US General Election 2016

Meanwhile, the Democrats are down to just Clinton, Sanders, and O'Malley, who were the only three to have ever gotten any real attention in the first place (and with O'Malley barely qualifying as part of that group). Chafee and Webb seemed to recognize the inevitable after the first debate. Lessig was excluded from the debate, allegedly due to DNC fuckery, but he has accepted the inevitable as well and dropped out a few days ago.

This candidate field (both parties) is pretty damn uninspiring.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/05/sanders-says-theres-earlier-butt-to-kick-before-the-gops/

Afraid Bernie is sealing his own fate here. He can't afford to provide the Clinton Smear Machine with any reason to cry "sexist!" But behind all the feigned hurt feelings, Clinton is just as bad, if not worse. At the end of the the day, though, it's still going to work; nothing goes wrong for her, it's absolutely unbelievable.

Ok this is great.



Here's what it's parodying. From the 90s cartoon Animaniacs.

http://nypost.com/2015/11/08/ben-carson-features-portrait-of-him-and-jesus-in-home/

It's not about being "politically correct", Ben. It's about whether or not you're fucking creepy! And that painting is fucking creepy!

Not going to be able to stay up for the Fox debate tonight, off to bed, up at 6. So if anyone happens to find a link tomorrow to a recorded version it would be appreciated and I can watch it when I get home.

Oh, debate tonight?



Kid's table is 1.5 hours from now. Real debate is 3.5 hours away. Well, I'm probably going to turn in around 7 or so. Maybe someone can find a youtube video of it.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:off to bed, up at 6.

If only we could all be so lucky. On a typical day I'm up at 4. AM not PM!

I thought you were teaching after school lessons, are you actually doing in-school?

No, I actually acquired a full time job, so I dumped teaching at the end of the spring. Too bad, in some respects; I do miss some of my kids. But my bank account ain't shedding any tears.

You could still take a few students on for weekends.

For once the debate is still going on when I get home but it's pretty painful.  Honestly, Trump is the most reasonable on foreign policy so far. Fiorina is the most laughably desperate with some of the stupid shit she's saying.

"Honestly, Trump is the most reasonable on foreign policy so far."

Oh Really?

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/11/rand-paul-fact-checks-trump-china-isnt

I didn't watch enough of the debate to see that bit, but yeah, that's the sort of gaffe that really should sink a campaign, though for Trump it's just another Tuesday. I was fairly impressed by Rand's comments on foreign policy (which I saw after I made my earlier post) despite him being so set upon by both the moderators and the other candidates.

Can't stump the Trump!

Watched the debate- was quite dull, few interesting contentions of policy that simply seemed to indicate some very large philosophical and political splits in the party, and don't they realise that if you talk up Clinton as a big threat you only make her seem more formidable and credible. I think she was probably the overall winner!

Eldorion wrote:... that's the sort of gaffe that really should sink a campaign, though for Trump it's just another Tuesday....

So sorry for those who can't get Comedy Central, but here's some fact checking of the debate:

http://theweek.com/speedreads/588430/daily-show-finds-adorably-creative-ways-factcheck-tuesdays-gop-debate

I think my favorite is the explanation of how socialism really starts.

Even my drunk bad prank side can no longer be tempted to vote for Trump if I see him on the ballot. His comments about Muslims have become painfully offensive. Saying he's really rich and would make the Mexicans build a wall is so ludicrous to be funny, but registering Muslims has crossed the line and can't even be seen as a joke.

Fortunately some Muslims have a better sense of humor than I do. A Muslim Marine posted a picture of his Military ID with the caption "Hey @realDonaldTrump, I'm an American Muslim and I already carry a special ID badge. Where's yours?" Ouch.

halfwise wrote:
Fortunately some Muslims have a better sense of humor than I do.  A Muslim Marine posted a picture of his Military ID with the caption "Hey @realDonaldTrump, I'm an American Muslim and I already carry a special ID badge. Where's yours?"   Ouch.

BTW have we ever seen Donald's birth certificate?

He's trying to figure out how to gold plate it.

I've given up hoping that there will be a single gaffe that can puncture the Donald's bubble.  Our best hope is that exhaustion and/or increasing scrutiny from voters (media scrutiny alone hasn't made a difference) will sway opinions, especially for Carson and Cruz supporters if and when those guys drop out.  Unfortunately, Trump's spending and ground game is probably the strongest out of the GOP field so far, which suggests he actually does want to win and isn't just in this to increase his celebrity even further.

I don't doubt that Trump would like to win, but he's playing the game like he's got nothing to lose. He's a living corollary to Roger Ailes' Orchestra Pit Theorem (on which FOX News is built):

"If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, 'I have a solution to the Middle East problem,' and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?"

It's actually starting to seem possible that Trump could win the GOP primary. Right now I don't see what's there to stop him.

But when it comes to the general election, I think he's pissed off too many important groups to stand a chance. If he gets that far, the threat of him as President may do more to turn out the Democratic and liberal Indy votes than anything Hillery could ever do.

Yeah, I don't see Trump having a shot in the general either. The New Yorker's bit about Trump as the (possibly unintentional) white nationalist candidate is looking more and more accurate. But white people do not make up a large enough percentage of the electorate anymore for playing white identity politics to be a winning strategy (of course part of the reason for this is also that many white people find that sort of thing off-putting too).

David H wrote:I don't doubt that Trump would like to win, but he's playing the game like he's got nothing to lose. He's a living corollary to Roger Ailes' Orchestra Pit Theorem (on which FOX News is built):

"If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, 'I have a solution to the Middle East problem,' and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?"

It's actually starting to seem possible that Trump could win the GOP primary. Right now I don't see what's there to stop him.  

But when it comes to the general election, I think he's pissed off too many important groups to stand a chance. If he gets that far, the threat of him as President may do more to turn out the Democratic and liberal Indy votes than anything Hillery could ever do.  

Let's be realistic, though. These groups that Trump has "pissed off" are groups that wouldn't vote for him in the first place, let alone any Republican candidate.

Let's be even more realistic. The gap of swing electoral votes is closing fast, and those states are favoring blue. A Republican win in 2016 is unrealistic without a major October surprise. It just becomes even more difficult for this party from here on out. The writing is on the wall.

In the future I see a fracturing of the democrats into a hard left wing party, and more moderate centrists.