Your 2016 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhot2OJKKZc

just scoot down

http://politicalwire.com/2015/05/26/the-gop-has-a-math-problem/

good stuff, but i was hoping it would be about how the GOP has trouble with basic math

that too

what the hell is GOP's prolem

I'm reminded of the exchange between Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter in Michael Mann's Manhunter:

Graham: I know that I'm not smarter than you.

Lecter: Then how did you catch me?

Graham: You had disadvantages.

Lecter: What disadvantages?

Graham: You're insane.

that math problem thing was conventional wisdom was all the rage after Romney lost in 2012. the GOP appointed a blue ribbon committee that told them they must pass immigration reform and win the latino vote. the upshot of this is the GOP hopes Jeb will speak a few words of Spanish and paper over the whole issue for them.

gop has a structural advantage in congressional elections, until that stops awarding them majorities theyre not gonna be desperate enough to change the policies/culture thats causing them problems on the presidential level

stoked 4 the madness http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/05/26/gop-courts-danger-with-its-enormous-presidential-field

― lag∞n, Tuesday, May 26, 2015 12:30 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the speculation here about things the bottom tier might propose to get noticed seems plausible (sometimes eerily so), but i think it's mistaken to assume that the front runners (such as they are) would be obliged to change tactics to follow them. scott walker is not going to star talking about a new invasion of iraq just because some nobody is polling well in a few districts with it. i don't remember romney co-opting the 9-9-9 plan in his struggle with santorum.

if anything, the leading actors count on the wingnuts so they can depict themselves as the "level-headed" type of republican. remember that the base assumes the majority of americans like your basic, tough-on-things, gets-things-done conservatives, and will vote for them given the chance.

romney got bullied to the right last time around its a classic phenomenon u can p much bank on it

can we start taking bets on what dumb shit Scott Walker will do to undermine his front-runner status

i mean level headed doesnt play to a base that disagrees with you

one of the things I enjoyed the most about the last GOP primary was the one-by-one elimination of temporary front-runners - Newt was up for a week! then crashed and burned. Then it was Herman Cain's turn! *kablooey* Then it was Rick Perry's turn! etc. The frantic lashing about for an alternative to Romney, resulting in everyone failing one after the other was truly a thing of beauty.

xp

thinking those people were frontrunners bcz they won A SINGLE CAUCUS in some cases was dumbpunditassery.

(or maybr even finished 2nd in one!)

The frantic lashing about for an alternative to Romney, resulting in everyone failing one after the other was truly a thing of beauty.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 26, 2015 1:38 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha yeah they h8ed him so much

lol

http://i.imgur.com/qVmECOp.jpg

poor Jon Huntsman

Yeah, it was crazy. Bachmann even had her 15 minutes of fame for winning the Iowa straw poll.

"bullied to the right" is absolutely a thing, but feeling obliged to take up specific totally wonk-o-matic policy positions is more of a reach IMO. the base likes their nuts but they also get excited when they think they see a straight-shooting winner. remember that week or two when we were all terrified Rick Perry was an unstoppable combination of good looks and right wingery packaged in a straight-talkin', mainstream-ready politician with unassailable stage presence and grace under fire? (actually that would be a good reminder in general that by this time next year the field will likely look very very different...)

idk wld be willing to bet money that jeb and rubio will be forced to track hard right on immigration this cycle

btw, has newt said anything about a possible 2016 run? does anyone care about him anymore?

no rational person thought Cain Bachmann Newt etc had a prayer of being nominated at the time of their "frontrunner" status.

Perry makes W look like a smoothie

(not the fruity kind)

rubio fwiw has already been forced way off his supposedly gop saving immigration plan of a couple years ago

no rational person thought Cain Bachmann Newt etc had a prayer of being nominated at the time of their "frontrunner" status.

this is what made their "frontrunner" status hilarious

no rational person thought Cain Bachmann Newt etc had a prayer of being nominated at the time of their "frontrunner" status.

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, May 26, 2015 1:48 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is what made it so funny that they were polling ahead of romney

haha xp

so basically it was the MSM saying "this week on Knots Landing"

it was the lamestream media iirc

or Real Housewives of Greenville, South Carolina

xp

yep

lamestream media calling actual voting americans on the phone smh what a farce wake up sheeple

so Rick Perry topped out at 30% and then, i presume, began talking a lot

basically!

he made three big mistakes, i'm sure i can remember them, just give me a second here

literally the only time in my life that I've cheered Ron Paul

when perry said he had a list of three government agencies he wld eliminate and cld only remember two lol

i always thought it was "oops" that really sunk perry, but looking back at the polls he was already divebombing in the month before that happened

"oops" was on Nov 9, 2011, but he was already far from his 32% peak by then

http://i.imgur.com/dCqxA4X.jpg

he must have committed a serious of embarrassing errors sometime between Sept 25 and Oct 14

or, since almost all of his losses in the polls during that those few weeks went straight to herman cain, it's possible that millions of american voters just love pizza

its verifiably true that they do

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_debates,_2012

September 22, 2011 – Orlando, Florida

The sixth Republican debate was held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, and was sponsored by Fox News Channel and Google. It was moderated by Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Megyn Kelly. The debate was only the second of the 2012 cycle to feature former governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico; he was also in the May 5, 2011 debate. This debate in particular was prominent as featuring the highest amount of candidates in attendance; out of the ten major Republican candidates for the Presidential nomination, only former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty was absent, as he had already dropped out of the race at this point in time.

The debate engendered controversy when a pre-recorded question fielded by Army service member Stephen Hill from Iraq via YouTube, concerning whether any one of the candidates would reinstate the recently retired "Don't ask, don't tell" policy excluding openly-gay soldiers like himself from the US military, elicited vocal booing from a few audience members; Santorum, whose turn it was to answer a question, stated that "I would say any type of sexual activity has no place in the military" after the booing had subsided, and was applauded by the audience for his response. Rick Perry drew criticism from the other candidates over the Texas DREAM Act, which provides discounts for tuition prices for the children of illegal immigrants. Perry's response, that the other candidates didn't "have a heart" was poorly received by conservatives.[16][17]

Perry's overall performance was criticised. His speech was so garbled that Mark Hemingway of the Weekly Standard asked if he had suffered a stroke,[18] and Brit Hume of Fox News stated that Perry, "at a time when he needed to raise his game, I mean, he did worse, it seems to me, than he had done in previous debates."

Gary Johnson, who lagged in polls and media attention, made headlines and became the most searched-for candidate on Google for several hours for a joke he made towards the end of the debate, saying, "My next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this administration."[19]

i wonder who the tim pawlenty of the 2016 GOP primary will be

hopefully it will be Tim Pawlenty

Plenty of Pataki to go around

who the fuck was gary johnson? I don't even remember him.

I liked Jon Huntsman.

i thought i had a picture of gary johnson in my head, but it turned out it was jon huntsman, ha.

garys don't have a good track record in these things really. bauer was just doomed from the word 'go.' those creepy eyes. feel like he reminds me of some 80s comedy movie villain or something but i can't place who.

Gary is an asshole name. And I liked Hart.