The 2016 Presidential Candidates Thread

grokit

well-worn member
If hillary is able to hold bernie off and win the nomination, I will be very concerned that she won't do as well against trump if he is also victorious. I think they will both win south carolina, with the black and military vote counting big for each of them. And this could be representative of a larger national polarity.
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
Hilary vs Trump two polarizing figures against one another possiblbly.

I wonder if Michael Bloomberg will enter the race? I haven't read up on him very much. I may find if Bernie doesn't do well I might like Bloomberg over Hilary? It looks like he's been a republican and now a democrat.
 
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CarolKing,

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
Bloomberg will only run if Bernie is the nominee. He has basically said so, or his people have. The reason he thinks he could win is with the candidates being at ideological extremes, which Clinton is not.
 
cybrguy,
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cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
I'm not surprised with the result, but how does NBC call South Carolina with only 1% of the vote in?

Edit: I guess a double digit lead isn't that hard to see...
 
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cybrguy,

Chill Dude

Well-Known Member
Ain't gonna happen. Bush just dropped out. His supporters will migrate over to Rubio. When Katich drops out, his supporters will go over to Rubio as well. The way I see it, Trump is toast. His days in the spotlight will dwindle.

Not all will go over to Rubio. Some will go to Trump and a smaller amount to Cruz. Strangely, trump also appeals to moderates much more than Rubio and Cruz. And... What if Cruz tanks after Super Tuesday and suspends his campaign? Even though there's been acrimonious relationship between Cruz and Trump; my guess is that most of Cruz supporters would drift over to Trump.. After all, Trump is an outsider like Cruz and Most Cruz supporters are not fans of Rubio and consider him a light weight establishment candidate.

My guess is Trump will handedly win Nevada, then crush everyone on Super Tuesday and basically wrap up the nomination..
 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
Current polling means zilch. The pollsters themselves will tell you this. My view, and this is just my impression after a lot of years of watching politics, is Hillary would win in a landslide against Trump. Trump has a very definite ceiling. His disapproval rating is well over 50%. You can't win like that. He can win 4 and 5 way republican primaries but probably wouldn't score more than 30% in the general. He's a putz. In the aggregate Americans are not terribly bright but they are not that stupid. Repubs might be.

Trump doesn't give a damn what his candidacy might do to the republican party and to down-ticket repubs. In this regard Bernie is somewhat similar. He is more out for himself than for democratic control of congress. He's running for the dem nomination but he is actually an independent. We are better off with a candidate more committed to the Democratic party and better able to work in unity with democrats in congress. The repubs would never give socialist Bernie the time of day.
 

gaseous_clay

Well-Known Member
My evil thought of the night:

Maybe Jeb should have threatened to shoot someone on 5th Avenue instead of just tweeting out a pic of his engraved gun.

Doesn't Trump live on 5th Avenue?
 
gaseous_clay,

Chill Dude

Well-Known Member
Current polling means zilch. The pollsters themselves will tell you this. My view, and this is just my impression after a lot of years of watching politics, is Hillary would win in a landslide against Trump. Trump has a very definite ceiling. His disapproval rating is well over 50%. You can't win like that. He can win 4 and 5 way republican primaries but probably wouldn't score more than 30% in the general. He's a putz. In the aggregate Americans are not terribly bright but they are not that stupid. Repubs might be.

Trump doesn't give a damn what his candidacy might do to the republican party and to down-ticket repubs. In this regard Bernie is somewhat similar. He is more out for himself than for democratic control of congress. He's running for the dem nomination but he is actually an independent. We are better off with a candidate more committed to the Democratic party and better able to work in unity with democrats in congress. The repubs would never give socialist Bernie the time of day.

I think both Hillary and Bernie would beat Trump. As to The republicans cozying up with Hillary, I really don't see that. Are you kidding me, they have hated Hillary with a passion for decades. The obstruction will just continue like it is now with Obama. Will it be the same for Bernie? Probably so, but The hatred for Bernie is nowhere near that of Hilary.
 

cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal
The republicans in the real world are not all like the republicans in congress. The base maybe, but that is only a portion of their electorate. Most aren't nearly as rabid as Trump's supporters either. I think you will be surprised how many republican women vote for Hillary and how many other republicans stay home with Trump atop the ticket.
 

little maggie

Well-Known Member
I think Bernie has a better chance in the general election because he would take the Democrats and most of the independents (like me). Hillary, on the other hand, is hated by a large percentage in her own party that have said the would not vote for a Hillary presidency and she will get virtually ZERO Republicans. I will either not vote at all or go all in for Trump. It is Bernie or Trump for me because I want the establishment and status quo to be utterly destroyed. I want the greatest change and system disruption as possible because what America is doing now I am totally against in almost every way.
It's pretty frightening to read someone choosing Trump over Hillary if they are a Bernie supporter. Or your perspective that for a lot of other people it's Bernie or no one. I can't remember when someone as rascist as Trump was running for president.
 

gaseous_clay

Well-Known Member
I highly doubt that Trump wants to do the job of President. I strongly believe he wants the ego trip of being elected to the position though. If elected, I see him resigning on the grounds that Congress is a bunch of pussies, and they are too afraid to make America great again. Then he rides off to do what TV with a following that makes Palin look like Christine O'Donnell.

