2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Gredival]

Papa Biden is ready if worse comes to worst.

[Byrthnoth]

I like Biden as a character in the american political drama, but he'd also probably do a decent job as president.

Also, don't you want to be led by a man who spawns parody articles like this? http://theweek.com/articles/468552/6...dies-joe-biden

[Sho]

I personally and originally wanted Biden to win and take POTUS. He's a bit softer than Obama is, and leans slightly more left, but he would have been a great Center-Left president, even if it was for one term only.

I think the real reasons why he didn't run was the fact that he was in almost the exact same lane as Clinton, but also because the Kinnock Controversy would have been revived and set against him. However, with this political cycle being such shit between Clinton, Trump, and Sanders, his controvery would have been a literal drop in the bucket in comparison.

[Dantrag]

It's too bad more people didn't run. This was such a joke of a primary, it almost really does feel as if the DNC was saying, "OK, it's your turn Hilary". And before you ask, no I have no clue who else should have ran

[Cantih]

There's also his personal loss recently, which can put him in a "Do I really want to do this" state, despite it arguably being the last window for him to give it a go.

I'd prefer Sanders, and honestly since Biden declined to run, if the Clinton indictment comes through, putting anyone other than Sanders up is going to cause some justified furor.

But. Biden is far, FAR more tolerable a candidate than Clinton.

[Dantrag]

Yeah, from a personal perspective Biden would have been cool. But dude has gone through so much shit I really don't blame him for not running.

[Byrthnoth]

Sanders is unqualified because he has no well established history of getting legislation passed that actually does the things he argues for and his platform is unfunded unless we totally flip control of the senate and everyone decides to give up their seats for one term of responsible taxation levels. That he was even treated as a serious candidate speaks to how dissatisfied people were with the establishment politics that Hillary represents.

[Dantrag]

Sanders is unqualified because he has no well established history of getting legislation passed that actually does the things he argues for and his platform is unfunded unless we totally flip control of the senate and everyone decides to give up their seats for one term of responsible taxation levels. That he was even treated as a serious candidate speaks to how dissatisfied people were with the establishment politics that Hillary represents.

I don't even feel like he was treated as a serious candidate.

Anti-establishment + 95% news coverage is why Trump won the Republican nomination. If Sanders had had even a quarter of the news coverage Trump did I bet it would have been a lot closer/he may have won. And probably if he had actually attacked on almost anything that Trump is going to attack Hilary on once they get to the main stage.

[Greatguardian]

Maybe he should've spent more time writing inflammatory tweets about brown people. It's not like we voted for him anyways.

[Carth]

I don't even feel like he was treated as a serious candidate.

Anti-establishment + 95% news coverage is why Trump won the Republican nomination. If Sanders had had even a quarter of the news coverage Trump did I bet it would have been a lot closer/he may have won. And probably if he had actually attacked on almost anything that Trump is going to attack Hilary on once they get to the main stage.

Sanders didn't even really get any coverage until New York, and there's been more slanders (such as him being sexist) than actual coverage.

[archibaldcrane]

But at no point did Bernie pass Hillary in national polling averages. No matter how much attention he got at any stage was he the choice of Democratic primary voters.

[Day]

He got like no attention is their point.

[archibaldcrane]

Are we really pretending that Democratic primary voters were ignorant of who Bernie was and what he supported by the end of the race? By mid to late February, 89% of people had enough of an opinion of him to judge him favorably or unfavorably. Most of the race was in front of him at that point.

I think you are overestimating the power of the nightly news, honestly.

[archibaldcrane]

And, of course, because Hillary had a comfortable lead after South Carolina that she maintained for the entire race, she sat on her war chest, not spending 70M she wanted to save for Trump, and not running a single negative ad against Bernie.

[Day]

Are we pretending he wasn't painted as a nutjob early in the race and that he had anywhere close to the coverage that Hillary/Trump had. Holy history revisionist batman. I can't imagine why people had their mind made up by the time he got any coverage.

[Day]

I think you are overestimating the power of the nightly news, honestly.

L O L

[archibaldcrane]

All I'm saying is that Hillary had a lot of dry powder to use if Bernie actually became a real threat. The narrative of "he was so close, the darn media is the only thing that stood in his way" ignores that.

[notorious bum]

L O L

Yeah, I don't understand the purpose behind this argument, besides Archi is being bored. Are we really playing make-believe on the significance of name ID after all those months of me having to update this thread when he was finally polling beyond "rabble rouser" status? lol Maybe I should have stayed a Berner, just to keep these dumb arguments to a minimum while we are in the home-stretch of political submission.


Slayyyy gurllll : Clinton: I'm happy to say "radical Islam" http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...o-donald-trump

[Carth]

One would be crazy to not believe that name recognition and marketing is a heavy factor in a presidential race. Trump won the GOP nominee by that alone, and we've spent at least three decades hearing about the Clintons. The only ones who actually know Sanders and what he represents are either people who watch Liberal news or through word of mouth, everyone else either knows him as the crazy socialist who would destroy the economy giving free shit or the misogynist who doesn't want a female president.

[Greatguardian]

A campaign media plan that doesn't account for the name recognition of one of the most famous women in the country is a bad media plan.