Your 2016 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

i realize anything's possible, there's prob a parallel universe where president palin just declared martial law, but christie's still dealing with a pretty major scandal that's not going away any time soon and hillary has a huge fanbase left over from her previous run.

Christie's staff killed an old woman.

Not actually joking.

i actually thought the whole bridge-gate thing had blown-over (unless something shocking is unearthed)

When the money stops, you know a candidate is done.

^^^^

GOP's got nobody, this is Hillary's to lose unfortunately.

He shit in his backyard too many times, and those recipients started wagging their tongues.

Nobody has ever spoken fondly of him, except they were glad he was willing to be an asshole in confronting the teacher's unions.

People think fondly of Hillary but as The Inevitable, it's only a matter of time before someone else in the party gets some play.

And there's a long time for someone to appear.

Would be nice to think of examples where old ladies won big elections. She'll be nearly 70 at the election.

And you know wing nuts will be leaking or demanding her health records.

wingnuts are always leaking.

she'll peel women and aging white male votes from the gop, she's 20x more savvy than everyone, save obama, who's run in the last two election cycles, she's got a great, cutting way in debates, she's deep into details on policy.

you're wrong on almost all these points, imo. women are already a pretty solidly Democratic demo, and idk what her appeal to old white male GOPers is, they probably can still dredge up their hatred of her from previous Clinton administration if they're old enough. Dunno about "savvy", her campaign against Obama demonstrated she couldn't pivot too nimbly against new and challenging threats. don't recall her being particularly "cutting" in any of the debates (feel free to remind me of any quality zings), but being too "cutting" will = "Shrillary!" howls from the peanut gallery. And policy details put the electorate to sleep.

I think her biggest problem is she has no platform to run on besides a) being Hillary Clinton and b) getting shitloads of Dem cash.

Would be nice to think of examples where old ladies won big elections. She'll be nearly 70 at the election.

tbf it happens all the time. in other countries.

He shit in his backyard too many times, and those recipients started wagging their tongues.

Nobody has ever spoken fondly of him, except they were glad he was willing to be an asshole in confronting the teacher's unions.

People think fondly of Hillary but as The Inevitable, it's only a matter of time before someone else in the party gets some play.

And there's a long time for someone to appear.

― anything but a martyr (dandydonweiner), Thursday, February 13, 2014

well, like i said, i've been out-of-the-loop (by design) for awhile. still, a few points.

• the cristie criticisms i've heard before, but they've been around for a long time, and yet he was seen as a 2016 gop favorite

• hrc isn't "inevitable," and she'll downplay that notion this time around. but she is formidable, and the only person that seems likely to rise (from the left, where you'd expect the challenge to arise) is warren, who's amazing, but already said she won't run v. hrc.

I don't think anyone's gonna really challenge Hillary from the left, where is the money going to come from

Warren will get money from me.

I think her biggest problem is she has no platform to run on besides a) being Hillary Clinton and b) getting shitloads of Dem cash.

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, February 13, 2014

policy-wise, she'll run mostly as obama's successor, but try to distance herself rhetorically. she'll continue pushing on the ACA (in fact, she could move to the left of obama on HCR, in at least subtle ways), she'll be a hawk, she'll push for comprehensive immigration reform, she'll probably endorse a strengthening of the safety net.

i guess the gop opponent will have a platform, but it will be the same retread, dumb ideas they've had for years now (yes, yes, i've heard they're working on an "anti-poverty" policy-package).

It's incredibly sad that we could end up with Bush, Clinton, Bush, (Obama), Clinton (or maybe Jeb?). Just the overwhelmingly lame aesthetics of that could damage HRC...

As far as her relationship with the press and Obama's voters in general, she's learned a great deal from her mistakes and from actually not winning for once in her life. Plus, everyone liked her enough as SoS.

It's incredibly sad that we could end up with Bush, Clinton, Bush, (Obama), Clinton (or maybe Jeb?). Just the overwhelmingly lame aesthetics of that could damage HRC...

― schwantz, Thursday, February 13, 2014

in times of trouble, go with what you know.

Daniel, we know plenty more now about the guy Charles Pierce calls Big Chicken. Elizabeth Drew:

Moreover, the way the Christie administration has distributed Sandy funds is becoming a major scandal of its own. Christie had to fight hard to get the just over $60 billion in relief money approved by Congress. At the time, several members of Congress charged that some of the money would be diverted for projects that had little or nothing to do with hurricane damage. Unfortunately, those critics have already been proven right. Steve Kornacki of MSNBC has exposed more Christie issues than anyone else. Among Kornacki’s stories was a piece on the use of Sandy funds to build a seniors’ apartment complex in Belleville, an inland town barely affected by the hurricane. (The project was on the drawing board well before Sandy hit.)

