Elections GOP Road to 2016 Primary Thread

[Jacket time]

Rubio seems like a neocon. Heck, half the candidates seem to be.

Hell ya he is

Marco Rubio Wants to Permanently Extend NSA Mass Surveillance
By Dustin Volz
January 27, 2015

Sen. Marco Rubio wants Congress to permanently extend the authorities governing several of the National Security Agency's controversial spying programs, including its mass surveillance of domestic phone records.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech...anently-extend-nsa-mass-surveillance-20150127

 

[Jacket time]

Looks like Paul is making a little headway

Rand Paul's Crazy Dream of a Libertarian-Democratic Alliance on Civil Rights Is Actually Happening
In crime bills, signs of that rarest Washington unicorn: bipartisanship.
Jan 29, 2015
by David Weigel

Ellison, a black Democrat who was the first Muslim elected to Congress, stood by Paul as he summoned the ghosts of the Civil Rights movement.

 

[ShoelessRye]

Reading posts under any news article leads to some good laughs. You get some pretty "interesting" opinions.

The Dems keep talking about the GOP demographic problem but they have one of their own with their politicians at this point. Outside of Hilary, there isn't many names that you could see running for the office. The best candidate they have represents the old guard. They really need to work on building candidates cause it is looking very bad at this point for their pool.

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about, I was talking with one of my old teachers about this the other day and one of his students who was with us said she thought Hillary was a shoe in, and I think that's the general opinion among Democrats. "Don't worry, we have Hillary." Well if Hillary starts polling in the 30's during the primaries, where do they go? Diamond Joe? Jim "I Think I've Heard of Him" Webb? Howard "WHOOO" Dean? Bernie "Lawn Gnome" Sanders?
To be fair, Americans are incredibly fickle, they want someone charismatic and new, but also someone they've heard of before, someone who will challenge the "establishment," but also who "knows how things get done in Washington."
God I wish Bill could run again, just for the butthurt when he knocked up a campaign staffer and still won the general election by 20 points.

This is the pretty standard problem for the party in the WH, which is why the VP was usually the go-to next in line. The President is the leader of the country and thus the voice of his party and thus no other leaders can really present themselves or grow in stature (unless they basically speak out against their own President). Regan's VP was George HW Bush, who ran and was elected. Clinton beat him and his VP was Al Gore who was then the Dem nominee who lost to George W. Bush. Cheney was too disliked to possibly run so they ran McCain because he lost to Bush in 2000 primaries, GOP than went with Romney in 2012 after he lost to McCain in 2008. Obama chose Biden as his VP because he needed experience and FP credentials on his ticket, but Biden is too old (and seen too much as a cartoon) to be viable right now as well.

If Hillary wasn`t around, I`m sure Obama would have made more of an effort to give new leaders some air. But also back in 2008 nobody knew much of Barack Obama at this stage either. Somebody with a killer stump appeal could skyrocket - Gov Schweitzer is very good, as is Gov. Patrick. O`Malley isn`t terrible either, and I`d bet Gov Cuomo and even Sen Gillibrand would be gearing up for runs as well.

 

[Lead]

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about, I was talking with one of my old teachers about this the other day and one of his students who was with us said she thought Hillary was a shoe in, and I think that's the general opinion among Democrats. "Don't worry, we have Hillary." Well if Hillary starts polling in the 30's during the primaries, where do they go? Diamond Joe? Jim "I Think I've Heard of Him" Webb? Howard "WHOOO" Dean? Bernie "Lawn Gnome" Sanders?
To be fair, Americans are incredibly fickle, they want someone charismatic and new, but also someone they've heard of before, someone who will challenge the "establishment," but also who "knows how things get done in Washington."
God I wish Bill could run again, just for the butthurt when he knocked up a campaign staffer and still won the general election by 20 points.

Also, it's fair to say we had no idea Obama was going to come out of nowhere two years before 2008 but that still doesn't excuse the shallow pool. You can't see a clear future in candidates for the Dems and that should be discerning to the party.

Also, it's very scary to have only one card to play with Hilary. Sure, she is polling well right now but that all changes when there are debates and campaigning in the GE or (as she learned) the primaries.

