Politics The 2016 US Presidential Election

I agree. August 2015 seems pretty early for an official debate. If we had a condensed election cycle from July 4th, 2016-Nov. 8th, 2016 with the primaries all happening in July and August, the national conventions in early September, and the election in November, it would be a lot better.

The problem is the primary season kicks off February 1st and 2nd in Iowa. By the end of March you know who has the momentum and will get votes from people looking to side with the winner. January is freezing cold and getting crowds together or competing against the NFL playoffs is tough. December is lost due to everyone being so busy and not wanting to deal with politics during the holidays. The second half of November is Thanksgiving and big college football games. So the primary season is happening now through September. Then the campaigns need to get more people to side with their candidate from September through early November.

The Democrats will have to figure out if they should have anyone else besides Sanders and Clinton on the stage, while the GOP will need to determine how do you get one candidate to be the overwhelming favorite. Having someone nominated with only 20% of the people choosing them as their first pick doesn't send the best message.

 

Trump in polling at #2 in NH; but 8th nationally (7th if you dont count Walker who has not officially announced yet).

 

Honestly at this point the Democrats could put up anyone inoffensive and run entirely on a campaign of electing "Not The Republican Candidate".

 

Donald Trump has spent years courting Hillary and other Dems - Nick Gass - POLITICO

A Donald Trump & Hillary debate would be pretty interesting to watch.

But it doesn't sound like the very conservative base likes him much. It will be interesting how Trump, Bush, and Christie do.

I just don't understand why Trump isn't going for the 'job creator, successful businessman, personal responsibility, and equal opportunity' type of campaign. A President has to be very diplomatic and able to represent American values on the world stage. Pissing off a large friendly country just South of us isn't a very good strategy...

 

Yes, but I don't know how America would answer a poll question "Would you rather work at a job you don't want to do so you can get an upper-class lifestyle, or would you rather help your community out and live a comfortable lifestyle where everyone was cared for?"

 

The thing is we're obsessed with the concept of toil. It's not even about work, meaningfully accomplishing things, it's about how much time we devote to toil. Americans worship the concept of righteous suffering and their devotion is paid through toil.

 

I think the reference was to a hypothetical either/or choice of Trump (R) v. Sanders (D) in November 2016.

 

I continue to be legitimately excited for Bernie Sanders, and kind of perpetually in shock that he is really running and doing well. This is the first time in my life that a relatively credible candidate for president has been saying the kinds of things that he's been saying. For example:
Bernie Sanders Responds To Wisconsin Republicans Calling Him An Extremist

Dude, that's good stuff. For the first time in my life, I actually made a campaign contribution to a candidate for national office, based in part on hearing that.

 

Th circus is a month away and the jockeying to be invited is first priority.

Those Republicans sure know now to plan a fun circus for all!

 

How would he pay for what he proposes? How would he get his agenda through Congress? Seems to me that his message is pure rhetoric.
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What about the people he employs. They are getting hurt, not Trump. Trump will die with more money than anyone could reasonable spend in 100's of lifetimes. The person who has dedicated their life to the Miss America pageant could be out of a job in the future. We need to separate what a leader of an organization may say from the organization.
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At least there are people interested in running and who are willing to debate and take questions on the issues. Why do you consider this a circus? Isn't this what we want - a diverse and competitive field of candidates? I love it!

 

When the pageant withdrawals were announced, I immediately thought of the ending of the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous. There are contestants whose chance at the spotlight has been yanked away.

I trust you'll keep that in mind next time, when the topic of discussion is some Democratic politico.

 

Most proposals by candidate of both parties is a mix of rhetoric and reality. How will Republicans offset the increased deficit of repealing the ACA (estimated by CBO at $137 billion over the next ten years and higher in the out years.)

Sanders would offset the costs of many of his proposals (e.g. free tuition for in-state public universities) with tax reform -- a new tax on financial transactions (that would hit the wealthiest derivative traders the most) and a more progressive income tax, with the top rate back to somewhere between pre-Reagan levels and Clinton levels) -- along with reducing military spending (why does the US need to spend more than the next seven countries expenditures combined for defense spending).

