Presidential Primaries 2016

[The_Animus]

Except that it is an issue which Sanders supports and promotes as well.

Sanders promotes a much broader range of issues, whereas Lessig is only focused on election and campaign finance reform. Lessig would likely make it a bigger focus of the election and add perspective and solutions that will differ from Sanders.

My 2 cents - I don't think Biden has the political machine in place, or even available, to run against the Clintons. Not gonna happen.

I'm still hoping that Biden will announce he is not running and simultaneously give his support to Bernie.

 

[Ladewig]

No one wants to mention Saturday Night Live's send up of the Republican field with the prescription drug parody ad? Premise: folks like Santorum are displaying mental illness if they believe they can be president.

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/brill...licans-who-think-they-can-be-president-167366 (Description and video at link)

[disclaimer: people run for president for a variety of reasons including publicity, book sales, and desire for a vice-presidency. The skit is merely a joke and is not intended to be comprehensive and accurate criticism of the Republican primary system]

 

[Trebuchet]

I just heard Rand Paul say we've been at war in Afghanistan for ten years now. Let's see, 2015-2001 = 10. Riiiight. Convenient, isn't, how most of the past 10 years have been under Obama but a majority of the past 15 have been under Bush.

 

[SezMe]

My 2 cents - I don't think Biden has the political machine in place, or even available, to run against the Clintons. Not gonna happen.

That's where the smart money is.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

You mean the gerrymandering that happened after the Dems lost all those state legislatures in the 2010 Republican wave? That's the same 2010 I'm talking about. The Dems certainly showed in 2006 that they can motivate the base to come out to vote in a midterm election. That should have been what Obama had his eye on in 2009 and 2010 -- holding on to the majorities gained in 2006. Instead he was busy seeking accommodation with Teapublicans, their bait-and-switch "moderates" Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and Democrats who were seeking every avenue to undermine the motivating interests of the Dem base, like Blanche Lincoln, Ben Johnson and the ever sniveling Lieberman. He should have employed bare-knuckled arm-twisting (like Republicans do) on congressional Dems who kept undermining his initiatives (recovery investment bill, healthcare) and appealed to public directly to support the agenda they elected him for. He failed on all these fronts. He's a strong campaigner who broke tackles running all over the defense to win the 2008 election, but mistakenly thought he had scored a touchdown. What happened instead is that he fumbled the ball short of the goal line. It was only by the skin of his chattering teeth that the ACA passed at all.

You are talking about the federal legislators. The GOP made an effort to get state legislators elected while the Democratic Party was asleep at the wheel. And it started much earlier.

The GOP had a clear strategy to get control of state legislatures. It was incredibly annoying to watch how the liberals were so incompetent when it came to the overt gerrymandering planning of the GOP. It wasn't a secret that's what the national GOP organization was up to.

There was one brave attempt in Tx, if you recall, when the GOP controlled legislature redistricted between censuses, the accepted time for redistricting.

The Texas Gerrymander

The redrawing of election districts in Texas in 2003, which Tom DeLay helped engineer to make the state's Congressional delegation more Republican, lands in the Supreme Court today. Democrats are asking the court to rule that the plan is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act. The court should strike down the plan. It should also use the case to set limits on this kind of politically motivated drawing of districts by both parties, a practice that is making voters increasingly irrelevant.

The TX Eleven

Republicans rigged the House through gerrymandering.

Republicans have successfully used redistricting to all but ensure they'll keep control of the House of Representatives short of a 2006-style wave for Democrats. The numbers are stark: Fifty-five percent of the nation's congressional districts were drawn to favor Republicans while only 10 percent were drawn to favor Democrats, with the balance drawn independently.

As a result, a majority of seats voted for Mitt Romney even though Barack Obama won in 2012—by four points. It should thus come as no surprise that Republicans were able to easily keep the House despite losing the popular vote that year, and there is the very real possibility this could happen again in 2016 even if Democrats hold the White House.

