Conventional Mealy Mouths: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 5

it seems obvious to me that they are both very qualified to be presidents.

"the POTUS is the executive who needs to be fluent in enough disciplines to understand and solve problems in every part of the organization."

bernie seems like the exact opposite of this

i prefer a third term of obama to both but yeah they're both fine - either will do a good job, neither set my world on fire

Whereas there are at least two Republicans who literally want to set the world on fire

same

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Clinton probably has a deeper understanding of the nuts and bolts of many issues than Sanders does, but her understanding derived from sources that are fully entangled in the status quo, so that she has a harder time seeing what ought to be true (the vision thing) as opposed to just tinkering with what is already there. Every strength has its complementary weakness.

the POTUS is the executive who needs to be fluent in enough disciplines to understand and solve problems in every part of the organization.

this sounds like the job description of every department head/CEO ever.

jeeezus pols know how to say things w/out saying them, give credit

First of all, there's no question that HRC was questioning in that interview whether Sanders was unqualified to be president. She just didn't want to use the word, because that would have been the day's headline. (As, indeed, was the case when the Post used it for her.) At the very least, she was trolling with live bait and Sanders gobbled it right down...

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a43735/bernie-hillary-narrative/

I actually don't give Clinton a lot of credit for being able to artfully imply things. She tends to be a bit clumsy with that sort of thing, as this episode demonstrates. I don't at all think this was some sort of higher-order chess type trolling. Read the interview. Scarborough was pushing the qualification angle hard, and Clinton was doing her usual neither confirm nor deny lawyerish thing.

Neither one seems to grasp the appetite of the elite political media for a Democratic hooley to correspond to the ongoing one in the Republican Party, because that will allow for the Both Sides In Turmoil narrative that will allow the elite political media to ignore the fact that the top two contenders for the Republican nomination are an ego-driven vulgar talking yam, and an extremist theocrat who believes himself to be blessed by the Almighty to redeem this sinful land.

Pierce otm here but kinda loses points for "both sides do it"'ing himself - oh she didn't have to say unqualified we could read between the lines and that's exactly like bernie actually calling her unqualified. ffs.

pierce has been reading my posts lately btw

at least somebody is amirite

"Are you qualified to be president of the United States when you're raising millions of dollars from Wall Street?"

FDR worked for Carter Ledyard & Milburn and was from old money, can't he just, for the love of god, focus on policy?

and he showed he was willing to make those ppl unhappy

yeah tom wheeler at the FCC is a good example of someone who comes out of an industry (cable TV) and seems pretty willing to make his old colleagues deeply unhappy.

i think clinton's been trying to present evidence of a similar relationship to wall street but the record is not too helpful in this regard.

As far as I know, Clinton would be a vigorous defender of Dodd Frank, which Wall Street hates. Since that passed, Wall Street political contributions, which used to be fairly balanced by party, have gone lopsidedly to Republicans. Sure Clinton gets more Wall Street money than Sanders, but you can't compare to the amount that for instance Jeb Bush raised from that industry.

Worth a watch re Dodd-Frank:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCwfrhmDmS4

happened last night

Giuliani to Vote for, but Not Endorse, Trump
32 minutes ago

thx for posting that clip Alfred

you can instantly tell which one of those guys was a legislator and which one is basically an academic lol

just in the way they discuss things - Barney gets into the nuts and bolts details, refers to how bills/policy actually work, Reich mostly falls back on rhetoric and the occasional statistic

It was put up by a pro Bernie youtuber, lots of pissed off at Barney comments.

haven't watched the clip, but you'd think that the academic would be into policy, and the politician would be into rhetoric!

painful to read on so many different levels: http://gawker.com/the-big-question-at-the-center-of-hillary-clintons-subw-1769610774

one, the fact that there are so many articles about how she had to swipe her card 4 times to get into the subway
two, the obvious implication that she's an elitist blowhard because she doesn't even know how to swipe her card
three, knowing that on a daily basis i have to re-swipe. i have definitely crossed the 4-swipe threshold dozens of times, and one time i swiped repeatedly for like 2 minutes while stepping to the side to let people through.
four, the comments. oh god, the comments

yeah, those card readers suuuuuuuck i have to swipe twice all the time

if only she had a token :p

It was put up by a pro Bernie youtuber, lots of pissed off at Barney comments.

