The New American Politics thread

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Can you comment on this article?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-a...b_9579544.html

The entire piece is interesting, but this part specifically;

Parallex already nailed it but that 48 point lead poll is a clear outlier. Same poll had Trump up 52 and he's down to around 20 in that Quinnipiac poll. So that poll was either poorly done, or was not a reputable pollster. But she'll win New York by 10 points or more, and even if she only wins by 5 it's a devastating blow to his chances. Look at that list again, and rememeber every single one of those results has to go exactly like that, and that only barely gets him past her. Even the slightest margin of error and he can't win. He basically needs to pitch the equivalent of 5 perfect games in a row, and if he allows even one hit out of 135 hitters he's a failure. Possible? Yes. Likely? Obviously not.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Haha, no kidding.

President Barack Obama said Donald Trump's suggestion that Japan and South Korea should consider obtaining nuclear weapons demonstrates the Republican presidential front-runner's lack of understanding about foreign policy and the world at large.

"The person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean Peninsula or the world generally," Obama said at a news conference at the close of the Nuclear Security Summit.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/politi...sis/index.html

[Coach]

That's the Obama equivalent of "everyone in this room is now dumber..."

[T@T]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Haha, no kidding.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/politi...sis/index.html

Trump is nuts, everyone knows this but Obama shouldn't throw stones when it comes to foreign policy and nuclear policy.

- Allowed ISIS to spread across the middle east which is now a world wide problem.

- North Korea is a disaster waiting to happen, how anyone can allow Kim Jong-Un to threaten first strike and develop nukes in the same breath is beyond crazy. There's a reason Kim Jong-Un would never threaten China or Russia.

- Iran nuclear deal is unbelievable, does anyone really believe nuke development stopped?

- Allows Putin to take over part of a country and lets him off the hook for blowing an airliner out of the sky.

Probably wont happen on his watch because he's done in 10 months but I have a bad feeling his weakness will be his legacy when all's said and done.

Obama is the number one reason a nut like Trump made it past the first month of voting. Softest/weakest president ever, and it's not even close.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by T@T

Trump is nuts, everyone knows this but Obama shouldn't throw stones when it comes to foreign policy and nuclear policy.

- Allowed ISIS to spread across the middle east which is now a world wide problem.

President of the United States, not the world. What did he do to "allow" the establishment of the Caliphate? Not enough boots on the ground?

- North Korea is a disaster waiting to happen, how anyone can allow Kim Jong-Un to threaten first strike and develop nukes in the same breath is beyond crazy. There's a reason Kim Jong-Un would never threaten China or Russia.

And the reason they wouldn't is that they're only ones preventing the US from doing anything there. Again, boots on the ground? What's your successful strategy? Start ww3?

- Iran nuclear deal is unbelievable, does anyone really believe nuke development stopped?

Yeah, all the isolationism was really working.

- Allows Putin to take over part of a country and lets him off the hook for blowing an airliner out of the sky.

Yup, should've invaded Russia or sent troops to Ukraine. Because world police work doesn't blow up and probably would've de-escalated the situation.

Probably wont happen on his watch because he's done in 10 months but I have a bad feeling his weakness will be his legacy when all's said and done.

Obama is the number one reason a nut like Trump made it past the first month of voting. Softest/weakest president ever, and it's not even close.

No, he's not. That's absurd, and honestly not trying to be mean here, but simplistic and stupid

[PostandIn]

Obama's application of American soft power in mobilizing the Muslim world to stomp their own snakes plus US military might is paying huge dividends. ISIS is being dismantled, their leaders systematically eliminated, their funding mostly cut off, territory being ceded, all without US combat troops. I don't know what people actually expect.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Some people expect Obama to run the entire planet. And do it perfectly.

[DownInFlames]

I'm happy to see a President who doesn't throw America into every conflict that comes up. Obama has made some mistakes, but starting stupid wars isn't one of them.

[T@T]

Well alrighty then, apparently everyone is happy with Obamasoft, clearly his policy's have made everyone around the world feel safe.

I'm wrong as usual.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by T@T

Well alrighty then, apparently everyone is happy with Obamasoft, clearly his policy's have made everyone around the world feel safe.

I'm wrong as usual.

"Well I guess everything's wrapped up in a neat little package!!"

[Looch City]

Why is it that every irrational argument against Obama is followed by calling him one of the idiotic names, Obamasoft, Nobama, Obummer, etc.

You sound like you're 12.

[sun]

Originally Posted by T@T

I'm wrong as usual.

A+ sig material here, if anyone is interested.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

I'm happy to see a President who doesn't throw America into every conflict that comes up. Obama has made some mistakes, but starting stupid wars isn't one of them.

