Senate The US Politics discussion

maybe, once the rest of the freaks have had their sheer unelectability publically elaborated ad-nauseum, he'll wind up as last man standing on a combination of "moderate" electability and name recognition. but that was the guiliani theory too, and it didnt really work out too well for him, even without a major scandal in his recent past

 

And I would have supported a Giuliani nom too, but let's face it -- Christie is ridiculously more electable and (frankly) more "likable" than Giuliani.

 

am i taking crazy pills or do you have that totally the wrong way around?

 

Both are superficially charismatic, but neither is particularly likeable. I don't think Giuliani lost his temper in public nearly as much, though.

 

this

 

You forget I'm from NYC (and still here). I loved Giuliani but he was thought of in some respects as a tyrant from his previous US Attorney days. A LOT of us actually liked it and thought it was useful back then, and he got a lot of national attention for 9/11, but I think people overestimated his likability.

Christie, on the other hand, gets a lot of the "jolly fat guy" vibes from people and -- bridge closing aside -- was very well thought of locally (even in NYC) for his handling of Sandy and the aftermath, as well as several other initiatives.

And Giuliani lost his temper in public a ton. And had an extramarital affair in public.

I can't swear what the rest of the country thought, but that's the narrative as I see it from this end of the spectrum.

 

One of the big fatal errors in Giuliani's '08 campaign is that when the going started getting rough, he put all his focus on the 'big' primaries (like Florida) thinking he could ride those out to victory. That pretty much exposed Giuliani's elitist side and I think is part of what turned the tide for former 'dead in the water' candidate McCain at that point.

I don't think that would necessarily be a problem with Christie, who seems to be a very hands - on campaigner.

dp4m: Up until 9/11 most of the rest of the country thought of Giuliani as a talk show joke, primarily because of all the drama involving the affair he had, and subsequent divorce from his wife (including the whole Gracie Mansion debacle), there were even a few jokes thrown in about his cancer at the time in '00 that caused him to abandon the NY Senate run he'd been on, which Hilary ultimately won. Then game 9/11 and Giuliani's public image practically changed overnight.

 

i actually think mitch daniels might be the right combination of boring and stupid to get the nom, if i had to take a guess

 

adding to the easy-peasy takedown list from last page:

michelle bachmann - crazy eyes
john 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
herman cain - lingering scandal; black man running in the republican party; no applicable experience
ben 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?
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
sarah palin - has no intent to run. she's just happy as a clam where she is
rick perry - torpedoed himself last time around; indicted, tho i suppose maybe he could play the "i was framed, i tells ya!" card for sympathy but i think ultimately the stench isnt going to go away
kelly ayotte - woman
condoleeza rice - black woman
marco rubio - mexican
joe scarborough - murderer
jeb bush - bush
rick santorum - rick santorum

which leaves john kasich (maybe, i guess) mitch daniels (maybe by default) and scott walker (maybe not, i mean i guess republicans love a good union-busting but is a recall ever a good sign? even if you survived it?)

 

and another thing: where's newt? i dont see why newt is left off such a kitchen sink, anything goes list. he certainly seems to still think he's relevant in his own addled, narcissistic mind, which is the only quality i can possibly imagine uniting all of the people currently on the list

has he said he'd never run again?

 

He hasn't ruled it out, but he's currently working for CNN (whenever they get Crossfire back up and running), so I can't see him abandoning that for the rigors of running again.

 

Eh, you didn't want me to post my opinion, and you were asking who could even possibly run, so I quoted.

 

wasnt talking to you. was talking to the thread

and honestly, dont let me stop you from offering your opinion. if nothing else itll be hilarious. so tell me, is rick perry going to ride a unicorn across a magic rainbow bridge to the whitehouse? perhaps kim jong-un will declare war on michelle bachmann?

 

I'm still reading The Invisible Bridge, and it's really interesting how some of the things from the years Perlstein wrote about, and in the 1976 campaign in particular, are still around today (sometimes in different forms or in other guises). Reagan comes across as an infinitely more politically competent version of Mitt Romney, and I didn't know until reading the book that Reagan basically pulled a Romney and paid no income taxes in 1970, despite a hefty income that year.

It's a bit odd to be reading about Jerry Brown and his governorship of California almost 40 years ago, at a time when the same Jerry Brown is the governor of California.

I've been pondering lately if I'm missing anything that's just below the radar, as a lot of pundits missed the things that Reagan intuitively picked up on and used to send him on his way, first in 1976 and more famously in 1980.

There sure was a lot of domestic terrorism in the 1970s, and some of the things that happened then would send the media into a collective meltdown now, like a bombing at La Guardia that killed 11 people. It's mentioned almost in passing, and I bet 95-99% of people today either have no idea that it happened or have long since forgotten about it if they were alive at the time. It would be subject to massive coverage today. There were dozens of domestic terror incidents each year in those days.

I'd known about the Church Committee report for awhile now, but somehow I just didn't do much connecting between that and the NSA/Snowden "revelations." Perlstein obviously slanted his writing with a mind toward just that, but the report is what it is (or was), and the words used fit as much today as they did then.

 

He's waiting for Hillary's poll numbers to go to zero, then he'll announce.

Unless he's sure he can win, he's probably not jumping in.

Peace,

V-03

 

no, it was a joke referencing the wonderful 80s black comedy Heathers



if you havent seen it you really should treat yourself. the christian slater character is in many ways my posting aesthetic incarnate

 

Sarah Palin tried to do an unfunny imitation of Patrick Stewart's ALS ice bucket challenge:

 

honestly more "wacky news" than "us politics" at this point, juliet

 

lol joe scarborough?

 

literally got away with murder. but yeah, he was on ghost's Masterlist

 

i don't know anything about that. i just know him from his msnbc clown show. i'd be astounded if he received any votes at all. in fact, he would probably get like negative 10 votes in a primary.

 

back when he was a republican congressperson from florida in the early 2000s a 28 year old intern apparently bashed her own head in on a desk in his office when nobody was around

i mean come ON