Being President is a completely different skill set than Trump has known his entire life. Russia is not another casino you can file a lawsuit against that you can never win, but it makes it easier for them to sell to you than go through with the suit. You can't tell another nation to assassinate a quasi-ally of theirs "or else." If this venture doesn't work, you can't file for bankruptcy protection while pocketing all the profits as your salary. I doubt he even knows the definition of the word "diplomacy."

Trump doesn't even believe half of the crap that comes out of his mouth. It doesn't take much to see how people are affected by the cult of personality. The closest comparison I see to Trump politically is George Wallace. Wallace had actually spoken out against the KKK and had been endorsed by the NAACP in his first run for Governor of Alabama. When he lost the the Klan supported Attorney General, he famously was recalled to have said "I'll never be outniggered again." (word unedited for the clear and ugly impact it gives.) He was elected on a platform summed up best in his own words, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He was so popular, when he couldn't run again because of term limits, he ran his wife as a proxy and she was elected. She died in office (cancer.) He ran against the new governor with a campaign Jimmy Carter called the most racist campaign ever, that featured TV ads like one where a little white girl was surrounded by seven black boys and the narration asked if you want the state run by the blacks who supported the governor. Then a few years later he suddenly says he's born again & is sorry for the racist stuff. All good, right?

George Wallace used the hatred in his voting base to drum up support that made him an icon in Alabama. Donald Trump will do and say whatever he can do get voters, and the inconsistencies in his messages all seem to attract a different branch of voter under the common umbrella that he's an "outsider" and "He tells it like it is."

1. Donald Trump is no outsider. He buys his way into whatever he thinks he can. The only difference between Trump & Martin Shkreli is that Shkreli is new money, Trump was born on a huge pile of grandpa's brothel money.

2. People liked George Wallace because he told it like it was too. Only he told them what they wanted to hear, just like Trump.
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
’24’ Star Kiefer Sutherland Compares Donald Trump to Democrat Segregationist George Wallace
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Kiefer-Sutherland-640x480.jpg



by JEROME HUDSON19 Feb 20162,627

Actor Kiefer Sutherland compared leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a lifelong Democrat and a dedicated segregationist.
“You have to go back to that first Nixon campaign where Wallace managed to garner [9.8 million] Republican votes spewing kind of similar rhetoric to that of Donald Trump,” Sutherland told The Daily Beast.
 

mestizo

Well-Known Member
If Trump wins the primary, which I don't think he will but if he does, the Dems WILL play the racist card and that could polarize this country MUCH more than it already is and it could be a very dangerous polarization.
I think the following comment I saw at a different site compliments yours. I agree with both of you.

"There are two parts to the equation as to why Trump is where he is currently at in the election. The sad truth is that the Republican Party has a derth of qualified candidates that have the ability to actually win an election that Donald Trump actually seems palatable. The other part of the equation is that there is so divisive hatred in this country right now that we really have forgotten what this country was founded on. This country was founded by immigrants who left a land they felt persecuted in. Just take a look at the demographics on this comment board and see what I am talking about. The Trump supporters by and large are a very specific demographic, white males and females, over the age of 40 to 45. There are many folks in this demographic who feel that they are losing control of what they used to have control over. I am not Republican or Democratic, however, I'm so disgusted with the Republican party right now that I can't vote for any of them. The fact that Trump won South Carolina is no surprise to anyone. I spent have spent a lot of time in South Carolina the last couple of years and I'm totally not surprised at all and that is not a compliment."
 

CuckFumbustion

Lo and Behold! The transformative power of Vapor.
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CuckFumbustion,

howie105

Well-Known Member
Never be surprised when a politician lies to you regardless of their stripes. Its not just that they are politicians but more importantly they are people and people lie. Sometimes its on purpose, sometimes they lie out of ignorance and sometimes its the noble lie, bottom line for me deception is just engineered into us all. Sadly this often means one needs to look deeper than campaign rhetoric to see actual intent so more study as a voter. The most annoying part is having to pick a representative out of a box of liars.
 

lwien

Well-Known Member
Being President is a completely different skill set than Trump has known his entire life. Russia is not another casino you can file a lawsuit against that you can never win, but it makes it easier for them to sell to you than go through with the suit. You can't tell another nation to assassinate a quasi-ally of theirs "or else." If this venture doesn't work, you can't file for bankruptcy protection while pocketing all the profits as your salary. I doubt he even knows the definition of the word "diplomacy."

