US Presidential Contenders

[E_T]

If I were to believe the chatter around the office, T rump won the debate by a landslide.

:jawdrop:

Wait, are these the same dumb monkeys that have been a rant subject??  If so, two thing:

1) then I believe their support for him...

2) those are some dumb son.a.femalescankdogs and why aren't they working for you?

[Unorthodox]

This is UTAH where there are actually news stories run whether one can be both LDS and Democrat or not.  On an Air Force Base, for a Military Contractor.  You can't get much more red. 

All T rump had to do was not foam at the mouth and he'd "win" in these people's eyes. 

Some of the younger folks are democrat, but there's only one vocal one in the 650ish people in the building here. 

-hEt's maiden name is pronounced 'skank', I don't think she is watching this thread, but using it as a derogative would potentially ruffle feathers.   

I'm registered independent btw. 

[Spacy]

Hillery clearly won the debate - at least as far as not pissing off anybody.  She came across as expected - prepared, calm, and with (that highly annoying to me at least) smirk / chuckle combination. 

[Sleezebag] was also as expected - cocky, boisterous, tossing out random facts and quips that really mean little or nothing; but are designed (in his mind at least) to make him look / feel better about himself.

The theatrics were good.  [Sleezebag] with his blue tie.  Clinton with her red dress.  And, those were just the basics.  I picked up on a few others, but have to admit I was half asleep (2 hours past my bed time I called it quits).

Overall, I give it 60-40 to Clinton.  Not really enough to sway anybody.  Not really enough to get anybody to actually like any candidate.  But, enough that there were probably a few sound bites out there that made peeps feel that "they won't let that one win". 

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If Johnson made his million signatures (which I am fairly sure he did) than I really do hope that they get him in.  If they don't, I would love to see the Libertarian party sue someone (no idea who) just to help break up the existing power blocks some. 

[Rusty Edge]

Any chance Johnson can make the next debate?  (I might actually watch then)

I can always depend on these two frontrunners to do something that should ruin their chances, but since they are running against somebody else who's favorability rating is underwater, it's never a coup-de-grace. Never say never.

That said- IT'S NOT BLOODY LIKELY.  Call it "Establishment bias"

As far as the designated national polls for calculating the qualifying average, they seem to be the best at first glance. Credible major news organizations as sponsors, NBC/WSJ , ABC/Washington Post , FOX, CBS/NYT etc. Maybe the other was CNN. Lowest margins of error.

Take NBC as example- As soon as they were designated, they suddenly stopped polling. Instead, they sponsored NBC/Survey Monkey polls. Those put Johnson within the margin of error. So that 10 or 11 % from the old NBC/WSJ pollpulled down the average.

As for the other organizations -Another poll sampled so few Millennials that they wouldn't publish their data. One didn't poll independents! Anecdotal evidence demonstrated that Johnson wasn't an option in the 1st and 2nd question in one of the designated polls. Possibly more than one designated poll-

The Washington Post and New York Times have since endorsed Hillary. Somehow I don't think Johnson's going to get a fair chance to qualify. I don't think he'll be included as long as Clump is in agreement against it.

Now you may ask- What possible reasons could pollsters or sponsors have for being biased or uncooperative ? Well, the GOP and Democratic party hire pollsters for a lot of races every year or two. How much business do the Libertarians do?

Sure,  other polls will prove that Johnson leads among active duty military, Millennials and independents. But somehow that won't translate into a debate appearance.

So Johnson remains in a catch 22. Not being on the first question of the poll, or not having his poll% reported on Network nightly news because he's "not doing well enough" and because of that he doesn't get equal news coverage, and because of that he doesn't do well enough in the polls.


Anyway, it also means that Johnson's support is underestimated. But no debate means it's a12th Amendment/ House of Representatives scenario, not an outright Electoral college contender.  Which is a shame because the nation could use a discussion about the relationship between Wars in the Middle East and terrorism at home and how to confront it the way we confronted the Mafia, the relationship between marijuana prohibition-war on drugs-mandatory sentencing- and confrontation between police and minorities and shootings in general.

[Rusty Edge]

GLEANINGS-

* Record setting audience for the debates. Preferential preference afterwards- Clinton- 34%, [Sleezebag]- 18% and "NEITHER"- 47%  Well, maybe he will get there if people translate that to "Let Gary Debate!"

