They'll Be Dropping Like Flies -- Re-Handicapping the 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates

Discussion in 'Elections' started by Val1, Sep 22, 2015.

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Who Will be the Republican Nominee?

  1. Jeb(!) Bush

    10 vote(s)
    17.9%
  2. Ben Carson

    2 vote(s)
    3.6%
  3. Chris Christie

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. Ted Cruz

    3 vote(s)
    5.4%
  5. Carly Fiorina

    2 vote(s)
    3.6%
  6. Jim Gilmore

    3 vote(s)
    5.4%
  7. Lindsey Graham

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  8. Mike Huckabee

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  9. Bobby Jindal

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  10. John Kasich

    7 vote(s)
    12.5%
  11. George Pataki

    1 vote(s)
    1.8%
  12. Rand Paul

    2 vote(s)
    3.6%
  13. Marco Rubio

    11 vote(s)
    19.6%
  14. Rick Santorum

    1 vote(s)
    1.8%
  15. Donald Trump

    14 vote(s)
    25.0%
  1. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Rick Perry and Scott Walker are out. And since the original poll included the likes of Paul Ryan (my favorite), Condi Rice and Jon Huntsman, I thought we needed a new poll. Certainly one that included current front runners Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. God, that was a scary sentence...

    So, with two debates, and two candidates, down, who do you favor?
     
  2. roby

    roby Member+

    SIRLOIN SALOON FC, PITTSFIELD MA
    Feb 27, 2005
    So Cal
    If I were a Bernie Sanders fan I suppose I'd welcome Trump/Palin ticket! :coffee:
     
  3. phedre44

    phedre44 Member

    SKC
    Apr 1, 2008
    Kansas
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Is there anyone Donald Trump actually likes whom he could pick as a running mate? He seems just as interested in insulting the entire Republican field as the Dems...
     
  4. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    One of the more perspicacious essays on the phenomenon known as Donald Trump:

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/frank-rich-in-praise-of-donald-trump.html

    In the short time since Trump declared his candidacy, he has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Republicans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share. He is, as many say, making a mockery of the entire political process with his bull-in-a-china-shop antics. But the mockery in this case may be overdue, highly warranted, and ultimately a spur to reform rather than the crime against civic order that has scandalized those who see him, in the words of the former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, as “dangerous to democracy.”

    Trump may be injecting American democracy with steroids. No one, after all, is arguing that the debates among the GOP presidential contenders would be drawing remotely their Game of Thrones-scale audiences if the marquee stars were Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. When most of the field — minus Trump — appeared ahead of the first debate at a New Hampshire forum broadcast on C-SPAN, it caused little more stir than a soporific pageant of congressional backbenchers addressing the empty floor of the House. Without Trump, even a relatively tame Trump, would anyone have sat through even a third of the three-hour-plus trainwreck that CNN passed off as the second debate?

    What has made him more entertaining than his peers is not his superficial similarities to any historical analogues or his shopworn celebrity. His passport to political stardom has been his uncanny resemblance to a provocative fictional comic archetype that has been an invigorating staple of American movies since Vietnam and Watergate ushered in wholesale disillusionment with Washington four decades ago. That character is a direct descendant of Twain’s 19th-century confidence men: the unhinged charlatan who decides to blow up the system by running for office — often the presidency — on a platform of outrageous pronouncements and boorish behavior. Trump has taken that role, the antithesis of the idealist politicians enshrined by Frank Capra and Aaron Sorkin, and run with it. He bestrides our current political landscape like the reincarnation not of Joe McCarthy (that would be Ted Cruz) but of Jay Billington Bulworth.
     
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  5. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Fiorina?
     
  6. ElasticNorseman

    ElasticNorseman Member+

    Apr 16, 2004
    Natick, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    Norway
  7. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Is Trump the Duke or the Dauphin?
     
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  8. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Next day you couldn't hear nothing around the country but how splendid that debate was. House was jammed again that night, and the GOP sold this crowd the same way. When me and the Trump and Carly got home to the raft we all had a supper; and by and by, about midnight, they made Jim and me back her out and float her down the middle of the river, and fetch her in and hide her about two mile below town.

    The third night the house was crammed again—and they warn't new-comers this time, but people that was at the debate the other two nights. I stood by Trump at the door, and I see that every man that went in had his pockets bulging, or something muffled up under his coat—and I see it warn't no perfumery, neither, not by a long sight. I smelt sickly eggs by the barrel, and rotten cabbages, and such things; and if I know the signs of a dead cat being around, and I bet I do, there was sixty-four of them went in. I shoved in there for a minute, but it was too various for me; I couldn't stand it. Well, when the place couldn't hold no more people Trump he give a fellow a quarter and told him to tend door for him a minute, and then he started around for the stage door, I after him; but the minute we turned the corner and was in the dark he says: "Walk fast now till you get away from the houses, and then run for the raft like some Mexicans was after you!"
     
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  9. Minnman

    Minnman Member+

    Feb 11, 2000
    Columbus, OH, USA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Kasich is still the only guy who gives me any concern, as a Democrat. But I'm sticking with my initial choice of Jeb! What a pathetic group.
     
  10. uclacarlos

    uclacarlos Member+

    Aug 10, 2003
    east coast
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Of the 17, I'd say 10-12 would have been #2 in 2012. But the thing is... none of them are better than RMoney.

