The 2016 Presidential Candidates Thread

[Snappo]

Unfortunately for Pence, one needn't get into his economic success or failure to assess whether he might be an acceptable Presidential/VP candidate or to make him "look bad".

Pence leads the field in anti LGBT rhetoric, gender bigotry and anti women legislation. He tried to make "religious" bigotry legal in his state. He tried to shut down the government over planned parenthood funding. And on and on and on...

In his 12 years in congress his voting record was extremely right wing, more so than Bachmann, Gomert, King or Akin. He finished as the 428th most extreme congressmen out of 435. He never, in his whole time in congress, passed a single bill where he was the principle sponsor.

Needless to say there are many folk out there who believe that these are reasons TO vote for him. But most of those folks were already voting for Trump. I'm just not sure who he brings, other than those who (for whatever reason) think that he will have some ability to moderate Trumps insanity. Sadly, there is no way for a VP to do that. And should he try, he will be shoved in a closet and given no power to do anything.

Drumph & Pence are completely antithetical to my way of moral thinking. If Obama could run again I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. I fear we will not see another like him in this century.

 

[grokit]

Ok, but look at that timeframe they used. Pre 9/11 compared to two major recessions after.

Okay, but you're cherry-picking imo. For example the decline in jobs was just from 2010-2013.

 

[CarolKing]

Ok, but look at that timeframe they used. Pre 9/11 compared to two major recessions after. IN compared to the rest of the midwest concurrently we are doing very, very well. One of the lowest unemployment numbers and continuous budget surplus situations. No long term debt crisis, and consistent year over year economic investment from corporations, both foreign and domestic. 2013 was also his first year as governor, so that article misleads readers to think anything he did could have made an affect at that point

I can make anybody look bad when I fiddle with the numbers enough.

The economy to me seems better now since Obama has been president. In the area where I live prices are high but wages are up. Folks are buying and people have jobs, the economy seems pretty good where I live. Unemployment is at 5 percent. There is 5 percent of people that don't want jobs because they are drug addicts or lazy. The price of gas is down. Like night and day from when George Bush was president.

I will miss Obama as our president. He's a wonderful speaker. I think history will tell the story of a great black president who was an inspiration and a motivator. So many wanted the first black president to fall flat on his face but he didn't. Congress and the senate at every turn tried to block everything that he tried to achieve. I say Fuck You to the Tea Party the senate, the congress and Donald Trump.

 

[Silat]

Did you congratulate him when Bush won?

As someone patient and wise once said 'sometimes it's how we accept defeat that shows character.'

Ok, but look at that timeframe they used. Pre 9/11 compared to two major recessions after. IN compared to the rest of the midwest concurrently we are doing very, very well. One of the lowest unemployment numbers and continuous budget surplus situations. No long term debt crisis, and consistent year over year economic investment from corporations, both foreign and domestic. 2013 was also his first year as governor, so that article misleads readers to think anything he did could have made an affect at that point

I can make anybody look bad when I fiddle with the numbers enough.

Nobody has to work at making ReaganVooDooTrickleDownGoldenShowerPizzOnYou economics 101 look like a failure.

 

[lwien]

Maybe Bernie is just too old and weak for a fight like this.

Or maybe he's old and wise enough to know that the ONLY way to keep Trump from becoming president is to vote in Hillary.

He's pushed her to the left on many issues and without his campaign, this would never have happened, so in my opinion, he could leave this fight with his head held high for his presence could very well affect how this country is run in the future.

Kudos to Bernie. Much respect.....He ran a great fucking campaign and in my opinion, will make his mark on American history.

Bernie can leave this world knowing that he had a difference and that's something that's REALLY nice to know.

 

[TeeJay1952]

@steama I feel voter fatigue is being caused by everyone never compromising. Bernie showed us you can win even when you lose. America is great not because we have a rule book but rather it is a potluck dinner and everyone brings a different dish.

 

[His_Highness]

+ 1 for the sentiment that Bernie hung in there long enough to leverage the political capital he had amassed and dropped out before he could skew the general in Trump's favor.

I forget where I saw it but the video of Bernie announcing his support for Hillary started off with a good bit of self-congratulations before he finally said her name. When he finally got around to saying her name ....... It kinda felt like the trepidation someone feels before saying Beetlejuice or Bloody Mary that third time

 

[Farid]

Clinton and Trump are two of the most divisive figures in modern politics. They are unwilling to compromise. Either of them winning will just exacerbate the civil unrest that has been fomenting in this country.

