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

Here's an example of their echo chamber's well-painted walls:

In my piece today, I touch on a similar idea about Mitt Romney. Romney is the opposite of Gingrich: He’s not an ideas guy. He’s a conservative, but he’s not a conservatives’ conservative — he isn’t going to sit around with Ted Cruz talking Rawls vs. Hayek. But he is an extraordinarily competent man, an ace manager of everything except (oddly) his own presidential campaign. Romney should be a sort of semi-official fixer in any Republican administration. The VA hospital system is a mess, the Secret Service is a corrupt mess, the IRS is a wildly corrupt mess, etc. I’d like to see a President Cruz or a President Rubio say: “Okay, Mitt, go sort that out,” handing him whatever the political equivalent of a loaded shotgun is. He could be a sort of roving secretary-of-fixing-stuff-sans-portfolio guy. Carly Fiorina, assuming she doesn’t end up on the Republican ticket, might be good at that sort of thing, too.

I still like my idea of the eventual Republican nominee naming his Cabinet in advance and running as a slate. Not because I necessarily think it’s good politics — who knows? — but because it would be an interesting and entertaining exercise. And I suspect that a Cruz-Rubio/Rubio-Cruz ticket might benefit from putting together a superstar team: Bobby Jindal, who has actually reformed a health-care system, at Health and Human Services; Rick Perry, perhaps, at Defense; Jeb Bush at Commerce or Treasury; Larry Kudlow at the Council of Economic Advisers or the Fed; Donald Trump in some critical diplomatic position, such as second assistant deputy ambassador to Burkina Faso; etc. Feel free to share your nominations in the comments.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/426351/romney-fixer-kevin-d-williamson

Not because I necessarily think it’s good politics — who knows?

Donald Trump in some critical diplomatic position!!!

O that kevin and his dry wit

an extraordinarily competent man, an ace manager of everything

literally couldn't name a suggestion for that cabinet that hasn't run for president. POSEUR.

why would president cruz name a cabinet when he's going to drown government in the bathtub

man ppl bring up that 'he should name his cabinet now! GAMECHANGER!' thing sometimes (usually in campaigns that are basically over, it was a hot suggestion for dole in 96) and it never happens because it's a stupid idea because it means yr opponent now has 15 ppl to dig stuff up on to bury yr campaign that you can't dismiss as easily/quickly as some campaign worker plus you have 15 ppl that weren't good enough to be considered for veep or to win the nomination that you have to hope don't go off message at some rally or in some interview. 15 little palins and eagletons running around. all so some schmuck w/ a blog can go 'oooh jindal at health and human services! daddy like!'

this shit is like off-season rosterbation for a sports team

'now we need to trade for chris sale and jose abreu, sign zack greinke to a free agent contract AND WE'RE SET'

and just the idea that anyone would give a shit about these imagined all-star dream teams. undecided voters en masse going "oh snap, charlie henkleton for HHS? i was on the fence but now it's clear who the serious candidate is here." ffs the campaigns struggle like crazy to even find a vice presidential nom who does anything at all for them. though it was great how obama turned that into like a two-week buildup, TODAY THEY'LL BE ANNOUNCING THE TIME AT WHICH THEY'LL MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT NEXT FRIDAY! and then as soon as it was biden it wasn't really very interesting and it turned out the thing people cared about was, still, obama vs. mccain, funnily enough.

I'm struggling to find a pro-wrestling comparison, and all I can think of is shit like Vince McMahon trying to get some sorta mass-audience heat and celebrity respectability in the early Wrestlemania years by promoting the fact that the Where's The Beef lady is special guest timekeeper for the championship title match or that Trump(multiple times, come to think of it) or early-90s Burt Reynolds were part of the show.

You know, that weird clueless desperate attempt to draw crowds by advertising shit irrelevant to people not already buying a ticket.

Appreciation for carny hucksterism makes tolerating and understanding American national politics a bit easier.

haha so true

Anyway why would any of those people want a boring government job when they could have a sweet Fox News/radio/think tank gig?

Didn't Huckabee already have that gig?

Huckabee just wondered if he still had the chops and dreamed of igniting a firestorm of enthusiasm among His People. Nope. He is staying in the race out of old habit and the knowledge of how bored he'd be if he dropped out.

among His People

A++

Don't know if this counts as "party establishment" or not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/us/politics/paul-singer-influential-billionaire-throws-support-to-marco-rubio-for-president.html?_r=0

There's no longer any such thing as an establishment, really. He and most funders are not the "party establishment" to the extent that exists - it does, sort of, but is somewhat splintered - though he's given them a little money. He's Eastern establishment/"Wall Street" as opposed to Texas/Central extractive money (or Silicon Valley Techno-Rentiers/State-Replacers), but connected to the others, and there isn't one such thing either - he's a hedge-funder, not an investment bank guy, i.e. less subject to regulation.

What this is really about is the carried interest loophole. He's scared about its elimination, which Trump and Bush have promised (though Bush would pay back the money in other ways as Trump probably would too). Rubio otoh has been noticeably quiet.

