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

https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/654114071336189952

holy shit

Makes it even more insane that (as many tweeters are pointing out) Huckabee's son killed a dog and was expelled from the scouts for it.

I mean if you wanna talk about offensive huck tweets from last night https://twitter.com/govmikehuckabee/status/654113084101922816

My father, another Vietnam vet, called Webb "the poster child for PTSD." Dad lives in Maryland, so he's not a big fan of O'Malley, either.

Part of me wonders whether O'Mallley might be doing better if his city hadn't recently been on fire. It might have made A difference, but not THE difference.

Glad to see Sanders stepping out to frame and neutralize the email thing for all time. A different kind of opponent might have used it to score points (which would have backfired, in the current democratic climate, but I could see someone being tempted). Now everybody on the D side knows exactly what to say when asked about it: people are sick of hearing about that, everybody now knows it's a politically-motivated fishing expedition, now can we please talk about things that matter to everyday people?

Agree that the Democratic Party won - mostly by not being the wackadoo freakshow the other side keeps managing to be. I'm just gonna sit with my fingers crossed for the next 11 months, quietly murmuring "please don't fuck this up, guys, please don't fuck this up." Just keep looking basically competent, don't do anything too stupid, wait out the Republican immolation.

pro-tip, don't scroll down the timeline that Clay posted if you are at work unless of course your work is cool with Yogi Bear cock

I haven't taken the pulse of dextrosphere lately, but I predict there will be a right-wing talking point that the contrast in debate style is an example of media bias.

GOP debate questions were all like, "Hey, you: the guy to your left says you fuck goats for fun. What's your response to that charge?" So they can then run a headline the next day that says GOP CANDIDATES SPAR OVER GOAT-FUCKING IN TESTY DEBATE.

Democratic debate questions were all like, "what's your position on paragraph 32(b) of the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (supplemental, as amended)?" Then the headline can read CORDIAL DEM DEBATE FOCUSES ON ISSUES INSTEAD OF GOAT-FUCKING.

There is definitely a contrast but sorry, GOP, y'all brought that shit on yourselves. Of COURSE when you're on fire already, the media is going to toss a bucket of kerosene on you just to watch the ensuing firestorm. Sure, it was a trap, but you walked right into it with your eyes open. The results are all on you.

Republican campaign: Democrats don't care about emails! Vote for us for Spam Filter in Chief!

I kind of can't believe Clinton said her biggest enemy was "Iranians" (I was at a bar drinking and completely forgot this was on)

Maybe she's thinking of just one big Iranian?

Didn't she list a bunch of enemies before settling on "Republicans?"

from the front page of NY Times, i thought she wd've said DANES!

(that was really applause line, huh? GBA)

Worse was a few Rahm Emmanuel types hooting and applauding when HRC said Snowden didn't deserve protection.

what did Sanders say about Snowden?

I'm reading a transcript now and Clinton should have ended her enemy list with "The Aristocrats!"

what did Sanders say about Snowden?

― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius)

A paraphrase: he brought important information to light, despite breaking the law.

He said that we shouldn't cast him out, just because he has scissors for hands.

Reading through a transcript is a little frustrating since it's completely devoid of body language so I have no idea how all of this info actually was presented but it seems like:

- Webb is mad that no one is giving him space to talk but doesn't seem to be saying anything in the limited time he has; it's kind of a problem when your most notable quote is about killing someone during a war, not anything on your policies.
- I don't think a single media person likes O'Malley in the slightest as every position he takes is co-attributed to either Clinton or Sanders.
- I had high hopes for Chafee given his total dismantling of Curt Schilling's terrible game dev studio but it seems like he doesn't know how to assert himself or his point of view.
- Clinton comes across in the transcripts like a well-oiled machine that apparently runs on sudden racism? Unfortunately it's the safe type of racism that many Americans across political persuasions love so it won't hurt her.
- Sanders can make a run of this. The entire establishment will have to sit on him to keep him from being a credible challenge to Clinton. It's kind of a shame that he appears to not be comfortable on foreign policy.

At some point I might lose my mind and watch a replay of the debate to see if the impressions I'm getting from the transcript match what happened in real-time but OTOH I have cute kids to play with.

