US Presidential Contenders

[Rusty Edge]

It's good to be back. She's supposed to help with California, but frankly, if Cruz can't win in the outlier bible belt state of Indiana, it's over.

Then [Sleezebag] will be what Bill Clinton was when he first won- The bringer of "change".

Hillary is as status quo as they come.


We took my parents on a little trip as a combination birthday/mother's& father's day present. The highpoint was seeing Alton Brown's Eat Your Science tour. The cool thing about Brown is that he's knowledgeable, informative, funny, and when things go sidewise he can improvise. Beyond that he can make an adult joke without using bad language, ( people bring their families to see him) he simply makes some quip about kids being so much fun to make. Even though the stated purpose of the tour is so he can do stuff he's not allowed to do on TV.

I'm at my parent's house now again  with both a good internet connection and my lap top. I'll be doing more work on the conclusion of my fan fiction. I think I finally know what needs to be said. I just have to figure out how to bring it out naturally in conversation, and who says what. I'll try to post some more scenes tonight , again, without going back and updating  the continuity rewrites in the portions already posted. Don't have Man-Kzin III yet, maybe it'll arrive Monday.

[Rusty Edge]

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Echo chamber or not, I think between my background in mass communications and yours as a local campaign worker, and all we agree and disagree on, combine to make us a fairly insightful political thinker, like two lobes of a brain that's got a wide POV and is smart at it.

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I guess we are.

[Buster's Uncle]

Don't have Man-Kzin III yet, maybe it'll arrive Monday.

Well, it's not canon, so don't let it hold you up - however it is good, despite the second blatant ripoff of a Bogart movie in a row in a Pournelle contribution...

[Buster's Uncle]

Bernie Sanders begins making case to Hillary Clinton’s superdelegates
Yahoo News
Dylan Stableford  Senior editor  May 01, 2016



Bernie Sanders at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)



Bernie Sanders held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Sunday to mark one year since launching his presidential bid, vowing to take his fight for the Democratic nomination to the superdelegates currently supporting frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“It’s a tough road to climb,” Sanders told reporters at the National Press Club, but “not an impossible” one.

In a scene reminiscent of the sparsely attended, April 30, 2015, press conference on Capitol Hill where he formally announced his run, the Vermont senator said that those superdelegates supporting the former secretary of state ought to rethink their pledge — particularly in states where he won handily.

“I would ask the superdelegates to respect the wishes of the people of those states,” Sanders said.

Overall, Clinton has the support of 520 superdelegates, while Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist, has “all of 39” — despite winning 17 primaries and caucuses “in every part of the country.”

Sanders pointed out that although he won Washington state’s Democratic caucuses by 46 points (73 percent to 27 percent) and 25 of the state’s 36 pledged delegates, Clinton has the support of 10 of Washington’s Democratic unpledged superdelegates.

“We have zero,” he said. “Obviously, we are taking on the entire Democratic establishment.”



Sanders on Capitol Hill after announcing his run for president, April 30, 2015. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)


Clinton’s lead over Sanders in pledged delegates is 1,645 to 1,318.

“Let’s be clear,” Sanders said. “It is virtually impossible for Secretary Clinton to reach the majority of convention delegates by June 14 — the end of the primary season — with pledged delegates alone. She will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in Philadelphia. In other words, it will be a contested convention.”

He urged the superdelegates to consider which Democratic candidate would have the best chance of winning in November. And “based on virtually every national and state poll over the last several months,” Sanders said, that would be him.

“I would be the stronger candidate,” he said, noting that it “would be a disaster if Donald T rump or some other rightwing Republican were to become president of the United States.”

Sanders also said superdelegates should consider the youthful enthusiasm he’s injected into the Democratic Party, drawing a total of more than 1.1 million people to his rallies and a record 7.4 million individual campaign contributions — statistics that Sanders says prove his nomination would not only secure the White House but also help Democrats win down-ballot races in the fall.

“The energy and excitement in this campaign is with the work we have done,” Sanders said. “This is an important reality that superdelegates cannot ignore.”

Which is why the Sanders campaign is prepared to take its case — and its message — through the presidential primaries in California and Washington, D.C., in June and to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

Sanders began the press conference noting that last year on this date, he trailed Clinton by at least 60 points in national polls. Now, the Vermont senator said, he’s nearly pulled even with Clinton in many of those same polls — even leading her in some.

“When we started, we were considered to be a fringe candidacy,” he said. “That was then, today is today.”

And while Sanders reiterated to reporters that he would do everything in his power to stop T rump from becoming president if he ultimately loses the Democratic nomination, he was in no mood to talk about his campaign’s “legacy.”

“I hope my legacy will be that I was a very good president,” Sanders said.

At that 2015 press conference to announce the launch of his presidential campaign, Sanders was even more bullish.