― Evan, Thursday, April 7, 2016 5:08 PM

was waiting to read a Barney Fag comment

The inability to swipe correctly affects millions of americans is something I've been dealing with for years and I still can't get it right.

It was put up by a pro Bernie youtuber, lots of pissed off at Barney comments.

― Evan, Thursday, April 7, 2016 5:08 PM

was waiting to read a Barney Fag comment

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, April 7, 2016 5:22 PM (58 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Berniebros/supporters are still progressives after all.

I wish these stupid campaigns were half as long. It's more padded than the "Hobbit" trilogy.

"Barney Frank sounds like a fucking retard" is indicative of the level of discernment in those comments

Nothing in here yet about Bill's flap with BLM? Awkward stuff

just saw that. don't necessarily disagree with what he said per se but I get the sense he's lost it on the campaign stump. he needs to take a back seat going forward.

bill lost his temper a couple times in 08, rememberrrrrrrrr

here ya go:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/bill-clinton-clashes-with-blm-protesters.html

I can see why he got defensive about bills he passed but yeah that was not really the right tack to take

would've been better to be contrite and apologetic about stuff like the super-predator comment or the failings of those particular bills, demonstrate some empathy with their concerns, emphasize Hillary has "learned from past experiences" etc.

but nope that's not our Bubba

Wow, those images above are terrifying.

“The reason they know it’s true is [the protestors] won’t hush. When somebody won’t hush and listen to you, that ain’t democracy. They’re afraid of the truth. Don’t you be afraid of the truth.”
“I’ll tell you another story about a place where black lives matter: Africa.”

omg bill

See? He still has the fire in the belly!

“I’ll tell you another story about a place where black lives matter: Africa.”

hahaha okay lol I missed this one. smdh

I wish these stupid campaigns were half as long. It's more padded than the "Hobbit" trilogy.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, April 7, 2016 4:32 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, this. this this this.

Sanders seems to have an unfortunate bloc of supporters whose main issues seem to be legal pot and a universal income so they can sit around playing video games and eating Burger King all day. I think they all hang out on Reddit.

"So this guy is a total loser? Let me tell you the story of another loser."
http://bccdn.buddingculturein.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Otter.jpg

you can instantly tell which one of those guys was a legislator and which one is basically an academic lol

― Οὖτις, Thursday, April 7, 2016 5:06 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just in the way they discuss things - Barney gets into the nuts and bolts details, refers to how bills/policy actually work, Reich mostly falls back on rhetoric and the occasional statistic

― Οὖτις, Thursday, April 7, 2016 5:07 PM (1 hour ago)

right, the guy who was basically yelling (though i realize this is more or less how barney talks lol) and went on bizarre tangents about sanders' mccarthyism and how he's attacking obama (and then says he agrees lol) won the debate against the guy who explained how bernie in fact wasn't confusing his policy on the issue, something consistent with most of the reporting on that NYDN article since the interview. you are really far gone man

that and the memoir you're reading must be pretty good

idk Reich didn't seem to have a point beyond "Banks are big and that is bad", I didn't hear much of substance otherwise

Frank's memoir is v entertaining

this kind of thing takes me back! remember the W years??

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/cruz-adviser-no-go-zones-minneapolis

Islam, she said, “has actually conquered every single other major civilization it’s ever gone up against, from the Buddhists to the Byzantines to the Middle East Christians to the Middle East Jews to the Hindus to the Persians, conquered every last one of them, some of them might, sophisticated civilizations at their peak, conquered them all. There are only two left standing: the Han Chinese and whatever’s left of Western civilization. That is a sobering reality.”

again my opinion is that trumpism is the worst constituency/ideology but cruz is the worst person with the worst people around him

tbf I've always been a fan of Barney going way back. tbf Reich was one of my favorite Clinton admin guys as well, but his accomplishments are pretty thin compared to Barney's, and that counts for a lot imo.

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