Hillary on the other hand....

[Azure]

Originally Posted by PostandIn

Obama's application of American soft power in mobilizing the Muslim world to stomp their own snakes plus US military might is paying huge dividends. ISIS is being dismantled, their leaders systematically eliminated, their funding mostly cut off, territory being ceded, all without US combat troops. I don't know what people actually expect.

I don't think it is necessarily soft power. The US has troops on the ground over there, but they are there to mobilize the Muslim world like you mentioned. But they are very much involved.

Obama's policy is pretty harsh though in terms of projecting military power. Look at what is happening in the South China Sea. The way he handled JSOC.

I think he has done well with what he inherited. And what he inherited was a royal mess.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Not to mention that blaming Obama for the rise of Trump is like blaming deforestation on dolphins. The relatively small fraction of voters who like Trump are generally people who voted for McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012. There are no "Trump Democrats" to speak of. The "rise" of Trump (which I'm beginning to feel may come to a screeching halt pretty soon) has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with the GOP alienating and losing touch with a section of their own base.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Not to mention that blaming Obama for the rise of Trump is like blaming deforestation on dolphins. The relatively small fraction of voters who like Trump are generally people who voted for McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012. There are no "Trump Democrats" to speak of. The "rise" of Trump (which I'm beginning to feel may come to a screeching halt pretty soon) has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with the GOP alienating and losing touch with a section of their own base.

Careful, according to Bill Maher, a huge percentage of democrats support Trump's policies when you remove trumps name according to some poll he quoted.

Scary thought.

I don't endorse Maher and I think he is a bit of a twat, but doubt he is straight out lying.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Kavvy

Careful, according to Bill Maher, a huge percentage of democrats support Trump's policies when you remove trumps name according to some poll he quoted.

Scary thought.

I don't endorse Maher and I think he is a bit of a twat, but doubt he is straight out lying.

Trump has some positions that aren't held by the conservative base ie. Universal Healthcare

[Itse]

Sanders gets some extra delegates in Nevada after a real hassle it seems. Impossible to get a proper read on everything that went down, but it seems like there's been some pretty hardball tactics from both sides, and both sides are blaming the other for cheating.

Here's the confusing version:
http://usuncut.com/politics/bernie-w...cratic-caucus/

EDIT:
I think the most simple-to-understand version is at Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/co...as_won_nevada/

He has gotten 2 delegates to flip (so 18-17 currently), with 2 more likely to flip at the state conventions (because of today's results) which would make it 16-19 in Sanders favor.

No, it gets crazier. Nevada uses a crazy system. 23 delegates are locked by congressional districts. Todays vote only had an impact on the remaining 12 delegates, but not really. It is at the state convention next month when these delelgates are selected. Today's events just means that if these numbers end up being the same percentage at the state convention, and as we have seen nothing is a given, then Bernie would get 7 of those 12 delegates. So most likely result in the end will be Hillary 18 Bernie 17 when it is all said and done.

So...I'll give this a go. Unlike a normal primary, which works like any old vote (and in the case of the President, chooses each party's preference of representative at the state level), a caucus is a relic of the pre-telegraph era. Essentially, the first vote that was widely reported upon was round 1, the most local caucus where support was shown for each candidate and people were chosen in the same proportion to report to county-level events that occurred today.
Since these people have lives and jobs (and some didn't even know they had to do more later on), alternate delegates are allowed into the system. And to top it all off, none of the delegates are even required to vote for the candidate they originally supported in the first round!

There's even another round after this. If it sounds ridiculous -- I've described it well.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

The "rise" of Drumpf (which I'm beginning to feel may come to a screeching halt pretty soon) has nothing to do with Obama

The rise of Trump has quite a bit to do with the failure of the left to address a whole bunch of issues honestly, and instead simply treat everyone who doesn't agree with them like moral cretins. Trump's support, particularly its adamantine quality in so far as it seems immune to accusations of sexism or racism or anti-muslim bigotry, is in large measure a backlash against those attitudes. Obama does bear some responsibility in that area.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

The rise of Trump has quite a bit to do with the failure of the left to address a whole bunch of issues honestly, and instead simply treat everyone who doesn't agree with them like moral cretins. Trump's support, particularly its adamantine quality in so far as it seems immune to accusations of sexism or racism or anti-muslim bigotry, is in large measure a backlash against those attitudes. Obama does bear some responsibility in that area.

I really don't see how that's in any way on Obama. Obama himself is generally extremely respectful of opposing opinions, even really stupid ones that are presented in offensive ways. Much more so than any other US politician than I think I've ever seen.