is far, far further to the right than it was when I was growing up (i.e., the Reagan era) and has been getting more right. The people that get elected might not always be as far right as the crazy right wants but that still sums up the right's strategy. Nothing is ever to the right enough. If a middle-right person gets elected then we aren't pushing hard enough.
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Nov 12, 2014 00:51
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joeburz posted:Wasn't Lincoln a lawyer? He was a country lawyer. His law education he did himself.
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Nov 23, 2014 18:50
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Naet posted:Bear in mind that I'm not saying we're a dumb or uneducated society, but there's certainly a wave of distrust for 'experts' and academic knowledge. Ivy League degrees can convey a sense of elite status, which some people do like in a potential presidential candidate, but that's a cultural or economic identity and not necessarily an intellectual identity. It's a lot of right wing bullshit, generally. College professors and the college educated have a tendency to vote left. The right says to distrust them greatly of course so there is this rallying cry of "detached liberal elites" and "ivory tower intellectuals with no common sense." It isn't that America is anti-intellectual so much as the right uses high educational achievement as a bad thing only when it is a liberal that is educated. You see this a lot in the environmental debate when you hear about stuff like "stupid scientists, what do they know?" The right is, of course, generally old and white and most people attending college is a very, very new thing. 40, 50, 60 years ago when the current majority of right wing voters (I'm thinking old, white folks) were young not everybody even graduated high school. Now we're ushering everybody off to college so the right is screaming liberal indoctrination. Which is why we've seen Republicans running on "I'm a stupid, white farmer from the hills, just like you!" platforms and succeeding. The view is that if you go to college and get more education that's less real world experience so that means less common sense. Ignore facts and information; trust what your gut tells you.
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Nov 24, 2014 20:05
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computer parts posted:I don't think Mitch McConnell wants to run though. Yeah really, if McConnell got elected president he might have to actually, you know, do something.
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Nov 25, 2014 02:29
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forbidden lesbian posted:Is there a reason to be coy about running for president? I mean in the case of Jeb Bush, He's "exploring the possibility of running for president", why not just go ahead and say, "yeah, I'm running"? Quite a few things; you don't get very far politically without working within your party. If your party doesn't want you to run then you don't. There's generally a certain amount of requiring party endorsement to run and the parties spend a lot of time discussing among themselves who they think has the best shot. There's also the political side of things, of course, in that you don't want to sabotage future campaigns by saying "yeah I'm loving running, let's DO this!" then turning out to not be the candidate. Wanting it too much also looks pretty bad in that somebody who really, really wants to be president looks extremely suspicious. There's also the snag of either party picking a definitive, solid candidate this early. What if a party says "yup, this is our guy!" and said guy gets hit by a bus and dies. Kind of throws a wrench in things. I think one of the things that hurt Hillary in the past was how incredibly eager she seemed to become president. So yeah, tl;dr: politics.
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Dec 16, 2014 22:02
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Cliff Racer posted:Huckabee and Rand do not draw from the same pool, I don't think Cruz does either but he's been around for so short a time that I honestly don't know. Likely he doesn't have much constituency at all and probably is not going to run. I guarantee you Cruz is going to make a grab for it no matter how much it hurts and/or pisses off the rest of his party. The guy is a megalomaniac that acts like he deserves more power than he has. I figure he'll play the "maverick fighting for what's right at all costs" card and act like he's going up against the establishments of both parties to do what he knows in his gut is right. The Tea Party nut bags will eat it up but it's going to divide the GOP something fierce as Cruz tries (and fails horribly) to grab for the presidency and the rest of the GOP tries to put the genie back in the bottle.
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Jan 4, 2015 07:28
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So let me guess, it's just Barack   HUSSEIN Obama all over again?
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Jan 12, 2015 21:31
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Chokes McGee posted:Hmm. The democrat has a single card to play called "Old Maid." Hmmmmmm. I read that less as misogyny and more as "lol Hillary is old." My assumption was that the right was going to put up somebody like Cruz and be all "hey look at this young dude! Young people should vote for Young Guy because lol look how old Hillary is." Granted I also read it as "all the candidates suck in one way or another" which kind of makes sense. The GOP has to deal with a whole deck full of twits that are all doing a crabs in a bucket kind of thing with no clear winner while the Democrats seem to have the option of Hillary or, you know, Hillary who a lot of people just plain don't like. After the suspected head injury I figured the GOP would refuse to shut the gently caress up about Hillary's age and the suggestions that she's brain damaged and/or senile.
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Jan 19, 2015 23:32
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radical meme posted:Do Walker and Paul fit into the category of "acceptably conservative" or is that category limited to Cruz, Carson and Perry? Nobody is ever conservative enough.
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Jan 20, 2015 02:22
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Cigar Aficionado posted:If Mitt, Jeb, and Christie all run, then Rand could be an interesting darkhorse by shoring up the libertarian, tea party, and other fringe non-establishment Republicans. But if they all run then it's going to fragment the base something fierce and we may very well see another last minute candidate. The GOP is massively fragmented right now and I guarantee it's going to hurt them.
