Presidential Primaries 2016

[Puppycow]

I don't want to forget about these LIARS or let them off the hook:

Well I guess we'll find out if Ed Henry is full of it or not:

Sources Tell Fox’s Ed Henry Joe Biden Expected to Run For President

Ed Henry
Three sources close to @VP telling me he's expected to announce he is running but the sources are all urging caution on 48-hr timeline

A congressman also says the same:

US Rep Brendan Boyle
I have a very good source close to Joe that tells me VP Biden will run for Prez

Supposedly announcement may come sometime this week.

I see he is being called out on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/edhenry/status/656867215933853696

Missouri Matt ‏@uncleslice

Three sources tell me @edhenry is piece of **** "journalist" who can break wind but not news

 

[SezMe]

Carson now leads Trump in Iowa, at least in one poll. That'll put a real twist in Trump's shorts. It will be interesting to see how he reacts.

But Carson? Huh. The summer heat must've fried Iowan brains.

 

[Trebuchet]

Carson now leads Trump in Iowa, at least in one poll. That'll put a real twist in Trump's shorts. It will be interesting to see how he reacts.

But Carson? Huh. The summer heat must've fried Iowan brains.

My wife got a Carson robo-call today. She wasn't going to vote for him anyhow, but that clinches it. Maybe it was placed by a Trump supporter?

 

[hgc]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lincoln-chafee-campaign-future-announcement

L. Chafee speaking tomorrow about the future of his campaign. Will we see him struck tomorrow?

 

[Puppycow]

Carson now leads Trump in Iowa, at least in one poll. That'll put a real twist in Trump's shorts. It will be interesting to see how he reacts.

But Carson? Huh. The summer heat must've fried Iowan brains.

My wife got a Carson robo-call today. She wasn't going to vote for him anyhow, but that clinches it. Maybe it was placed by a Trump supporter?

I think the Ben Carson shelf life is pretty limited. Even if he does well in Iowa, that's probably about it for him. Remember that on the Republican side, Iowa tends to be dominated by social conservatives. Look who they voted for in the past. Santorum in '12, Huckabee in '08.

There's more. He's burning his money very fast:
Why Ben Carson is burning through so much campaign cash

The fiscal conservative hasn’t been conservative with his campaign contributions.

Ben Carson is trailing Donald Trump by just a couple points in the latest Real Clear Politics average of national polls of Republican primary voters nationally, and he’s leading the pack in another important metric—fundraising.

The retired neurosurgeon announced last week that his campaign had raked in $20.8 million in donations in the third quarter, the most of any Republican candidate. But Federal Election Commission filings also show that he spent $14.2 million during that same period, more than any Republican.

. . .

In all, Mr. Carson directed $11 million of the $14 million he spent in the third quarter to fundraising costs.

The campaign spent nearly $5 million—a quarter of its total haul—on social media, email marketing and online advertisements. Mr. Carson’s Facebook presence in particular has drawn attention for the size of his audience. Last month, he surpassed GOP front-runner Donald Trump to become the candidate with the most fans on Facebook.

He spent $2.6 million on direct mail, $1.4 million on telemarketing and another $57,000 on the campaign website.

Most of the money he has raised goes to his fundraising efforts.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lincoln-chafee-campaign-future-announcement

L. Chafee speaking tomorrow about the future of his campaign. Will we see him struck tomorrow?

I'll go out on a limb and say yes. Current RCP average has him at 0.0%. Don't really see much reason for O'Malley to stay in either. Maybe with Chafee and Webb off the stage at the next debate he can get a little more attention?

 

[Puppycow]

Oh, and one more thing on Carson:

Dr. Ben Carson's prescription: Abolish Medicare

Yep. That'll go over well.

Thing is, he's not really talking about it openly. He's using euphemisms. Some of his supporters may not even realize he's saying abolish Medicare:

The former neurosurgeon regularly talks up his savings account plan on the campaign trail and calls for the repeal of Obamacare, but he doesn't typically emphasize that moving dollars out of "traditional health care" means eliminating Medicare and Medicaid too.

