US General Election 2016

Also, what's the point of partnering with facebook if they're only going to field one question from the viewers at home?

No wonder we can't take care of the people over here who really need it.- Bungo

Whats really weird is you seem to have a really shit healthcare system thats not a proper NHS style affair, yet somehow your government is still spending more per head on health than countries which do have free universal care- how? How can you not have universal healthcare and still be paying more for the shit one you do have- and then think that's a good idea? I don't get it.

I don't have an answer to that. The healthcare system is just as confusing to me as it is to you, as it probably is to the average American.

Lindsey Graham pledges to send soldiers back to Iraq. Yikes.

And Syria.

Has Obama not used fewer executive orders than Bush did?

Is like watching a Muslim political debate in that God keeps coming in to it. Leave the Big Man out of it he doesn't get a vote!

Yes.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php

But to be fair to Perry, he'd be more concerned with the content of the executive orders than the quantity. But, of course, they bitch and moan that it should all go through congress, but when they get in power that all goes out the window. And that applies to both parties!

God, Lindsey Graham looks like he does not want to be alive.

He sounds like he wants to march armies to his death with him more like- he sounds a total warmonger!

Okay, Perry got me on that Hillary Clinton email comment.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:He sounds like he wants to march armies to his death with him more like- he sounds a total warmonger!

It's like Bush on steroids.

Its weird hearing how much they attack their own party.
If that happened here it would be seen as a sign of a massive split in the party and be big news, and whatever party it was would go into overdrive trying to show how united they are- see the current Labour leaders election!

Yeah, I was surprised to hear such a populist sentiment from Santorum in his closing statement. He pretty much came out and perfectly described the republican party, primarily focused on helping their business friends and not American workers.

The republicans have been having this unification problem since the inception of the Tea Party back in 2009 (?) and it was big news back then.

Ha! "First Debate Complete, Main Event 8:50 PM ET." Really shows that they are treating that first debate as a sort of one-off to satisfy the candidates, but not something that should be taken seriously, which is too bad. I think Perry should have been in the "main event." I thought he did a good job of presenting himself, more so than in 2012, and it would have been fun to see him go up against Trump.

Weirdly its a mirror of the UK Labour party- right now its grassroots who are socialist leaning left of centre party members and activists are fighting back after years of the party under Blair and his group moving the party to the centre ground then arguably centre right. The grass roots feel the Parliamentary Party no longer represents their views, they are just playing politics, willing to sell out principles for votes.

Whereas the Republican Party has a grass roots that already fractured and formed into the Teaparty, but who likewise feel the Washington Party does not represent their views, they are selling out to different things but its the same basic problem.


8.50 bugger what times that here?!!

Someone on another forum I visit made this video preview for the debate.  They're cool with it being spread around but credit where credit is due: source.



Get hype!

{{{And yes, all the quotes are real.}}}

So is the Labour party more akin to our democrats? I hear labor and I think of my state's DFL (Democratic-Farm and Labor) party.

Yeah, as much as the left may view the right as a homogenous white, evangelical Christian blob, there is a lot of diversity in it.

I think the debate will be on at 1:50 AM your time.

bungobaggins wrote:Okay, Perry got me on that Hillary Clinton email comment.

I was just getting off work when the JV debate started so I didn't watch it. What did Perry say though?

Pettytyrant101 wrote:8.50 bugger what times that here?!!

That'd be 1:50 am in the UK.

Eldorion wrote:Someone on another forum I visit made this video preview for the debate.  They're cool with it being spread around but credit where credit is due: source.



Get hype!

{{{And yes, all the quotes are real.}}}

Megan Kelly as moderator?! I feel ill.

{{{Thanks for sharing that video. }}}

Gonna have to find the origin of that Ted Cruz quote.

Eldorion wrote:

bungobaggins wrote:Okay, Perry got me on that Hillary Clinton email comment.

I was just getting off work when the JV debate started so I didn't watch it.  What did Perry say though?

The candidates were asked to describe Hillary Clinton in two words (tough stuff, right? ), and Perry says "I've got three: Good at email." It really reminded me of George W. for some reason.

Oh, my god. How have I never seen this?

Also, you can tell he's not good at doing story time because he's not showing us the pictures!!!!!

So is the Labour party more akin to our democrats? I hear labor and I think of my state's DFL (Democratic-Farm and Labor) party.- Bungo

Yeah Labour is roughly analogous to Democrats- though by US standards Labour are more left wing- Democrats wouldn't really count as left wing if they were here, more centre, or centre-right.

Labour's main problem is that their base is left of centre/socialist inclined- but there isn't usually quite enough of them in England to win elections, as England is more likely to vote Conservative as a whole than Labour.
Scotland used to be a Labour stronghold until the SNP came along and stole all but 1 of their seats- losing Labour 58 seats and making English votes more crucial than they already were, they tend to do well in Wales too, but Wales also has a strong conservative base to contest.
Because England votes centre/centre right, Blair repositioned the Labour Party to take up that ground and challenge the Tories on it, they became 'business friendly', relaxed rules in the City, even started the privatisation of the English NHS and education, traditionally right wing Tory policies.
Now the traditional left wing grass roots is kicking up and has a poster boy in old leftie Jeremy Corbyn.
Much to the horror of the Blairites that make up most of the Parliamentary Party who like Blair believe Labour cannot win from the left in England.
And if you cant win England in a UK election, you cant win.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Its weird hearing how much they attack their own party.
If that happened here it would be seen as a sign of a massive split in the party and be big news, and whatever party it was would go into overdrive trying to show how united they are- see the current Labour leaders election!

Leadership elections are the closest analogue to primaries in the UK system, but there are a number of differences, mainly because the American system is much less party-centric and more focused on the individual candidates. That makes it easier for insurgent candidates like Trump (whose association with the Republican Party is tenuous and, before 2011, almost non-existent) to jump in. But a huge part of the campaign at this stage is wooing senior members of the party (for endorsements) and big-spending donors. Though with the first debate it's shifting gears to become more about engaging with voters directly, though some candidates had already started doing this.

The Democratic primaries are a bit more like UK leadership elections because the Dems have something called super-delegates, which are members of the party who get to help determine the nominee but who are appointed instead of being chosen by voters. (The majority of Dem delegates and all GOP ones* are chosen by voters in each state in an analogue to the electoral college.) Super-delegates tend to be officeholders and/or party insiders. Needless to say they don't always agree with the base and there was a lot of controversy in 2008 over whether or not the super-delegates would give victory to Hillary over Obama even if she won fewer delegates through the primaries.

*Essentially all; state party chairs get to vote at the convention automatically but many state GOP organizations require the chair to follow the lead of the voters.