2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Sho]

Trump is dismantling the fuck out of the GOP, if it matters. An excerpt from a recent Politico article:

Trump's latest gambit, far more outlandish than building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border or any others, has ratcheted up the pressure on GOP officials to find a way to protect their party brand before it becomes irrevocably tarnished by a man who could be their nominee.

They can't snatch away his campaign cash or limit his media exposure; they can't keep him off ballots. The party brass can’t reason with Trump and can't afford to alienate him to the point that he runs as an independent. And they must swallow the reality that many self-identifying Republicans prefer Trump’s nativism and bombast to their more mainstream, inclusive style of conservatism.

The pride that many in the GOP have will be their own undoing. Bush and Kasich's collective voices aren't loud enough to Stump the Trump.

[archibaldcrane]

Basically, they need him to lose either Iowa or New Hampshire. If he wins both, he'll win South Carolina, and then super tuesday is next up and he's going to do very well in those states.

Remember, Iowa is still 8 weeks away.

[archibaldcrane]

We're all going to be in for a big surprise though when Hillary gets so happy about facing Trump that her head explodes and then he's our president.

[Sho]

We need Hilary alive and head attached. Actually she didn't waste a moment to politicize the hell out of the entire GOP, painting them all with the Brush of Trump.

[Salodin]

You're all assuming the votes won't be falsified making Rubio win the nomination.

[Byrthnoth]

Technically the majority of the GOP shouldn't be painted with the Brush of Trump.

...but more than 30% of them should be.

[Fiye]

caw caw

[BerenTebogo]

Was coming to post that, lol

[BaneTheBrawler]

It's like he decided that now that Colbert (character) is off the air, someone has to fill those shoes.

[notorious bum]

Just a reminder of why we're the best democracy in the entire world! Also, Florida.

Florida’s laws prevent 1.5 million citizens from voting in the swing state.
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/09/...voting-rights/

[archibaldcrane]

“Honestly it feels like there is not a single person who cares if I get the right to vote,” said Sam Nimmo, a 38-year-old handyman who has filed three unsuccessful applications to the state’s clemency board. Nimmo was arrested for burglary and marijuana possession when he was 17, and, like several people I interviewed, has never been allowed to cast a ballot. “I feel like half a citizen.”

Jesus Christ, fucking Florida.

[notorious bum]

Damn, there is just a metric ton of shit worth of reading around this prez race. I apparently missed Mike Dyson's latest shuffling and sh'miling piece. This dude is full-on tux and top-hat into this Hilldog campaign already.

"Yes She Can" https://newrepublic.com/article/124391/yes-she-can

In a sense, Clinton has emerged at precisely what seems like a strikingly unpropitious moment. The boring, the tedious, the serious attention to the small gestures that make big impacts are ill-suited to the unruly temper of the times. But this perceived liability may be her strongest asset to the black masses: She can offer strict attention to policy that unapologetically plays to black needs without ever feeling pressure—as Obama has—to disown, to begrudge the style, of explicit black advance.

the tl;dr of that word vomit (cause I sure as hell didn't make it to the end), best summed up by qualified fuckboy roaster, Glen Ford:

“Yes She Can” is the latest in the long running series of Michael Eric Dyson audition tapes for one of the Official Spokesnegro spots that open up on MSNBC and similar places with every Democratic administration. Michael didn't make the final cut for the Obama era, but is making a strong bid in what he hopes will be the administration of Hillary Clinton.

This was actually written by Bruce Dixon.

[Kyreth]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/08/politi...ims/index.html

And Rand proceeds to rip Obama a new one over saying it on Twitter.

Cruz just stayed the hell out of the whole Muslim thing entirely, maintaining that truce with Trump he's had for months. Someone's got a guaranteed VP slot, methinks.

[Churchill]

We should just drone strike some civilians instead

[Sho]

And Rand proceeds to rip Obama a new one over saying it on Twitter.

Cruz just stayed the hell out of the whole Muslim thing entirely, maintaining that truce with Trump he's had for months. Someone's got a guaranteed VP slot, methinks.

He's actually waiting in the wings for the Trump downfall as well. Either way, he wins by maintaining a relative truce with Trump.

[Kyreth]

He's actually waiting in the wings for the Trump downfall as well. Either way, he wins by maintaining a relative truce with Trump.

Yep. Polls indicate he's got the #2 spot right now, which means if he plays nice with Trump, he gets the VP nod- and if Trump fails, at this point he'd be the frontrunner.

[Gredival]

Trump does not lose voters to negative attacks.

“Over three hours in Alexandria, Luntz lobbed dozens of Trump-seeking missiles. All 29 in the group had voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. All either supported Trump, or had supported him earlier in the year. To Luntz’s amazement, hearing negative information about the candidate made the voters, only a few of whom gave their full names to the press, hug the candidate tighter.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...mepage%2Fstory

[BerenTebogo]

Why Gred's link shouldn't be surprising:



http://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~dtg/Gilb...BELIEVING).pdf

Spinoza suggested that all information is accepted during comprehension and that false information is then unaccepted. Subjects were presented with true and false linguistic propositions and, on some trials, their processing of that information was interrupted. As Spinoza's model predicted, interruption increased the likelihood that subjects would consider false propositions true but not vice versa (Study 1). This was so even when the proposition was iconic and when its veracity was revealed before its comprehension (Study 2). In fact, merely comprehending a false proposition increased the likelihood that subjects would later consider it true (Study 3). The results suggest that both true and false information are initially represented as true and that people are not easily able to alter this method of representation.

Not the exact study I was looking for, but similar. Iirc there was one out of either Cornell or MIT that basically demonstrated that once someone is told something by someone who can be viewed as being in a position of authority, even if later shown clearly that it was false, they will still cling to the initially presented false info as true in a majority of cases.

[Gredival]

I was just going to say voters are dumb.

[Tyrath]

People*