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

cruz isn't eccentric and bizarre like carson is turning out to be -- nor as flamboyant as trump -- but his ideas are pretty damned extreme and arguably even more founded on fantasies of conspiracy and victimhood.

i mean the closest historical antecedent for cruz is joe mccarthy (before he went into full-on alkie dissipation) and i wouldn't really characterize mccarthy as especially "sane" in the sense this guy means.

yeah I mean he is obviously a shrewd opportunist but shrewdness + opportunism /= sanity, the canard that he would be peddling leftism if it sold is specious.

Team Obama was mystified late last year when the political cognoscenti gushed over Jeb Bush's political skills and electability.

Team Obama + Team Soto otm.

pfieffer didn't say he would be a leftist if it sold, he said "he just acts crazy because that's what sells in today's Republican Party. If sane sold, he would be sane."

and the thing that people always say is "someone who argued 9 cases in front of the supreme court can't possibly be that stupid!". i know that because i'm the person who says it (here at least)! i think crazy and stupid are two different things. there are a lot of people who side with crazy people and end up with zero influence. if you're someone who has quickly accumulated an enormous amount of power, like ted cruz, that doesn't exactly guarantee that he's shrewd but it should at least open up the possibility. (cue the part where someone mentions that everyone hates ted cruz and his own party leadership blocks his moves in the senate, and then cue the part where i mention that he was able to almost singlehandedly shut the government down a couple years ago, then cue the part where i play fallout 4)

c'mon this guy screams electability
https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/Pltsyk8Z4MTXUSVHrWEatw--/YXBwaWQ9eW15O3c9NjQwO3F1YWxpdHk9NzU7c209MTtpbD1wbGFuZQ--/http://41.media.tumblr.com/f960b9568047820b4e5699f0c5416919/tumblr_inline_nxm2184bdf1t2npxi_1280.jpg

xp

lol

Cruz is definitely shrewd, opportunistic, careerist, etc. I mean shutting down the government for a PR stunt is p ballsy. At the same time, I have no reason to doubt his sincere belief in the batshit policies and positions he espouses; like I said, he's given no indication that he believes anything to the contrary.

The cash-rich group aiding Jeb Bush’s White House run has filmed a provocative video casting his rival Marco Rubio as ultimately unelectable because of his hard-line stand against abortion.

hahaha oh yeah that's gonna go well

winning over all those pro-choice GOP primary voters

pretty sure Harvard debate champ Cruz knows how to spout nonsense arguments he doesn't actually believe. apparently he wasn't as much of a social conservative back in the day.

what I don't get is how someone who comes off so poorly on camera has gotten this far in politics.

grease

he's constantly off-gassing, the slime just oozes off of him, easing his passage through the hallowed halls of governance

it does seem like if you poked him with a stick a bunch of air would phwoosh out of him

The air would smell of law books and guacamole.

i want to know everything about this moment, these people, everything

https://twitter.com/theferocity/status/664180459874549760

beyond smart or crazy or his platform is that cruz is by all accounts a tremendous asshole

i mean you could have a beer with W or whatever but who actually *likes* cruz

yeah the whole 'the republican party actually hates him' thing gives him credibility w/ the base

but...he is still running for the republican party nomination

Trying to imagine here how the nominating convention would look if Cruz or Trump were winning the primaries and racking up delegates.

I'm remembering a lifetime of conventions. Think about that time every prominent Democrat had to get up and stand at a podium and say why they were SO STOKED about John Kerry. Hey, were you aware that he's a war veteran? He was! He was in 'Nam! Indeed, he was even in the shit! Ditto Gore, ditto Clinton. Everybody, from minor Kennedies to rhymin' Jesse Jackson, did their bit.

Also I'm remembering Hillary Clinton stumping for Obama (a bitter rival until a few weeks previously). We waited for hours, with a cranky baby in a stroller, just to get in to the rally. And I am telling you that she turned in a credible performance and I left with more affection for both of them.

Now. Imagine a Republican convention speech slate featuring Reince Priebus, Peggy Noonan, George W. Bush, Mitch McConnell, Elizabeth Dole, Mike Huckabee, Adam Corrolla, Paul Ryan, and heck, Bill O'Reilly standing up at a podium to say how JAZZED they are about the energy they feel in the room, and about how WE'RE GONNA TAKE BACK THE WHITE HOUSE with Trump/Carson '16!!!!

Someone like Trump actually winning the nomination - as utterly unlikely as it is - is maybe the closest circumstance I can imagine to an 1860 deal where one of the two parties effectively ruptures - nope, can't do it! - and some alternate, party-pleasing candidate is cobbled together on another ticket entirely. That's about a one in a billion chance, mind you.

worst slashfic ever

xp

Great timing: mysterious thermal anomalies found in the pyramids.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mystery-heat-spots-found-in-pyramids/ar-CCaWwK?ocid=ansmsnnews11

SEE, scientists don't truly know what they're talking about.

Could the anomalies be due to fermenting GRAIN?!?!?! Who's to say?

probably just a stargate imho

so, has the main event started yet

9 PM, eastern time.

https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/Pltsyk8Z4MTXUSVHrWEatw--/YXBwaWQ9eW15O3c9NjQwO3F1YWxpdHk9NzU7c209MTtpbD1wbGFuZQ--/http://41.media.tumblr.com/f960b9568047820b4e5699f0c5416919/tumblr_inline_nxm2184bdf1t2npxi_1280.jpg

So it's the guy in the tie who's running for president, right?

That midwestern pharmacist playing along next to him sure looks nervous.

saw a Webb 2016 bumper sticker on my way home from work!!! on a car w/a veteran's license plate, natch

The guy in the tie has a better shot at the presidency

how does one watch this online?

http://www.foxbusiness.com/live-coverage/fox-business-network-wall-street-journal-gop-debates

thanks

oooh! the color guard!

Lou Dobbs!

Does anyone even listen to Ben Carson?

I'll give Carson this: hope I look that distinguished when I'm 64. He's practically Omar Sharif.

Meanwhile, too many philosophers roaming the streets.

TOO MANY PHILOSOPHERS UP IN THIS PIECE

didn't know we had a glut in the philosopher market

thrice

The entire GOP campaign has turned into a Man Bites Dog factory. This article wrote itself:
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/09/repent_that_dumbledore_emerged_as_a_homosexual_mentor_for_harry_potter_inside_the_bizarre_anti_gay_conference_featuring_ted_cruz_mike_huckabee_bobby_jindal/

As a journalist you basically do nothing but hit record, and add a few declarative sentences about who, where, when.

answer the question about W adding only 13,000 jobs a month, lady

She really wanted to address that question head-on, but, as she said herself, the question made her think of a lady she met the other day, which in turn took her away from the question.

"for the 11,000,000 people, you can't just ship them across the border" -- kasich the truth bomb thrower!

So if I understand Trump's Eisenhower anecdote properly...he wants the wall hundreds of miles south of the border?

I....had no idea Ike sent immigrants back, back, back...and farther back.

"I Like Ike" - Trump's ear for a catchphrase endures.

Trump's rudeness to Kasich is just off the charts last couple of debates--he treats him like a three-year-old. Makes me laugh, but if I were Kasich, I think I'd have to take a swing at him at some point.

Kasich: "I'm an adult"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbJxMd3Pls8&app=desktop

Carly Fiorina has a long history of shrinking big companies, IIRC.

regulatory thicket
regulatory thicket