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Jan 20, 2015 07:33
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Sir Tonk posted:Leading by example, that's the kind of President we need. Let's all just vote for whoever is fattest and see what happens.
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Jan 20, 2015 17:57
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Scrub-Niggurath posted:The more fun question is who would hillary pick as vp I know it would never, ever happen but I kind of want her to pick Bill as her veep and then resign on her first day for no other reason than to piss off the right. It's a stupid dream but the head explosions from the right would be hilarious.
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Jan 21, 2015 23:33
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The sad thing is that it's not even like the original Bush was so massively popular. It's just literal name recognition. Yeah but how many people on the right can't stop wanking over Bush the Lesser? For better or for worse Jeb has a lot of guaranteed votes just because of his last name. All he'd have to do is promise to be just like W and a poo poo load of levers get pulled by default.
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Jan 22, 2015 21:25
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Gyges posted:If he promises to be just like W, he's super done. Maybe, maybe, that'll work for the base but everyone else in the country will be working out for the next few months in order to pull the Hillary lever even harder. True, I'm just of the feeling that the right will go for the easy, guaranteed votes. The question is if that block is big enough and if the right can gently caress up election laws enough to sabotage Democrat votes. Really I don't see this one being easy for the right. If Obama winning so hard two elections in a row that the right couldn't even spin it is any indication America is sick of the right's bullshit. Hell look at the numbers of the mid term. If memory serves Democrats got more popular votes by a long shot but the right got more seats. Can't hide poo poo like that forever.
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Jan 22, 2015 23:04
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:I'll be damned if "compassionate conservatism" makes a comeback after seeing how everything went to poo poo during my late preteen to teen years. Contemporary conservatism can't call itself compassionate. Like, at all.
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Jan 22, 2015 23:06
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Disinterested posted:Nah man, he always hated healthcare. I'm still amazed his mormonism wasn't a bigger deal last time. There was no way either side was going to play the religion card last election. It was unspoken but if you watch there was basically a big non-aggression pact on every side when it came to religion.
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Jan 23, 2015 05:30
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Disinterested posted:I meant more I was surprised it didn't become an issue in the national - not necessarily from Obama, just in the press. Mitt's old enough to for sure have seen some of the super racist poo poo in Mormonism. There was no good that could come from it. The instant anybody brought up Mormonism you'd see a massive increase in the "Obama is a Muslim" bullshit in response to it. Anybody at all bringing race up would have done nothing other than make the race much uglier and much dirtier. It would have started a fight nobody could win so nobody picked it.
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Jan 23, 2015 20:03
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Captain_Maclaine posted:Didn't one of Santorum's surrogates try the whole "Mormonism isn't really Christianity" thing during the primary? I swear I remember something like that. I think there were a few people on the right murmuring about it but there wasn't much of it. Romney was still a wealthy white shithead so much of the right figured "meh, whatever."
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Jan 23, 2015 21:22
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:We're going full crazy. All I read was PAY ATTENTION TO ME PAY ATTENTION TO ME loving PAY ATTENTION TO ME LOOK AT ME I'M SARAH PALIN I WANT YOU TO PAY ATTENTION TO ME AND PAY TO WATCH MY CHANNEL LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME
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Jan 24, 2015 00:17
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FAUXTON posted:Yeah, having a Vyvanse prescription makes me do this (mentally, I catch myself before it comes out and it's annoying for a moment until I remind myself I wouldn't sound like the megagenius I'm thinking I am at the moment, just a verbose rambling rear end in a top hat) when it's at its peak. If it ain't speed (how prevalent is it in that part of Alaska? It's quite rural I assume but is it just too far out there to have the problem of hickborne meth?), she's on a major stimulant but without the requisite self-control to interact with people properly while under its effects. Drugs are literally everywhere and Palin isn't hurting for money. If she wants something there will be somebody willing to supply it. It's also possible that she's on some sort of prescription meds that gently caress her up. Granted it's also possible that she's sober exactly never or is just legitimately that stupid.
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Jan 25, 2015 06:35
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ThirdPartyView posted:The best was when all the 2012 GOP primary candidates were on stage, who all had advanced degrees, were trashing 'snooty, liberal education'. That's been a hallmark of the right for a long time, really. I mean look at their voting demographics. One of their strongest blocs is wealthy white dudes who have a tendency to be fairly well-educated.
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Feb 1, 2015 05:31
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V. Illych L. posted:Well, yeah, sure, and then they as a group might influence the election. Individual votes still don't matter for poo poo, though. And every group is made up of a bunch of individuals. The whole "well my one vote doesn't count, who cares" thing is part of why the young tend to not vote and is part of the problem. It might not feel like one lever pull means much but do remember that that whole "well this person got 20,000,000 votes" thing means that 20,000,000 individuals voted that way. It really, really does matter.
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Feb 7, 2015 14:31
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Bob Ojeda posted:That was kind of my point, really. It's stupid to say that if you vote for a third party candidate you might as well not vote, because there are plenty of other things where your vote will have an effect. If enough people vote "I don't like any of these twits" people start to notice. If I don't like any of the candidates I just write myself in. I also do that for basically anything where the person running is unopposed.