Here's a totally different take here.

You guys know how ant-Trump I am but I also have another perspective.

For decades, I always believed that a successful businessman would be a better President than a politician BECAUSE of their skill set, but I also believe that that would never happen simply because of the salary disparity between being President as compared to their current position.

To me, THE primary skill set of a President who wants to get things done is his/her negotiating skills and one of the cornerstones of being able to negotiate well is coming from a position of strength. Another skill that successful businessmen/women have is their ability to surround themselves with people that are BETTER at what they do in their field of expertise than themselves, and thirdly, to recognize what it's going to take to win a particular negotiation, and those particulars change depending on the circumstances.

Using the criteria above, Trump fits that bill perfectly because I really believe that running a country is VERY similar to running a business and in actuality, if our country was run like a business, we would be, in my opinion, in much better shape all around.

So.............Trump fits this bill, but...............he's an asshole, or.....is he really?

As a successful businessman, he knows how to win, and he knows that his first battle to win is the primary because if he can't do that, he won't win the grand prize and in order to win the primary, he HAS to court the primary GOP voters and that is EXACTLY what he is doing. If he can't do that, he loses. Does that mean that he has to say things that he may not believe himself? Sure does. Is that what he's doing? Could be. The real test for this is to see how his rhetoric changes as he tries to win different states and if he wins the primary, will he change his stance when he's going for the General election.

I know how distasteful this whole "the end justifies the means" tactic is, but for some battles, this is the tactic that is needed to win.

So my real question is, does Trump really believe in the things that he is saying. If he does, than I want him as far away from the White House as possible, but if he doesn't, he very well could be the better choice here.

Just a view from the flip side of the coin, eh?
 
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Adobewan

Well-Known Member
Here's a totally different take here.

You guys know how ant-Trump I am but I also have another perspective.

For decades, I always believed that a successful businessman would be a better President than a politician BECAUSE of their skill set, but I also believe that the would never happen simply because of the salary disparity between being President as compared to their current position.

To me, THE primary skill set of a President who wants to get things done is his/her negotiating skills and one of the cornerstones of being able to negotiate well is coming from a position of strength. Another skill that successful businessmen/women have is their ability to surround themselves with people that are BETTER at what they do in their field of expertise than themselves, and thirdly, to recognize what it's going to take to win a particular negotiation, and those particulars change depending on the circumstances.

Using the criteria above, Trump fits that bill perfectly because I really believe that running a country is VERY similar to running a business and in actuality, if our country was run like a business, we would be, in my opinion, in much better shape all around.

So.............Trump fits this bill, but...............he's an asshole, or.....is he really?

As a successful businessman, he knows how to win, and he knows that his first battle to win is the primary because if he can't do that, he won't win the grand prize and in order to win the primary, he HAS to court the primary GOP voters and that is EXACTLY what he is doing. If he can't do that, he loses. Does that mean that he has to say things that he may not believe himself? Sure does. Is that what he's doing? Could be. The real test for this is to see how his rhetoric changes as he tries to win different states and if he wins the primary, will he change his stance when he's going for the General election.

I know how distasteful this whole "the end justifies the means" tactic is, but for some battles, this is the tactic that is needed to win.

So my real question is, does Trump really believe in the things that he is saying. If he does, than I want him as far away from the White House as possible, but if he doesn't, he very well could be the better choice here.

Just a view from the flip side of the coin, eh?
I agree with everything you've said but Gloria Steinem, recently on Real Time with Bill Maher, stated that if Trump had put his inheritance into a bank account, he would have made more money in interest than his business' have.
If that's true, then he is in fact, NOT a successful businessman, but a man-child with a, nearly unlimited, allowance from his daddy.
 

His_Highness

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
@lwien - Very interesting ....

As long as the businessman places the company/(Country) and the people in it/(Not just those who agree with him) above their own interests it might be a great thing. Otherwise....it could be a disaster.

If I buy stock in a company I might be happy when that CEO does right by the company but not 'the people in the company or those in the general public'. Ruthlessness in a CEO can be an admirable trait but I require some social conscience in a president.

Trump doesn't strike me as the altruistic type. Do I think he believes in the things he says...some yes and some no....but there is enough in the 'yes' column to scare the crap out of me.

@lwien - What I absolutely love about what you said is ... 'if our country was run like a business we would be, in my opinion, in much better shape all around'. I absolutely agree in a bunch of areas. But the consequence of running the country like a business might mean making some very large scale hurtful decisions that normally wouldn't have been made'.

If the country were run like a business...which business? Ben and Jerry's is one thing. Trump Organization is quite another.
 
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