* -debate/]http://www.wnd.com/2016/09/was-hillary-wired-for-[Sleezebag]-debate/   I know that the site is anti-Clinton, but it's not the first time I've come across this info, and a lot of it seems to be consolidated here. Hillary wears an earpiece. It's been noticed more than once. Doesn't look like a hearing aid. Some think it's a theater style prompter system, some say it's a German anti seizure system.

* Hillary is out-fundraising [Sleezebag] among billionaires by a 20:1 ratio

* [Sleezebag] played to disgruntled and displaced rust-belt workers, Clinton played to suburban women, and both connected. Thing is, people thought Clinton insincere & presidential. [Sleezebag] made a more passionate, but boorish impression.

[E_T]

Did you know that Johnson was live during the debates on Twitter?

They are working very hard to get into the next debates.

Yesterday, was at a 7-11 and noticed the "election" coffee cups.  Did not get to ask as to which was more popular, but my guess is the ones that are non-partisan...

[Rusty Edge]

Gary had an editorial piece in the New York Times-

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/gary-johnson-take-a-deep-breath-voters-there-is-a-third-way.html?_r=0

I signed up for Twitter and listened to the debate with one window and followed Gary on the other.
I found his Facebook interview beforehand much better, where the interviewer was taking questions from the audience. Between that and the debate a Bloomberg reporter pissed him off with an Aleppo question. He was very frustrated that he was excluded from the debate for not being able to cross the T's and dot the I's on Middle Eastern policy, while Hillary, who was responsible for it and it's death, destruction, and maiming of American service people was included, and he wasn't there to speak out against regime change and unintended consequences.

So- mostly he wasn't answering the questions as much as commenting on the answers and candidates. But he did mange to advocate some things missing from the discussion- balanced budgets, free trade, the war on drugs being the root of police violence, and The Constitution.

[Rusty Edge]

Gleanings-

* Big News- Tomorrow's Newsweek will feature a story about [Sleezebag]'s ties to Castro's Cuba when it was illegal to do so. Highly improper and hypocritical, and probably criminal.

According to Rusty- If the allegations prove true, it will cost [Sleezebag] the election, because after doing that he lied to the Cubans in Miami in a bid for a Reform Party presidential nomination, and Florida is too precarious for [Sleezebag] to have them turn on him.

No Florida, No 270.

[Rusty Edge]

Johnson had a town hall in New Hampshire with Chris Matthews. Johnson couldn't really come up with the name of a current world leader he admired. I'm not sure that I can either, as I would consider the ones I can think of statists or authoritarians. So maybe this is a big deal, or maybe it's nothing.

We'll see.

Beyond that, most of his ideas were well received. He got loud applause for concluding his remarks about escalating college costs being due to the absence of market forces with- if everybody declined college next year because of the cost, it would come down. I thought that was his toughest sell.

But, as it happens, the audience was divided on his views about campaign finance. He's for transparency, but against contribution limits, because those restrictions favor incumbents.
(Gary favors term limits.)

[Rusty Edge]

Well, I'm home again. Hope to acquire or order a computer this weekend.

Observations-  Ohio expresses support for [Sleezebag] and Johnson. I have since learned that the Clinton campaign is conceding it.  Indiana, I couldn't tell that it was an election season, even though their governor is running for VP!

Coming home, my Johnson sign is still the only one in I've seen in my sub division. Normally they are plentiful here. It's a really sad thing for me when so few are actually proud of their political choice.

So far Hillary has 12 -15 major newspaper endorsements. Johnson has 6 ( rather impressive for a third party ) , and [Sleezebag] has ZERO, actually minus 1 ! As my wife reminds me, USA today denounced [Sleezebag], urging readers to vote for anyone else but him, and they have never endorsed in the past, but their editorial board was unanimous for the first time, so they decided to make an exception.

[Rusty Edge]

https://www.facebook.com/govgaryjohnson/videos/10153383327084364/


Here's a new add which gets to the point.

[E_T]

Make sure it meets the recommended specs for Civ6...

[Rusty Edge]

Make sure it meets the recommended specs for Civ6...

Yeah, that's been the hang-up.
I intend to purchase my laptop from Best Buy, I appreciate their customer service.

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Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune's presidential endorsement pretty well sums it up for me-
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/

[Buster's Uncle]

I was just out on a short errand - and I definitely noticed a lack of offensive political yard signs, unprecedented on the first of October in a presidential year...

[E_T]

Drop a convincing Johnson in the debates to where all of those non sign yards homeowners will finally notice...