What do you hope happens in the GOP primary? Not that it matters, I hate when pundits lecture us not to root for this or that bad outcome.
I’m hoping that either Carson, Trump, or Bush wins. Carson and Trump because they’d likely get destroyed in the general and because I’d enjoy being told “both sides do it” when one side is recommending replacing the IRS with tithing or revoking the citizenship of children of undocumented workers. Bush because he’s both a crappier general election candidate and less frightening potential president than Rubio or Walker.
If I’m honest, I’ll admit that I shouldn’t want Carson or Trump to be the nominee because what if some scandal comes up and Hillary goes down and the Carson/Trump presidency brings about the end times? That would be bad.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but want Jeb to go down in flames just because I can’t help but want the opposite of whatever Joe Scarborough and Ron Fournier and other “right-center” assholes want.
Rick Taylor
It has been breathtaking to see what an awful candidate Jeb Bush is. Is it too late for Mitt Romney to enter the race?
Baud
Although he’s ineligible to be president, I’d be curious to see what would happen if Putin entered the race.
Oatler.
Who owns C-Span? One channel was non-stop Santorum and the other has Kirsten Powers. Come to think of it, who owns MSNBC (running Koch ads)?
raven
Hell yes!
Omnes Omnibus
This really is a rooting for injuries situation.
lamh36
OT, but the local station is showing a Katrina documentary with their footage from 10 years ago.
You can watch it live…Wow…this WWL Katrina doc has footage I’ve never seen. Couldn’t bring myself to watch til now!
https://twitter.com/WWLTV/status/634516958042570754
Ugh..I heard rumors that GWB was gonna be here for Katrina 10 years…I sorry, but he betta not dare!
Mike in NC
Trump will peak at the magical number of 27%, then decide to pull a Ross Perot.
redshirt
I want Trump to stick the silver dagger in the heart of the GOP. Get the nomination then lose 58-40
Hunter Gathers
This election season is the worst reality show I’ve ever watched.
Eric U.
I recall with some dismay when I thought that it couldn’t be too bad if GWBush got elected. It was too bad, it was really bad. And John Bush is the stupid one
Matt McIrvin
I guess what I want to happen is for all these people to tank so hard that their primaries are low-turnout, dispirited affairs and any nominee has no chance of winning. I have little opinion on who I’d most like to be the nominee.
But I’d like the United States to not spiral into a frenzy of nativist/fascist hysteria, please. I really don’t take pleasure in kooky clowns gaining in the polls if that’s how they’re doing it.
JPL
@Baud: Well duh! We all know the answer to that one.
@Omnes Omnibus: Trump is gaining enough to make a run for it. I hope they take him down but not until they are all bruised and battered first.
Baud
@JPL:
Next debate, everyone is shirtless!
BBA
I’d like another 1912-style Republican splintering with the Democrat winning easily. Although Wilson was a fucktard. Hopefully we avoid nominating Jim Webb.
I expect Jeb to be awarded victory notwithstanding the vote. In the primary certainly, and possibly in the general too.
jl
@Eric U.:
I was same way, though not sure that I really believed it. I may have talked myself into believing the VSP pundit class view that GW Bush would be a conservative Bill Clinton sometime during the recount mess.
That was wrong. And only really believable if you thought GW was a very cynical politician who would lie about his policies in order to get elected. His income tax proposal did not add up, as history sadly demonstrates.
Edit: and going by the maxim that the VSP pundit consensus is always wrong, Jeb!? must be a real dolt who makes GW look like Archimedes Newton and Einstein all rolled up into one, since I keep seeing that Jeb!? is portrayed as ‘wonky’. The guy spews badly misinformed stuff about basic policy every week. For example, knowing the retirement age for social security should not be advanced wonky stuff.
Baud
@Eric U.:
I do wonder what the W. years would have been like if 9/11 hadn’t happened.
Omnes Omnibus
@BBA:
Why do you say that?
Amir Khalid
@lamh36:
I know just the song to greet him with.
Baud
@jl:
Has any recent Republican had a tax plan that added up?
Hungry Joe
My faith in the American electorate has fallen so low that I can’t make myself wish for the worst candidate to get the nomination. Reagan, then Bush II got elected (well, became President, anyway) TWICE, and things have only gotten weirder/worse. Problem is, it’s impossible to come up with the best GOP candidate — i.e., whoever would do the least harm. I guess I’d have to go with those I consider merely evil and not insane to boot: Kasich, Bush, Walker, Fiorina.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: W. is a one-termer. Without the need for somebody with war credentials, his successor is possibly Hillary Clinton.
rikyrah
Don’t kid yourself…
if ANY of the GOP Clown Car wins in 2016- it’s End Times..
don’t pretend that any of them are palatable.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Dobby Putin would sound like a Republican candidate with a Russian accent.
Eric U.
@Baud: that’s a good point, they were flailing badly and he might not have been reelected. It was actually a little entertaining up until then
jl
@Baud: No. But GW came after Reagan, who was enough in touch with reality to increases taxes when his supply side tax voodoo didn’t work. And HW broke his pledge after everyone read his lips.
So, there was a history of GOPers saying stuff to get elected and then doing the sensible thing after their bad promises blew up in their faces.
Edit: now we have a history of Dub, and several state governors indicating they won’t quit disaster.
Keith P.