“We’re in this race to win,” he said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bernie-sanders-campaign-launch-anniversary-200031589.html


Oh for Christ's sake - they ran a picture of his back.  The sheepish/weak/old-looking off-center shot of his front they led with is only good in comparison to the mouth-open-pointing ranty-looking shots they usually puke out, at that.  They simply do not DO this crap to Mrs. Clinton...

[Unorthodox]

Wellllll......

Now what? 

[Buster's Uncle]

?

[Rusty Edge]

Now?

Bernie isn't ready to go away quietly.

Hillary should read what I said about an olive branch to Bernie and his people. She could still make enemies on the left rather easily.  The old "I'm Hillary, I've paid my dues and you all owe me. This is my turn!" isn't exactly endearing.

Billary signed NAFTA. [Sleezebag] will be sure to remind everyone. Billary is running as status quo, and there's a lot of passionate discontent with the government, and [Sleezebag] knows how to play that. I expect [Sleezebag] will continue suck up free air time.

I think she's misunderestimating him.

So with two such despised candidates to represent the major parties, it remains an excellent year for a 3rd party to get traction.

Maybe Cruz and Romney are still thinking about 3rd party move with the Constitutional Party.

Maybe those who feel The Bern will Go Green when Hillary blows it and doesn't validate them.

Maybe now that the Republicans are undergoing a hostile [Sleezebag]-over, The Libertarians will make some permanent gains.




The only thing I am sure of is that the more I hear Donald and Hillary talk, the angrier I'll become with them both.

[Rusty Edge]

We remain in uncharted territory.

The living Republican presidents have said they won't be supporting [Sleezebag]. Romney will skip the convention. McCain said he will support the nominee, but he also said [Sleezebag] will make it difficult , if not impossible for him to be re-elected. Bob Dole won't endorse [Sleezebag], said he will attend the convention but remain in the background. Speaker Ryan has more or less said that [Sleezebag] needs to prove himself as a Republican and a conservative to gain his support.

The closest comparison I can think of is when Theodore Roosevelt and others revolted against Taft to form the Bull Moose party.

A radio commentator guesting on CNN today said that this year was supposed to be about discontent and change, and instead we have an election between Hillary and her donor.

[Lorizael]

When I think about past US presidents, they always seem moderately presidential. But I recognize the bias inherent in my perspective. Has there ever been a US president who was, during his campaign, thought of as being as ridiculous as [Sleezebag] is now?

[Buster's Uncle]

...I don't think anyone was ever as widely held in contempt - but half the presidents of the 1800s were utter, hopeless, huge, mediocrities, everybody has haters, and Mrs. Clinton has a similar problem - just not as much/intense on her "own side" - but I know Bernieheads online who get very upset at the prospect of voting for her to block T rump...

[Rusty Edge]

Uh. I'm looking into it, but I don't know that anybody has actually won.


George Wallace, like [Sleezebag] was certainly controversial, but never elected president.

Herbert Hoover, like [Sleezebag], ran for president on his  business experience. He was popular when he ran, not so much as president.

Millard Fillmore was the last Whig, completing Zach Taylor's term when he died. From Wikipedia-

[When the Whig Party broke up in 1854–56, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party. Other conservative Whigs joined the American Party, the political arm of the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic "Know-Nothing" movement, though Fillmore did not join the American Party.[2] While out of the country, Fillmore was nominated by the American Party candidate for President in 1856, but finished third in the election, surpassed by the Republican Party candidate.]

[Buster's Uncle]

-Ben Harrison lost the popular vote, Franklin Pierce was just plain an incompetent president, Andy Jackson was too hot-blooded/pugnacious and colorful for real politics/office at all, etc...

[Rusty Edge]

 Yeah. I was hoping for the [Sleezebag] as George Wallace scenario.

Things have changed. Apparently, in the post-journalism era a celebrity can run for president on free publicity, and get a party nomination by ridiculing the leadership, even though they are clueless about political organization. I guess it's not a great leap from celebrity endorsements to celebrity candidates.
Maybe the Democrats will run Bruce Springsteen next time.

As in any hostile takeover, individuals have to decide if they're going to continue to work for the new boss. I wonder if the New Boss understands that most of the work is done by a network of experienced volunteers who know the voters in their party & precinct and most of them never donated to Hillary Clinton?

[Buster's Uncle]

It has begun.

Mary Matalin: Political Pundit and Republican Strategist Changes Party Registration to Libertarian

Matalin told Bloomberg Politics Thursday she was a Republican in the "Jeffersonian, Madisonian sense," adding, "The Libertarian Party represents those constitutional principles that I agree with."

[Rusty Edge]

Cool. I heard her on CNN yesterday, but I wasn't sure if she had changed parties or was just leaning that way.