"I have suggested that we provide the ability for anyone to have a health savings account from the day they are born until the day they die," he said during a speech at Cedarville University on Sept. 22. "We’ll pay for it with the same dollars that we pay for traditional health care with."

When pressed on his position in May by CNBC's John Harwood, Carson said Americans would support the elimination of Medicare when presented with the facts of his plan.

"When people are able to see how much more freedom they will have, and how much more flexibility they will have, and how much more choice they would have, I think it's going to be a no-brainer," he said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/ben-carson-medicare-medicaid-215055#ixzz3pNd9VDag

Both Dems and Reps apparently are holding their fire on Carson, for different reasons. In the unlikely even that he does win the nomination, there would be plenty of ammunition to attack him then. Republicans meanwhile don't want to look like wishy-washy to conservatives for now or alienate Carson supporters they hope to pick up later, plus Trump is the bigger problem right now.



Regarding these medical savings accounts, he's talking about it as a freedom issue. What happens if your medical savings account runs out of money and you still need more medical care?

This sounds like a plan for the government to spend the same amount of money, but healthy people would be the winners here because they get money they don't need, whereas the sick get less. Whereas Medicare spends more on the people who need it more, and less on the people who need it less.

 

[hgc]

Yes, it has happened. L. Chafee has called it quits. It was a strange campaign. To my mind, his is one of the most inexplicable quests of this season -- why was he in there in the first place?

That narrows the Dem field to three (not counting novelty candidate L. Lessig). I think M. O'Malley will stick it out for a while, and this field remains stable. So, to the GOP side... Who's next? G. Pataki? L. Graham? P. "B." Jindal?

GOP
P. Ryan
C. Christie •
M. Rubio •
J. Bush •
M. Bachmann
W. "M." Romney
S. Palin, VP of Never Gonna Run for President
M. Huckabee •
T. Pawlenty
J. Thune
S. Walker •
D. Trump (Really!) •
R. Paul (le fils) •
J. DeMint
N. Haley
S. Martinez
R. Santorum (GOP first) •
M. Pence
C. Rice
R. "T." Cruz •
P. "B." Jindal •
J. Brewer
J. Kasich •
B. Carson •
R. "B." McDonnell
J. Huntsman
T. Nugent (Celebrity Jokebag Contingent)
P. King
J. Bolton
H. Cain
J. Scarborough
M. Rogers
M. Blackburn
A. West
R. Perry •
C. Fiorina •
L. Graham •
G. Pataki •
R. Snyder
B. Ehrlich
J. Gilmore •

Dem
H. Clinton •
J. Biden
M. Warner
M. O’Malley •
A. Klobuchar
C. Booker
A. Villaraigosa
B. Schweitzer
K. Gillibrand
A. Cuomo
R. Emmanuel
M. Cantwell
E. Warren
Ju. Castro
D. Patrick
H. Dean
E.G. "J." Brown
J. Webb • (overall first)
L. Chafee •
B. Sanders •
L. Lessig •
A. Gore

Indeterminate
M. Bloomberg
J. Ventura
V. Supreme (Jokebag Contingent)
J. McAfee •
J. Webb

 

[grunion]

Yes, it has happened. L. Chafee has called it quits. It was a strange campaign. To my mind, his is one of the most inexplicable quests of this season -- why was he in there in the first place?

I get the sense that he was pinning his hopes on the Republican scandal-mongering catching on with the Blue Dog dems. Although I am unaware of his marketing message, he was the only one to raise Hillary's credibility as an issue during the debate.

 

[grunion]

Who is next to be winnowed from the Republican side?

Sorry to say but my money's on Lindsey Graham. He was fun to watch and he seems like a sincere fellow, just wrong about everything. He hasn't polled over 1% since May, and now he is feeling the pressure from his constituents.

Hillary has been building her numbers against Sanders after the last debate, but with Biden officially out it will be interesting to see how many Biden supporters Feel The Bern. I expect the sense that these voters are up for grabs is what's driving the Sanders campaign to start their efforts to un-demonize the "Socialist" label.

