a clown car full of millionaires: the 2016 presidential primary thread

Be hilarious (and perhaps not surprising) if Cruz et al. distributed their lame books and memoirs exclusively to red state motel bedside table drawers.

Me, I welcome Walker into the fray. Like, people still claim Cruz is smart, for some reason, but Walker is pretty dumb, like Santorum and Perry. They're my fave types of candidates, because they just seem to be trying so hard, and they're so earnest and so super confident. It's like watching some 10 year old boy who lucked into the lead of Daddy Warbucks in a middle school production of "Annie."

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ruNJw24v--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1338816080334214179.jpg

Like, people still claim Cruz is smart, for some reason, but Walker is pretty dumb, like Santorum and Perry.

cruz argued 9 cases in front of the supreme court

i continue to courageously make the point that it is nearly impossible to do that and be dumb at the same time

there are all diff types of smartness and dumbness is how i break it down to an extent

yeah, i think some of us had this discussion a month or two ago, on the same topic

i continue to courageously ignore all other opinions and bust out my awesome '9 cases in front of the supreme court' anecdote

theres also just like agendas and personality types and whatnot, developing ones mind, like ppl who are super ambitious are generally necessarily not going to be deep thinkers

I've heard people defend George W.'s smarts, basically saying that sure, his family connections could get him into Yale undergrad, but not through Harvard business school. There may be some truth to it, but there have also been few glimmers of his intelligence. Same with Cruz. Maybe the guy is smart, but there's some cog dissonance going on when the supposedly smart guy says such moronic stuff that's so wrong or inaccurate even on a rhetorical level. Like, it's one thing to be on the debate team and be given a silly position to defend. It's another to port that play over to real life.

Cruz is like Exhibit A that you can be a moron AND argue 9 cases before the Supreme Court. Exhibit B: certain justices on the Supreme Court.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJzdzBHUsAAo3qY.jpg

cruz was apparently a legendary debater in college. i imagine that at one point, probably while taking a bath, he had a eureka! moment and realized "if i can successfully argue the morally bankrupt position in college debates, i could take that skill, apply it to politics, and become immensely wealth and powerful while doing it. that would be even better than being on the cover of the october issue of College Debaters Monthly!"

I've heard people defend George W.'s smarts, basically saying that sure, his family connections could get him into Yale undergrad, but not through Harvard business school. There may be some truth to it, but there have also been few glimmers of his intelligence.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, July 13, 2015 11:22 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

best description of bushs intellect was "functionally stupid"

Those dudes running look like human versions of a haters gonna hate gif.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ruNJw24v--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1338816080334214179.jpg
https://andrewrgraham.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/bobs-big-boy.jpg

XD

Debate students are the worst. They're their own breed of inane.

stupidity is a surprisingly hard thing to define once someone crosses the competency threshold. for Cruz/Bush i'd argue it's their evident disinterest in anything other than what they are saying. blinders, an inability to look at a problem from different angles. prob ideal for being a lawyer or businessman, really.

lol JiC

fingers crossed we can eventually get a "GOP candidates marching" gif thread going

Smart is no excuse for evil.

i think cruz has demonstrated an ability to look at problems from different angles. he's not dumb. he's just a jerk.

best description of bushs intellect was "functionally stupid"

― lag∞n,

Reagan too.

i suppose another way to define it (more subjectively) would be an ability to identify a problem, develop a solution, and then execute it. if the problem cruz has identified is "i am not getting enough attention" then he's certainly shown some intelligence.

yeah feel like every time weve had this conversation its come down to what exactly does ted cruz want anyway

right now he wants lunch

powermoneyattentionhotdogstedcruzvenndiagram.jpg

just a very Corleone-like URL

http://dcwhispers.com/bill-clinton-tells-jeb-bush-this-trump-thing-will-be-taken-care-of/

i do love the idea that TeamHil is ascairt of the Dumbald

except that it doesn't make any sense

Bubba is on the phone with the entire Bush clan regularly? Like they say, it's all showbiz.

eh not that part - the part where the Clintons are "afraid" of Chump. they have no reason to be afraid of him.

seems like some right wing wishful thinking that Hillary would be clutching her pearls over the truth-to-power realness of Yon Donald

As I said on FB this morning, Trump's only "running for president" until the day financial disclosures are due, then he's gonna make some excuse and disappear back into his tower. Donald Trump would rather drop his pants and show you his cock and balls at the podium than reveal to the world what he's actually worth, in real dollars. My prediction: The Republican nominee for president is gonna be Jeb Bush, very possibly with Scott Walker as his VP choice, and he's/they're going to lose. Badly.

so, Trump will be out by next week?

That's my guess, yeah.

and wait till the right remembers Trump's donations to Democratic candidates and pro-abortion positions.

tbh I agree in general, scrutiny of Trump's finances is going to be v bad for him and he must know it - I just dunno how fast that unraveling is gonna be

I can definitely see him trying to square the circle in some way - refusing to submit his finances and insisting that he's still in the race, possibly even getting a place on Fox's debate. Let 'em shut me down now!

It's hilarious how the Beltway class thinks Trump is beneath contempt but Paul Ryan, whose views are as repellent and more dangerous, isn't.

they go to the same parties

did trump get as far as financial disclosure last time?

good question. lolz abound:

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/09/us/trump-financial-affairs-face-political-scrutiny.html

Mr. Trump has not filed financial disclosure documents, and right now, even his supporters are not positive that he has $100 million for a campaign. Using his own $100 million would mean he could not accept federal matching funds and would not have to rely on financing from special interest groups, supporters say.

''Does he really have that money? I don't know,'' said Rick McCluhan, chairman of the Reform Party in Minnesota. On the other hand, Mr. Trump does have ''charisma and chutzpah,'' Mr. McCluhan said, as well as the ability to attract attention.

Trump dropped out a month later

this political campaign was funded on a major loan from goldman sachs using only 'chutzpah' as collateral

Mr. Trump's wealth helps qualify him for higher office. ''Politicians are on the take and looking for job security,'' he writes. ''Not me.''

True, running on the anti-populist ticket - I'm filthy rich, vote for me - does take chutzpah.

no rich person ever wanted more money

from the guardian, describing walker:

Lacking experience abroad, Walker has billed his local work as preparing him for global leadership. At this year’s Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, the governor asserted that his fight with public-sector unions had helped prepare him to fight “Islamic terrorists”.

“I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists does not wash up on American soil,” Walker said. “We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect American soil but do not, do not, take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world. We need a leader with that kind of confidence.

“If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”

Walker later walked back the statement.

“Let me be perfectly clear: I’m just pointing out the closest thing I have to handling this difficult situation is the 100,000 protesters I had to deal with,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal.

...For many Wisconsinites and sympathetic onlookers, the step represented a betrayal of workers carrying out core government functions. Democratic legislators fled to Illinois to deny a quorum. Protesters occupied the capitol.

“The capitol grew so packed with human bodies, the staff who worked there physically could not move around the building,” Walker wrote in Unintimidated, a 2013 memoir. “The smell, as soon as you walked into the building, was overpowering.”

Hmmm. I wonder which side of that is stupider: the Palin-esque claim that dealing with union contracts demonstrates his ability to handle ISIS, or the implicit comparison of American citizens expressing their opinions to the supporters of ISIS.

lol

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/television/article/Letterman-un-retires-to-deliver-Top-Ten-List-6380393.php

I love that Trump's audacity has summoned comics like Letterman & Berkeley Breathed back to active duty

What are the odds Trump gets murdered by the Sinaloa Cartel before he can drop out of the race?