It's funny how the Bernie supporters who were up in arms about people not voting for Sanders because he is a socialist are some of the same people who refuse to even consider voting for Gary Johnson because he is a Libertarian. My vote for Sanders was a compromise, I do not agree with much of his policies, but he was the best choice, considering the situation at the time. I wish Sanders supporters would make the same compromises I made and vote for Johnson. If your fear is Trump winning, then a vote for Stein is worse than a vote for Johnson, as stein can only draw votes from liberals, whereas Johnson will draw votes from Trump supporters as well as Sanders supporters. We need a centrist in these times of civil unrest, and he is the only candidate in this election who's victory wouldn't cause extreme political divisions to worsen.

 

[Gunky]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/us/politics/donald-trump-business.html

Mr. Trump’s business record may help explain why various fact-checkers have barely been able to keep pace with his false claims on the campaign trail. PolitiFact has labeled 34 of Mr. Trump’s assertions “Pants on Fire” lies. As of July 1, The Washington Post had fact-checked 46 statements by Mr. Trump. It gave 70 percent of them its worst rating, four Pinocchios — a record so abysmal that the newspaper recently compiled a video of what it called “Donald Trump’s most outrageous four-Pinocchio claims.”

The taxonomy of Mr. Trump’s business deceptions has been the subject of legal and journalistic scrutiny for decades. A Fortune magazine article from 2000 memorably described Mr. Trump’s “astonishing ability to prevaricate” this way: “But when Trump says he owns 10 percent of the Plaza Hotel, understand that what he actually means is that he has the right to 10 percent of the profit if it’s ever sold. When he says he’s building a ‘90-story building’ next to the U.N., he means a 72-story building that has extra-high ceilings. And when he says his casino company is the ‘largest employer in the state of New Jersey,’ he actually means to say it is the eighth largest.”

 

[Snappo]

This would be my vote... in a heartbeat!

 

[grokit]

Bernie has left the building and he chose to support a candidate and a party that is about fucking me over and now I feel like I wasted my $27 dollar donation to him. Bernie should have continued to fight rather than SUPPORT corruption like he now has. His sick and weak loser of an endorsement of the corruption queen Hillary changes nothing for Americans.

Bernie has been a HUGE disappointment. This should have been a fight that never stops until it wins. Maybe Bernie is just too old and weak for a fight like this.

According to bernie, the main priority is stopping trump
His endorsement of clinton seems to be a bit lukewarm so far, we'll see how the convention goes.

 

[CarolKing]

I can tell this isn't really what Bernie wants. He is telling us that we have to decide. There are two main characters in the election Trump and Hillary. I'm with whoever Bernie decides to go with and that is Hillary. He realizes what a Trump presidency would be like. It would be a major disaster beyond probably what anybody could imagine. Your vote is your right to do with what you want.

Chris Christie would have a major role in his cabinet - nobody even needs medical cannabis as far as he is concerned. That would be the least of our problems.

I believe that Trump could get us in a mess that we wouldn't be able to get out of for 30 or 40 years. This is serious stuff. We could even have a nuclear disaster when Trump pisses off the wrong person.
Edit
He doesn't get it, he wouldn't have any idea what to do as president. Do you really think he's going to listen to anybody? His kids might be running the country, that probably would be better.

The other candidates running don't have a snowballs chance in hell. Sorry but that's the truth whether you like it or not.

 

[lwien]

I can tell this isn't really what Bernie wants. He is telling us that we have to decide. There are two main characters in the election Trump and Hillary. I'm with whoever Bernie decides to go with and that is Hillary. He realizes what a Trump presidency would be like. It would be a major disaster beyond probably what anybody could imagine. Your vote is your right to do with what you want.

I believe that Trump could get us in a mess that we wouldn't be able to get out of for 30 or 40 years. This is serious stuff. We could even have a nuclear disaster when Trump pisses off the wrong person. He doesn't get it, he wouldn't have any idea what to do as president. Chris Christie would be a major role in his cabinet - say no to even medical marijuana because everybody is a faking it. They don't really need it.

And lets not forget the make-up of the Supreme Court.

