2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Sho]

honestly, california is pretty much the same. i live in the central valley, and i'm from texas. there's not a lot of difference here politically vs. back home, it's kind of scary (fresno reminds me of tyler, if tyler had half a million people). what the rest of america thinks of as california is concentrated on the coast. it's also where the majority of the population is located.

Yeah, pretty much. It only seems to apply to NY and CA most of all, as they are the most well known states. With that said, ask just about any foreign person how America is like and 2 of the top 5 responses will be a reference to NY or CA, by way of NYC, Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco or San Diego.

[Sho]

Also, I'm pretty much all in for Hilary if Kasich doesn't make it out of RNC convention floor fight on top. She's the safest (for Pragmatists) choice honestly. Sane GOP can vote for her and hope the party (Rubio, Walker come back) rebounds to 2020. Democrats can vote in Volume III of Barack Obama Chronicles. Centrists can vote and see status quo maintained with a liberal bent.

[Cantih]

honestly, california is pretty much the same. i live in the central valley, and i'm from texas. there's not a lot of difference here politically vs. back home, it's kind of scary (fresno reminds me of tyler, if tyler had half a million people). what the rest of america thinks of as california is concentrated on the coast. it's also where the majority of the population is located.

Yep,
CA has a pop just under 40 mil (To a USA pop of 322 mil, so about 12%).
The largest way to count Los Angeles (LA-LB CSA) puts the region's population at 18 million, so just under half the state.
Though the CSA catches a number of places that aren't the urban area, out in the desert and up the coast.
The closest would be the LA-LB-SA UA at 13 million (so one-third of the state pop.). But that omits Irvine, Riverside, and San Bernardino, which between google satellite "big ugly grey expanse" and reality of commutes, are a part of the region now.
San Diego County has an additional 3 million, and the SF-Oakland-Hayward MSA has 4 million.

All together, that's half the state's population concentrated on the south tip plus the bay area of the state.

[Psion]

man, i knew LA was huge, as in millions of people huge, but i had no idea just how many millions it really was. no wonder i hate going there so much, and why the drivers seem intent on killing anyone driving the speed limit. i think anyone would go insane living in such a crowded area. I knew san diego was huge as well, but i had the idea that it and LA were fairly close in population... LOLnope.

[Sho]

man, i knew LA was huge, as in millions of people huge, but i had no idea just how many millions it really was. no wonder i hate going there so much, and why the drivers seem intent on killing anyone driving the speed limit. i think anyone would go insane living in such a crowded area. I knew san diego was huge as well, but i had the idea that it and LA were fairly close in population... LOLnope.

That's a combined area that includes the city of Los Angeles (with Long Beach & Riverside), also known as the Greater Los Angeles Area. LA itself is around 3~4 million. Still sucks to drive there regardless (though you either drive or deal with shitty public transit).

Fun to live, sucks to drive.

[Cantih]

i think anyone would go insane living in such a crowded area.

It's not even really crowded, because in a non-relative sense it's really spread out. Tokyo and NYC have a far higher density.

[Minions]

Jeff Weaver is trending on twitter for being out of his damn mind

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/w...s-669591619932

[Zetanio]

LA is a giant area of moderate density. New York is a small area of high density. Tokyo is a large area of ultra-high density.

Gary Johnson is grabbing my vote now. I guess I'm grabbing my Johnson again.

[kuronosan]

Jeff Weaver is trending on twitter for being out of his damn mind

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/w...s-669591619932

Yea, damn that net 30 delegate loss!

[Sho]

Sanders doesn't need to drop out of the race, but he'll have to change his rhetoric if it's clear that Clinton will be the nominee and he's the protest candidate.

I actually feel sorry for Sanders now -- he's the head of an exceptionally powerful political movement that he created, one that has brought many young people and their contributions to the fold. He can't just wake up and be like "well, guess we are done with running, lets go home." He's obligated to finish the race right into the convention, even if it's impossible to overcome Clinton's superdelegates.

[Krandor]

As long people keep throwing him $27 no reason to drop out.

