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

It's probably a bit of both.

Other than Fiona and that surgeon guy, all the rest of the candidates come from a political background where they've won elections and learned hard lessons about corralling a majority of votes. Trump's most recent experience with presenting himself to the public is via schlocky reality television shows, where he's learned valuable lessons about pumping up ratings, but not winning votes or elections.

This stage of the campaign suits Trump best, where the endless opinion polls are more like ratings than a real election. In that way he's very analogous to Herman Cain, who was also a showman and a fraud and who showed well in opinion polls but faded badly when it came to getting votes.

..and not sexually harassing women. Those were his Achilles heels, getting votes and not sexually harassing women.

Yeah, Cain was out of the whole thing before Iowa even caucused. Even though Donald Trump doesn't have as much money as he'd like us to believe he does, he's not going anywhere until after he loses a few states.

feel like Kasich really is the stealth runner - he's like Walker with less baggage because his union-busting didn't call down as much attention on his head

I guess when even Erick Erickson thinks you've gone too far...naah, he hasn't gone far enough yet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/08/donald-trump-disinvited-to-speak-at-redstate-event-megyn-kelly-invited/

That's great.

Erickson: "I think there is a line of decency that even a non-professional politician can cross."

Earlier in the piece: "(Erickson) has also drawn criticism for saying impolitic things, once calling retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter an '(expletive) child molester' and First Lady Michelle Obama a 'Marxist harpy.' He has since apologized for both comments."

I'm guessing Trump right now is for the Republicans what Wallace was for the Democrats in '68.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL4_4qGVAAAQ_5V.jpg

Wallace was the leader of a wing of the party that had been vocal and agitating for 20 years, and he'd been a governor for one full term already. xp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL5HQSKWUAATjUk.png

Guys, political correctness is weakening America.

Which usually means "But how come black people can call each other that if we can't say it?!" but in this case also includes menstruation jokes older than the fucking pyramids.

Not even jokes, really, just idiotic sexist blathering.

Yes people are overly sensitive about things, except for the people complaining about it.

It's ok to be overly sensitive only if the thing you are sensitive about is other people being sensitive.

It's a rock-solid ideological position.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18279/scott-walker-is-an-american-dictator-in-waiting

“I find [ him ] more Nixonian than even Richard Nixon himself (the authoritarian leader with whom I was, and am, so very familiar,” wrote ex-Nixon White House Counsel John Dean in April 2012, on the eve of a special gubernatorial recall election Walker won. “To me, it is clear that Wisconsin has a double high authoritarian governor, a conservative without conscience.”

Today, three years later, Walker is parading around the campaign trail like an American dictator in waiting. He has a lengthy record on so many issues that reveal the same pattern: pick fights, launch sneak attacks, smear and scapegoat opponents, and then punish the defeated, according to Wisconsin media analysts. But he also has the personality of an aspiring American tyrant, as Dean noted. Walker may not be Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy’s ghost, but he certainly is heir to that anti-communist crusader’s hateful lineage.

“Democracy and democratic institutions do not function well with dogmatic, unbending authoritarian leaders,” Dean wrote. “Authoritarians are great as dictators, and even at times benevolent. They are often outstanding at running businesses, and when serving as high-ranking officers in the military, not to mention law enforcement. But they are failures as presidents and governors, and… dangerous to democracy.”

pick fights, launch sneak attacks, smear and scapegoat opponents, and then punish the defeated

...or as Charlie Sheen might express it: winning!

Walker and Cruz both have those churchy, eyebrows-perpetually-raised faces that look like the lids over endless pits of hell.

Walker definitely has the right 'feel' of an authoritarian-in-waiting - that Nixonian, McCarthyite whiff. I could picture him playing the malevolent politician from The Dead Zone. The hope is that America actually has no stomach for his ideas, and/or that if he tries to play "moderate" whoever runs against him can effectively point up the way that (as summarized in that article, which overall I think falls short of proving its claims) he's repeatedly brought in really brutal, unasked-for policies for which he did not have a mandate. What will be his surprise for America?

i can already see the eleventh-hour rezoning proposals pushed through to prohibit any building from rising high enough in the air to see the tops of the heads of the statues of our fearless leader

(xpost) My dream debate moment is where some politician, after describing in great detail how precariously the country teeters on the precipice of disaster, slams down his fist and screams "THE ICE...IS GONNA BREAK!"

these pleas for civility from the Ericksons of the world are really cute

Apparently Bernie's appearance in Seattle today got interrupted by BlackLivesMatter protesters, he gave them the mic and didn't end up giving a speech. (Personally I'm a little dubious about the protest given that the event was specifically to promote Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid, rather than a campaign rally.)

I'm kind of unclear on what, exactly, the point of doing that is. Also calling his audience "white supremacist liberals" seems a little weird.

