2016 USA Presidential election thread I: The warm-up

[Niiro]

Trump really bothers me, and I couldn't figure out why for a long time. Now I get it.

If you asked a European to design an American caricature, they would make Trump. Obnoxious. Loud. Crass. Culturally insensitive. Stereotypes readily. Unapologetically capitalistic.

At least he's not morbidly obese too.

[Roranora]

lol

[Not Kuno]

There really is a subreddit for everything

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnybodyButHillary

[Churchill]

I am enjoying the fact that she has no real chance.

[Serra]

Adorable.

[Quicklet]

At least he's not morbidly obese too.

We've got Christie to round out that criterion.

[Sho]

Fucking Biden should hurry up and run or STFU already.

[Serra]

Wut..?

Chris Christie said Saturday that if elected president, he will track undocumented immigrants like FedEx packages.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/29/politi...ges/index.html

Also this gem was in there:

Christie added that conversations about "anchor babies" make the Republican Party look unfairly hostile to immigrants.

"The entire conversation about 'anchor babies' is a distraction that makes us sound like we're anti-immigrant, and we're not," he said. "Our party is not that way. We want people to do it legally. Do it the right way."

Since comparing them to packages is so much better..

[Tyrath]

I think thats called the Trump Effect.

[thetruepandagod]

I may have just been swayed.

[notorious bum]

Bernie closes within 7 points in Iowa, Hillary's favorability continues to nosedive everywhere, and Bernie announces his Iowa Press Secretary to be an investigative journalist who has won six Emmy awards and a Peabody http://berniepost.com/2015/08/sander...ess-secretary/

Is Hillary still a lock for primary if she loses Iowa? Does Biden even need to enter for that to happen? Where's 538 when you need em? I thought the surge was over.

[Not Kuno]

Where's 538 when you need em? I thought the surge was over.

It's no secret that the guys at 538 hate the ever living fuck out of Bernie.

[Gredival]

Honestly Bernie doing well is a nightmare for every progressive.This is the equivalent of how tea party purity cost the GOP half a dozen Senate seats, only in this case the death count will be a Presidential term and 1-2 SCOTUS seats.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/up...aign.html?_r=0

Campaigns aren't won on enthusiasm of the grass roots. Attention he brings to issues aside, he will lose a general election. Putting him before Hilary is sacrificing the forest for the trees.

[Not Kuno]

Comparing him to the tea party is a bit of a stretch. He is even winning over republicans (Eisenhower era ones). My view is that Hillary is a death sentance for the Dems in 2016.. few republicans are going to want to vote for her.

[notorious bum]

That's a common ideology, unfortunately, because it oversimplifies the political climate and the unpredictability of this election race, ever since Bernie stepped foot into it. It also does a great job at ignoring what Bernie is actually able to accomplish in multiple facets of running a grassroots campaign that even eclipses what we saw with Obama's. The Tea Party had major wealthy donors and plenty of dirty money fueling their fraudulent movement, it's a joke to even mention them as some sort of direct comparison to what is happening with Sanders' level of volunteering, mobilization, and use of social media alone.

The truth is Bernie is out-polling all GOP candidates, the last time I checked, when polled against each other. Hillary is much more likely to lose against a Jeb or Scott Walker, but that is stating the obvious.

[Kanriel]

Yeah, I have to wonder where these people are coming from saying Bernie will lose the general. Bernie has a LOT more ability to reach voters "across the aisle" than Hillary, and he has been polling better in head-to-head match ups with Republicans in just about every poll I've seen.

[Sho]

Someone here mentioned it, but Bernie will only be able to reach as far as some old era Eisenhower Republicans and not much more. It also will depend on Bernie's core views.

If he's not pro-military, you can be a lot of them will go back to the status quo GOP. I don't mean pro-military as in "neo-con, get into every country, spread democracy every where," but more like "use military might when needed, go full force, and crush the enemy totally."

As far as domestic politics, Bernie and Eisenhower couldn't be much further apart -- he wasn't for people using the government for handouts.

Edit: Apart from those two things, Eisenhower is much like a Bernie Sanders of today -- pro Social Security, pro labor unions, pro minimum wage increase. The thing that made Eisenhower great was the fact despite fact that he followed the time honored conservative creed of lessening government over reach, he realized the simple fact that there needs to be a minimalistic form of govt control as a check, lest there be rampant laissez faire politics where money is king and big business has their hands where they don't belong (like today).

[Tyche]

Until Bernie peels off some of Clinton's some 450 already committed super delegates, while still not even leading the majority, it's hard to see why you guys still feign excitement.

[Tyche]

It's almost as if you guys forgot that Obama, even with his massive support, lost the popular vote to Hillary in the primaries. Super delegates are kind of a big deal, they won Obama the presidency. Bernie has kind of a big problem.

[notorious bum]

It's easy to get excited by momentum that has been dismissed every step of the way. Bernie taking Iowa is not just huge statistically, but that also opens the door for even more name ID due to the news being forced to cover him more often and in a serious light, for the most part. We haven't even seen him in a single debate yet, where we know he'll cause even more damage, even with old boy Biden there cramping his style.

As for Bernie appealing to classic GOP American empire franz, his foreign policy is not much different from Obama, with some exceptions(i.e. drones, war coffers, transparency). This is actually were he pisses off many true progressives; his foreign policy is typical "we must win the middle east betterer" and his stance on Gaza favors Zionism. His recent endorsement by Dr. Cornel West explicitly stated that his foreign policy is not progressive enough. Bernie is also pro-gun, with calls for universal background checks, this resonates a lot with GOP.