2016 Republican Presidential Clown Car Begins!

Discussion in 'Politics' started by joepistole, Jan 30, 2015.

  1. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    Link below is Rand Paul's plan / pitch. As memories of most are short, or non-existent, what he said earlier has little impact on how people will vote.
    https://www.yahoo.com/politics/rand-paul-wants-to-capture-the-youth-vote-and-115789423306.html Here is the core of it:

    " ... Before his speech, Paul elaborated on that vision in a series of slick introductory videos billing him as “a different kind of Republican” with “a conservative message that energizes young people.”

    " Ask the Facebook generation if we should put a kid in jail for the nonviolent crime of drug use, and you’ll hear a resounding ‘no,’” Paul said on screen. “Ask the Facebook generation if they want to bail out too-big-to-fail banks with their tax dollars, and you’ll hear a ‘hell, no!’

    “Kids universally think the government has gone too far in snooping and looking at their record,” the senator continued. “Will you, America’s next generation of liberty lovers — will you stand and be heard?”..."
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 9, 2015
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  3. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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  5. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    I'm still waiting for Perry to throw his hat in the ring.
     
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  7. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Baby Bush II hasn't yet announced yet, but who can doubt he is running? He is the establishment favorite and has already raised huge sums. Baby Bush II to aptly linked his family with the Munster family. Jeb Bush is after all responsible for disenfranchising thousands of Floridians - remember Harris? If Jeb cannot run an election, how can he run a country? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/06/uselections2000.usa

    It's a sad state when the Republican Party can only offer another Bush for POTUS. We have had two shrubs as POTUS. One was one of the worst in our more than 200 year history and the others was mediocre at best and is best remembered for violating his campaign promises. This Republican fascination with shrubs as political leaders is indeed sad.
     
  8. Kristoffer Giant Hyrax Valued Senior Member

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    Something about republicans needing a wax job goes here...
     
  9. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
    Posted: Friday, April 17, 2015, 1:38 PM
    image: http://media.philly.com/designimages/partnerIcon-Inquirer-2014.jpg

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    NASHUA, N.H

    Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...own-car-of-extremism.html#bfHGjpibrjCKJw9B.99

    "NASHUA, N.H. – Democratic National Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz derided the 17 announced and potential GOP presidential candidates here for a state-party summit Friday and Saturday as a “clown car of extremism” crammed with peddlers of discredited policies.
    She said they all, to one degree or another support trickle-down economics approaches, cutting taxes for the wealthy, that have failed to spur economic growth and contributed to the crash of 2008. In addition, the Republicans stand against gay rights, legislation mandating equal pay for women, and abortion rights."

    Seventeen, wow, that is a lot of presidential wannabes.
     
  10. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Death Panels: Jeb Brings GOP Argument 'Round the Circle

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    It really is a fair point:

    Five years ago, conservatives collectively lost their minds about President Obama reimbursing physicians who take some time to talk to Medicare patients about their options. Five years later, there's nary a peep from right about a leading Republican presidential candidate endorsing a requirement in which the government forces Medicare patients to complete an advance directive?

    If the political world has matured on this point since 2010, I'm delighted. If we can finally have a sensible policy discussion about end-of-life care without unhinged gadflies trying to scare people into believing nonsense, it's long overdue.

    But can we at least pause to appreciate the fact that Jeb Bush's position represents "big government" more than Obama's policy ever did – and this time, no one's screaming about it?


    (Benen↱)

    Just sayin'.
    ____________________

    Notes:

    Benen, Steve. "Bush ignores right-wing myth, wades into 'death panel' politics". msnbc. 20 April 2015. msnbc.com. 20 April 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1bdS1ZQ
     
  11. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    That sort of thing has been going on awhile - this from 2013...

    It’s not the ideas they hate, is it?

    Republican obstructionism isn’t exactly new in Washington, D.C. It’s been all the rage since Barack Obama was elected President. Since then, a majority of Republicans have gone to great lengths in an attempt to torpedo his Presidency.

