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

the right will never accept that their ideas have been rejected. There will always be a problem with the messenger.

You may be right, but yr TruCons always say that nominating a conservative hasn't really even been tried. Not since Ronaldus Magnus, and Goldwater before him (whose role was to announce the coming savior like John the Baptist).

Nominating a loser milquetoast moderate, a McRomney 3.0, DEFINITELY won't quash this narrative. The narrative will continue to be that True Conservatives were Stabbed in the Back by The Establishment(tm). So please let's let them try a conservative-approved nominee this time. A Cruz, a Carson, a Palin or Perry type - please, yes, bring it on.

No, it may not completely kill that talking point, but it may make it look more ridiculous than it already is.

Nearly everyone already knows it's ridiculous, and that Cruz etc. are money sponges dipping themselves into a sea of angry old white people--but as long as that money is still out there...

Conservatives have one basic narrative: They lost the '64 election and everyone said they were history, and then they came back and basically took over the country 16 years later by remaining pure

the right will never accept that their ideas have been rejected. There will always be a problem with the messenger.

OTM.

The flipside of this is that I'm increasingly convinced that the "moderate" clown car participants are there hoping to lose to the Twue Conservative, so that after the latter crashes and burns in the general election, the former can basically say "I told you so" and present themselves next time around as the Electable Best Chance To Oust Hillary. I mean otherwise I can't fathom what Christie is still doing in this race.

That they're looking that far ahead to essentially be able to say "Told ya so!" is so obnoxious. I mean, it's just conjecture that that's what someone like, say, Christie is doing. But I can totally see that being the case.

Christie is still in the race because most of his potential backers signed on with Jeb and sees blood in that water

In my dreams I see a Goldwater-esque 35% popular vote ass kicking in 2016 but far all I know candidate Carson/Trump/Cruz will end up with 45% and me weeping for america

Nah, they don't have that much of a chance.

Do they?

never underestimate the stupidity of the american voter

Well I live with three Fox News junkies, so I guess I should know better.

45% would be a pretty disastrous loss (and there's no way they would carry the electoral college with that percentage cuz it wouldn't include certain states they would need to win)

Whoever gets the republican nomination, including Carson, Trump, or Cruz, would soften their delivery of whatever the heck is considered to be True Conservatism today. The whole "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" approach was thumped badly in 1964 that no one will venture onto that scorched earth again. This is not to say they would soften their actual positions, but only that the message will be made as innocuous sounding as possible, as with "compassionate conservatism".

After losing again, the fire-breathers will certainly blame the messenger once more.

I dont want a disastrous loss I want a public humiliation thats unspinnable

everything is spinnable in a fact-free zone

I mean, there's no electoral outcome that will eradicate a strain of American politics that's been around forever

Because no one who gets as close to the presidency as occupying the nomination of a major party is knowingly going to create a humiliating disaster, you'll need the most reckless and willfully blind and stupid nominee among the crowd. Trump is easily the most reckless, but Carson now seems to score highest when you average out all three of these qualities. Cruz is much less likely to fly straight into the mountainside.

everything is spinnable in a fact-free zone

― Οὖτις, Monday, November 9, 2015 10:31 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously, these guys will never admit defeat, they'll just keep whining about media bias and shit

Pretty sure the new crop of nominees in waiting doesn't give a shot about Goldwater analogies.

they'll just keep whining about media bias and shit

millions of "illegals" voting

"It is just the opinion of the 'experts' that I 'lost' the election."

if only that obama didn't hand out all those free obamaphones and welfare foods we wouldnt be in this mess

obamaphones are really just cases containing fake voter ID cards and instructions on performing abortions

Best headline ever: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/ben-carson-may-have-never-stabbed-anyone.html

or it was until this

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeb-bush-baby-hitler?utm_content=buffer594e0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

More Carson shenanigans: http://gawker.com/is-ben-carson-lying-about-reading-psychology-today-as-a-1741482781

That's it, I'm voting Jeb!

xp it's really great, for a guy who honestly needed no embellishment to fill out his win column, that it's all of these little inconsequential absurdities that he's getting caught up in.

really enjoying this.

The Bush headline made me think of this:

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

I'm hoping that tomorrow Bush interrupts himself mid-thought somewhere and suddenly screams out "The ice is gonna break!"

Which really wouldn't be a bad description of what's happening on the Republican side of things.

I've posted this years back, but I still can't remember where I first heard. The deepest of deep vote for many of these folks is that "Conservatism can never fail; it can only be failed."

Deep core, rather. Stupid autocorrect.

"I mean otherwise I can't fathom what Christie is still doing in this race."

He was an early leader, and while Dr Morbius is right about how much that 'objectively' means, it probably felt real good - he may be hoping for the Romney position (though as we were saying yesterday, that analogy is past its snapping point), or he may just be assuming that the indictment is coming down the track or it isn't, either way go big or go home.

https://whatimg.com/i/G5roZ3.jpg

for a second i read that as a campaign promise, rather than a response to a hypothetical opportunity

maybe he knows something we don't know

"if you elect me, time travel will be a reality!"

"If you elect me, I will go through every maternity ward in the country until I find the next Hitler."

Would vote for a time traveler.

maybe we already have...

LOL at nickn!

What kind of time traveler doesn't run on the platform of HEY GUYS I'M A FRIGGIN' TIME TRAVELER?

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/08/02/Arnie-460x276.jpg

hey guys carson cleared up the whole fake test story - https://www.facebook.com/realbencarson/photos/a.143829065783568.1073741825.138691142964027/551604265006044/?type=3&theater

thanks for clearing that up Ben!

So a weakened Germany after WWI falls even weaker without any sort of leadership. Joseph Stalin notices this in the Fall of 1938, and invades Poland - his sights set on Western Europe by the end of Winter 1939. Nine million Europeans, including seven-million Jews and...

Nah, that's great that we've got a guy running for president who doesn't give a damn about what repercussions may come from traveling back in time and klling a baby. Maybe, as pro-life as he is, he should kidnap the baby, adopt it, take it back to Florida, and...

No, that one wouldn't work either. Janet Reno would bust into the closet where Bush and Baby Hitler were hiding and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX4qZcjiv5U

Christie is still in the race because most of his potential backers signed on with Jeb and sees blood in that water

this feels right to me and is for me the most interesting/compelling narrative in the race right now. christie was as good as counted out not long ago but I think he's playing a "these guys are knocking themselves down" game

christie's still in it because a) do we seriously believe that carson or trump are going to win the nomination? and if not, then why not him i guess and b) that 538 article pointed out that there are a lot of gop delegates in blue states, some of whom may be looking for a less batshit nominee, so yeah why not him

i mean rick santorum runs because he likes to feel important, and he finished second last time. christie surely does too, and he hasn't been out of office for a decade after losing by 18 points in his home state

Pretty much any president we vote for is going to kill some babies in the future.