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Feb 8, 2015 06:13
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My Imaginary GF posted:writing yourself in is lazy and takes no work Pretty sure I'm completely unelectable. I also have zero desire to be any sort of elected official which ironically means I'd probably do a good job at it.
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Feb 8, 2015 06:36
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Karnegal posted:But it does say very little for his understanding or belief in science God has never been proven to not exist. Science's answer on that one is basically "we really have no idea if there is or is not a God." It hasn't been definitively proven either way and may never be. The problem is that that is where faith takes over and people go "well I'll quit believing when you can prove me wrong." It's problematic because you can't prove that he does exist either so some people take the argument into "well if he doesn't exist and I was worshiping Him my whole life what did I really lose?" Well I don't know, how much money and time did you give to the church over your life?
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Feb 12, 2015 20:27
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V. Illych L. posted:Jesus christ, Hillary's got some seriously tough skin Yeah if the incessant poo poo she gets from the right, who have hated her basically as long as she's been prominent, hasn't stopped her yet it never will.
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Feb 14, 2015 23:03
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Deteriorata posted:My hope for the 2016 campaign is that the GOP gets so ugly that they start chasing away women in general, as they have with every other demographic group identified with their opponents for the last 40 years. That's already happening. The overall number of women supporting GOP nonsense has been decreasing and shows no signs of recovery.
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Feb 15, 2015 00:41
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Cliff Racer posted:I don't know why you people think that 2016 to 2020 is going to be a bad period of time to be president. People are so beaten up over the past 14 years that the slightly less stinky poo poo they are going to be choking down in the near future will taste comparatively great. Hillary might find a way to gently caress it up (5 years is a long time) but I don't know how you could say that our outlook in 2015 looks worse than it did in 2011. I think people are thinking of the "America has gotten continually shittier over the past 30 years" thing and are figuring that that trend will just kind of keep happening if everything is labelled R after the next election. I'm pretty sure the Republicans would summon Cthulhu and feed him black people if such a thing were actually possible.
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Feb 19, 2015 05:05
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Joementum posted:Romney is entertainingly dull, Walker's just boring. Romney's campaign gave us pictures of a guy ironing a suit he was wearing. Sorry, that beats Walker's by default.
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Feb 24, 2015 20:19
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Intel&Sebastian posted:You're aware that Walker took a prank call from a fake Koch brother, kissed the ring and then promised to bust the unions up good for him? With planted agitators among other things. That's more depressing than anything.
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Feb 24, 2015 20:32
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Al Harrington posted:the mud slinging among all of the clown car occupants will be especially entertaining this time Yeah I can't wait for the presidential election to get into full swing for just that reason. The right has a massive crabs in a bucket problem right now and it's only going to get massively worse as the crazies try to out crazy each other and the more moderate options get destroyed by the crazies. All the tiniest blemishes are going to come out and they're all going to go over each other to find even the tiniest bit of dirt to turn into a mountain of poo poo. The tea party crazies want the biggest rear end in a top hat the right can produce but they're not going to tempt moderates or independents by putting somebody like Cruz up. At this point I'm pretty sure Romney is their best option and I highly doubt he's electable.
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Feb 28, 2015 23:18
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OneTwentySix posted:The thing is, if you look at any of the Republicans, it seems like you can come up with some similar argument to disqualify them. Which is exactly the problem. Every possible choice they have is complete and utter garbage.
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Mar 1, 2015 02:29
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bartlebyshop posted:Is there some sort of Ted Cruz Greatest Hits compilation I can read somewhere with explanations of what he did to earn the undying loathing of everyone? Just Google "Ted Cruz" and I'm pretty sure the first hit will probably be on that list. His entire career has basically been summed up as "I am Ted Cruz and everybody else sucks." He throws a tantrum whenever he doesn't get his own way and is blatantly obviously a self-serving rear end that would throw a close political ally under the bus for any reason at all. He's a tea party darling and that's exactly the problem.
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Mar 1, 2015 02:41
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Venom Snake posted:Hillary would probably get more stuff done than Obama did before Obama figured out the world hates hims because Hillary figured out the world hates her 15 years ago. I kind of feel like Oblammo figured he could get the right on board with his ideas by compromising and being nice to them. While I admire the idealism we all see how well that went. Hillary would at the very least understand that the right wing hate machine is going to do its thing no matter what and plan accordingly.
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Mar 6, 2015 20:52
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Look Sir Droids posted:9) Did Hillary rape and murder a small child in 1987? Hillary never said she wasn't a lizard alien from Mars sent here to destroy America. Why hasn't she? What if she is a lizard alien from Mars? Hey, I'm just asking questions.
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Mar 6, 2015 21:24
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TARDISman posted:I thought the Kansas GOP hated Rand's guts. Every person in the GOP hates every other person in the GOP. The party is fueled entirely by hatred and criticizing literally everything, especially each other, of not being conservative enough. They're all trying to achieve a fantasy version of Reagan that is even more conservative than the real Reagan was. As soon as somebody gets close the bar moves further right.
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Mar 8, 2015 00:54
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