The 2016 Presidential Candidates Thread

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
Really bummed out about the election. I want Obama to make sure he puts a new Supreme Court justice in place before he leaves office. He's suppose to nominate someone today. He just did, Merrick Garland is what CNN just said. Republicans have decided not to hold hearings anyway so this is probably a waste of time, he has to try.

I don't understand people - how they could vote for someone as lousy as Trump to be our president. I have lost faith in human kind. Some crazy folks in our country.

Edit
What really pisses me off is that the presidential race has been decided and we haven't even had the caucuses in my state. What a fucked up system. I guess I might as well stay home.

All this shouldn't surprise me because the people voted for George W. Bush to be president twice. I'm so bummed out. I am so afraid Trump will get elected over Hillary Clinton.

Edit again
When I say the presidential race has been decided I mean the republican and the democratic choice has been decided it looks like.
 
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Gunky

Well-Known Member
Hillary is now the presumptive Democratic nominee but the Republican side is still unclear. I would say there is at least a fifty-fifty chance that Trump will not gain the magic number of delegates before the first ballot at the convention, in which case anyone could become the nominee. Trump is threatening mayhem if he gets the most delegates and isn't awarded the nomination but that very thing has happened many times before at contested conventions with dozens of votes and dark horse candidates being selected.
 

howie105

Well-Known Member
Really bummed out about the election. I want Obama to make sure he puts a new Supreme Court justice in place before he leaves office. He's suppose to nominate someone today. He just did, Merrick Garland is what CNN just said.

I don't understand people - how they could vote for someone as lousy as Trump to be our president. I have lost faith in human kind. Some crazy folks in our country.

Edit
What really pisses me off is that the presidential race has been decided and we haven't even had the caucuses in my state. What a fucked up system. I guess I might as well stay home.

The system is functioning as the shot callers intended at least on one side of the coin, there the machine candidate was a shoe in almost from the start. However on the other side of the coin the party controllers underestimated the amount of frustration of the rank and file and was caught out. The interesting part will be watching how the leadership reasserts or attempts to reassert control over the process. Ignoring Trump didn't work, calling out the dogs didn't work and if it goes down to a convention battle then its deal time and system gaming time which was also engineered into the process by the shot callers long ago. Then one of the questions is how bad of a taste is left in the mouths of the rank and file and will a leadership win do more harm then good. I love watching political theater however this time around the campaign buses are looking more like clown cars. IMO
 

kellya86

Herb gardener...
All this shouldn't surprise me because the people voted for George W. Bush to be president twice.

He didn't win that election it was all massaging the figures to achieve his desired result...having control of the media helped...
You Americans intrigue me, we brits could never be so passionate about politics....
I can't imagine our rival parties fighting like yours do...people in UK that follow politics have never thrown a punch in their life...

Anyway isn't your president just a front man, they don't really have any power do they???, I assumed it was the senators that had the power, I mean you elected a black president, and things got worse for black people...so surely Obama has no real power, like our prime minister or queen...

So is there any trump supporters on fc???
All I see is people hating him, yet he is popular, so there must be some trumpers here???
 
kellya86,
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Gunky

Well-Known Member
He didn't win that election it was all massaging the figures to achieve his desired result...having control of the media helped...
You Americans intrigue me, we brits could never be so passionate about politics....
I can't imagine our rival parties fighting like yours do...people in UK that follow politics have never thrown a punch in their life...

Anyway isn't your president just a front man, they don't really have any power do they???, I assumed it was the senators that had the power, I mean you elected a black president, and things got worse for black people...so surely Obama has no real power, like our prime minister or queen...

So is there any trump supporters on fc???
All I see is people hating him, yet he is popular, so there must be some trumpers here???

The presidency is an immensely powerful position, nothing short of the most powerful person in the world.

Vaporists have a special interest in the election, because a president Cruz, for example, would almost certainly have immediate ill effects for us. We have states like Colorado which have legalized cannabis, but the whole structure is sitting atop a US Justice Dept whcih tolerates a situation that runs contrary to federal law. We don't know what would happen under a president Trump or president Cruz (or Kasich or Lyin' Ryan or whatever other shitty candidate they decide on). Clinton would doubtless continue current Justice Dept policies and there is a real promise of federal easing of anti-cannabis laws under democrats.
 
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GetLeft

Well-Known Member
I mean you elected a black president, and things got worse for black people...

Disclaimer: I'm white. So I'm 100% unqualified to speak on behalf of an African American.

That being said, do you mean what you say? I ask respectfully.
My 55 yrs. have taught me, little by little, that Black Americans have never received equal treatment in the US.
A highly regrettable, shameful reality.
Certainly, some horrific events concerning the African American community have occurred during the current President's tenure.
But is he to blame for them?
Is it telling that these human rights abuses are now at the fore of our national consciousness?
Is it a coincidence that awareness of these abuses has risen to a heretofore unkown threshold under an African American president?
I think not.
I think that speaks to power.

[Believe me. If there were no power involved, you wouldn't see Hillary or Donald doing what they're doing.]

Cheers. Time to get some work done.
 

lwien

Well-Known Member
Anyway isn't your president just a front man, they don't really have any power do they???, I assumed it was the senators that had the power, I mean you elected a black president, and things got worse for black people...so surely Obama has no real power, like our prime minister or queen...

