Politics The Elephant in the room...The GOP today

Will a message of shared values/vision or empathy win out in 2014 and 2016?

The Republicans will play the values/vision card focused on the unpopularity of the ACA.

The Democrats will play the empathy card focused on the growing gap between the rich and the middle class and working poor (income inequality and issues like minimum wage, food stamps, etc.)

Empathy won big in 2012.



The Parties Have Already Devised Their Midterm Messages - NationalJournal.com

 

How did this become about the Tea Party? I knew I was not going to support Christie about 3 or 4 years ago for anything. I do not trust him and he is an arrogant, loudmouth bully. His office abused power, that is the issue. And I doubt that he was unaware.

 

I like Christie, even after this scandal, but I can't imagine voting for him.

Like I said, he is disqualified from being president by being a hothead.

 

Because this is about the possibility of Christie running for President in 2016, and how that looks much less likely now. The person/people he would be running against in the primary would be from the Tea Party. The GOP would have rallied around Christie as someone who lead a blue state and got reelected by a wide margin. He is tough, gets his way, and gets the job done. He also knows how to rebuild, which is what a lot of this country could use. And going up against Hillary or Warren, he is smart enough and loud enough to get attention from the general voter. Something a Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio doesn't quite have.

The question is, what other favors did he pull? Or what other retributions were dealt out? If the investigation finds nothing, he might be able to get through it. But, it isn't just the Democrats that don't want to run against him. There are Tea Party candidates that don't want to face him in the primary either. I don't see this being enough to bring him down though.

 

Where is the Democrat's agenda? That is what I want to know. They seem to be running from one issue to the next and not getting anything done. It is just like the 24 hour news networks that can't talk about the same topic for more than 10 minutes. The Democratic party needs to come up with a new Contract with America to say this is what we need to do, this is why we need to do it, and this is how it gets done.

Why should we care about the GOP agenda? They only hold a majority in the house due to gerrymandering and quite a few fly-over states with low populations being over represented. Obama and the Democrats should be figuring out how to implement their policies and get things done to improve the country and it's people even more than they have.

 

What. Repeating three times is not enough?

How, pray tell, do you guys suggest getting the Senate Democrats comprehensive immigration reform (with some Republican support) through the House when the Speaker wont allow to come to the floor for a vote.

Or how can the Democrats get their jobs/infrastructure bill past the Republican filibuster (cloture) in the Senate? And if, by chance, it was watered down enough to pass the Senate, it would face the same fate as the immigration bill in the House with the Speaker never allowing it come to the floor for a vote.

Or the several climate change related bills floated by Democrats facing those same Republican filibusters in the Senate and a Chair of the House Science & Tech Committee with jurisdiction who is of the belief that only God can control climate and refuses to even allow hearings.

Or investing in education and R&D when Republicans would rather slash and burn in the name of deficit reduction.

The framers of the Constitution envisioned a system where the minority party would have a voice and compromise would prevail. They did not envision an abuse of parliamentary procedures and/or House and Senate rules to such an extent whereby the Republicans believe that if they have the majority, as in the House, it should be absolute and if they are in the minority, as in the Senate, they should have an equal voice.

 

:lol

Sorry, I have a crappy internet connection. The page didn't load, and I just hit reload a few times.

 

I would love to see Ted Nugent in the 2016 Republican primaries.

 

McCain is not a political figure I trust. Perhaps another way to look at this is that the GOP is getting its act together.

Convictions test. The problem with McCain is that he has been all over the place on issues. If a politician is outside of the party platform on an issue, but is consistent with it and supports his views then gets elected there won't be a problem. When a person runs on one thing and acts counter to it, people who voted for the person (outside of those who voted for Obama twice) tend to get upset. I know there is a perception that a conservative has to run far right in the primary and then go to the center for the general - but I think that is false. But that is what we got with Romney and McCain, both lost.

Otherwise, it is no secrete that there is an internal battle in the GOP. For 2016, my current bet is on Rand Paul. I don't think Paul Ryan is going to run. Rubio would be in over his head. The guy from Jersy is toast. Jeb Bush wants to run but, his mom won't let him - he need to grow a pair or ride off into the sunset. If Palin runs, not only will I vote for her, I would work on her campaign. Other GOP governors lack name recognition and momentum at this time. Either way it is going to be close, tough and is an open battle. It will be fun and interesting with good debate. As opposed to the Democrats who have already anointed Clinton - no debate from the liberal side, not good for the US.

 

Bad idea.

Me, I have already announced that I will not seek re-election after age 80.

 

Speaking of someone who ran on one platform and is now doing the opposite: