The New American Politics thread

[Caged Great]

Good, I hope relations between the two nations continues to soften over the next year.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

So this should be a fun exercise to see how the Republicans will turn this into a major negative



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle...e=news_central

Looks like full compliance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/wo...T.nav=top-news

Thanks, Obama.

[driveway]

Well, the obvious narrative is that the nuclear deal is a bad deal to begin with, that it's going to help Iran get the bomb, that it will result in the death of Israel and that Obama is a coward who desires the destruction of America.

[metallicat]

There was a twitter feed or a blog or something that would post who was leading the Republican polls on a given day back in 2012. Anyone remember what it was? I think it was posted in this thread once upon a time.

[Vulcan]

I guess Rand isn't included.

Spoiler!

[DuffMan]

Cruz’s comments are below, followed by a full statement.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have all demanded an apology. I’m happy to apologize:

I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by liberal politicians in that state.

I apologize to the hard working men and women of the state of New York who have been denied jobs because Governor Cuomo won’t allow fracking. Even though there had been many high paying jobs just south in Pennsylvania, New Yorkers are denied the ability to provide for their families.

I apologize to all the pro-life and pro-marriage and pro-second amendment New Yorkers who were told by Governor Cuomo that they have no place in New York because that’s not who New Yorkers are.

I apologize to all the small businesses who have been driven out of New York city by crushing taxes and regulations.

I apologize to the millions of unborn children, many African-American and Hispanic, whose lives have been taken by politicians who relentlessly promote abortion on demand with no limitations.

I apologize to all of the African-American children who Mayor de Blasio tried to throw out of their charter schools that were providing a lifeline to the American Dream.

I apologize to the people of New York who are offended when the New York Daily News lambastes anyone who prays for victims of violence.
I apologize to the people of faith who are ridiculed and insulted by the New York media.

And I apologize to all the cops and the firefighters and 9/11 heroes who had no choice but to stand and turn their backs on Mayor de Blasio, because Mayor de Blasio over and over again stands with the looters and criminals rather than the brave men and women of the law.

And to the millions of conservatives–working men and women in New York, with common sense values, trapped by the failures of your political leaders–I am glad to tell you, help us on the way. 2016, like 1980, will bring America back.

[Looch City]

Someone tell him that 1980 politics and ways of thinking don't belong in 2016.

[T@T]

It's embarrassing for the City of Calgary that Cruz was born here.

[SportsJunky]

The Democratic debate is on right now. Poor O'Malley is not needed up there. This is the Bernie and Hillary show. Great debate so far. It's nice to hear real discussion from two very intelligent candidates.

[Ducay]

Good debate (O'Malley has done well, but I agree he is just wasting time from the other candidate); at the end of the day, I think both Sanders and Clinton move the US in the right direction, but it really comes down to who is more electable in the general election.

[Looch City]

This Numbers USA stuff is hilariously ridiculous haha. Must be a parody of South Park, dey turk er jerbs!

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by T@T

It's embarrassing for the City of Calgary that Cruz was born here.

That guy is an absolute clown. I consider myself a conservative but Ted Cruz is insane. He's worse than Trump by a mile.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Honest question.

Is any Republican a good candidate for this election?

I know I'm a very liberal person, but all of the candidates I see are pretty terrible. Just one semi-decent candidate would give the Dems a run for their money. Right now......not sure anyone worth a vote.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Honest question.

Is any Republican a good candidate for this election?

I know I'm a very liberal person, but all of the candidates I see are pretty terrible. Just one semi-decent candidate would give the Dems a run for their money. Right now......not sure anyone worth a vote.

The GOP has become a complete joke, whether they believe it or not a republican must claim to be a gun lovin, abortion hating, anti same sex marriage bible thumping freak to get a vote.

The Dems will win the whitehouse, which is another scary story.

[FlameOn]

nvm

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by T@T

The GOP has become a complete joke, whether they believe it or not a republican must claim to be a gun lovin, abortion hating, anti same sex marriage bible thumping freak to get a vote.

Well, to be fair, a Democrat must claim to be a pro-baby-killin', steal yer guns, tax the rich into oblivion, anti-military, pro-regulation-in-all-circumstances government control freak to get a vote.

We all just happen to think the Democrats are by and large on the right side of the issues. It's not that they're much less dedicated to a platform of policy positions than the GOP.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

Hillary would be a horrible president.

She shifts positions more often and more quickly than a 2-dollar prostitute, and she has absolutely no real interest in helping the "little guy" out. Even worse, she believes that she "deserves" the presidency, and has no regard for the truth or the law. She can't be trusted to make good decisions, and she can't be trusted to even support the decisions that she does make.

Politicians change their minds. Indeed if they are actually serving the will of the people they should be changing their minds as the will of the people changes...provided it's in a progressive direction (my thought). Sometimes they need to stick their guns for what is best overall and I agree in that she hasn't had the backbone I'd like to see. But I'm not sure Sanders has ever had the chance to display that he has...he's always an outsider with little power to effect true change.

She has spent her entire adult life in the public eye and has changed her mind and made mistakes. Yes she is self serving but every person running for president is...even Bernie. People can be unsatisfied with Benghazi (then again no one in the general population should expect to know what exactly happened) but they were as unimpressed with the GOP hammering on it and admitting it was just a political stunt. In addition even before here very good performance in front of the committee less than 50% were unsatisfied with her answers...nearly all republicans. Afterwards I'm not sure what the numbers were but I suspect they swung pretty significantly.

If I were to vote in a Democratic primary, I'd vote for Sanders--I don't agree with much of what he proposes, but at least he seems honest about what he says and believes in and there is little doubt about what kind of person he is. With him, what you see is probably what you get.

Sanders like Biden are known as two very straight forward consistent guys. They have both changed their minds on several issues. Sanders is currently changing his mind on guns control for instance. But yes he seems the nicer person. BUt he majorly screwed up I think with the universal health care stuff this past week. Yes it's what should happen but it inexplicably scares americans.


To the above...no there are no good GOP candidates. A few years ago I thought Christie might be able to move to the center and be successful but that clearly didn't happen. Well and his governorship was plagued with crap the past few years. Kasich is about the only guy but he doesn't stand a chance. The rest are buffoons and really shows how people don't actually listen to what is being said or do their homework. If so none of these guys would get more than 20% of the vote but they will get close to 50% just because they are running for the GOP.

Rubio's letter....he's making a last ditch effort before the evangelical driven primaries to get that evangelical vote. BUt it's embarrassing that a person running for president penned that ####.

Trump....538 has a new piece on how much Trump is disliked by general election voters. It's a huge hole with independents. Sanders is actually the only candidate on either side with a net positive favourability rating.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Well, to be fair, a Democrat must claim to be a pro-baby-killin', steal yer guns, tax the rich into oblivion, anti-military, pro-regulation-in-all-circumstances government control freak to get a vote.

No they don't. Not even close. Sanders is easily the most left serious democrat candidate in years and he's about as left wing as a canadian liberal. He's not socialist or communist...americans just don't understand what a democratic socialist actually means. Keep in mind most of his huge game changing ideas are everyday reality for most other industrialized nations.

We all just happen to think the Democrats are by and large on the right side of the issues. It's not that they're much less dedicated to a platform of policy positions than the GOP.

Actually if you go by polls, most people think that the democrats are either the party of the majority belief on issues or at worst tied with the republicans on items.

Gay marriage 63-29 democrats as being on the mainstream side of the issue
Abortion 54-33 democrats
climate change 54-30 democrats
immigration 46-43 democrats (call it a tie)
Fiscal policy 46-42 republicans (call it a tie)
Guns 51-38 republicans---> the only major issue people actually strongly side with the republicans and honestly it's because I really don't think many know exactly what the democrats truly propose or understand the issue.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Re-read; I wasn't commenting on the substance of the Democratic platform but the fact that a defined platform exists, and you have to subscribe to it to become the Democratic candidate. Both sides have dogma that must be unfailingly adhered to. You can't get the nomination as a pro-life, pro-2nd-amendment Democrat. See also: Keystone XL pipeline.

[ernie]

I'll disagree you can't get the nomination if you are pro-life or pro-2nd-amendment democrat. Obama basically was. And really gun control has always been pretty low on the rung of importance for democrats in the grand scheme of things. What you can't do is run as a pro-lifer who is going to open up that can of worms in congress, the senate or courts.

Anyways...

Good article on the path to 1237 delegates a GOP nominee needs from 538. And really why a big lead by Trump and/or Cruz early may not mean anything. The GOP establishment has intentionally neutered those states as much as possible to avoid the outside candidates getting control of the race through proportional delegate awards. For the establishment and trustworthy states it's winner take all.

It is a three horse race between Trump, Cruz and Rubio at this point. Any establishment GOP are going to support Rubio but need to do so early on in the delegate battle (may also be able to substitute any of the other establishment guys like Christie, Bush or Kasich...the last one being the best bet to completely win over independents and dissatisfied democrats).

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...rump-and-cruz/