    The twisted irony is this: Many of the ideas President Obama and the Democrats have tried to put forth were actually Republican ideas first. So when you think about it, finding common ground and passing legislation that might, you know, help the American people, would be possible if Republicans weren’t hell-bent on attacking President Obama.

    Here are 10 examples:

    1. The Obamacare individual mandate. Before they became obsessed with bringing down Obamacare, Republicans had the idea of a free-rider fee for people who can afford health insurance but refuse to buy it, also known as the individual mandate. The free-rider fee is part of “Romneycare” in Massachusetts.

    2. End-of-life counseling. Republicans also used to include counseling for end-of-life issues in their own healthcare proposals. But when President Obama liked the idea? Well, he just wants to kill your grandparents. Oh, and by the way, the so-called “death panels” are nothing of the kind. It’s simply about giving patients and their families the information they need to make the best decisions about the end-of-life care they want.

    3. Donor disclosure. Before they opposed the DISCLOSE Act, Republican Congressional leaders were all for transparency in campaign contributions. How can we forget House GOP leader John Boehner proclaiming that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”?

    4. Clean energy. There was once a day when Congressional Republicans made clean energy a priority. They supported national energy laboratories, hybrid-vehicle manufacturers and the development of electric car batteries. Now, of course, they want nothing to do with clean energy. After all, there are plenty of climate-change deniers to claim there’s no reason to make the investment.

    5. Medicare cost savings. Before they accused Obamacare of “cutting” $700 billion from Medicare, Republicans in Congress proposed the same $700 billion in savings from reducing waste and inefficiencies in Medicare. But unlike the cuts made by Obamacare, which come from eliminating excess payments to providers (not patients), the GOP wanted to use the money for more tax cuts for the wealthy. Not to mention that Republicans have been trying to make cuts to Medicare for years, and still are. Vouchers, anyone?

    6. Deficit-reduction commission. This one’s downright blatant. Republicans in Congress voted against their own bill to create a deficit-reduction commission because, according to a former GOP senator, they wanted to “stick it to the president.”

    7. Welfare flexibility. After wanting more flexibility to eliminate red tape and move people out of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and into jobs, Mitt Romney, GOP governors and Congressional Republicans fought the idea when the Obama Administration proposed it.

    8. Nuclear START treaty. Before they tried to block the nuclear START treaty negotiated by the Obama Administration, Republican leaders supported it under Presidents Reagan and Bush.

    9. Gun violence prevention. Republicans in Congress helped President Reagan pass the Brady Bill establishing a national gun purchase background check system and pass a ban on military-style assault weapons. Now Republicans in Congress
    oppose restoring the ban, and voted against closing the background check loophole that lets criminals buy guns easily at gun shows and over the Internet.

    10. Upholding the Constitution. Many Republicans — especially Conservatives — say they live by the Constitution. But they can’t seem to make up their minds about the Constitution’s eligibility requirements to serve as President. Conservatives have, and still do, argue that if President Obama were born in a foreign country (which he wasn’t) to his American mother, he’d be ineligible to be President. But they don’t seem to have a problem with Tea Party darling Senator Ted Cruz running for President — even though he actually was born in a foreign country to an American mother.​

    http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/08/...oved-until-barack-obama-became-president.html

    Fair point, just so - hypocritical?
     
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  12. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Clown Car Crowd

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    Do you know how hard it was to not do the KKK joke? Especially with a Mr. Fish banner waiting in the wings?

    At any rate, the swelling GOP candidate potential has Steve Benen pretty hot and bothered:

    This wasn’t supposed to happen. About a month ago, former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) fundraising operation – widely characterized as a “shock and awe” campaign – was seen as so imposing that it was likely to help winnow the Republican field before it even took shape. “Don’t bother running,” Team Bush signaled to would-be candidates. “We’ve already cornered the market on campaign finances.”

    And for a brief while, it may have even had some effect – prominent Republicans like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Bob Corker, Rob Portman, and John Thune considered national campaigns, but ultimately decided against it.