    The truly sad, sad thing is that the 3 who are merely a continuation of the clusterf*** that was 2012 are the 3 currently leading the field! Ridiculous.
     
  11. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Ok, so Trump is the Duke.
    I missed the first debate. Did Carly come a-prancing out on all fours, naked at that one?
     
  12. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    ElasticNorseman repped this.
  13. MatthausSammer

    MatthausSammer Moderator
    Staff Member

    Dec 9, 2012
    Canada
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    I feel like, although my personal choices are Kasich and Paul, Marco Rubio makes too much sense in the long run. Last time around, the GOP base flirted with Gingrich, Cain, and Santorum, but ultimately made the choice of the establishment in Romney. I see something similar happening here; they'll flirt with the "outsiders" for a while before jumping ship and embracing the establishment choice. Now, who will be that establishment choice? Jeb was my initial read, but man, does he lack backbone and charisma as a candidate. Mitt is freaking George Clooney in terms of charisma compared to Bush. Rubio is Latino, he's from a battleground state, he looks handsome and polished, and if he doesn't stray too far off-script, he can sound pretty intelligent. It makes way too much sense for the establishment to rally behind him and push him forward.
     
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  14. ElJefe

    ElJefe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 16, 1999
    Colorful Colorado
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, yes, but... Cuban.
     
  15. MatthausSammer

    MatthausSammer Moderator
    Staff Member

    Dec 9, 2012
    Canada
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Do you really think it'll make that big a difference?
     
  16. ElJefe

    ElJefe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 16, 1999
    Colorful Colorado
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There may or may not be some resentment amongst non-Cuban Latinos at the way that federal law has made Cubans a somewhat privileged class of immigrant. So he can speak Spanish, yes, but his words may fall on deaf ears among Mexican-Americans, especially on the topic of immigration.
     
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  17. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Oh, they will hear his new immigration position loud and clear:
    “And then ultimately in 10 or 12 years you could have a broader debate about how has this worked out and should we allow some of them to apply for green cards and eventually citizenship.”
    http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...out-path-to-citizenship-during-his-presidency
     
    Dr. Wankler repped this.
  18. uclacarlos

    uclacarlos Member+

    Aug 10, 2003
    east coast
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Esto. (This)

    And the reality is that for minorities, it's not about having a face represent you. They've got to have ideas and actual, you know, policies.

    And in that sense, Marco Rubio and Rafael Eduardo Cruz might as well be Mark Blond and Ted Cross for most Latinos in the US.

    Heck. Even for most Cubans nowadays, as the post-Berlin Wall newcomers have re-shaped that community and given voice to younger Cubans who are sooooo over the Timon-esque hysteria of the anti-Fidel groups.
     
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  19. dapip

    dapip Member+

    Sep 5, 2003
    South Florida
    Club:
    Millonarios Bogota
    Nat'l Team:
    Colombia
    Two things.

    First, living in Miami, I know first hand that not all Cubans are Republicans, and they are looking more like the national electorate, meaning that the old rich white Cubans vote GOP hardcore, while the younger poorer ones, vote Democrat. There are plenty of younger latinos that really dislike Rubio and the GOP.

    Secondly, as Ted Cruz is finding out, Rubio's policies are not popular. These two guys seem to confuse getting elected with ease with having popular support. In Rubio's case, his support is basically astroturfed by his puppeteer, Norman Braman. So don't be surprised if the billionaire donors that left Walker and joined him, leave him when he starts to tank in the polls.
     
  20. dapip

    dapip Member+

    Sep 5, 2003
    South Florida
    Club:
    Millonarios Bogota
    Nat'l Team:
    Colombia
  21. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    Every politician that says the Pope should not discuss politics should STFU about their religion.
     
  22. Minnman

    Minnman Member+

    Feb 11, 2000
    Columbus, OH, USA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Interesting how that Huff Post article ends:

    "However, Francis holds a degree as a chemical technician and worked as a chemist before becoming a priest."

    A scientist? Not exactly. But it would appear even his scientific credentials dwarf those of the politicians who are criticizing him.
     
  23. dapip

    dapip Member+

    Sep 5, 2003
    South Florida
    Club:
    Millonarios Bogota
    Nat'l Team:
    Colombia
  24. argentine soccer fan

    Staff Member

    Jan 18, 2001
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Club:
    CA Boca Juniors
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    I'm not sure that Rubio being Cuban is that big a deal. While the resentment against Cubans among some Latinos is real, I'd say most of those who are resentful of Cubans would be people who are unlikely to vote for any Latino Republican regardless of where he/she is from. And I'd think a majority of Mexican-Americans wouldn't vote for a Republican even if he was and looked as Mexican as Vicente Fernandez.

    Marco Rubio will not get much Latino support, but if he plays his hands right on some issues that matter to Latinos and especially on immigration reform, he might get just enough more Latino support than a non-latino Republican candidate would, enough perhaps to make a difference if the election ends up being close and comes down to a couple of key states.
     
    MatthausSammer repped this.
  25. dapip

    dapip Member+

    Sep 5, 2003
    South Florida
    Club:
    Millonarios Bogota
    Nat'l Team:
    Colombia

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