A lot of the tweets from "dick_nixon" were funny and perceptive. A sampling:

- Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt, you know. Few people talk about that.
- O'Malley's position is analogous to Walker in the last debate. If he's not on-screen for 45 minutes, it's over.
- As I have said many times O'Malley will not be Vice President. He won't get Justice, either, because he cooked the crime numbers. Maybe HUD.
- Sanders has impressive funding but he's not Gene McCarthy. He's not even Bill Bradley.
- Sanders reminds me of Robertson in '88; he won't get anywhere but they will have to deal with the fringe from now on.
- Webb speaks like he's about to throw the caber a furlong.
- What you see in Sanders is the only one of that old Brooklyn crowd who didn't go to work for Irving Kristol.
- Mrs. Clinton's campaign has the joy and efficiency of a chain gang. You don't need to be Dale Carnegie but you can't be dull.
- My God, O'Malley is running on his crime numbers?!
- Casinos have cleaner books than O'Malley's crime numbers. You and I both know it.
- For all Mrs. Clinton's intelligence the edges always show. Politically it is like watching a person rifle through notes.
- Webb has the manner of the fellow who's head of the Grounds Committee at the country club. Probably has a car dealership.

Here's what I recall:

-Webb was horrifying from the very beginning
-O'Malley looked like he was perpetually ready to karate chop through a wood plank
-Chafee reminded me of a wet dog, possibly some type of poodle
-Clinton was very confident, very 'presidential'
-Sanders held my attention even when he was going off

xpost

when reading the chafee transcript you have to picture someone inappropriately smiling constantly, zooming in his the distorted upper lip trying to strike a balance between speaking and smiling

eavesdropping on coworker conversation behind me. they're saying:

- bernie is "too angry all the time"
- webb is a republican
- chafee has been referred to as "hacey" by both people in the conversation
- they can't remember o'malley's name at all and haven't tried to guess at it either

- also, democrats aren't crazy like the republicans. for example, they would be willing to compromise on taxes. 40% would be a good compromise.

pro-tip, don't scroll down the timeline that Clay posted if you are at work unless of course your work is cool with Yogi Bear cock

This was kind of a weak Chafee answer, not that he has a chance:

Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee blamed being new on the job and dealing with his dad’s death for a vote he now regrets as a United States Senator.

During the Democratic debate in Las Vegas Tuesday, the long-shot candidate said that he regrets his decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, a 1933 law that separated commercial and investment banking.

“I just arrived at the United States Senate,” Chafee said. “It was the first vote and it was 90 to 5.”

I am sure the Republicans and the mainstream media will continue to focus on those "damn emails", no matter Sanders cheered on comment

https://twitter.com/GOP/status/654124895488638977

if one of the republicans had talked about how more attention was needed on clinton's damn emails during their debate, i'm sure their crowd would have cheered as well

That spike just indicates that a lot of people didn't know about them in the first place and had to look up what the flak was about.

Amazing moral fiber of America, giving Bush & Co. a get out of jail pass on their wars but really cracking down on "these damn emails".

"hil, why do you wanna put Snowden in prison for his damn downloads?"

xxp oui, exactement. an increase from 5 to 15 searches is 300%. But the GOP being bad with numbers is something we knew.

what's a number?

it's that thing in parentheses by politician's names, so you know how loyal they are to the people on your team

so how did Reagan do last night?

They should do the next DNC debate in front of LBJ's three televisions.

here are some examples of numbers = 5, 7, 9. there's a lot more

pffft, 9 isn't a number get outta here with that nonsense

Can't spell 911 without it ya freedom hating bastard.

the emergency is YOU

my sister told me that o'malley reminded her of will forte with his smile and mannerisms and it was impossible to ignore after that

and having just now googled that i see she was not alone

Good summary.

repeatedly reminded the party faithful of her long record as a fighter for the causes she believes in.

oh good Christ

yeah that seems p accurate

xp

at least we know gabbneb's name is Matthew Yglesias now

"Larry David imitating George Steinbrenner" was a hard one to forget as well.

‏@AriFleischer
Good for Hillary on Snowden.

ew