Senate The US Politics discussion

decentralization/devolution isnt necessarily a sole province of "the right", but your point is taken. still do you think its fair of J-Rod to characterize california as just another state to make a point? perhaps part of the problem is we dont yet know what point he's tryign to make...

 

Huh? What I said wasn't intended to be taken that way. I was saying the "too big" thing is a fairly common excuse to not have, say, a nationwide (high-speed) rail network, or single-payer healthcare. That doesn't mean those people would be in favor of individual states mandating such things.

 

oh okay my bad.

 

But that's not the comment he made. He just looked at the same field of 2016 contenders you did, and said that he wasn't running because they thought they were better than him. That pretty definitively suggests he's not running.

 

But admits that "circumstances can change."

Anyways, the point was that it's hilarious that Romney still has so much support (and that he won't completely shut them down either), it's like all his supporters are suffering from a second plague of Romnesia.

 

I grew to like Romney quite a bit through the tail end of the 2012 campaign, and probably would have voted for him if the actual party he would have been beholden to as President weren't so utterly unhinged, but I think 2016 is a non-starter for him. The problem is that in order to make himself more palatable, he'll have to veer leftward, which will perfectly dovetail with the well-ingrained negative stereotype of him that he'll say or do anything to get elected. On top of that, he's basically a living, breathing example of the archetypical Old Rich White Guy that my generational cohorts in the electorate are so disenchanted with.

That being said, given how awful the slate of prospective candidates is, I wouldn't be shocked if he did in fact decide to run. Surprised, yes, but not shocked.

 

I'm 70% certain we're going to have a Republican Senate, but I'm 99.9% certain we're not going to have a Republican president unless someone with leadership qualities can be built from scratch.

 

I'll add one thing to the above: I'm 70% certain that a Republican Senate will go back to the Democrats in 2016.

The prospect of total GOP control in Washington will be more than enough to get whomever runs on the Democrat ticket to 270; also, the electoral senate map in 2016 is far more favorable to Democrats than 2014 is.

Peace,

V-03

 

What can possibly change? He said this after the Chris Christie bridge debacle, Scott Walker's special prosecutor, Rick Perry's indictment, and Marco Rubio's post-immigration bill popularity collapse. What else could he possibly be waiting on?

 

who's even going to run? (ghost this question is not directed at you, its directed at people who have a proven track-record for perceiving reality)

like, i guess rick perry might decide to waste his time for the book deal/fox news consultancy potential but who else? is christ christie still really a thing? i mean, one the one hand the base hates him but on the other hand they've wound up with people they loathe as the nominee the last two elections and as soon as the nomination was cinched they fell right into line until the day after the election. is ted cruz really a thing? like as bizarre as the last two cycles have been i just cannot imagine a ted cruz campaign. it wouldnt even be scary, just sort of surreal and comical i guess

 

The problem for the GOP in my view is that, because the party has become so obsessed with far-right ideological purity, there's a huge disconnect between who can actually emerge from the primaries and who would actually have a chance at all in the general election. In my view, absolutely nobody associated with this Congress has a chance of winning the general election. That leaves only the governors. Chris Christie is deeply tarnished, Romney is probably not going to run, Walker has no name-recognition, Bobby Jindal is a joke, and Jeb Bush's last name is Bush.

It looks pretty bleak.

EDIT: One thing that's interesting...it looks like the "Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line" dynamic will get turned on its head this time around.

 

a rand/hillary contest would be damned surreal, and probably super entertaining.

 

i guess what im asking is, regardless of who will/can "win", what will be the exact makeup of the freakshow we get to enjoy in the 2016 presidential election republican primary? can we expect another broad and varied game of coked-out musical chairs like the last few cycles, or will it be a hard core of a couple also-rans and a chosen one?

 

cruz
paul
roms
carson
christie
perry
aboulijandi
nephilim
croates
dangle
pfeffermeister
okra
dr. freedom

 

lol oh god i forgot abotu ben carson. that's gonna be tough to watch

 

Excuse me; that's Doctor Ben Carson.

 

oh right. like doctor ron paul

 

To be fair, though, Carson was actually skilled and well-respected in his former profession.