 

[cybrguy]

Samantha Bee reveals the hidden meaning behind the new Trump-Pence 2016 logo
As she put it on Twitter, it's "breaking the mattress of America"

In the email announcing that he had selected Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, Donald Trump also included the pair’s logo:


Even though it’s far more sedate an image than one might expect from someone as fond as his name as Trump is — an interlocking blue “T” and “P” alongside red and white stripes reminiscent of the American flag — it only took Samantha Bee and her staff a little under three hours to find the horrifying hidden meaning behind it:

It looks like the Donald is taking it down now. I wonder what he will come up with next...

 

[yogoshio]

Granted our views are obviously divergent as I am not a progressive, but @steama and I have apparently come to the same conclusion about how we go about moving forward.

 

[TeeJay1952]

@steama More power to you! Vote your conscious. But you do do indeed must ask what do I want more than any other result possible. Don't vote with fear. I ALWAYS vote with hope. I have lost as many as I have won but I always have hope for better tomorrow. It is still rough but it is better.

 

[lwien]

I personally need to vote for a person I can believe in and if that person loses so be it. At least I did what I felt was best for my nation.

Ask yourself this.

Is it best for the nation to have a corrupt president or a madman as a president? But before you answer that question, consider the possibility that Hillary is no more corrupt than any other politician that has held office.

And two..

Is it best for the nation if you vote for someone you believe in knowing that that person will never win and therefore, leaving the door open for a madman as your future president by not casting your vote for the madmans opposition?

 

[cybrguy]

I have decided not to cast a vote out of fear, or for someone I do not trust in, in order to prevent a crazy person from winning. That is such a weak and lame reason to cast a vote especially if you care about the issues. I personally need to vote for a person I can believe in and if that person loses so be it.

You are absolutely entitled to, and I highly recommend that you DO vote for your principles. That is exactly what I intend to do. I wouldn't dream of doing anything else.

And the most important principle to me in this election is to do WHATEVER I can to be sure that a MADMAN intent on turning MY COUNTRY into something that I would not even recognize, never gets a chance to destroy America from the top. Allowing a narcissistic, racist, misogynistic monster to be POTUS would do more permanent damage to America and American ideals than about ANYTHING we could do.

And given America's place in the world, and the reality that we are currently the only remaining superpower, the damage that a Trump presidency would do would not be limited to America. We would become an example to other nations struggling to keep their extremists at bay. "If America can't manage to keep monsters from running their country, how could we?" Might as well just give in to it.

I can't imagine a more destructive scenario. Voting for Stein or Johnson will do NOTHING to help stop this monster. And I wouldn't dream of doing it.

We all must make our own decisions.

 

[grokit]

If the polls see hillary getting any traction at all in my state, I may vote for her out of self-interest. This is because she has promised to make medicare available to 55 year-olds, and the ACA is fizzling out here because marco rubio figured out how congress could welsh on the risk-corridor payments. But if it looks like trump in a landslide up here, I will go back to "plan a" and vote my conscious by writing bernie in.

 

[lwien]

The GOP convention is going to be more of a cluster-fuck than I thought it would be being that there is no legal recourse to inhibit the open-carry laws of the state so not only is there a very high potential for rioting, those that are rioting can legally carry firearms during the riot. WTF ?!?!! Man, the cops are going to have their hands full sorting everything out if things go south.

 

[Gunky]

It's cool to make a statement and vote for somebody outside of the two main parties if the race is not close in your state. California, for example, probably isn't going to go to Trump. If the race is close, don't be like those Nader voters in Florida and fuck the whole thing up.

 

[grokit]

It's cool to make a statement and vote for somebody outside of the two main parties if the race is not close in your state. California, for example, probably isn't going to go to Trump. If the race is close, don't be like those Nader voters in Florida and fuck the whole thing up.

Nader carried my town in 2000, but my state was never going to go for gore so no harm done. That's the dynamic up here, anybody even associated with the clinton universe seems to be universally despised.

 

[yogoshio]

Yeah, totally give up your moral compass for the sake of the greater good. That's always worked out in the past.

 

[lwien]

Yeah, totally give up your moral compass for the sake of the greater good.

Who here is doing that?

 

[yogoshio]

Who here is doing that?

Anyone who is voting for someone on the basis of the greater good as opposed to who they honestly feel is the best candidate.