There have been complaints, meanwhile, that while sections of the shore have been restored, in particular the tourist area, many people with houses on the Jersey shore that were devastated weren’t receiving the funds they deserved; no one knows what criteria were applied for helping people whose homes were destroyed almost a year and a half ago. Another issue that has brought trouble for Christie is that he used some of the federal money to pay for ads – not by the lowest bidder—about Sandy recovery efforts that featured his family in the months running up to his reelection. The company hired to assess the compliance of Sandy projects with the law was suddenly and mysteriously fired the first week of February.

If it turns out that Christie has used the federal relief payment as a slush fund, this has serious implications—not just for Christie and for his state but for any state in the country that has a natural disaster in the future. Christie’s activities are now of national import.

what if hrc doesn't run?

omg. O'Malley v. Cuomo v. Hickenlooper v. Schweitzer v. Gillibrand v. Klobuchar v. Napolitano.

elizabeth warren, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. woo woo woo.

kornacki the christie-killer.

i agree, btw, that if christie used disaster relief as a slush-fund, it goes beyond hurting his political career. it's disgraceful, partly because it proves the right-wing cynics were correct, and could really hurt future disaster relief (which, obv., is urgently needed after a devastating event like sandy).

Plus, Christie hugged a black president in October 2012, a sin for which the GOP has never forgiven him and used as an example of his apostasy because they're stupid.

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/4f12b7a052020467cb2e67106cddcf1a/tumblr_n0ud3fjzCE1qzniimo1_1280.jpg

he looks so happy

a biden vs. christie race would be...something.

Plus, Christie hugged a black president in October 2012, a sin for which the GOP has never forgiven him and used as an example of his apostasy because they're stupid.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 13, 2014

how big a deal is this? i mean, say christie's politics are almost perfectly aligned with the gop base, and his one misstep was the sandy situation (which, of course, includes his hugging pres. obama). is he DOA in the 2016 primary?

say christie's politics are almost perfectly aligned with the gop base

let's stop right there

xps presumably before some kid transferred into his district and took the starting catcher's job

why? it's a hypothetical question. not taking a position either way. i'm genuinely curious about how serious that one moment of bad-optics was for the gop base.

(xp)

xps presumably before some kid transferred into his district and took the starting catcher's job

― mookieproof, Thursday, February 13, 2014

president christie will not stop until he hunts-down that kid and drone-kills him.

Other than defending Muslims, there is no -- none -- difference between Christie and the GOP in 2014.

okay. so exactly how heretical is his "hugging a black president" moment?

i mean, the gop's know about that very public image -- and been upset about the timing -- for over a year now. but that's not what's supposedly stopping or slowing christie.

oh I dunno, used to be pro-choice, "soft" on immigration - there's some light there I think

xp

He lost the election because he hugged this thing and thus showed he was a RINO all along, according to the base.

wait, wasn't christie leading polls of republicans recently as the 2016 favorite? they knew about the "hugging the black president" moment then, and all the other gop contenders were just as high-profile at that time as they are now, but the polls still favored christie v. other gop hopefuls.

i dunno. if his 15 minutes of fame is over, i'll hardly cry about it. i just didn't realize we'd reached that point.

good going, america.

Daniel, watch Chris Hayes, who as I'm typing is reviewing the Sandy allegations.

The hug won't hurt Christie at all. The Sandy allegations are much, much more potent for obvious reasons.

Am so glad Biden has no chance in this thing.

christie's done. hugging a gay black chicago thug muslim kenyan weak dictator didn't kill him but it's part of why nobody really has his back, it's part of why rand paul is able to get traction continuing to attack. this christie thing has made msnbc completely unwatchable btw. john cornyn's tea party challenger has been using a pic of cornyn hugging obama from a photoshopped image of crist hugging obama in their campaign against him. moveon/kos used lieberman hugging bush against him in 2006.

hillary doesn't have a platform yet cuz it's 2014

Daniel, watch Chris Hayes, who as I'm typing is reviewing the Sandy allegations.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 13, 2014

on it (and thanks). but since you and i are the only people watching chris-hayes right now . . .

lol xpost

omg is RAND PAUL gonna be the nominee? hrc v. rand is almost better than hrc v. christie.

this christie thing has made msnbc completely unwatchable btw

dude, it was unwatchable EXCEPT for Kornacki and Hayes. Now it's tedious. But, you know, journalism.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ otmfm

what's really sad there is that kornacki and hayes should switch roles. another discussion for another thread.

I don't see how Rand Paul gets the nomination, even with a solid year to rehab his image

dammit.

Christie's biggest problem is that he is an asshole and being an asshole (especially in this day and age) usually gets in the way of a presidential run. It's hard for an asshole to be consistently telegenic.

And while we're at it, America is not ready to elect a fat person.

http://www.history.com/images/media/slideshow/william-h-taft/william-h-taft-speaking.jpg