 

oh snap

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016#Republican_Party_2

Publicly expressed interest

• Michele Bachmann, U.S. Representative from Minnesota since 2007; presidential candidate in 2012[46][48][49]
• John R. Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 2005–2006; Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs 2001–2005[50][51]
• Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida 1999–2007[52][53][54]
• Herman Cain, President of the National Restaurant Association 1996-1999; chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza 1986-1996; presidential candidate in 2012[55]
• Ben Carson, former Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, from Maryland[56][57][58]
• Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey since 2010[59][60][61]
• Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator from Texas since 2013; Solicitor General of Texas 2003–2008[62][63]
• Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas 1996–2007; presidential candidate in 2008[64][65][66]
• Jon Huntsman, Jr., United States Ambassador to China 2009–2011; Governor of Utah 2005–2009; presidential candidate in 2012[67][68][69]
• Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana since 2008; U.S. Representative from Louisiana 2005–2008[7][64][70]
• Peter T. King, U.S. Representative from New York since 1993[71]
• Rand Paul, U.S. Senator from Kentucky since 2011[72][73][74]
• Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana since 2013; U.S. Representative from Indiana 2001–2013[75][76]
• Rick Perry, Governor of Texas since 2000; Lieutenant Governor of Texas 1999–2000; presidential candidate in 2012[62][77][78]
• Rob Portman, U.S. Senator from Ohio since 2011; Director of the Office of Management and Budget 2006–2007; US Trade Representative 2005–2006[79][80][81]
• Mike Rogers, U.S. Representative from Michigan since 2001[82][83]
• Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida since 2011[84][85][86]
• Paul Ryan, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin since 1999; vice-presidential nominee in 2012[87][88][89]
• Rick Santorum, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania 1995–2007; U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania 1991–1995; presidential candidate in 2012[7][90][91]
• Joe Scarborough, cable news and talk radio host, U.S. Representative from Florida 1995–2001[92][93][94]
• Donald Trump, business magnate and television personality from New York[95][96]

Other potential candidates

• Kelly Ayotte, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire since 2011; Attorney General of New Hampshire 2004–2009[97][98]
• Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University since 2013; Governor of Indiana, 2005–2013[99][100]
• John Kasich, Governor of Ohio since 2011; U.S. Representative from Ohio 1983–2001; presidential candidate in 2000[101][102][103]
• Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State 2005–2009; National Security Advisor 2001–2005[104][105]
• Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin since 2011[7][106][107]
• Allen West, U.S. Representative from Florida 2011–2013[65][108][109]

 

ghost this is why you dont get invited to the cool kid parties

 

Forgot Palin.

 

that said, allow me to whip a takedown list off the dome, just for ****s and giggles,

bachmann - crazy eyes
bolton - "gaffe" waiting for the extended scrutiny and pressure to happen and by "gaffe" i mean obscenity-laden meltdown, openly using racial slurs, throwing things or something; no charisma or likeability; basically it would be like electing a crazy mountain hermit to the presidency
bush - bush
cain - lingering scandal; black man running in the republican party; no applicable experience
carson - black dude, republican party; even less applicable experience than cain -- not even on healthcare, really, when you consider the dude was a surgeon
chris christie - fatty; base hates him; abrasive; scandal
ted cruz - weird head; everybody loved the government shutdown, right? right?!
mike huckabee - crazy eyes; long history of public craziness, ("hey lets put everyone with HIV on an island!") made only more abundant by his cable news activities since the last time he ran
john huntsman, jr - stop trying to make john huntsman happen, wonks, john huntsman is never going to happen
bobby jindal - not white enough to be republican nominee; christine o'donnell "i was a witch"-esque past
rob portman - loves his dead gay son
donald trump - attention whoring, does not actually intend to run
allen west - war criminal; black man in republican party; drama queen
mike rogers - who the **** is mike rogers? did you make this one up to see if i was paying attention or something?
marco rubio - mexican
joe scarborough - murderer
peter king - too much racism in the recent past, will turn off all but the most insane in the base (a sizeable group of people, but not enough to win)
paul ryan - will be spun as a sell-out by his opponents for an early out in the primary
rand paul - crazy dad; will be spun as sell-out to the base by his opponents, albiet less effectively than paul ryan will be; too crazy to pick up the slack with moderates
mike pence - likening healthcare to terrorism shows lack of control over his public persona; not racist enough/immigration reform activities will be spun as amnesty, he'll be done with the base at that point
rick perry - rick perry
rick santorum - rick santorum
sarah palin - has no intent to run. she's just happy as a clam where she is





...and ive lost interest for now

anyways, there's no way all of these people are going to run. lets narrow the pool down a bit instead of just quoting wikipedia and calling that good, eh?

 

I truly believe -- and I know KW disagrees with me -- that Christie's still got a real shot at the nomination and, honestly, won't lose that much of the base compared to a Hillary nomination on the other side.