The 2016 Presidential Candidates Thread

howie105

Well-Known Member
That's almost akin to saying........."I changed my mind. I don't like Mahatma Ghandi anymore. I like Mussolini much better." And no, neither candidates are totally aligned with the two people mentioned above, but the analogy does kind of apply, eh?

Often it depends on who the candidate is talking to. I still wish Clinton would release the "Wall Street speeches" just to settle her positioning a little more for the voters. Trump on the other hand is pushing a brand so a constant political position might be problematic at times.
 

Derrrpp

For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky
I can understand how the "poorly educated" people can support Trump. What I really don't get is how otherwise intelligent people can support him. Are they just so bent on changing the status quo that they don't care about the consequences? I'm dissatisfied with the status quo too, but I'm not about to vote a racist, sexist, climate-change-denying, bigoted, bumbling fool into the country's highest office. A Trump presidency would be disastrous for this country, and we would have to live with the consequences for years afterward.

If Bernie doesn't win the Democratic nomination, I'll gladly vote for Hillary.

:2c:

:peace:
 

howie105

Well-Known Member
Its hard to figure out who to support, there are still so many variables in play. World events, VP choices, health issues and that ever present chance of a political stink bomb used rightly or wrongly by some opponent. Of course whoever I chose I usually end up a year or so later trying to remember what I was vapeing when I made my choice.
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Gunky

Well-Known Member
Very good read on the whole "puppies and rainbows/magic asterisks" controversy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/the-sanders-economic-plan_b_9301924.html

Whatever you think about Sander's plans and Friedman's analysis (I still don't find it convincing) the whole thing still relies on republicans all disappearing magically and all the remaining democrats all drink Sanders flavor Koolaid, suddenly become democratic socialists, and buy into everything he wants to do, raise everybody's taxes, creating vast new government spending programs on a scale rivaling Franklin Roosevelt. Because that is more or less what Sanders proposes and Friedman tried to game out with economic modeling (and thereby comes up with 5.3% growth).

In the real world, even if Sanders were elected president, the chances of enacting the higher taxes and bigger government he espouses look really slim. So Sanders would actually be called upon to play Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in this job, regardless of his own wish to be the leader of the revolution. Rather than hire Sanders to impersonate Hillary, how bout we just pick Hillary? She has more experience at it.

I like Sanders ideas. I'm in favor of them. I happen to think that the revolution does not occur from top down, which seems to be what Bernie is proposing. This would all have so much credibility if he had built a movement for it in congress. In all his years as senator, what movement has he built? Who is allied with him?

Here is my prescription. The repubs are imploding. All of their top 3 candidates have extreme views and lack experience. All 3 have expressed xenophobic sentiments. In short, the repubs are terrible and look terrible. Trump, Cruz, Rubio - they really suck! We are all set up for a rout of the repubs by mainstream dems. If we get a mainstream dem back in, we can continue the progress we made under Obama, and if we retake the senate and house, go even further. This is not a moment to go all wobbly for some extreme and impractical candidate like Bernie. To do that would miss the wonderful opportunity afforded us by this moment of supreme republican disorder.
 
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His_Highness

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
@Gunky - My answer to How about we just pick Hillary is.....

It sounds like you're implying that because the republicans won't let Bernie be successful I should vote for Hillary. I'm not sure why you think Hillary will fare any better. IMO ... It isn't the size of the change so much as it's which party is suggesting it. The republicans will attempt to block any non-republican from succeeding.

Another reason I think it's better to support Bernie over Hillary is I think the republicans HATE the Clinton's with a passion. I think they hate Bernie as well but not as vehemently. So if the choice is based on who they might work with I'd give Bernie the nod there as well.

With the above in mind - If we're not going to be allowed to hit the ball I prefer to swing for the fences.

What is it about Friedman and Galbraith that you disagree with? My worst subject was economics so I'm happy to defer to the experts even though I find economics to be far from an exact science.
 

Gunky

Well-Known Member
Power in the American federal government is distributed among the 3 branches. The way the system works is to have alliances and parties, peeling off opposition votes, making deals etc. You can believe all the BS about Hillary or not, but she is plugged into the mainstream democratic party. Bernie... not so much. She is in a position to leverage her own power and that of her democratic colleagues in congress. Bernie is an independent. That has its advantages but it does not confer a lot of power and he has not yet shown himself to be adept at forming effective alliances in the democratic caucus.

His H: the repubs will hate either one but the dems will like Hillary and tolerate/humor Bernie. See above. Bernie also has a bad effect on down-ticket races, IMO. We abandon the lovely advantage we have over repubs if we choose someone as far out of the the democratic mainstream (ie extreme to some voters) as Bernie.
 
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His_Highness

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
Power in the American federal government is distributed among the 3 branches. The way the system works is to have alliances and parties. You can believe all the BS about Hillary or not, but she is plugged into the mainstream democratic party. Bernie... not so much. She is in a position to leverage her own power and that of her democratic colleagues in congress. Bernie is an independent. That has its advantages but it does not confer a lot of power and he has not yet shown himself to be adept at forming effective alliances in the democratic caucus.