Twitter

the footage is uncomfortable. protesters on stage and screaming in his face.

http://www.kirotv.com/videos/news/raw-video-activists-disrupt-rally-featuring-sen/vDYQxq/

I like Bernie Sanders fine but like does his audience actually gain anything from hearing him speak? I think the protestors are making the right moves & white leftists should wake up to what they have to say

How will we know that white leftists have woken up to what they have to say? What would it look like?

what do any of these audiences gain by going to hear candidates speak? i mean i know some ppl are like 'i need to learn more about his views' like they're deliberative aficionados or something but isn't it basically just a little political-participation juice, an attempt to banish apathy w/ the proverbial press of flesh and jolt of the crowd?

if white leftists were woke there'd be nationwide marches in the streets, direct actions, galvanization around actual issues, etc.

Searching in vain for "Black Lives Matter Protesters Disrupt Hillary Clinton Event" headline.

Hillary has secret service on her detail, Bernie's security appears to be some Vermont guy in his 50's

Oh I didn't realize secret service stopped protests. Try harder.

It's very touchy for Sanders, he has to not do anything to avoid being shouted down, or he's going to be pilloried.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/struggin/200235916-008.jpg

COINTELPRO?

Toadies.

I like Bernie Sanders fine but like does his audience actually gain anything from hearing him speak?

Uh

For one thing is pretty idiotic of Bernie Sanders to participate in anything this weekend without giving space to BlackLivesMatter. Tomorrow, sunday, it's one year since the shooting of Michael Brown, apparently they hadn't even planned a moment of silence? And it had already happened once, at the grassroots conference, and he hasn't done anything to make sure it doesn't happen again?

It's rude, but the Sanders supporters I know - Danes - constantly speaks about grassroots and activism. And he can't figure out how to handle the single most significant leftist activist movement currently. They hate him, and they don't respect him at all. It's really damning.

does he have an electoral path that runs through denmark

thought he was just humblebraggin about knowing Claire

loooool

Fredrik: Sanders didn't organize the event this afternoon, it was to promote Social Security/Medicare, which have made a pretty undeniable positive impact on an awful lot of black lives, and are jeopardized by the prospect of someone like Jeb Bush (or worse) getting into the White House. I work in low-income housing, and we were encouraging our clients to go check it out because it's so vital to their lives. I don't have a problem with people disrupting campaign events to get their issues more awareness but I think it would have made more sense to allow this rally to continue uninterrupted. Not because it made sensitive white liberals mad but because the rally was for a worthy cause and it's kind of a shame that now no one's going to pay attention to what it was about in the first place.

I feel like I don't want to comment on whether or not the interruption was good or right or whatever, but you don't think presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders can demand a moment of silence for Michael Brown as requirement to participate in this kind of thing? That sounds weak. And exactly because Social Security/Medicare has been so important to black lives, and especially because the fight to dismantle it is so often based on racist feelings, it would make perfect sense. So whether or not what BlackLivesMatter did was smart or not, Sanders walked right into it.

Idk who the protest group was made up of but I don't think it was the core BLM organizers. Seeing some buzz that suggests they want to distinguish the people who led that action from their own work.

That is kinda what happens with grassroots often, right? They have weak leadership by design, more horizontal, so they splinter and the fringe is hard to control. It's just, that if Bernie Sanders want to seem as if he's the candidate for the grassroots - and again, I'm only basing this on fb-posts from my friend Clare Danes - then this is bad and stupid. There aren't a monolithic 'grassroots' dem party to fight against the establishment and Hilary. There's a bunch of different ones, and some of the most vocal feel completely overlooked by Sanders, and his followers.

Then again, this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/08/bernie-sanders-leaves-seattle-stage-after-event-disrupted-by-black-lives-matter-protesters/?tid=sm_tw 15.000 people turned up at second stop on saturday. But boy, that crowd looks white on that picture...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL7uwJkUAAAzS6l.jpg:large

He should do a BLM Town Hall and try to thread the class/identity politics needle, I guess. Doesn't seem like this issue is going away. I just don't understand why BLM doesn't focus on Hillary.

Hillary has secret service on her detail

yes, what i think we have here are either 'principled' chickenshits or secret Clintonians

Hilary's very first campaign speech was focused on criminal justice, iirc. And she's learning the talking points, and nobody expects her to do more than that. Sanders is presenting himself as the defender of the grassroots, but these specific grassroots hate him. This article points out what Marissa Johnson said on the stage: “I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is — with all of its progressives — but you’ve already done that for me. Thank you.” “Bernie says that he’s all about the people and about grassroots. The biggest grassroots movement in this country right now is Black Lives Matter,” "Bernie, you were confronted at NetRoots at by black women, you have yet to put out a criminal justice reform package like O’Malley did."

"these specific grassroots hate him"

really? I don't think anyone hates him. This seemed like opportunism to make a point; you can argue whether or not that was a good idea (I think it was misplaced) but to say that a large number of people in the BLM 'movement' (to the degree that there is an organized movement) "hate" Sanders is not true.