2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Minions]

He IS, and has been a Democratic Super delegate in the past.

Oh yeah he is "now" apparently according to him.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/1...-democrat-now/

[Waraji]

I didn't mean he was a literal Democrat, but simply that he has been voting for the Democratic nominee as super delegate for years now. I fully understand the position he is taking now, and although I may not agree with it out of principle, there is only so much an Independent can do to get exposure outside of the 1% of the national vote.

[Minions]

I didn't mean he was a literal Democrat, but simply that he has been voting for the Democratic nominee as super delegate for years now. I fully understand the position he is taking now, and although I may not agree with it out of principle, there is only so much an Independent can do to get exposure outside of the 1% of the national vote.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-s...dia-attention/

Bernie Sanders on Monday night said he decided to run for president as a Democrat because of the media attention he would receive.

"Do you run as an independent? Do you run within the Democratic party? We concluded-- and I think it was absolutely the right decision, that, A) in terms of media coverage -- you have to run within the Democratic Party," the Vermont independent said at MSNBC's Democratic town hall in Columbus, Ohio.

The senator also said that the only way he could have launched a third-party bid was if he were a billionaire.

"If you're a billionaire, you can do that. I'm not a billionaire. So the structure of American politics today is such that I thought the right ethic was to run within the Democratic party," he said.

Not really a Democrat, and doesn't really pretend to be. He won't be embraced by democratic politicians when he is not helping to support their own elections. Hilary is funding other democrats in their own elections. Bernie has basically said every man for himself.

[notorious bum]

Not all Dems are created equally, we've seen how much support Dems get when they fall outside the center-right fold, meanwhile weak incumbents get showered in cash and GOP takes seats.

[Minions]

Final Tally Sanders 56 Clinton 43 Finished +13

[archibaldcrane]

Just 3 short of what he needed to start to close the gap.

[Minions]

Just 3 short of what he needed to start to close the gap.

Did you include the delegate swing he got from Nevada (though it doesn't count until the real vote)? Gap should have closed a very small amount when including both.

[notorious bum]

Clinton: 'You can be a feminist and be pro-life'
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare...nd-be-pro-life

I mean, she does have a point. You can win the Nobel Piece while bombing 5 other countries, after all.

[Fiye]

Kind of excited to see how the Panama Papers shakes things up. Hillary's received speaker money from deutsche bank which has been called out by the Panama Papers. On top of the support Hillary had for a Free Trade agreement with Panama back in 2011 (Which Sanders opposed).

[archibaldcrane]

Clinton: 'You can be a feminist and be pro-life'
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare...nd-be-pro-life

I mean, she does have a point. You can win the Nobel Piece while bombing 5 other countries, after all.

“The reason why being pro-choice is the right way to go is because it is a choice, and hopefully a choice that is rooted in the thoughtfulness and the care that women bring to this decision, so of course you can be a feminist and be pro-life.”

She's obviously saying that if a woman makes the personal choice that she wouldn't have an abortion she can still be a feminist. It's using the terminology in a strange way, but the meaning in context is pretty clear.

[Niiro]

The caveat is while a woman can make the decision to be pro-life on her own and still be a feminist, when they start trying to enforce that agenda on other women by supporting pro-life legislation......not so much.

Generally speaking when someone identifies as pro-choice or pro-life they're not talking about what they personally practice but where they stand on the matter politically.

[Quicklet]

I don't have much of a dog in this fight but it just seems like another case where she's using deliberate phrasing to try and appeal to both sides. "Unborn person" is such a loaded term politically that she had to have known that that phrase would have bothered pro-choice advocates who are constantly fighting against personhood bills in various state legislatures and in Congress.

[Marootsoobutsu]

The caveat is while a woman can make the decision to be pro-life on her own and still be a feminist, when they start trying to enforce that agenda on other women by supporting pro-life legislation......not so much.

Generally speaking when someone identifies as pro-choice or pro-life they're not talking about what they personally practice but where they stand on the matter politically.

I'd submit you have an extraordinarily narrow view of feminism if you think that that is the be-all-end-all. If your motivation for being pro-life is a fervent conviction that life begins at conception, that it is human life, and that all innocent human life is in need of protection, then you are simply making a value judgment that an innocent life that is worth protecting is more important than a woman's right to her own body. There are many people who are pro-life in that regard, and who have exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. It's not that they don't think women are entitled to their bodies... it's that they think that (baring the cases where they did not have say), they had say in their bodies, and they took a risk, and that someone else should not be killed because of that choice. You can believe *ALL* of that, and still believe that women should have equal rights to men, in literally every arena. You can believe that, and believe that women are the equals of men. Hell, you can believe that and believe that women are *superior* to men, that women should have *more* than men. I don't care. Feminism isn't about abortion; that's an incredibly narrow aspect of it, and to flat out declare that if you're opposed to that one thing (and possibly even conflictedly opposed to it), you're not a feminist is... iunno.

There are Christians who don't go to church. There are democrats who are opposed to gay marriage. There are Republicans who are pro-choice.

[Churchill]

I am pro male choice

[Gredival]

I am pro male choice

Cut it out.

[ringthree]

“The reason why being pro-choice is the right way to go is because it is a choice, and hopefully a choice that is rooted in the thoughtfulness and the care that women bring to this decision, so of course you can be a feminist and be pro-life.”

She's obviously saying that if a woman makes the personal choice that she wouldn't have an abortion she can still be a feminist. It's using the terminology in a strange way, but the meaning in context is pretty clear.

It is possible to be pro-life and still understand that people may not agree with you and have the right to choose.

In fact, this is very much a sane way to approach the issue.

Further, the fact that our politics has gotten to the point that isn't considered to be sane by default is pretty sad.

(None of this has to do with Hillary's stance on anything, more just an observation.)

[ringthree]

Kind of excited to see how the Panama Papers shakes things up. Hillary's received speaker money from deutsche bank which has been called out by the Panama Papers. On top of the support Hillary had for a Free Trade agreement with Panama back in 2011 (Which Sanders opposed).

That is some specious reasoning to support your political agenda.

[archibaldcrane]

Kind of excited to see how the Panama Papers shakes things up. Hillary's received speaker money from deutsche bank which has been called out by the Panama Papers. On top of the support Hillary had for a Free Trade agreement with Panama back in 2011 (Which Sanders opposed).

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-c...american-names

In many cases, the entire point of setting up a shell company is to hide things. But, in 2010, the United States and Panama signed a trade-promotion agreement that, among other things, obliged Panama to provide to the U.S. authorities, on request, “information regarding the ownership of companies, partnerships, trusts, foundations, and other persons, including . . . . ownership information on all such persons in an ownership chain.” Higgins pointed out, “If Panama had ever been an attractive destination for American offshore storage of funds, this agreement shut the door on that possibility.”

So Sanders opposed legislation that required Panama to disclose information about the owners of shell companies to America?

I could totally see how that would hurt Hillary...

[Minions]

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-c...american-names


So Sanders opposed legislation that required Panama to disclose information about the owners of shell companies to America?

I could totally see how that would hurt Hillary...

For whatever reason, Sanders is stating it as if by opposing this legislation he prevented shell companies in Panama.... when in reality it is entirely the opposite. Not that the legislation prevented shell companies in other countries, but it did make it very unattractive to do in Panama.

[Minions]

"And now we have Photo ID, and I think Photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well"

http://gawker.com/wisconsin-republic...out-1769345638

LOL