Saying that the prez has no real power is totally inaccurate. The power is divided up between different branches of government, including the executive branch (president) so no one branch has total control of everything, but depending on which party controls the different branches, that power is not necessarily spread out evenly.

Regarding our having a black president, initially I thought that racism was on the decline after he got elected. How wrong I was for all it did was instigate more of it in retaliation.
 

kellya86

Herb gardener...
Saying that the prez has no real power is totally inaccurate.

I was asking a question not making a statement, I am in no place to be telling you about your own country,

I am just very interested in how you do your politics compared to us...and how much your people care...
Not many young people in the UK vote at all.
.

By real power I'm mean like banning Muslims, or other extreme action's, surely one man doesn't make that call...
Surely the president doesn't get that much power, that would be a dictatorship...no???
 

Snappo

Caveat Emptor - "A Billion People Can Be Wrong!"
Accessory Maker
I was asking a question not making a statement, I am in no place to be telling you about your own country,

I am just very interested in how you do your politics compared to us...and how much your people care...
Not many young people in the UK vote at all.
.

By real power I'm mean like banning Muslims, or other extreme action's, surely one man doesn't make that call...
Surely the president doesn't get that much power, that would be a dictatorship...no???
Power here is divided... but I personally like a president who is decisive, committed, flexible, compassionate, and who honestly expresses and exercises his/her true convictions, lawfully of course.
 

lwien

Well-Known Member
I was asking a question not making a statement, I am in no place to be telling you about your own country,

Sorry. The way you worded it, it sounded like a rhetorical question.

I am just very interested in how you do your politics compared to us...and how much your people care...
Not many young people in the UK vote at all.

Historically, not many young people here in the US vote either as compared to senior citizens but they sure as hell turned out for Bernie.

By real power I'm mean like banning Muslims, or other extreme action's, surely one man doesn't make that call...

I don't believe so. There are things though called executive orders but I'm not that well versed on them to know what can fall under an executive order or not.
 

HD Springer

Well-Known Member
Yes the President has power. IMO one of the saving graces of our system is these presidents have really big heads and they want their terms to have a lasting legacy. Not a history of lawlessness and war. But in all honesty what the fuck do I know.
 

TeeJay1952

Well-Known Member
The beauty of the primary system is you learn to compromise as the party gathers. The weakness is it is 2 coalitions of former enemies. You must reassess your positions as the candidates winnow.
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
The republicans have terrible choices. If Cruz became president he would clamp down on legal cannabis and get rid of a lot of needed federal agencies. He also doesn't believe in global warming.

If Trump becomes president he's going to act like a dictator and piss off the rest of the world. He probably will put the economy in the toilet. He's just pretending he knows what to do. "The Emporor has No Clothes". He will set a terrible tone for the American people. Look how much turmoil he's already created.

A democrat has to win the presidency.
 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
tbh all parties in most countries have terrible choices, they're all different cheeks on the same ass.
I'm sorry but in this case that is just not so. We have some crazy, really crazy, dangerous extremists on one side and on the other a continuation and expansion of current policies.

Recently congress has been grilling a former EPA official and frying her ass over lead in the water in Flint, Michigan. Ted Cruz wants to abolish the EPA! You want clean water? In Ted Cruz's world your clean water interest comes after the vested interest of oligarchs to do biz without any supervision or regulation.

Donald Trump? A bigot and fascist playing a lot of ignorant people for chumps.
 
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CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
If you don't think a president can make a difference between who you vote for? Remember George W. Bush? I wonder how things would have turned out about if about 15 years ago Al Gore would have been elected? There probably wouldn't have been the Iraq War for one.

Trump could turn the country and the world into a disaster. Just piss off the wrong person. He's not very diplomatic. He'll call Andrea Merkel the president of Germany fat and that's just something small. Let alone North Korea, who knows what name he could come up for that guy. It probably would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

We all could come up with some pretty funny names for that little asshole.
 
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ReggieB

Well-Known Member
I'm apolitical, because they're all self serving or serving their own vested interests, you can argue that as much as you want but you won't sway me :)
 
ReggieB,

Gunky

Well-Known Member
I'm apolitical, because they're all self serving or serving their own vested interests, you can argue that as much as you want but you won't sway me :)
If you can say that you are just not paying attention. If Mussolini is on the ballot you just say "oh, they're all the same"?
 
Gunky,

lwien

Well-Known Member
I'm apolitical, because they're all self serving or serving their own vested interests, you can argue that as much as you want but you won't sway me :)

But that doesn't even come close to making them all the same. If their interests are aligned with mine, I vote for them. If they aren't the same as mine...........I don't. The parties really are radically different from one another. It's hard to believe that someone can't see that.

And, btw, your statement above in regards to serving your own vested interests would probably apply to 95% of the worlds population........maybe even more. It's kind of a normal human trait, eh? It's called.............survival.
 

ReggieB

Well-Known Member
You're biased towards one group, that's understandable because you believe the system works but you seem to be confusing me with someone who doesn't understand which is slightly patronising, if you're happy voting for the least worst, go for it.
 
ReggieB,

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
@ReggieB you are from Europe aren't you? It would be hard for you to understand our situation here in the states. It's different across the pond. Our politics does affect folks in other countries. The Iraq war was hard on the folks in Europe too especially the Britts. Not to mention all the surrounding countries. The war was directly related to who our president was.

This has been a fun thread, let's not get it shut down - remember respectful.

Look at all the fall of the other countries in the Middle East. It's directly related to what happened in Iraq.
 
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