    In recent weeks, however, we’ve learned that the 2016 field is likely to swell to unprecedented numbers. Next week, over the course of about 24 hours, three more GOP candidates – Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, and Mike Huckabee – are expected to launch their presidential bids. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) was coy for a while, but he’s starting to sound more and more like someone preparing a national campaign. Even Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who was expected to stand aside in 2016, is suddenly moving closer to the 2016 race.

    The idea that the Republican field could soon hold a football scrimmage, with 11 candidates on offense and 11 candidates on defense, no longer seems ridiculous.

    At this point, we’re really not that far off. Last weekend in New Hampshire, the FITN Republican Leadership Summit featured 16 folks who’ve expressed at least some interest in running for president: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Peter King, James Gilmore, John Bolton, Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, and John Kasich. Add in a few lesser-known vanity candidates, and some reports said there were 19 White House aspirants on hand.

    A little historical context is in order: there is no precedent for fields this large. In the modern primary/caucus era, a group of 10 legitimate candidates is considered enormous. The idea of a 20- or 25-candidate field is simply unheard of, at least in the United States.

    It's not that I don't get it. This really is shaping up to be a GOP primary fight of extraordinary absurdity, but there are also some aspects of reality worth attending.

    In the first place, the extraordinary absurdity does not generally lead to, nor explicitly indicate, extraordinary diversity; these candidates will be fighting over a limited share of voters, according to a limited spectrum of issues with limited avenues for presentation. A massive candidate field won't hold even until Ames, though we might imagine any number of reasons Republicans might hope it would; the appearance of diversity is hardly a debit on the political ledger.

    And to the other, it doesn't really matter. Who cares how many pizzas Republicans want to spin through the early season? In the end, only one will run, and while Benen might make a point about debates―both interesting and inevitable, though the interest really does come from the idea that we generally don't do things this way, and therefore a number of variables we don't ordinarily recognize exist and function within the marketplace―most of us were already expecting some sort of farce from the primary contest, and in the end we're all expected to ignore that stuff, anyway, when The One is selected for the general campaign. Perhaps the only downside to this broad-spectrum primary will be if it really does turn out to Jeb Bush's benefit, such that we end up with the Clinton-Bush rematch.

    And perhaps the upside to a Clinton-Bush rematch will be entrenched emotions; maybe we can work out twenty years worth of increasing partisan hostility and segregation.

    But why should we gasp in astonishment? So many will be struggling to catch their breath between heaves of laughter. The GOP is about to put on a Show of Shows, a Mother of All Preseasons, so we might as well sit back and enjoy the spectacle.

    And who knows, perhaps one of them will become so desperate as to start making sense.
    ____________________

    Notes:


    Image note: Since I didn't run with the KKK joke, I needed a substitute banner, and why not Rock Briefers? (Detail of frame from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.)​

    Benen, Steve. "Just how big will the 2016 field get?" msnbc. 27 April 2015. msnbc.com. 27 April 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1bvNgLb
     
  13. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Republican entertainment sources are reporting Carly Fiorina, the fired CEO of HP, will announce her 2016 election bid tomorrow. She is almost as bad as Michelle Bachman. She ran HP into the ground, why not the US government? I can't stand her phony obnoxious whinny voice, and she is extraordinarily predictable. You don't have to be a genius to know what she is going to say. I can understand why the kicked her out of HP. Fiorina makes Bachman look good, and that isn't easy!


    http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Carly-Fiorina-announce-presidential-race/2015/04/22/id/640181/

    http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/09/technology/hp_fiorina/
     
  14. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Apparently another Tea Party darling, Ben Carson, will also formalize his ticket on the Republican clown car tomorrow.