I've seen many say Jeb is the worst candidate for this cycle because they have a great opportunity to contrast Hilary with a younger fresh candidate. You can't really do that if you have a Bush running against her.

 

[Lead]

Hell ya he is

Marco Rubio Wants to Permanently Extend NSA Mass Surveillance
By Dustin Volz
January 27, 2015

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech...anently-extend-nsa-mass-surveillance-20150127

Yea, I saw that last week and shook my head. Very disappoint in finding politicians with different views on the NSA. Seems like all of Washington is fine with this.

This is the pretty standard problem for the party in the WH, which is why the VP was usually the go-to next in line. The President is the leader of the country and thus the voice of his party and thus no other leaders can really present themselves or grow in stature (unless they basically speak out against their own President). Regan's VP was George HW Bush, who ran and was elected. Clinton beat him and his VP was Al Gore who was then the Dem nominee who lost to George W. Bush. Cheney was too disliked to possibly run so they ran McCain because he lost to Bush in 2000 primaries, GOP than went with Romney in 2012 after he lost to McCain in 2008. Obama chose Biden as his VP because he needed experience and FP credentials on his ticket, but Biden is too old (and seen too much as a cartoon) to be viable right now as well.

If Hillary wasn`t around, I`m sure Obama would have made more of an effort to give new leaders some air. But also back in 2008 nobody knew much of Barack Obama at this stage either. Somebody with a killer stump appeal could skyrocket - Gov Schweitzer is very good, as is Gov. Patrick. O`Malley isn`t terrible either, and I`d bet Gov Cuomo and even Sen Gillibrand would be gearing up for runs as well.

I guess you could argue they are better off compared to recent history since they aren't just using their VP to run. I think it also has helped that the GOP has a strong majority in state governors. It increases the pool.

It's just weird that there are so many well known GOP Senators at this point and hardly any Dems. Reid is the name I think of when I think of Dem Senators. Boxer is gone soon. Booker is there but I don't think he's making waves.

Then you look at the house and you pretty much see Boehner, Pelosi, and Ryan in the news.

Maybe more voices will turn up once the election starts or ends if a GOP candidate wins

 

[ShoelessRye]

Looks like Paul is making a little headway

Rand Paul's Crazy Dream of a Libertarian-Democratic Alliance on Civil Rights Is Actually Happening
In crime bills, signs of that rarest Washington unicorn: bipartisanship.
Jan 29, 2015
by David Weigel





http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/f...lliance-on-civil-rights-is-actually-happening

Paul could be interesting if we ended up with Bush vs Clinton and he decided to run as a third party candidate because the far left Dem flank loath Hillary Clinton for her war mongering and Bill's sellouts to the GOP/Big Business. He probably couldn't win even with a far left/libertarian right coalition of voters but it could be enough polling support to get him into the Presidential debates and that would be must-see tv.

 

[Lead]

Paul could be interesting if we ended up with Bush vs Clinton and he decided to run as a third party candidate because the far left Dem flank loath Hillary Clinton for her war mongering and Bill's sellouts to the GOP/Big Business. He probably couldn't win even with a far left/libertarian right coalition of voters but it could be enough polling support to get him into the Presidential debates and that would be must-see tv.

God forbid we do see Bush v. Clinton but it almost would be necessary to have someone like Paul as a third candidate with those two options given. There's no way the public would be okay with just those two options.

I don't think he would do that though. He's very different from his dad and understands a third party only harms his own party.

 

[Lead]

How Rand Paul bombed at Koch brothers gathering

Some of the most influential players in big-money conservative politics gathered late last month to discuss government

 

[Ayin]

Rand Paul is getting hammered in the news over these vaccine comments.

As well he should.

 

[Lead]

As well he should.

Christie made comments too. CNN is pretty strong on this. Cooper was ripping into it on his show all last night. I guess all this crap got popular from some celebrity and spread pretty far to what we have today.

 

[Ayin]

Christie made comments too. CNN is pretty strong on this. Cooper was ripping into it on his show all last night. I guess all this crap got popular from some celebrity and spread pretty far to what we have today.

