US Presidential Contenders

[Buster's Uncle]

I just blocked my first rude stranger on Facebook the other night.  A 'friend' had 'liked' a Gizmodo article link post Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Are Fighting for Cheaper Internet and it had naturally turned into one of those FB Bernie presidential conversations.  The following happened:

[BU's FB sock] He's the current front-runner for my vote next time...
Like · Reply · 2 · July 10 at 8:37pm

(Two 'likes', BTW.)

[Some guy] Next time why not now?
Like · July 10 at 9:44pm

[BU's FB sock] As soon as the primaries come to my state - I don't get a lot of say...
Like · July 10 at 9:46pm

(Some doink posted a pic of Stephen Hawking captioned "Drifting away from your Bull[poop]" -and screw it - no inappropriate unpleasantness with strangers welcome on planet BU.  I quickly found out how to block him.)

[BU's FB sock] Classy.
Like · July 10 at 11:49pm

Prior to any subsequent reactions, I had followed up:

[BU's FB sock] 25 years experience straddling both houses of Congress on top of nine years executive office as the (GOOD at it) mayor of Burlington Vermont? Why couldn't we have had anyone nearly as qualified running the last two times?
Like · Reply · 1 · July 10 at 9:20pm

-Which [Some guy] 'liked'.

---

My point was entirely not to do with ideology, but with experience/competence.  Bakrama had to take his window of opportunity when it was there, but the lack of dues paid/experience qualifying has shown in his tepid presidency, I think, for all that his greater problem is trying to be conciliatory in the face of implacable intransigent (Nazi) opposition.  Sanders has paid a lot more dues than any Democrat to run in recent memory, and I'm really impressed by that.

I still have Clinton fatigue on top of the newer 'Bama fatigue - at least with Sanders, he ain't black or a woman or a Clinton, and he owns his socialist tendencies, so the opposition might have to come up with a better quality of poo-slinging.

What I'd really like to see is a qualified centrist - who still has the guts and leadership to take on and dismantle the alarming fascist trends in our government of the last 14 years.  I do not enjoy the childish squealing of the secret (if that) racist/selfishness/nazi crap-talk party when a Democrat gets in, and I'd love to see the party cough up someone less polarizing - the thing that moderate Obama should have been if he'd been perceived publically as the centrist compromiser he is (when we needed a populist firebrand cleaning house of Nazis - we got the worst of all worlds with him).

All republicans who have not explicitly denounced the excesses of the Cheney Occupation are simply out of the question for any office under any conditions - that's a non-starter for me, and will be for a long time to come.  -Also, [Sleezebag] is an embarrassment to the species.  (Chris Christie wouldn't be out of the question if he did the kind of really firm denouncement he's certainly capable of - I like my conservatives generating their own talking points.)

I'm categorically against close relatives of presidents being President - 100% failure rate on that, excepting FDR, and one half put in office against the expressed will of the majority.  (Also categorically against generals, but they have an incredibly better record than relatives.  Both are dangerous to democracy, and better is not the same as good.)

Anyway, Sanders seems to Get Things Done and have the CV.  There's my vote, provisionally. 

Thoughts?  Like anyone out there for President and why?

[Yitzi]

Sanders is also my favorite, though if Hillary wins the primaries I'll probably vote R.

[Buster's Uncle]

That there's some real Clinton fatigue - or is it her obviously calculating way as a candidate that makes it far too clear that she wants it too bad and can't be trusted?  Or all of the above?

You're a New Yorker, I bet, and have seen more of her shoddy campaign act than most.

Funny thing?  I LOVED her as first lady -and thought she exceeded expectations as Secretary of State in her public conduct, so big points for that- but I can't STAND her as a candidate and thought she was a terrible Senator (like most Democrats in either house under Cheney, who should be run out of public life as the Collaborators they are).

[Unorthodox]

Ah, if only it would matter...

I live in Utah, my vote will be red whether I like it or not.  Thank you electoral college...

[Buster's Uncle]

NO.  No thank you for anti-democratic mistakes built into the system without a lot better justification than that one has.

Here in North Carolina, I've been in the position of casting protest votes in the primaries a lot -fortunately, the state's only going through a fascist phase and sometimes my vote would count for something if we weren't so late in the primary cycle.  I've voted for people I thought would make terrible presidents (Jesse Jackson twice) because I thought they still stood for something important, or someone who was officially out of the race before NC (Paul Tsongas) because I didn't like anyone still in the running.  There's a kind of what-the-heck power in voting for someone you know will lose for the principal of it, especially when you know your vote won't even count...  I actually think my habits of dissent make my vote more important, not less, when it comes to whether to put shoes on and leave the house and bother to be heard...

[Unorthodox]

I do have to admit to liking [Sleezebag] as a candidate, though.  We need more comic relief in these things, and he's the closest thing we could get to Colbert (in character) running.

[Yitzi]

That there's some real Clinton fatigue - or is it her obviously calculating way as a candidate that makes it far too clear that she wants it too bad and can't be trusted?  Or all of the above?

Not Clinton fatigue, but a mix of the fact that I (following my mother's example) think she can't be trusted, plus the fact that I have mixed leanings anyway and Sanders appeals to the areas where I lean left and Clinton doesn't.

[Buster's Uncle]

See my edit on my last, Uno.


That makes sense, Yitzi - it was no coincidence that when, two cycles back, Anne Coulter was so put out with McCain, she threatened on Fox to campaign for Mrs. Clinton...

I don't know as much about Sanders as I'd like yet, but I gather that people tend to over-emphasize his ideology and ignore a record of Getting Things Done...

[Lorizael]

I'm voting for Kodos.

[Buster's Uncle]

I like Kang better.

[Unorthodox]

I think I'll vote for a third party candidate. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Hey - y'all godless furiners who don't count speak up anyway...

[Lorizael]

More seriously, I am so unenthusiastic about the presidential race. I am confident that Hillary will make for a palatably decent leftie. I'm also very tired of the right not being able to find candidates who aren't comically awful. I am registered independent for weird philosophical reasons, so I don't get to participate in the primaries in Maryland. And Maryland is blue anyway, so my vote in the general doesn't much matter.

[Buster's Uncle]

...I think Hilary might make a decent President, not counting the unbearable Clinton hating that comes with the package - and I do mean unbearable.  I wouldn't care about let that part influence me if she otherwise pleased me more.  I suspect once in office -and so far the buncle powers say we better brace ourselves, 'cause there's just no one else- she'll actually do a good job.  But I think as a candidate, she's contemptible, hardly any better than the other side.  And not over here looking to forgive for collaborating in the Senate.

See also my previous remarks about her as First Lady v. Senator v. Sec o' State.

See also my previous remarks about protest votes.  They are not without power, rather like how lawyers read Supreme Court minority reports and sometimes actually cite them in practicing law.  Please do not let yourself be silenced.

[Rusty Edge]

I'm one of those Hillary haters. I cross party lines to vote against her. She just spikes my blood pressure every time I see her on TV. She seems one of the most insincere people I've ever seen. The woman who refused to give her healthcare task force staff enough hours to qualify for healthcare. Power-hungry and untrustworthy.

Well, you get the idea.

I don't want another Clinton or Bush in the race ( and I admired George the elder for his career of public service ) . Bring any of them back is bringing back old boy staffers.