[dasva]

It's not even really crowded, because in a non-relative sense it's really spread out. Tokyo and NYC have a far higher density.

Yeah it's just the relative to the rest of the state (or really the entire west) it's like holy fuck what happened where'd all the people come from

[kuronosan]

Sanders doesn't need to drop out of the race, but he'll have to change his rhetoric if it's clear that Clinton will be the nominee and he's the protest candidate.

I actually feel sorry for Sanders now -- he's the head of an exceptionally powerful political movement that he created, one that has brought many young people and their contributions to the fold. He can't just wake up and be like "well, guess we are done with running, lets go home." He's obligated to finish the race right into the convention, even if it's impossible to overcome Clinton's superdelegates.

Yep.

[Tyche]

I wonder how hard he continues to go at Hillary. He needs his constituency to vote for her.

[Andalusian girls]

Sanders doesn't need to drop out of the race, but he'll have to change his rhetoric if it's clear that Clinton will be the nominee and he's the protest candidate.

I actually feel sorry for Sanders now -- he's the head of an exceptionally powerful political movement that he created, one that has brought many young people and their contributions to the fold. He can't just wake up and be like "well, guess we are done with running, lets go home." He's obligated to finish the race right into the convention, even if it's impossible to overcome Clinton's superdelegates.

and regular delegates. and popular vote.

i'd feel worse for him if he hadn't painted this contest as an unshaded dichotomy between purity and corruption allowing his supporters to view resistance to him and support for Hillary as a fundamentally immoral act, and if his campaign hadn't descended into the gutter the moment he realized he couldn't beat her cleanly

[Marootsoobutsu]

I wonder how hard he continues to go at Hillary. He needs his constituency to vote for her.

I suspect that at this point, most of his followers know whether they are supporting Hillary or not already. The only thing that would change it is if, for some reason, Bernie *doesn't* end up supporting Hillary (which he will, unless he's suffering some form of undiagnosed/undisclosed dementia).

[kuronosan]

The large issue is there are so many tangible reasons NOT to vote for Hillary, yet none of them equate to "because she's not Bernie".

[Sho]

and regular delegates. and popular vote.

i'd feel worse for him if he hadn't painted this contest as an unshaded dichotomy between purity and corruption allowing his supporters to view resistance to him and support for Hillary as a fundamentally immoral act, and if his campaign hadn't descended into the gutter the moment he realized he couldn't beat her cleanly

I don't feel as bad myself -- he ran the race he wanted to, and took as many shots at Hilary as he could. We'll probably look at Bernie's race years from now in retrospect being flawed only in the fact that he let Clinton get under his skin, instead of co-existing with her and speaking more of his time attacking the GOP across the isle as the "real" Big Money interests.

He simply didn't have early enough name-ID to put up a front against Clinton, I think. If not this, he definitely did not diversify his message enough to touch upon the older (minority) electorate.

With that said, he has run an amazing race and it will be a campaign to research alongside Trump's campaign by candidates for 2020 and 2024. Alongside 2008 it'll likely be viewed as the most mobilizing of the youth vote in contemporary times.

[archibaldcrane]

After next Tuesday, he'll be looking at needing like 90% of the California / New Jersey vote, and hopefully even if he plays out the string his rhetoric will change to being all about beating the GOP.

[Sho]

The large issue is there are so many tangible reasons NOT to vote for Hillary, yet none of them equate to "because she's not Bernie".

Creates something of a slippery slope -- yes there are tangible reasons to not vote for her.

However, if you are a Democrat or a liberal, can you really see yourself throwing away your vote by voting to the Right or not voting at all? Just because your candidate didn't win?

A better, cleaner question would be: "Are Trump, Cruz or Kasich (or Romney) better options than Clinton in this election cycle?"

After next Tuesday, he'll be looking at needing like 90% of the California / New Jersey vote, and hopefully even if he plays out the string his rhetoric will change to being all about beating the GOP.

I hope for this as well. He can still send out his message of hope and change, and try to cajole his constituents into voting for Clinton.