1962

I think rubio has a shot, and I’m glad, because he’s not too bad.

1963

A former Walker aide dishes about his campaign missteps on Twitter, ending with a provocative teaser: “Word is he just avoided getting tied to a very bad story that could well have been coming.”

As I just finished re-wartching Veep, I imagined all these tweets as being said in Amy’s voice.

1964

I think he has better than a shot. I think the real race is between him and Jeb at this point.

1965

Some hotshot super pollster here in NC has called the Repub nom as a Rubio/Kasich ticket for the last month or so. As far as despicability goes, that’s one of the lower possible values, although it’s still absurdly high.

1966

Assuming that’s the same tweet Telefrog linked - there’s no way she’ll come clean with the dirt - she’s got too much to lose professionally, given that she’s a professional political communications strategist.

However, it does appear as if he blew over $20 million thus far:

“Finances just aren’t there,” Walker said on a conference call with staff minutes before the governor’s press conference…

…Walker’s donors have been grumbling about the campaign’s downward spiral in the polls, with many pointing their fingers at campaign manager Rick Wiley, who was saddled with the blame for the campaign’s overspending — the staff had ballooned to 90 people — and for the candidate’s shortcomings. According to a source familiar with the campaign’s operations, donors lost confidence in the campaign operation as Walker began his uninterrupted slide. Many donors informed the campaign they weren’t writing more checks until organizational changes were made and some began to hedge their bets by contributing to other campaigns.

His Super PAC had at least $20m in it as of June:

A trio of Midwestern billionaires powered a super PAC supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential campaign to an impressive $20 million haul between its mid-April creation and the end of last month, according to a report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

The haul by Unintimidated PAC puts Walker’s big-money allies well behind the field-leading $103 million raised by the super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but it would seem to put Walker solidly near the top of the second tier of the GOP presidential money chase.

That’s some pretty piss-poor financial management, IMHO

1967

There’s nothing whatsoever about Rubio that I like. The fact he’s not quite as overtly malicious or as obviously demented as most of the rest of the field is not a positive in my book. He still supports all the crazy core elements of the ultra-right platform.

Also I doubt Fiorina has any real chance at the nomination. I don’t think this year’s GOP is capable of nominating a female Presidential candidate. VP is about their limit (though perhaps she might get that nod if she drops out at the right moment). But I have to say much as I dislike Fiorina’s policies, platforms, and her dreadful tenure at HP, she would probably make the best president of any of them. She at least appears to be a grown-up, which is more than you can say for people like Trump and Cruz.

1968

If the Republicans win the White House in 2016, expect them to make another run at privatizing Social Security. The Wall St. fatcats are licking their chops at getting paid to manage hundreds of millions of personal accounts. Eff that noise.

1969

Let’s be fair though. There is nothing you like about any Republican. Buddha could run for president and if he had an R in front of his name, there would be nothing you liked about him.

1970

Rick Santorum is happy to split with his church when politics demands it, just as much as Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. A Catholic politician who governed according to his church’s social teachings would never find a home in either of the major parties. He’d be almost the opposite of a Libertarian, but similarly shunned.

1971

Not to hear Santorum tell it: “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”

1972

This is true of anyone who supports their current insanely stupid and destructive platform, of course. In the past there have occasionally been less reprehensible Republicans. And even today there’s the occasional governor or local-level Republican who is not as bad as their Democrat competitor. For example the Democratic machine in Massachusetts is thoroughly corrupt, so every once in a while a random Republican outsider turns out to be not as bad.

1973

Well, no man. There are lots of things you could like about rubio. Not necessarily enough to vote for him, but certainly you could like him for things like the fact he’s self made, coming from a poor immigrant family. You could like how he generally carries himself well, is charismatic, has a good knowledge of what he speaks about. Is young and not just yet another baby boomer hocking the same tired ideas.

For instance, I didn’t really agree with Obama’s campaign platform, but I wouldn’t have said, “There is nothing I like about Obama” because I did like him.

When Rubio speaks, he has a similar tone to Obama.

I would never expect you to vote for any Republican, no matter what. But I think for you to really not like ANYTHING about Rubio, you have to be evaluating him as an abstract commodity (a big black bag simply labeled REPUBLICAN) rather than a specific person running for president.

1974

That was a splendid post Timex.

1975

I’m assuming he meant as a potential president and not as a person. I think there are things i like about each of the republican presidential candidates as people, except ted cruz who is not a person.

As a democrat, i see Rubio as just another mainstream republican, only this time a little younger and a little less white.

As a democrat, i’d probably pick him if i had to pick a republican. He isn’t bat shit insane like 2/3 of the republican candidates. He didn’t purposefully drape the horrors of the Bush presidency over his shoulders (how out of touch with reality do you have to be to say that Bush kept us safe). He isn’t running on an extremely questionable business record. So yeah, the least evil option.

He is no McCain though. I have tons of respect for McCain. I know that McCain has a lot of integrity. If republicans tried to do something bad enough, he would stop them and damn the consequences

I still think even Mitt Romney was better than these clowns.

1976

I’m not so certain there are any mainstream Republicans left, but I understand your point. Also, McCain seemed to have integrity prior to his 2008 run. Since then he has definitely slipped in that department, IMHO (see slipping Apache Holy Land into Defense appropriations bill as an example).

1977

It’s really interesting to read Larison’s blog over at The American Conservative the past few weeks.

1978

Glancing at his work, he seems like a throwback to 41?

1979

Sure, if you like cheap takedowns of the sort of off-the-cuff comments people make on forums. I think the rest of us knew what Miramon meant.

-Tom, who also doesn’t like anything about Rubio

1980

Reading about your presidential nominees I am tempted to laugh, but then I remember my own country’s joke politicians and the extremists who got the most votes this time around. Sigh…

1981

To be fair, none of those things have anything to do with policy. “Not liking” someone in politics is generally a policy thing, unless they’re complete scumbags or nutjobs - and on the latter that often leads to policy things anyway.