Gerrymandering Rigged the 2014 Elections for GOP Advantage

As Rolling Stone reported, GOP donors plowed cash into state legislative efforts in 2010 for the very purpose of redrawing congressional lines. In the following year, as the tea party wave brought hundreds of Republicans into office, newly empowered Republican governors and state legislatures carved congressional districts for maximum partisan advantage.

The national GOP organization put a lot of money and effort into winning key state legislatures right under the Democratic Party's nose.

I blame the Democrats, but regardless, the result is the country is not fairly represented.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

OK, enough digressions through Obama's mistakes...

THRILLS in the J. Biden waiting game!!! Politico: J. Biden decision coming this weekend! ...Maybe!

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-possible-2016-announcement-214423

The closer any potential candidate gets to actually running, the more the person becomes a target of contrived news scandals. That's the business the news media is in.

There was a revival of Biden gaffes accompanying the Politico story. Which, by the way, I find to be crap reporting given Biden has clearly been talking about Beau to anyone who would listen. I see no evidence of any purposeful manipulation with that death bed urging leaking out.

But Biden had a plagiarizing scandal years back, among other things. People don't bring any of that up during the honeymoon phase. Sanders is going to experience the same thing as soon as his big crowds becomes an old story.

The news media is totally dysfunctional.

 

[SezMe]

Hold the presses! A new poll is out - one that is unique in its rating technique. Check it out. Don't miss the table at the bottom. Never has such a clear line been drawn in politics.

 

[Ladewig]

Hold the presses! A new poll is out - one that is unique in its rating technique. Check it out. Don't miss the table at the bottom. Never has such a clear line been drawn in politics.

It is an analysis of each candidate's grammar and the conclusions is that the Democrats crush the Republicans. The results confirm my analysis of the Republican debate. I was amazed on how many grammar errors professional speakers were making in a formal setting.

I will never understand the point of hiding the content of a link. Just tell us what is in the link and let us decide if we want to learn more about it.

 

[Foolmewunz]

It is an analysis of each candidate's grammar and the conclusions is that the Democrats crush the Republicans. The results confirm my analysis of the Republican debate. I was amazed on how many grammar errors professional speakers were making in a formal setting.

I will never understand the point of hiding the content of a link. Just tell us what is in the link and let us decide if we want to learn more about it.

Uh, no. It's actually an analysis of the grammar of the candidate's supporters' comments.

ETA: And I wouldn't put much store in a grammar check of candidates' words. Does anyone really think William Jefferson Clinton didn't make those tactical mistakes on purpose. If you're a Rhodes Scholar or a pointy-headed intellectual, you'd do well to learn from the Adlai Stevenson campaigns and bury that in some Aw Shucks expressions.

 

[Ladewig]

Uh, no. It's actually an analysis of the grammar of the candidate's supporters' comments.

I am getting stupider every year.

 

[hgc]

Uh, no. It's actually an analysis of the grammar of the candidate's supporters' comments.

ETA: And I wouldn't put much store in a grammar check of candidates' words. Does anyone really think William Jefferson Clinton didn't make those tactical mistakes on purpose. If you're a Rhodes Scholar or a pointy-headed intellectual, you'd do well to learn from the Adlai Stevenson campaigns and bury that in some Aw Shucks expressions.

I don't think Bill Clinton spoke ungrammatically, nor does one have to in order to sound down home and folksy.

 

[The_Animus]

You are talking about the federal legislators. The GOP made an effort to get state legislators elected while the Democratic Party was asleep at the wheel. And it started much earlier.

The GOP had a clear strategy to get control of state legislatures. It was incredibly annoying to watch how the liberals were so incompetent when it came to the overt gerrymandering planning of the GOP. It wasn't a secret that's what the national GOP organization was up to.

There was one brave attempt in Tx, if you recall, when the GOP controlled legislature redistricted between censuses, the accepted time for redistricting.

The Texas Gerrymander

The TX Eleven

Republicans rigged the House through gerrymandering.


Gerrymandering Rigged the 2014 Elections for GOP Advantage


The national GOP organization put a lot of money and effort into winning key state legislatures right under the Democratic Party's nose.

I blame the Democrats, but regardless, the result is the country is not fairly represented.