Good point on the political leverage possibly being in Hillary's favor. She does strike me as more manipulative politically. Not sure it will outweigh the hate though.
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
Having a black president awakened all the racism in the America. I am appalled at all the haters out there. I am ashamed at how much racism is still here in our country. Obama wasn't able to get everything that he wanted in his presidency but I think he did his best with what he had.

I want a president that accepts and represents people of all faiths and races.

Edit
I want a president with integrity and Mr. Trump doesn't have that.
 
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mestizo

Well-Known Member
The republicans have shown not just their racism with obama, but with their actions against women's rights they have proven their misogyny as well. Whomever we elect needs to be able to work with them.
I remember a republican female TV host saying that there was no more racism in America, and proof of that was that we had elected a black president.
Then I thought, she didn't vote for him! It was the rest of the electorate that has grown tired of all the racism and prejudice in America.
I live in Downey, CA a predominant white city in the past. Now the city is swimming in revenue money thanks to a Cuban bakery that opened up in downtown (a previously dead area) and because of it, more businesses started to open oround it.
Another example is Gonzalez Northgate Markets, the envy of any large supermarket chain.
If those states with a low percentage of immigrants want to grow maybe they should invite some of them to help their economies, just look at the states with the largest percentage of immigrants are usually the strongest economically.
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
(CNN)Former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is hitting Donald Trump, his party's current front-runner, over not releasing tax information the former Massachusetts governor says voters have a right to see.

"We have good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes," Romney told Fox News on Wednesday, also calling out by name Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to disclose their tax information as well.

"Either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn't been paying taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to vets or to the disabled like he's been telling us he's been doing," Romney added.

Trump's campaign did not respond to CNN request for reaction to the remarks, but the billionaire businessman tweeted after the interview that Romney is "playing tough guy."

"Mitt Romney,who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy," Trump tweeted.
 

Magic9

Plant Enthusiast
With Donald Trump Looming, Should Dems Take a Huge Electability Gamble by Nominating Hillary Clinton?

Are they only polling conservatives in all these polls?

Pharma appears to have a favorable impression of Clinton.

"Overall, we believe the best scenario for healthcare investors is a Democrat, presumably Hillary Clinton, winning the Presidency, as we anticipate the Republicans retaining control of Congress. In this scenario, in spite of Clinton’s numerous “threats” to rein in drug prices, allowing the re-importation of drugs, and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, we believe it is highly unlikely Clinton will be able to pass these initiatives through a Republican controlled Congress. Conversely, the Republicans’ efforts to repeal Healthcare Reform, would be thwarted by a Clinton veto as we do not anticipate the Republican obtaining the 2/3 votes to override a veto."
 

grokit

well-worn member
There's supposedly a conservative conspiracy to get bernie nominated, so they can market the generals as some kind of freedom vs. communism contest. I don't buy it, and I don't think it will sell nationally.

Hillary doesn't want to release her goldman-sachs speech transcripts, because those words weren't meant for the public. To me this is a bigger issue than the email server; she serves two masters like obama.
 

howie105

Well-Known Member
Overall if Clinton is elected chances are we will see more of the same, a mainstream democratic social agenda a continued war that either can't or won't get won or settled. Of course something could change in events leading up to the general but I am not holding my breath.
 

grokit

well-worn member
:uhh: Interesting results for trump in nevada.

US election 2016: The untold story of Donald Trump's win

The man who likes winning won. And he won BIG.

The billionaire who has never held political office was supposed to be a candidate who would never get above 40%. In Nevada he smashed that, hitting nearly 46%.

He has also been cast as a candidate too reliant on votes from white people, yet on Tuesday night he was supported by 45% of the Hispanics, way ahead of his Cuban-American rivals.

And far from being too reliant on people without a college education, he won big in that section of voters too.

46% of the overall vote went to Donald Trump
  • 45% of Hispanics
  • 40% of college graduates
  • 47% white
However, there is more to these impressive stats than meets the eye...

(more)
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35651682

:ninja:
 
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howie105

Well-Known Member
Under someone else, it could be worse...................much worse.

Thats for sure, there are all kinds of nightmare scenarios where the wrong combination of leadership and events push the country over some sort of military, social or economic cliff. The hard part is matching all the potential, known, unlikely and possible cliffs with the likely responses of the various candidates. Sanders has a traceable record of on domestic policy on the other extreme you have Trump who is a complete mystery to me. Oh for a crystal ball or a truth machine so I could make an informed choice.
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
The republican polls are all over the place in Texas. Some say Trump has the state and others say Cruz. I think all of the presidential candidates should disclose their tax statements by now.

Let's see if Cruz tries to get The Donald to have a melt down over the next few days. If it were me I would try hard to piss Trump off big time. Show America he doesn't have the temperament to be president..

The RNC wants Rubio to win. The DNC wants Hillary.
 
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