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

the media def tends to over hype each individual poll

Good grief yes, this morning CBS was telling me Trump's ahead in some poll. Maybe it's worst hair. A head in the hair poll.

I think 2016 looks like it does because of 2012, which looked like it did because of 2008, when the outgoing president's team were rat poison and the incoming "been waiting his time" candidate got beaten like a drum.

The future of the party was all up for grabs in 2012 - and against such a clearly incompetent incumbent, the presidency was within their grasp! But they were all terrible and it went to the Burnsbot, so now, against a candidate that serves as a personal affront to the longer-memoried of them, surely their time has come!

Mr. Jindal’s announcement address, here in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, comes two days after the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found him sharing the bottom of a list of 16 candidates. In the telephone survey, zero percent of Republican primary voters said Mr. Jindal was their top pick to be the nominee

saw something that one of those polls found one (1) likely voter for bobby

Was it him?

its also possible these graphs illustrate the fact that voters dont know shit about candidates. in 2012 people would get all pumped about 'not-romney' but once they learned who the actual candidates were they tuned out asap.

idk, is he still in the phonebook as piyush?

The RCP 2016 graphs of course (and I'm assuming they're reflecting the underlying polls) start from way out with "has anyone heard of any of these" - the 2012 graphs only start when the candidates actually announced their candidacy.

Which doesn't mean a hell of a lot, it's not like there's some great hope which if they'd only looked 10% more likely to announce the others would have stepped aside - though it's interesting that the early leader, Christie, is only due to announce next week.

I don't know why Christie's gonna even bother announcing - he's such a loathsome (and loathed) sack of human garbage, he's never gonna break 5% in any poll. The smell of failure is on him so strongly at this point, I can't even see him getting on board anywhere as a commentator once his governorship's over. I bet he goes corporate board and is never heard from again.

Early leader + massive arrogance + the (completely insane) hope that this will allow him to move on from Bridge-related troubles, I guess?

we're comparing degrees of loathsome sacks of human garbage though

I wouldn't be surprised if Christie doesn't bother

then again, looks like he's set to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/25/report-chris-christie-to-announce-presidential-campaign-next-week/

If Bobby Jindal is going through with a run, then none of these clowns are taking it off the table.

Have to assume "I might get to be the next president" is low on the reasons a lot of these republicans are running this year

Piyush and Christie kinda similar really - once lauded as a new, different kind of "get things done" GOP governors w national potential who have seen their accomplishments fade and their approval ratings sink. If neither of them can make it on the national stage, where do they go from here? Nowhere to go but down, really - or out of sight racking up consulting fees.

xp

It's like American idol where winning means being tied to a shitty contract but competing just means lots of publicity

Spending the next 16 months compiling their Fox News audition tape and getting someone else to pay for it -- couldn't be a sweeter grift.

To that end, Fuckabee already had his own Fox show and left it to run. He's not going to win a single state this time.

otoh Fox give Sarah Palin the boot. Space is limited.

kinda wierd Palin *isn't* running. I mean at this point, why not?

Her leaving an elected office midterm to do fuck all probably hurt her chances even within the crazy base.

well she had already accomplished all of her goals in office

ie, she had put everything in the office in plastic bags and moved it to her house

I think Charles Pierce had that one right - running a full campaign rather than being parachuted in at the last minute would be too much like work.

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

I do find Obama/Hillary crowing about this to be p disingenuous given their records

True. However, I suspect they were on board with the concept for a while before they were publicly on board with the concept, because they are politicians.

"However" sort of implies that that's a mitigating factor, but it surely ain't.

whither "leadership"

yeah i mean lincoln pretended he didnt want to end slavery for a long time and no one believed him not sure if ppl r still mad at him abt that

hmm how well did that strategy work out for Lincoln and the country can you remind me

slavery ended

i dunno, i figure obama was playing a long game and history will recognize that, as it largely has with lincoln

(not that obama can claim the same sort of credit, and not to claim that the liberations in question are equally momentous)

In an appearance on Sean Hannity's radio show on Friday, Cruz, who is running for president, made it clear he thought the rulings represented a sad moment for America.

"Today is some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation's history," Cruz said after Hannity asked how he was doing

poor guy

I wonder what the other dark hours were

That day his 5th grade teacher gave him a D on a grammar assignment.

heh

"today is some of" is such a horrible trainwreck

that construction makes me think of "i can has..."

I can has presidency?

hmm how well did that strategy work out for Lincoln and the country can you remind me

― Οὖτις,

are you really questioning this as strategy? Border state revolt, likely northern Democratic revolt -- not sure what he could've done, especially as he kept a coalition together that was FAR more radical than he between 1865-1868.

Not entirely serious but civil war + dead president is kinda a weird example of an optimal outcome

Also disingenuous to suggest o and hillary had as much on the line w gay marriage as lincoln did w slavery, and neither had the foresight or instincts that lincoln did.

~results~

(sorry morbs)

Not entirely serious but civil war + dead president is kinda a weird example of an optimal outcome

― Οὖτις, Friday, June 26, 2015 10:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we are standing at the precipice of a truly moronic alternate history i can feel it

What if.. Robert Bork had been president in 1861?

http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/inline/2015/06/3047747-inline-i-8b-2016s-presidential-hopefuls-redesigned-as-black-metal-bands-copy.jpg

lol