US General Election 2016

bungobaggins wrote:One more hour? I should probably hit the hay.

It's been a blast hearing your thoughts. I am pretty tired as well though. Gotta get up early for work tomorrow.

Did Petty fall asleep?

Eldorion wrote:I went on a small ship cruise in Alaska (not Viking tho) with my grandmother after I graduated high school.  That was a really great experience.  The very next trip that boat took after we left it ran aground though.

Yeah, I'd be kind of scared on a boat. Just about as scared as I'd get on a plane. I can either plummet to my death, or drown! Wonderful ways to go.

Eldorion wrote:

bungobaggins wrote:One more hour? I should probably hit the hay.

It's been a blast hearing your thoughts. I am pretty tired as well though.  Gotta get up early for work tomorrow.

Did Petty fall asleep?

Maybe. Petty wake up!!

This was fun, just a little disappointed that Trump has really taken a back seat, at least in this first hour. Thought he would totally dominate it.

Good night everyone!

What the fuck is Carson going on about

Good night, bungo! Hopefully Trump will have some more moments later and someone will edit it together.

bungobaggins wrote:Yeah, I'd be kind of scared on a boat. Just about as scared as I'd get on a plane. I can either plummet to my death, or drown! Wonderful ways to go.

Aww, I feel you though. At least on a ship you have lifeboats.

Still here, my bottles not empty yet. Night Bungo

We need your take on the debate, Petty! Is it living up (or down) to your expectations?

Can't watch, but I'm enjoying all your comments. It's probably better than the "debate"

Christie making a spirited play for the centrist ground but I don't think it's gonna be enough even if it works, since the hardcore base already hates him because of the Sandy aftermath.

David H wrote:Can't watch, but I'm enjoying all your comments. It's probably better than the "debate"

Forumshire threads are one of my favorite parts of both US and UK elections. I'm glad they're fun reading as well.

Huckabee is just spewing words but they don't connect into anything coherent (or relevant to the question).

What a loser this moderator is to question the Donald's worth of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.^{[citation needed]}

Is it living up (or down) to your expectations?- Eldo

Well my expectations weren't high because its Fox, but they have actually held a better debate than I expected.
It also seems odd to me that this is the top 10 as at least half of them seem totally out there fringe stuff to me.

Holy shit did Fiorina really say that Iran is "at the heart of most of the evil in the Middle East"?  What the fuck about ISIS?

Edit: Walker says Iran and ISIS are "tied together". Yeah, insofar as they're fucking fighting each other.

ISIS aren't building a nuke next week or whatever it is she thinks is going on in Iran.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Well my expectations weren't high because its Fox, but they have actually held a better debate than I expected.
It also seems odd to me that this is the top 10 as at least half of them seem totally out there fringe stuff to me.

Agreed about FOX's job running the thing.

Unfortunately the fringe stuff resonates with much of the base, hence the content of the top 10 most popular candidates. But if the other debates bring this level of scrutiny than I think the weaker/wackier candidates will be weeded our fairly quickly. Not that Trump or Carson or Huckabee ever had a real chance.

Well my bottle hath runneth dry I shall catch the rest as highlights tomorrow. Night all

I threw in the towel about ten minutes ago myself. Sleep well, Petty!

I'm on tenterhooks waiting for the "have you had instructions from God" question to reach Trump.

Drat, they switched questions. Phooey.

Full debate here for anyone who missed it, or wants to finish watching.

I'm seeing plenty of right wingers bashing Fox and the moderators of the debate. How sad. What a bunch of whining babies. So they didn't grovel at Trump's feet, get over it! Do you want your candidates to be properly vetted or not?

This is an interesting article arguing that Trump understands the health care problem better than any other candidate. Most of the support is in links that I don't have time to go through, but the reporter seemed quite knowledgable.

The crux is that starting a single payer system would have worked before the present insurance system became entrenched (which Trump alluded to), but now the best hope for fixing the system is Trump's suggestion that insurance regulation be standardized nationally instead of fixed by state.

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/7/9116127/donald-trump-insurance-regulation

bungobaggins wrote:I'm seeing plenty of right wingers bashing Fox and the moderators of the debate. How sad. What a bunch of whining babies. So they didn't grovel at Trump's feet, get over it!  Do you want your candidates to be properly vetted or not?

I feel like I watched a different debate than a lot of conservative commentators.  I thought the moderators asked pretty piercing questions of most of the candidates.  Not seeing this whole "Trump was singled out" thing at all.  He wasn't the only one they went after, and I agree that you should want to aggressively vet your candidates in the primary campaign.  If Trump got more attention from the moderators it's because he's the frontrunner.

Yeah, to get myself in the political mood for the debate I watched Game Change beforehand. Really enjoyed it, and I'd recommend watching it if you haven't. Whether or not it's 100 percent true is beside the point, but it does a great job of showing what can go wrong if you don't properly vet a candidate.

I liked Game Change- if a bit worrying if its even close to the truth.