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

xp as noted he's not been made less dangerous by the knowledge that he's burned his bridges - what's his money for?

I am over-mafiosing it, I'm aware, but I am wondering if anyone is having Serious Talks with Jeb Bush along the lines of "look, he's going to stay in here as long as you are, maybe take this one for the team, champ?"

But yeah probably he'll top out in the 30s somewhere and after the first few primaries someone else will be picked to win (obv 2012 makes it likely this will be a harder slog all around - massive wealth redistribution to, er, TV station owners).

Mr. Colbert is not excising political comedy from his “Late Show”: he has featured Mitt Romney in his early TV commercials, and will host Jeb Bush on his debut broadcast,

sorry to interrupt

i can't remember who said this (was it on this thread?) but it's amazing that trump doesn't realize he's the heel. i think even his supporters realize this, and it's why they like him, in a way (the way i used to love going to see the dudley boys)

my dad thinks he's a smokescreen for jeb, that he clears the decks of the loonies and lets jeb stride in to save the day

The Boston beating remarks were clarified in an un-Trump-like manner a day and 1000 think-pieces later.

Actually I suppose it was Trumpish in that it didn't acknowledge that anyone could be righteously upset by anything he'd said before.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/does-donald-trump-cheat-at-golf-a-washington-post-investigation/2015/09/02/f8a940b2-50c4-11e5-9812-92d5948a40f8_story.html

lmao nice try

my dad thinks he's a smokescreen for jeb, that he clears the decks of the loonies and lets jeb stride in to save the day

It would totally work for jeb(!) except that he doesn't appear to be capable of projecting a calm, competent, experienced image. He seems like a dad who got suckered into going on a Boy Scout camping adventure but then the main dad got sick and couldn't go so now he has to lead the group and make sure everyone's safe and he's not sure if he's up to it and more than a little scared about the weird noises he might hear after dark

i though DT was in it to torpedo Jeb

no interest in Dronebomb Bernie, huh guys? It it bleats, it leads i guess.

If*

Jeb's sunny optimism bullshit, and his name, will win him this thing in the end.

naw karl malone OTM - the anti-Trump would be someone with apparent natural gravitas, someone who "looks presidential" and is obviously the taking-the-high-road grownup alternative. they have nobody like that. i think they're all going for sleeves-rolled-up Dad President but they can't pull that off either.

@ morbz - to be entirely fair sanders does express criticism of the drone program's excesses, but in a way that at this stage is far too vague to inspire much confidence in me. it's disappointing.

W needs to invite jeb! out to the ranch, gift him with a nice rugged looking plaid shirt, and then trick him into clearing brush out near the fence where there might be photographers

no prez candidate can resist the thrill of the possibility that they can murder people with impunity from thousands of miles away

xp

"the anti-Trump would be someone with apparent natural gravitas, someone who "looks presidential" and is obviously the taking-the-high-road grownup alternative"

So, like Obama? I agree that description is pretty anti-Trump, but I don't think they're looking for that type of person.

idk why anyone would think that's what appeals to the GOP, which is currently devoid of "grownup" voters

2000 – Pat Buchanan and Ezola B. Foster - 449,225 votes
2004 – Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo - 463,655 votes

Man, what kind of party runs Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and Ralph Nader in three consecutive elections?

That's indie, allright.

a party that isn't actually a party

The thing about being a "Dad" these days is you don't necessarily have to be a "grownup."

“sleeves-rolled-up Dad President” is a pretty hilarious and apt description of Jeb imo

My initial prediction, way pre-Trump, was "It's gonna be Jeb, and he's gonna lose." Now I genuinely don't know. Do they have to run somebody? Can a national party just decide to forfeit, and try again in four years?

if it looks even remotely possible that he can win the general (I don't think it is, but we're talking about some p delusional people here), the GOP establishment will genuflect accordingly. worst case scenario for GOP is a third party run by Trump.

re: gravitas - - - clearly this is not who would appeal to the Trump voters! But I think it's contributed to the difficulty (so far, months away from the first primaries) of seeing the field of "mainstream" candidates, whose supporters are emphatically NOT the loud Trump minority, actually shrink and consolidate to where suddenly Trump's plurality "lead" becomes irrelevant. Whatever the "it" factor is that makes someone seem like the obvious natural Establishment Candidate, none of these jokers have it.

Yes Morbs, but don't you see, he says that the US shouldn't drone-kill innocents, but only guilty people, so of course everything is going to work out fine!

What are the most important foreign policy moves over the next four years, btw? Has anyone written anything smart on Bernie Sanders and Clinton's foreign policy position? I mean, I've heard that she's the hawkiest hawk ever, and will do absolutely everything wrong just because, but apart from that? And is Sanders a pacifist or an isolationist?

Clinton's foreign policy will basically be Thatcher 2.0 - belligerence driven by a combination of hubris and a fear of appearing "weak" (ie gotta prove a woman can declare war too!)

Sanders = eh I haven't seen any real breakdown of his foreign policy positions. he voted against both Iraq war authorizations, so he's not a total idiot.

You can't be a pacifist and an American president.

the U.S. military is going to have drone technology whether pacifists like it or not

idk why anyone would think that's what appeals to the GOP, which is currently devoid of "grownup" voters

but wasn't mitt romney the Dad of the 2012 GOP contenders? (i'm conveniently putting aside the question of whether or not conservative voters actually favored romney above the others, and the power of money of course). but in the end, the dad won, right?

#onlydadthings

if the gop nominates some unelectable POS and gets less than 40% of the popular vote will they stop being such cunts?

nah

The closest to Trump losing composure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYoOPgeTMQc But mostly he is just a little embarrassed. That said, I'm really interested to see if there are any examples of Trump being caring and empathetic. Not sure a president can coast on anger and outrage alone.

why would a socialist want to restrict the people's arsenal??

Romney was Business-Man, not Dad.

Not sure a president can coast on anger and outrage alone.

worked for Nixon

Lemme know when Trump pulls a Checkers.

haha yeah I thought of that - but Trump doesn't need to, his audience doesn't want it

Trump IS Checkers.

lol

http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/nixon-checkers_11.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmhjzYf3wyg

The fact that Nixon felt like Dad to the people who reelected him by a landslide is really crucial to remember and really difficult to understand. The vast, bland, MOR swath of suburban, middle-aged, sunny-day normalcy Silent Majority culture was not defined by the inchoate rage, resentment and reactionary energy that mobilized its battlefronts, IMHO.

Trump = http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/ricflair.jpg

Jeb! = http://41.media.tumblr.com/11a07a3af2d8837bca0a2b48ddca9b3f/tumblr_nbrh0934yV1tljxpko1_1280.jpg

maybe in the 50s when he was VP, but in '68 and '72?

xp

Heeeey guuuuys, what about meeeeeee?
https://40.media.tumblr.com/1a3c3d841eb4897a41ff44d4432336ff/tumblr_nrl24lygqd1rnzz12o1_500.png

I mean, I'm sort of assuming the WWII generation didn't en masse turn into virulent racist Archie Bunker paranoid psychos between 1964 when they rejected Goldwater, and 1968 when they embraced America's Used Car Salesman. Yeah, his landslide in '72 is down in huge part to code-wordedly convincing the George Wallace wing that he was happy to drag his heels on segregation, and to McGovern appearing like a wingnut to most. (Plus dirty tricks, etc. etc.) I just think it's mistaken to think his psychological appeal was only down to the kind of resentment that fuels Trump's supporters.

Surely for a lot of people he seemed, I dunno... safe? Comforting? The very picture of a square, middle-class, middle-aged guy who served his time overseas, has kept to his 9 to 5 ever since, spends the weekend mowing the lawn and roasting weenies with the kids - then, when pressed into making a speech at the Rotary Club, is inevitably a bit sweaty and awkward and uncomfortable and out of his element, but sincerely, even lovably honored by the invitation. W is probably the only contemporary politician that checks even a few of these boxes without it seeming seriously effortful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFf0lps3NhQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20QN5O6XUfM

http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/2015/07/6-donald-trump-wwe-moments/

Trump has been connected to Vincent K McMahon since at least Wrestlemania IV. Both really got big in NYC in the 80s, so I guess it makes sense. VKM adopting Trump's hair later on didn't help.

what ppl thought was a smoldering civil war / "crime run amuck" was the diff btwn '64-68

xxp

"law and order" basically