No worries, Ace. The Miss USA Pageant was dropped by NBC but will air on Reelz...check your TV listings this weekend of you dont want to miss it!

The more Republicans who run, the better! And the more they try to demonstrate who among them has the most rigid "conservative/family values" to appeal to the Tea Party and evangelical base, the better for the Democratic candidate.

I expect Fox to toss out softballs in the Aug 6 debate and make it all about Obama, but as some point, they will have to justify their rigid ideological positions on social issues, immigration reform, tax reform, foreign policy (and the fight between libertarian isolationists v right wing war hawks)....issues where they are on the wrong side of public opinion in most cases.

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, children of all ages, the circus is coming to town!
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Four of the first six Republican debates are hosted by Fox News, Fox Business or CNBC. They couldnt ask for more sympathetic, less "fair and balanced" hosts!

RNC Announces Debate Schedule Sanctions 9 Debates | GOP

Where is PBS?

 

I will and have indulged in Ben & Jerry's Ice cream. When Ben & Jerry ran the company I thought their political view were ridiculous. I own some stock in Starbucks, I think the CEO's views on the minimum wage are a bit self-serving and would prefer he simply run the business. I could go on - I appreciate it but there is no basis for your concern
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Are we trusting the CBO's numbers now? Most Republican have the position of repeal and replace. It is an issue worthy of debate in my opinion. Deals done behind closed doors, written by interest groups without bi-partisan support, passed without a reasonable review and open debate the way the ACA was passed is simply wrong for legislation of this type. Where you comfortable with how the ACA was written and passed?

Does he know that when the top marginal rate in the US was 90% very few actually ever paid that rate. The few that did most likely got caught off-gaurd with an income windfall without enough time for legal tax avoidance strategies. The rich were not paying a larger share of personal income taxes at that time compared to what they pay today. Perhaps we should look at the details of his plans and ask him some questions other than the superficial questions he has been getting.

That was not the primary point of my post. Are you pointing out that in the long-run Trump is not going to be harmed, if so I agree. Those potential scholarship recipients have worked hard for their moment of fame. And who knows, perhaps there is another Gretchen Carlson, Fox News in the bunch.

Lindsey Graham supports a pathway to citizenship and has worked on passing comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate, he has done more than Clinton. We have a range of views on the subject from his position to what Trump said. This is good for debate. It also helps us weed out the weak, i.e. Jeb Bush, it took him over a week to articulate a coherent response to Trump's comments. Not acceptable. But if not for Trump's comments we would may not have uncovered this weakness. Jeb wants to play to moderates and conservatives and comes across as a bumbling fool. He still has time to fix it, but we will see. Either way it is a good process.

 

What better source than the CBO? And where are those Republican plans? Five years of repeal and rhetoric, but not one detailed plan offered by Republicans.

I would have preferred a more inclusive process for the drafting of the ACA, but the Republicans made it clear from the start that they had no interest, despite the fact that the foundation of the law is based, in part, on the Republican alternative to HillaryCare with the inclusion of a mandate (tax penalty) and a Heritage proposal for insurance exchanges. The bill also contained numerous Republican amendments.

We should also be asking Republican candidates how their "fair tax" plans are really fair and not regressive. Or how their proposals to reduce the debt are based on supply side assumptions that have failed in the past.....details on how they can significantly reduce the debt with program cuts alone w/o any tax increases.

No one would expect the top taxpayers to pay the marginal rate, but with a higher marginal rate comes a higher effective rate.

Or think how history might have changed if Sarah Palin won the Miss Alaska pageant instead of first runner up!

Lindsey Graham wont be sitting at the big kids table at the debates, but Marco Rubio will and he helped write the 2013 bi-partisan (gang of eight) Senate immigration reform bill and then voted against it when faced with backlash from the Tea Party.