Presidential Race 2016

Tin_Wisdom · 2016-02-11T05:07:59.000Z

Strollen:

My real hope is that Jeb decides to launch and an all-out attack on Trump and that coupled with Cruz hit him from right and with help from evangelist permanently damages Trump. I’m just hard pressed to imagine what attack could damage Trump.

I’m starting to think that Jeb(!)'s strategy is not to attack Trump at all, but rather to eliminate his other - “Establishment” - rivals and then Cruz.

Bush may be betting on Timex’s assertion that Trump’s appeal is capped at something like 40%. If that’s the case, then Bush doesn’t need to beat Trump at all - he just needs to eliminate everyone else so that the 60% of the GOP who aren’t complete idiots cast their vote for him. In this scenario, Bush’s ideal case would be to keep Trump around until the bitter end so that Trump pulls the crazies away from Cruz.

Timex · 2016-02-11T05:56:01.000Z

It’s like some terrible version of Survivor.

inactive_user · 2016-02-11T07:18:31.000Z

Tin Wisdom:

I’m starting to think that Jeb(!)'s strategy is not to attack Trump at all, but rather to eliminate his other - “Establishment” - rivals and then Cruz.

Bush may be betting on Timex’s assertion that Trump’s appeal is capped at something like 40%. If that’s the case, then Bush doesn’t need to beat Trump at all - he just needs to eliminate everyone else so that the 60% of the GOP who aren’t complete idiots cast their vote for him. In this scenario, Bush’s ideal case would be to keep Trump around until the bitter end so that Trump pulls the crazies away from Cruz.

I want to believe.

Dan_Theman · 2016-02-11T07:43:35.000Z

Adam B:

I want to believe.

It’s also important to remember that primary turnouts are often quite different than general election turnouts. I mean, in the 2008 general election, 384,591 people voted for Obama in NH. However, only 104,815 voted for him in the Primary and there were nearly 100,000 people who would later vote for him in the General that didn’t bother showing up to pick a Primary candidate. In 2000 for NH, it was even more extreme (John McCain finished third … in the Democratic Primary as a write-in). Only 154,639 showed up for that in total, yet 266,348 people voted for snore-worthy Al Gore in the General.

Timex · 2016-02-11T11:35:59.000Z

That guy with the boot on his head got more votes in NH than Jim Gilmore.

EDIT:
I’m totally serious. That is not a joke.

TranquilityBase · 2016-02-11T12:14:40.000Z

Now is this any way to treat the birthday boy?

On the plus side, he at least found a way to get the crowd to applaud without begging.

Timex · 2016-02-11T12:17:23.000Z

I’m kind of sick of Jeb from the perspective of his negative ads, which his brother did as well. Bush II screwed McCain in 2001 with incredibly bullshit ads, going so far as to suggest that he had an illegitimate african american child. Seriously, that is a thing which happened.

And Bush III is doing the same kind of thing, and it is making me like him less and less every day.

Hal9000 · 2016-02-11T12:17:46.000Z

TranquilityBase:

Now is this any way to treat the birthday boy?

On the plus side, he at least found a way to get the crowd to applaud without begging.

That was kind of adorable.

Wallapuctus · 2016-02-11T12:50:16.000Z

Poor Jeb!, he’s such a sad sack.

BiggerBoat · 2016-02-11T13:29:24.000Z

TranquilityBase:

Now is this any way to treat the birthday boy?

On the plus side, he at least found a way to get the crowd to applaud without begging.

I love him so much. Please don’t ever quite running for president, Jeb!

In other news, Obama totally trolls Rubio (talking to a reporter about Immigration reform):

POTUS:

I stayed out of it so that I would not be polarizing. You had Republicans over in the Senate working with Democrats to negotiate something – Dick Durbin was involved with this; a young man named Marco Rubio was deeply involved in it – they get a bipartisan bill, it passed by a bipartisan vote, but then this reaction from the base that had been stirred up kills it. And that’s when we start taking executive action.

That is some masterful campaign trolling, right there.

Strollen · 2016-02-11T14:29:25.000Z

Tin Wisdom:

I’m starting to think that Jeb(!)'s strategy is not to attack Trump at all, but rather to eliminate his other - “Establishment” - rivals and then Cruz.

Bush may be betting on Timex’s assertion that Trump’s appeal is capped at something like 40%. If that’s the case, then Bush doesn’t need to beat Trump at all - he just needs to eliminate everyone else so that the 60% of the GOP who aren’t complete idiots cast their vote for him. In this scenario, Bush’s ideal case would be to keep Trump around until the bitter end so that Trump pulls the crazies away from Cruz.

Bush is definitely going after Trump. He has attacked him during the last several debates. I’ve heard him this week on MSNBC, Fox, and CNN call Trump a “loser”, an Entertaining showman, but dangerous, and completely unqualified to be president. Attacking Trump is part of his stump speech now and by all accounts he has become more comfortable in his role as an establishment candidate.

The question is will Bush also spend his own money, and more importantly nudge his SuperPac to concentrate his attacks on Trump or will he also continue to go after Rubio and Kasich.

Pyperkub · 2016-02-11T14:55:06.000Z

Nesrie:

So you think Trump is actually doing his “homework” on anything? I just get the impression Trump is going to do what he is going to do and he expects people to follow him be damned facts, processes or any sort of civil discourse.

Oh, I’m 100% certain he’s done his homework on the paranoid side of the GOP base that eats up any and all conspiracy/persecution theories (especially the emails that Snopes routinely debunks) and buys any book written that agrees with their position (making Sarah Palin a bestseller, for instance).

What he’s selling to them is his cult of personality to solve those problems, without really going into detail. HE is the simple solution to the complex problems (or should I say “their” problems?).

Is it realistic to think he can do that? No, but he can sell it like crazy to at least that segment. Can he broaden that base? The next few months will tell, and if he can somehow withstand and manage to win the Presidency, then that is evidence that maybe he can (because winning the Presidency is damned hard and anyone who has run that gauntlet to victory has achieved something very few people can).

Adding article to illustrate:

Fresh off a convincing victory in his party’s New Hampshire primary, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump took to CBS Wednesday to gloat over his win – and to take a few shots at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who won the Democratic primary by an even greater margin…

…“The one thing we have in common is trade,” Trump said. “The difference between us is, [Sanders] can’t do anything about it. I can.”…

…Trump did not explain how he would overturn the U.S. trade deficit, or why Sanders would be unable to do it as well as him. Like his attacks on fellow Republicans, Trump’s new assault on Sanders appears to be rooted in the idea that Trump can intimidate foreign powers into submission with the force of his personality alone.

Rightbug · 2016-02-11T15:11:50.000Z

Tin Wisdom:

Bush may be betting on Timex’s assertion that Trump’s appeal is capped at something like 40%. If that’s the case, then Bush doesn’t need to beat Trump at all - he just needs to eliminate everyone else so that the 60% of the GOP who aren’t complete idiots cast their vote for him. In this scenario, Bush’s ideal case would be to keep Trump around until the bitter end so that Trump pulls the crazies away from Cruz.

I had the same thought today. If the Rubio ship is truly sinking, Bush and Kasich are the only two non-crazies left standing at this point. Bush is totally playing a game of Survivor at this point.

Wallapuctus · 2016-02-11T15:20:38.000Z

Shit like this is why Trump is going to win.

Gawker

What the Ugly Side of Free Trade Looks Like

When we speak about “outsourcing” and “free trade,” we speak in abstractions. Here is what these terms look like in practice.

Not that Trump will do anything to help anyone, but he talks like he will. He’s going to make so many jobs and we’re going to be so wealthy and it’s going to be tremendous, after all.

Gutsball · 2016-02-11T16:32:17.000Z

BiggerBoat:

In other news, Obama totally trolls Rubio (talking to a reporter about Immigration reform):

That is some masterful campaign trolling, right there.

Let’s dispel once and for all with the fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he is doing, he knows exactly what he is doing.

Strollen · 2016-02-11T17:02:38.000Z

On a lighter note I got a kick out of this meme

John_Reynolds · 2016-02-11T17:09:42.000Z

OK, I gotta put that up on FB with the accompanying text of ‘Feel the Bern’. God I hate that f’n slogan.

Timex · 2016-02-11T17:39:52.000Z

I was just thinking, I really wish that they would start doing the normal debates in a closed studio, without a live audience.

I find the live audience adds nothing. It drags the whole thing down to a lower level. It makes more of it into zingers and playing to the crowd.

I don’t care about listening to the crowd cheer.

Note, I’m not taking about town hall debates. I like those. But for the debates behind podiums? They need to remove the audiences, or go back to at least preventing people from cheering like idiots.

ShivaX · 2016-02-11T17:41:04.000Z

I tend to agree with that.

Telefrog · 2016-02-11T18:05:25.000Z

Timex:

I was just thinking, I really wish that they would start doing the normal debates in a closed studio, without a live audience.

I find the live audience adds nothing. It drags the whole thing down to a lower level. It makes more of it into zingers and playing to the crowd.

I don’t care about listening to the crowd cheer.

Note, I’m not taking about town hall debates. I like those. But for the debates behind podiums? They need to remove the audiences, or go back to at least preventing people from cheering like idiots.

But without the laugh track, how would you know when someone made a sick burn?