Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

You might have something there. sorry but Trump ethering the entire GOP field was frequently very funny

(but I guess really this is just another variant on the "which candidate would you rather have a beer with" concept and tbh I don't think there was much of a winner on either side there)

I always thought Bob Dole was kinda funny on his talk show appearances..

Trump may have been funny in the republican primary debates, but no one's laughing now, including him

I remember when the '04 dem candidates tried to do "funny" / "relatable" ads and the best one was by....Gen. Wes Clark

trump is still funny but not as often as during the campaign. i buy the funniest candidate hypothesis

with no evidence whatsoever I'm gonna say that the funnier candidate always wins

Trump's personality is repellant but at least he occasionally said funny things. Obama was clearly more personable and funnier than both McCain and Romney. Ditto for GWB and those stiffs, Al Gore and John Kerry. And come on, Bob Dole? Give me a freakin' break. At least Reagan was good for a zinger or two. Anyway, its too bad Al Franken turned out to be such a creep.

― frogbs, Wednesday, March 28, 2018 5:53 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gore beat Bush FYI (and Dole would probably be widely regarded as funnier than Clinton by most people who know both well). As you said, "funny" and "personable" and the beer test are all the same thing, standing in for ease (which Dole and McCain will never entirely possess, nor will most outsiders of various kinds), which in turn stands in for a combination of cultural orientation and high school popularity standings.

Why are you still here

He is right in this instance, though. How does the funny candidate hypothesis explain Clinton and Gore winning the popular vote?

the electoral lollege

I think the candidate who has the best vision for America always wins

fire and fury brother

Bob Dole's peak vision was the time he called Carter, Reagan and Nixon "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Evil"

my memory is that bob dole did seem kinda funny sometimes but i think i might be subconsciously confusing him w/ norm macdonald.

maybe this is an unpopular opinion but idk trump isn't funny

i'm having bad flashbacks to a terrible sarah vowell column from the early 00s where she argued that gore should have tried to present himself as a lovable, self-deprecating nerd instead of an uptight, pedantic nerd.

I think the candidate who has the best vision for America always wins

― had (crüt), Wednesday, March 28, 2018 6:19 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Got it, you think Trump had the best vision for America

maybe this is an unpopular opinion but idk trump isn't funny

other than some of his old, exceptionally petty tweets, this is correct, he as a person is not funny (and is of course a loathsome creep and all the rest). watching chuds like Cruz and the like helplessly flail around unsure of what to do or how to get a foothold was absolutely funny, though

Garcetti's got at least one "hang out with a politician who definitely doesn't have larger aspirations -- at a bar!" appointment in Iowa coming up following a speaking gig, seems suspicious

He is right in this instance, though. How does the funny candidate hypothesis explain Clinton and Gore winning the popular vote?

― Frederik B, Wednesday, March 28, 2018 1:14 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the electoral lollege

― Simon H., Wednesday, March 28, 2018 1:18 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thank you, Simon

Yeah, that was pretty good.

Trump's "humor" is the kind of thing that gets that cruel, grunting laugh people do when they're expressing disdain or mocking someone. There's no catharsis in it, just a really insecure sense of superiority

Dole was good for an acerbic putdown or two, so he was sometimes funny, but never was Dole "personable."

At the annual Gridiron Club dinner, an event in Washington, DC largely devoted to political humor, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole told a story about a recent event when he saw former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon standing together on the podium. Dole claimed that he told people to “Look! Hear no evil, see no evil, and evil (Nixon).”

maybe this is an unpopular opinion but idk trump isn't funny

he's not but he was at least funnier than Hillary "Pokemon Go to the polls" Clinton. the way he destroyed and humiliated Jeb is still hilarious. and in retrospect clearly the peak of his political career.

when you realizing his dissing of anyone and everyone isn't outright hostility but his incredibly poor attempt at banter, it makes more sense

he's not but he was at least funnier than Hillary "Pokemon Go to the polls" Clinton

ok why are you doing this

howard stern lives in his brain iirc

Explains the rest of his post

ok iirc howard stern lives inside of flappy bird's brain let's not get it twisted

Trump not funny ever. Hillary so cringey and awkward, no wit. Biden funny like my pervy uncle. I would imagine WJ Clinton to be pretty funny--I'm sure someone can weigh in on that.

Reagan had pretty good wit, if you're into that sort of thing. Gore's always seemed forced in public.

Al Gore never quite 'belonged' as a seminary student, but he came mighty close.

I think the candidate who has the best vision for America always wins

― had (crüt), Wednesday, March 28, 2018 6:19 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Got it, you think Trump had the best vision for America

― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 28, 2018 6:29 PM (one hour ago)

did you seriously just post this right after saying "Gore beat Bush FYI"

Yes. Had the vote been properly counted, Gore would have "won the electoral college" as well as the popular vote.

Moo, I flagged your posts for blabbing incessantly about an argument we all established was "incredibly dumb"

But if you want to hang the response on those ties, crut can feel free to defend Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

"we all" - sorry, you don't get to decide that, but I can flag you in kind if you'd like

i thought Moo Vaughn was a reference to moveon.org in the first place

― had (crüt), Tuesday, March 27, 2018 3:54 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i thought it was a cow-based pun on the former mets first baseman

― MooVaughn.org (voodoo chili), Tuesday, March 27, 2018 3:56 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It definitely can't be both

And speaking of dumb arguments - Clinton can be funny, but I don't understand the notion that funny is one of his generally recognized characteristics. Hillary reportedly can be quite funny and almost scarily broadly-informed behind the scenes.

speaking of unfunny pedantic nerds

Maybe instead of writing nine long-winded paragraph, you could've just written an Animaniacs-style song about how old each president was.

Yes. Had the vote been properly counted, Gore would have "won the electoral college" as well as the popular vote.

I will never ever tire of seeing this.

ok iirc howard stern lives inside of flappy bird's brain let's not get it twisted

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, March 28, 2018 4:20 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i keep him on the porch now

lots of things are going to come into play in 2020 that will be different, i think most obvious being that I can't imagine many Dem candidates if any having the same baggage via reputation and years of whispers about fake crimes that Hillary did

― omar little, Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:45 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"years of whispers" (i.e. bullshit), ok, but otherwise this is potentially naive - some anticipate that something will be trumped up against any prospective nominee, quite possibly with falsified evidence.

― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 28, 2018 5:52 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/03/what-we-can-learn-about-the-ludicrous-kirsten-gill.html

See what I mean?

ah yes, paste magazine, beloved political commentary journal

I didn't realize paste was doing non music until earlier this week when I read them getting slammed for not paying writers. fuck a paste.

paste has been a lesser jacobin for a few years now

That’s the joint where Imani Gandy took a huge personal beefshit on Walker Bragman for writing for and I couldn’t figure out which one of them was punching down

I see. No right-wingers have started a whisper campaign about Kirsten Gillibrand (as was obviously inevitable), because one of the many responses pointing out that it was bullshit (and one of the two or three most prominent among google-pushed news search results for Gillibrand today, which also include beloved political commentary journal WaPo - https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/03/29/fake-kirsten-gillibrand-flap-reveals-double-standard-in-our-politics/) was published by a source I've previously called out, got it.

stfu