    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/03/ben-carson-run-for-president-tea-party

    And Huckabee will reveal his ticket on Tuesday. Soon there will be standing room only. One thing is sure, the 2016 Republican presidential clown car will be crowed indeed. Given Governor Christie's closest aides were recently indicted by a federal prosecutor on corruption charges, I would be surprised to see Christie toss his hat in the arena. But you never know. Governor Walker, another Republican presidential wannabe and Koch brother favorite, has had some of his closest aides recently indicted, tried and convicted on corruption charges. And the Walker corruption investigation remains an active ongoing investigation, but it doesn't appear to be bothering Walker. Maybe he thinks Koch brother money will save his ass.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/walker-scandal-who-got-convicted-why-n35886
     
  15. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Jeb Bush (Only Own Clown Scratch Mix)

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    Just like old times: The Bush brothers, at the White House, circa 2006. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)


    Okay, so this is how it works:


    Just a couple of blog posts. Nothing important unless you really, really need to chase down the details.

    But back in February, Jeb Bush announced to voters, "I am my own man". Certain obvious jokes come to mind, but they all orbit the same real need; as the nation faces a likely dynastic grudge match for its next presidential election, the third proposition of a Bush White House is easily identified with its predecessors.

    In February, Jeb Bush also refused to discuss his brother's presidency, explaining, "It's not about re-litigating anything in the past".

    With a setup like that, you can guess the punch line.

    By March, Governor His Own Man had called on his family and contacts for fundraising help, and we learned that he was surrounding himself with Bush political allies, including economic and foreign policy architects. By April, Democratic-sympathizing commentators were chuckling about how maybe next, having gotten his parents and brother to help out, maybe he would ask his son, and then, well, it turned out George P. wrote a fundraising appeal.

    It really was a strange thing to witness.

    Which is why, despite some pretense of surprise in the reportage, nobody is actually astonished that Jeb Bush has tapped his brother, former President George W. Bush, as his advisor on Israeli affairs.

    I mean ... are they?

    No, really, who's surprised? Anybody? Anybody?

    Oh, right. Robert Costa of Washington Post, and some investors in Manhattan. But who among those actually paying attention finds this development unexpected?
     
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  16. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    This woman wants to be our president. She is a failed business executive, who was fired by her board and explains away all of her failures by blaming the markets and by discounting and ignoring inconvenient facts. Could that be why her board fired her? When her board fired her, company stock soared. Carly is a nasty, ambitious, lying sack of shit. She is Ted Cruz in a skirt. Carly's only loyalty is to Carly.

    Fiorina, 60, has never held public office. A 2010 run for US senate collapsed amid images of private jets and million-dollar yachts. Now, she hopes the revived record of a dot-com businesswoman will vault her over the otherwise all-male Republican field of mostly professional politicians – or at least as one of their vice-presidential running mates to face Hillary Clinton head-on.
    “We went from a market laggard to market leader,” Fiorina has said of her six years running the computer giant. “Unlike Hillary, I have actually accomplished something.”
    Related: Is Carly Fiorina the GOP’s best hope of damaging Hillary Clinton?
    But those who watched what Fiorina did to HP – mishandling the $25bn acquisition of Compaq, getting ousted by the board in 2005 with a $21m golden parachute, repeatedly being named one of the worst CEOs in American corporate history – say those supposed accomplishments are already coming back to “haunt” her run for the White House.
    “She put herself ahead of the interests of the company and I fear she would do the same as president,” Jason Burnett, a grandson of the late HP co-founder David Packard and a member of the Packard Foundation board of trustees, told the Guardian. “I don’t want her to do harm to this country.”
    HP’s longtime director of corporate communications, Roy Verley, said his ex-boss alienated colleagues with a “cult of Carly” that put self-promotion first.
    “She didn’t know what she was doing and couldn’t deliver on her promises,” said Verley, who left HP in 2000.
    The notion of a successful Fiorina reign at HP, he said, was “fantasy”.
    Burnett, echoing criticisms from more Hewletts and Packards alike, warned the emergent class of political bankrollers in Silicon Valley – already courted by Fiorina’s competitors like Rand Paul and Jeb Bush – to review “refresh their memory” before signing campaign checks.