I honestly don't know the situation in the US, but I have no problem with politicians (or really anyone, but especially politicians) being called out for ridiculous statements or flat out untruths. (I've become particularly sensitive to this after living the last few years in Canada here in Toronto, where we had a Mayor whose ability to simple say things that were flat out not reality and then walk away to another topic often left me absolutely stunned)

 

[Lead]

I honestly don't know the situation in the US, but I have no problem with politicians (or really anyone, but especially politicians) being called out for ridiculous statements or flat out untruths. (I've become particularly sensitive to this after living the last few years in Canada here in Toronto, where we had a Mayor whose ability to simple say things that were flat out not reality and then walk away to another topic often left me absolutely stunned)

Politicans run into problems when their ideology conflicts with an issue where they know the right answer isn't good for them. For this example, Rand is a libertarian and wants government to have far less control. So when you bring up universal vaccines for children, his stance is expected to be no. If he says yes they should be universal, he's called a fake on all his other stances by some cause he didn't fully follow on that ideology. If he says no, he get burned by the media for a radical view. Either way he loses.

He should've just been more direct and said yes because I don't truly believe he thinks many shouldn't be mandatory.

 

[Ayin]

I had actually assumed his position would be non-mandatory because of his libertarian views/anti-government intervention. I was surprised to see effectively the old 'causes Autism'/ect. reasoning.

 

[Lead]

Rand Paul shushed a female CNBC anchor during an interview

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) didn't like the way a CNBC anchor was interviewing him, so he told her to "calm down," saying she was mischaracterizing basic facts in her questions.

The exchange came in an interview with CNBC anchor Kelly Evans on Monday. Evans asked Paul about legislation he is cosponsoring with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) that would allow companies that have cash overseas to bring it home at a holiday corporate tax rate of 6.5%.

 

[Lead]

I had actually assumed his position would be non-mandatory because of his libertarian views/anti-government intervention. I was surprised to see effectively the old 'causes Autism'/ect. reasoning.

Considering he is an eye doctor, I expected him to mostly agree with vaccines. He should understand their importance.

 

[Ayin]

Considering he is an eye doctor, I expected him to mostly agree with vaccines. He should understand their importance.

I've learned long ago that just because someone is a doctor doesn't mean that they have sound medical knowledge on all topics. The more specialized one is, the more limited the scope of their knowledge, and the need for constant self-study to keep up to date with current findings is huge, being out of the industry (assuming you were educating yourself while you were in it) for even a few years can easily be enough fall behind. It's similar to how many people think a general practitioner/family doctor will be able to answer whatever questions they have, where in many cases they don't have much more than a college level knowledge of specific topics (and that could be decades out of date).


Anyways, I assume some level of his answer was an attempt to secure the crazy anti-vaccine crowd, thus the 'vaccine=mental disorders' answer, as opposed to just his regular base of personal freedom supporters.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Rand Paul shushed a female CNBC anchor during an interview

That was brutal. Paul was completely out of his league. Doesn't look ready for the big stage, IMO.

Considering he is an eye doctor, I expected him to mostly agree with vaccines. He should understand their importance.

He might be an idiot or he might just realize that he's trying to get the votes of idiots and put his own political aspirations above basic decency.

 

[Lead]

Look Who's Terrified of Marco Rubio

A host of ambitious, up-and-coming Florida Republicans are excited about Marco Rubio running for president. They're also getting really anxious.

The party's next tier of candidates is eyeing elections for two prime positions: Rubio's Senate seat in 2016 and the open race for the Governor's Mansion in 2018, when Gov. Rick Scott will be required to step down after a second consecutive term. None of the up-and-comers, however, is anxious to face off against Rubio in either race, so they're waiting to see where he goes before planning moves of their own.

"Everybody in this understands that until Marco is formally in this, the rug could be pulled out from under you at any time," said Florida GOP strategist Rick Wilson.

But even after Rubio announces his final decision, the candidates will still lack a path to higher office that is guaranteed to keep them out of Rubio's way.

 

[Lead]

Romney Exit Opens the Field

The political world has been abuzz for the past four days about Mitt Romney's announcement that he would not seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The decision by the 2012 GOP nominee and former Massachusetts governor both was and wasn't a surprise, and it affects the prospects of some would-be rivals far more than others.

 

[Diamond Jim]

https://twitter.com/hillaryclinton/status/562456798020386816
Hiliary Clinton also weighed in on the vaccine debate.

The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids.
#GrandmothersKnowBest