Apologies to all for linking to CNN there. They truly are sucking worse than ever before nowadays.

In case you haven't seen it, this SNL thing was funny:

 

[Trebuchet]

Yes, it has happened. L. Chafee has called it quits. It was a strange campaign. To my mind, his is one of the most inexplicable quests of this season -- why was he in there in the first place?

That narrows the Dem field to three (not counting novelty candidate L. Lessig). I think M. O'Malley will stick it out for a while, and this field remains stable. So, to the GOP side... Who's next? G. Pataki? L. Graham? P. "B." Jindal?

GOP
P. Ryan
C. Christie •
M. Rubio •
J. Bush •
...
...

May I offer a suggestion? Perhaps re-sort the list so the active ones are at the top, with the strikethroughs below. It's a bit hard to read.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Here's your list, hgc, with the quotes off so if you hit 'quote the post' you can just copy and paste the list with the highlights.

GOP
P. Ryan
C. Christie • M. Rubio • J. Bush •M. Bachmann
W. "M." Romney
S. Palin, VP of Never Gonna Run for President
M. Huckabee •T. Pawlenty
J. Thune
S. Walker •
D. Trump (Really!) • R. Paul (le fils) •J. DeMint
N. Haley
S. Martinez
R. Santorum (GOP first) •M. Pence
C. Rice
R. "T." Cruz • P. "B." Jindal •J. Brewer
J. Kasich • B. Carson •R. "B." McDonnell
J. Huntsman
T. Nugent (Celebrity Jokebag Contingent)
P. King
J. Bolton
H. Cain
J. Scarborough
M. Rogers
M. Blackburn
A. West
R. Perry •
C. Fiorina • L. Graham • G. Pataki •R. Snyder
B. Ehrlich
J. Gilmore •
Dem
H. Clinton •J. Biden
M. Warner
M. O’Malley •A. Klobuchar
C. Booker
A. Villaraigosa
B. Schweitzer
K. Gillibrand
A. Cuomo
R. Emmanuel
M. Cantwell
E. Warren
Ju. Castro
D. Patrick
H. Dean
E.G. "J." Brown
J. Webb • (overall first)
L. Chafee •
B. Sanders • L. Lessig •A. Gore

Indeterminate
M. Bloomberg
J. Ventura
V. Supreme (Jokebag Contingent)
J. McAfee •
J. Webb

 

[Trebuchet]

Or highlight the names.

Works for me.

 

[hgc]

Works for me.

Yes, I'll look at highlighting active names or something like that. I want to preserve the sort order, as it tells the story of the sequence of list additions (after the original list, which was more-or-less random order, but with top guns at top).

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Yes, I'll look at highlighting active names or something like that. I want to preserve the sort order, as it tells the story of the sequence of list additions (after the original list, which was more-or-less random order, but with top guns at top).

See my edit.

 

[Regnad Kcin]

"When people are able to see how much more freedom they will have, and how much more flexibility they will have, and how much more choice they would have, I think it's going to be a no-brainer," he said.

Physician, heal thyself.



[Emphasis mine.]

 

[hgc]

See my edit.

Thank you!

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

The GOP has demonized government so much they burned their own bridges. 3/4 of the GOP members surveyed recently want an outsider who never held office and they prefer someone with business experience to be President.

Color me not surprised.

 

[Ladewig]

British bookies-

Rubio 2:1
JEB 3:1
Trump 4ish:1

 

[Grizzly Bear]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/carson-sketches-out-plan-monitoring-campus-speech

*Sigh*
This is depressing... I know where he's coming from. Problem is, it's another case of suggesting some kind of government intrusion is necessary to "help" the situation in spite of the idea that the constitutional rights of people are practically sacred. This two-faced arguing is made more trippy by his soft spoken demeanor.

 

[Trebuchet]

As I mentioned in another thread, he only wants to censor LIBERAL speech. Conservative speech is just fine.