    America's Worst CEO's:

    Funny, I know and have worked with 2 of them.
    http://ca.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/07/horrible-bosses-the-worst-tech-ceos-of-all-time/
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2015
  17. Randwolf Ignorance killed the cat Valued Senior Member

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    That's a visual I could have done without... lol
     
  18. Kristoffer Giant Hyrax Valued Senior Member

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    Hotpants... I just invented abstinence.
     
  19. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Jeb Bush, in a Faux News interview, said knowing what he knows now, he would have invaded Iraq as his brother did. And this man wants to be POTUS?

    Given what Jeb Bush has said and that he has supported what his brother did, and given Jeb has surrounded himself with the same people who advised his brother, I think it is pretty clear a Jeb Bush administration would be another Baby Bush administration in more ways than one.
     
  20. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Cliffhanger Super Fun Time Mystery

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    So ... after a week like this, we might wonder what Friday brings.

    For those keeping track at home:

    On Monday, “If you knew in 2003 what we know now, would you have launched the war in Iraq?” Bush said he would have launched the war anyway.

    On Tuesday: “If you knew in 2003 what we know now, would you have launched the war in Iraq?” Bush said he doesn’t know what he would have done.

    On Wednesday: “If you knew in 2003 what we know now, would you have launched the war in Iraq?” Bush said he doesn’t even want to answer the question at all, because a response would be a “disservice” to U.S. troops.

    And on Thursday: “If you knew in 2003 what we know now, would you have launched the war in Iraq?” Bush said he wouldn’t have launched the war.


    (Benen)

    No, really. I think I'll be disappointed if he gets the hint and shuts his mouth.

    Okay, seriously, though. That's a pretty bad week.
    ____________________

    Notes:

    Benen, Steve. "Fourth time's the charm". msnbc. 14 May 2015. msnbc.com. 14 May 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1Ji62TO
     
  21. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    One of the forgotten side issues in the Bush family legacy was the occasional trouble HW, the father of W, had making sense when he talked.

    Reagan got his own book of quotes - thus beginning the custom of publishing compilations of straight quotations from Republican Presidents as works of humor, shelved with Dave Barry and PJ O'Rourke in the bookstores - but when HW stepped up to the microphones in pants with little green whales on them and referred to the expression "deep doo-doo" as how "we" talk in Texas, his contributions were lost in the shadow of his chosen VP and nephew in arms, Dan Quayle. Quayle got the best-selling book. So when W began impressing listeners with what quickly came to be recognized as a kind of genius ability to wreck the English language, the heritage of his father had been forgotten.

    Thus, people have been kind of assuming that this was a quirk of W's. It isn't. It's a family trait in the male line - Jeb may be a bit brighter than W, or maybe not (he is more eagerly corrupt, and sometimes that involves greater intelligence), but he's going to be "misunderstanding" questions with clauses in them and butchering syntax through his toes on a regular basis.

    Now Jeb is going to benefit from history, as the long campaign to banish followup questions (otherwise known, in Republican circles, as "gotcha" questions) from modern American "journalism" has largely succeeded in its goals. But it's hard to tell which is more frightening in a future President: the idea that Jeb and his handlers never saw that question coming, or the idea that they did and this was the result of their preparations.
     
    Last edited: May 15, 2015
  22. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    It appears Baby Bush 2.0 has acquired a case of that infamous disease which has become pandemic in Republican presidential wannabes, "flip-flopitis". It has vexed all Republican presidential wannabes in recent decades.
     
  23. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Thus far there are 18 Republican candidates for POTUS...that is just Wow! So now the question is how do you get that many people on the debate stage? The Fox News solution is to reduce the number of candidates by limiting participation to the top 10 candidates in national polling. Based on that criteria, that famous comedian and part-time billionaire businessman, Donald Trump is in the running. I'd pay to see Donald Trump participate in the debate.

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    Republican primary debates are always good comedy, even without Donald Trump.

    http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=D...t=donald trump in top 10 candidates&FORM=EWRE

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    Last edited: May 25, 2015
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