"Every Republican who has come forward so far seems to be fucking insane except maybe Kasich, with whom I profoundly disagree and would not vote for, and mmmmmmmmaybe Rubio on a good day if I don't listen to what he is actually saying?"

So you're for the two guys who are against closing the carried interest loophole? No wait, I mean the "least conservative" candidate (who isn't) and the guy regarded as one of the most (who's for his own ambitions and his parents' hobbyhorse first)? No wait, I mean the guy who gets teary about mental illness/drug addiction (hmm) and the one who dropped all his cash on a boat? No wait, I mean the Pearl Jam fan and the NWA/Tupac fan? That last one, I think that's it.

So these Iowa primary voters - real live people, like you and me, to some extent - they'd all love nothing more, theoretically, than a debate held in a barn, with no makeup, gas lamps, just Real American amenities like some rent-a-port-a-johns and water out of a hose. Maybe a swig of jim beam if you're a degenerate, but hey, the Lord takes all kinds. Why isn't this a thing? Isn't it a sign of capitulation to the you-know-who, holding these debates on a sound stage with lights and makeup and green rooms and the-devil-knows-what? If I were an Iowa Republican, I'd want to see a debate in a shed, with some hay, and the generator lamps from the Sheriff's office. Any candidate that doesn't come with an open carry license is DQ'd. Oh, the sincerity.

Apparently ballbag learned about the carried interest loophole yesterday.

A lot of liberal viewers seem to have been taken from Kasich's answers in the debates that he's a liberal Republican. But he's not a Midwestern Chris Christie, he's a less famous Scott Walker.

Deafening silence this morning on MSNBC about HRC's little run in with BLM yesterday SHOCKAH

Tombot I get the feeling your image of Iowa comes from someplace other than Iowa

Have primary debates always allowed applause/jeering/audible responses from the audience?

from the washington post thing about bush and rubio's establishment rivalry thing:

By Monday, Bush’s campaign — increasingly desperate amid a cash shortage and staff cuts — labeled Rubio a “GOP Obama” in a meeting with top donors. That may not sound like an insult, since Obama did manage to get elected president twice. But Bush meant it in the context of Republicans who view the president as inexperienced and untrustworthy.

oh, Jeb!

don't side with Rubio! he's like the GOP version of Obama!

loooooooool

Apparently ballbag learned about the carried interest loophole yesterday.

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Saturday, October 31, 2015 9:41 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Apparently Bollocks in Mouth doesn't know what Paul Singer has a bil riding on

Tombot I get the feeling your image of Iowa comes from someplace other than Iowa

― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, October 31, 2015 10:31 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DNFTT

"Every Republican who has come forward so far seems to be fucking insane except maybe Kasich, with whom I profoundly disagree and would not vote for, and mmmmmmmmaybe Rubio on a good day if I don't listen to what he is actually saying?"

So you're for the two guys who are against closing the carried interest loophole? No wait, I mean the "least conservative" candidate (who isn't) and the guy regarded as one of the most (who's for his own ambitions and his parents' hobbyhorse first)? No wait, I mean the guy who gets teary about mental illness/drug addiction (hmm) and the one who dropped all his cash on a boat? No wait, I mean the Pearl Jam fan and the NWA/Tupac fan? That last one, I think that's it.

― Neb! (benbbag), Saturday, October 31, 2015 4:38 AM (14 hours ago)

he explicitly said he wasn't "for" either of those two guys, you moron

"There are no second acts in ILX lives, unless perhaps you select a new display name that nobody connects instantly to your earlier, miserably failed, first act, and you also change your ILX persona sufficiently not to follow down the failed path you traveled the first time."

So you're for the two guys [...]

It's good to see that, for all of your vaunted wisdom and incisive political insight, you still can't read.

I mean maybe your process is "that guy seems like he isn't insane, that means I must support him" but it isn't mine

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSlzJFKW4AEGPeE.png

keep going Jeb! you're almost there

Does this mean we will very shortly get to say that Jeb's campaign has jumped the sharknado?

I'm a table away from four Jeb! campaign workers editing speeches and writing emails. Average age: 24. I'm 40 seconds from pouring kerosene on them.

it would be for their own good

Never anyone to campaign for in this town
Lived here my whole life

a+

ask them what the hell the sharknado ad is going to be about, #jebnofilter

Apparently Bollocks in Mouth doesn't know what Paul Singer has a bil riding on
--Neb! (benbbag)

If Paul Singer is counting on any of these clowns he's even stupider than you are.

Deniiiiisha
You are the girl that Jeb never had
And he wants to get to know you better

lol Dan

lol top not music nerdery the past couple days

Bloomberg asked Bush if people were underestimating his ability to make a comeback in the GOP race.

"They don't know me. They don't know me," Bush told Bloomberg. "I eat nails when I wake up, then I have breakfast."

people might laugh at him for this, but as a fellow nailbiter i sympathize

Larry Lessig has dropped out

who?

Jeb! needs to elaborate further upon what he subsequently shits out after eating the nails (and the breakfast).