Your 2016 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

rebranding/pig+lipstick etc: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/us/politics/hillary-clintons-quest-to-prove-her-populist-edge-is-as-strong-as-elizabeth-warrens.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

some clumsy stuff trying to co-opt/neutralize Warren cited there

imo its at least a good sign that she feels the need to acknowledge anyone to her left

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_04/a_loud_n_proud_christian_right055264.php

Republican proto-candidates for president trooped to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s big 2015 cattle call and were loud ‘n’ proud as ever in their commitment to the culture wars.

same 'ol, same 'ol here

meant to post this 2-week-old Taibbi piece on the reportorial/editorial predictability of reacting to the fakery of candidates like "populist" Grandma Fraud:

Hillary's first official week as a presidential candidate went exactly as her handlers must have hoped.

At launch she talked a streak of anti-elitist rhetoric that was taken seriously for a few days, until the punditry took the temperature of her populism and declared to it be the right kind: the fake kind, the purely strategic kind.

The congoscenti even seemed to applaud Clinton for sounding enough like Elizabeth Warren to preclude the necessity of the actual Elizabeth Warren running for president, Warren being the wrong kind of populist, the real kind....

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/campaign-2016-hillary-clintons-fake-populism-is-a-hit-20150416

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will announce his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, presenting a liberal challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sanders, an independent who describes himself as a "democratic socialist," will follow a formal statement with a major campaign kickoff in his home state in several weeks. Two people familiar with his announcement spoke to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity to describe internal planning.

anyone why know why Sanders is doing this at this particular moment? seems kinda random.

this is really gonna force clinton to tack left and answer some difficult questions

lol

god, this country

do you mean this week, or in this campaign? The crown is practically on HRC's head already, if the former.

xp

if he lasts to the NY primary, i suppose i'll vote for him, tho he's not a socialist and he has the same shot at the office that i do.

our votes are meaningless anyway, might as well vote for him

haha I will totally vote for him in a CA primary if it comes to that

I meant this cycle

xp

anyone why know why Sanders is doing this at this particular moment? seems kinda random.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, April 28, 2015 5:38 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i love bernie he is such an awesome grumpy loon

total institution in vermont he is beloved shows up for every little fn event, ive seen him at tiny a local parade and a hippie music festival and an art opening just to mention a few

Its pretty legit that at age 73 he's like 'fuck it lets waste a shitload of time in iowa, I got a point to prove'

"fuck it ive got a point to prove" is m/l his whole reason for being

i mean he calls himself a socialist and is in the us senate lol

its funny cause is is so not vermont hes all grumpy and has a heavy old school new york accent but they love him anyway

total institution in vermont he is beloved shows up for every little fn event, ive seen him at tiny a local parade and a hippie music festival and an art opening just to mention a few

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 28, 2015 5:45 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a thing i've never thought about, where east coast national reps are prob more visible and expected to be part of the community, whereas the idea of seeing jeff merkley at the rose festival is just bizarre to me

but then i guess ron wyden literally bumped me with his shopping cart at the grocery store a couple years back so whatever

yeah obvs its somewhat a function of the size of the state and distance from DC but also some politicians are just much more into retail politics than others, its a great approach to getting reelected tbh, in this particular case vermont is just very tiny and has no citizens

generally its house reps who are more the retail politics types

vermont has more senators than reps tho lol

defazio is pretty active in PDX yeah

Hillary once shouted down a primary challenger to Bill in the middle of the Park Plaza food court. Both of them becoming presidents of the United States was the last thing I could've fathomed.

bills rise to power is a pretty unrealistic journey

#bilderberg

wait, she did that at the state capitol. still a funny story

lol

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ted-cruz-dont-think-ive-202843704.html

at least he used the right article

Sanders running is the only reason I would have to vote next year. If they even let him on the ballot in GA.

was not expecting that to be the Cruz lol.

http://i.imgur.com/aJlf66n.gif

Bobby Jindal "a dark horse."

...if he keeps performing like he has been performing you are going to see him be the Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum of 2008 and 2012

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/28/bobby-jindal-dark-horse-for-2016-gop-presidential-/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

governor bedtime story v governor drinks the water

https://pbs.twimg.com/media-preview/snf:593112593818132480/3jcQm2q-.png

i've already seen that logo with like five different color schemes

it certainly is adaptable

i'd vote for bernie

my theory is that he just couldn't stomach hillary (and all she represents) being automatically anointed

something like that, doubt hes gonna go to hard at her tho, in reality itll be more like the two of them going at republicans during the primary, and as far as driving hillary to the left she was already heading that way anyway cause the economic justice thats sanders main issue is widely popular now, more focus on that will actually benefit hillary in the general

and as far as driving hillary to the left

why the fuck would anyone not see through her saying shit? and yet people talk like it actually means she WILL BEHAVE like Emma Goldman in the Oval Office.

Not "going at her hard" is a nonstarter.

everyone sees through it lol

the thing is the whole party has moved to the left (I KNOW MORBS NOT ENOUGH) so its like actually a real thing

i mean who knows who the real hillary even is has she ever not just done the politically expedient thing

the thing is the whole party has moved to the left

WHAT? You mean, like, since February, or 1998? How?

well theres been the ongoing polarization of both parties with moderates weeded out an replaced by more partyline types, also the economic shitiness of our era has lead to fringe positions becoming mainstream, obvs u havent seen too many legislative results out of that but that has more to do w the realties of our terrible check n balances system than anything, but analysis of how democratic legislators vote has shown a clear trend toward the left which jibes with anecdotal evidence too, also there are things like the fcc shutting down the comcast/time warner deal and adopting net neutrality as an official position that wouldve been unthinkable during the heyday of the clinton middle way

not saying its a revolution but it is a clear trend and hillary is following right along, which seeing as it aligns with the zeitgeist of the party as a whole will prob be reflected in her presidency shd she get elected

the rise of warren etc blah blah

all mostly jibber jabber 'far as i can see

the TW-Comcast thing reminded me of Howard Beale stopping a merger in Network minus the "You didn't win anything" postmortem.

or

Jacob PaperBacharach
‏@jakebackpack
American Liberalism is Jon Stewart blaming Judith Miller for Iraq while Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissinger have a tickle fight.

i'm sort of caught between your respective attitudes. the right pressures have led even awful, deeply cynical people to do some decent things (see: richard nixon) but i don't really see that dynamic at work yet.

yes, when pols like Nixon and Hil do decent things it's called "a coincidence."

nothing... is a coincidence