There were more challenges than that. Wisconsin for instance

 

[Armitage72]

Bobby Jindal unveiled his new tax plan.

Like others, he wants to eliminate the inheritance tax. Cutting corporate taxes? That's amateur hour. He wants to eliminate corporate taxes entirely.


How to make up the lost revenue? By making sure that every single person in America pays income tax, no matter how little they earn.

Mr. Jindal’s plan seeks to compress the current seven tax brackets to three, with those in the lowest rung paying a 2% rate. It would also eliminate most deductions, including those that allow millions of Americans to pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Mr. Jindal’s proposal would eliminate the standard deduction and the $4,000 personal exemption. That means a family of four would pay taxes on at least $28,600 in income that is now protected from the Internal Revenue Service under the current tax code. Mr. Jindal proposes a nonrefundable tax credit that could replace some of these deductions for households with children under the age of 18, or people older than 65 who make less than $5,000. He didn’t offer specifics on how this might work.

 

[hgc]

The closer any potential candidate gets to actually running, the more the person becomes a target of contrived news scandals. That's the business the news media is in.

There was a revival of Biden gaffes accompanying the Politico story. Which, by the way, I find to be crap reporting given Biden has clearly been talking about Beau to anyone who would listen. I see no evidence of any purposeful manipulation with that death bed urging leaking out.

But Biden had a plagiarizing scandal years back, among other things. People don't bring any of that up during the honeymoon phase. Sanders is going to experience the same thing as soon as his big crowds becomes an old story.

The news media is totally dysfunctional.

Agreed about Politico story is total crap, which is a safe assumption for any of the many, many Politico stories based on anonymous sourcing. My biggest disappointment with J. Biden in this whole thing is that he's dumb enough to be talking to Maureen Dowd in the first place.

As for the plagiarism scandal, I don't recall any rival candidate or the media bringing it up in 2008, when that scandal was already 20 years old. Here we are 8 years later, and it's not going to be even a ghost of a ripple.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Here's an interview with a competent Presidential candidate, and people wonder why some of us support Clinton.

Full Interview: Hillary Clinton on trade pact doubts, dealing with Putin

The transcript is under the video if you don't want to watch it, but watching it gives you a good look at a very competent candidate.

Emails, prosperity and build the wall promises, idealistic ideas, whatever, those are not the things that tell you a candidate is competent.

 

[Trakar]

Here's an interview with a competent Presidential candidate, and people wonder why some of us support Clinton.

Full Interview: Hillary Clinton on trade pact doubts, dealing with Putin

The transcript is under the video if you don't want to watch it, but watching it gives you a good look at a very competent candidate.

Emails, prosperity and build the wall promises, idealistic ideas, whatever, those are not the things that tell you a candidate is competent.

Just like she was for the invasion of Iraq before she saw that most Americans, and especially Democratic voters were against the war, She was for the TPP, until she finally realized that most Democratic voters are against the TPP. Eventually, with enough voter pressure, Hillary comes around to the position of the people who elect government representatives. If Hillary supporters want to drag their candidate to viable public policy positions, more power to them, personally, I'd rather support a candidate that has largely got things right for decades, but I know that's not important to some voters.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I take it you didn't watch the video, Trakar? Just going with your image of Clinton?

 

[Trakar]

I take it you didn't watch the video, Trakar? Just going with your image of Clinton?

I take it that some have difficulty discerning the difference between watching a video and naively accepting its perspective and portrayals as objectively accurate reflections of reality. I see a contrived campaign performance, and nothing but masks and polling group positions that show clear distinctions from past actions and statements.

 

[Dog Town]

I take it that some have difficulty discerning the difference between watching a video and naively accepting its perspective and portrayals as objectively accurate reflections of reality. I see a contrived campaign performance, and nothing but masks and polling group positions that show clear distinctions from past actions and statements.

That's because you are not a low info voter, like the Shillaries!

 

[varwoche]

On CNN, there's now the semi permanent display of the countdown to the debate -- 5 days and counting. It's hard to get excited when they omit the hours, minutes, and seconds. I guess that doesn't kick in quite yet.