@Rick Taylor: I saw part of his speech yesterday, and Trump was not far off with the “his audience is sleeping” crack. Jeb is a really horrible political speaker. I’m sure pundits will laud him for his wonkishness, but he tends to wonk on (and on and on and on) about education minutiae, presumably because that’s his big achievement, but jeez, it was boring as hell.
mai naem mobile
I would love to see Carson to win. Completely incapable of doing.the joy. More than Trump. Bonus would be all the awesome bad lip reading videos of the final debates against Hillary or whoever the Dem candidate is.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
And the biggest possible injury would be a fracture in the party that results in two vaguely plausible candidates running.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: Bull Moose, baby.
the Conster
I’d feel a lot better about any of the ridiculous GOP clowns if Hillary were a better candidate. Jeebus, she’s just so flat footed about everything so far, and she has allowed the narrative to become set around that fucking email server story, rightly or wrongly. Bernie has energy and enthusiasm behind him, but I’m still not feeling the Bern. If Uncle Joe decides to run, which I’m beginning to think he will, he’d better bring it.
mb
I am unabashedly, pro-Trump. Practically a Trumpette. Trump,Trump, Trump, Trump, Trrrrrummmp. Want me some Trump!
I used to be worried about the future, but now I feel hugely magnificent and ready for the classy, classy era of Trump.
Seriously, I currently think he’s the best of the bunch. One reason: Trump made a comment that he thought it would be terrible to face an illness without resources. His preferred solution was a SINGLE PAYER system. Never heard that from any rich American ever. Ever. There’s more to Trump than meets the eye. He’s a bullshitter and a blowhard but I think he’s the best option among the GOP.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
We would have invaded Iraq even sooner.
Rommie
I’d like Trump to have the lead in delegates going into the convention, just to watch the Party screw him out of the nomination with some Calvinball. We’re long overdue for some genuine fistfights on a convention floor.
jl
So, my wish for the GOP primary is that it turn out to be such a mess that the GOP nominee is doomed in the general election. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t care who or when or how.
It is a simple wish. I’ll take anybody, as long as his or her political doom is certain after a ghastly primary. So, I will give up wishing for a particular ticket. And in return ask for such a total disaster in the primary that scandals can take down HRC, Biden, Sanders, O’Malley, Webb and I dunno, maybe two or three more, and even, for example, a Manchin could win. Anything to stave off disaster.
Bob K
@Baud: I’m not sure we’d get a buy in from Carly Fiorina on that one. But then again if you had a little note on every podium saying “There’s a loaded gun underneath the podium” more than one in the clown car would be tempted to see if they could be last one standing.
JPL
@Baud: Nothing. He had already cut taxes and Iraq was on the drawing board.
BBA
@Omnes Omnibus: Because I’m flippant and cynical. And it worked for his brother.
Dolly Llama
My fervent hope is that this is the biggest ratfuck in history, and that Trump really IS a Clinton plant and secret liberal Manchurian Candidate, and that on or about the first of October — after all the absentee ballots have been printed up, and too late for another candidate to join the race in any serious way — he tears off the mask, calls the people who’ve supported his the biggest bunch of dumb loser slobs in recorded history, points and laughs like hell at them all on live television, and finishes his announcement by saying that HE intends to vote for Hillary Clinton.
ETA: This after he crushes everyone else for the GOP nomination, not as a third-party candidate.
raven
@Dolly Llama: And we beat Bama by 2 touchdowns while I’m at a goddamn wedding in LA!
pluege
it would be a cruel fate that would end up with any of the republican clowns as POTUS. Not that US society wouldn’t deserve it given their complicity in permitting and in some quarters aiding and abetting the rise of wingnut insanity that is a key leg of the reagan legacy (along destruction of workers rights, politicalization of racism, and the “defense” budget as a crime against humanity.
jl
@the Conster: I think it is too early in the cycle to really tell, and too early to worry about it much. HRC has decided to start very deliberately and slowly, and we just cannot know. The election cycle is absurdly long due to the havoc wreaked on campaign finance reform and weakened ability of the major parties, particularly the GOP, to shape a coherent platform and agenda
I think the fact that the GOP has dived into lunacy so early in the campaign is distorting our perceptions, and exaggerating the personality driven horse race BS. A year from now, there will be just a few serious candidates on each side, the real issues between the parties will be clearer to the general public (despite the corporate media attempts to ignore and blur actual policy), and people will be making more informed responses to polls with real choices in front of them, which focuses the mind.
Edit: for example, I don’t worry much about polls right now that show Trump competitive with HRC.
Amir Khalid
@the Conster:
I’m not as pessimistic as you about Hillary. So far, I think, she has looked more presidential to me than any other candidate from either party. I was particularly impressed by how she spoke to the BLM activists.
geg6
@Dolly Llama:
That would be the most awesome trolling in history and would completely change my opinion of Trump 180 degrees.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
With the other one being the Bull Shit party.
Baud
@mb:
The interesting thing about Trump is he is the only one of the candidates who would not have to rely on institutional GOP players in any way if he won the nom and the presidency.
Gimlet
Deez Nuts is polling well.
Baud
@Gimlet:
Hope he makes the debates.
Roger Moore
@Rommie:
I have sort of assumed that’s the scenario he’s envisioning when he talks about running as a third party candidate. He’s not just talking out of his hat; he’s threatening them with destruction if they try to screw him out of the nomination by changing the rules.
Iowa Old Lady
@jl: It’s staggering to me to realize that there will be another Iowa State Fair between now and the election. This goes on forever.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
This. 1000% this.
They aren’t palatable and that’s even to a not insubstantial fraction of republican voters. Those voters may not know they are but if there are enough wingnuts in the house and we don’t get a democratic senate, the policies that any of them want would be catastrophic to most people.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
So who do you like in 2020?
Right to Rise
Jeb will stay the course until January, and then peak at the right time.
Let others be the President of Summer.
Jeb will be President of the United States.
Scott Peterson
@Amir Khalid: I agree. And she’s far further left than I think anyone had any reason to expect or even hope. Will she move to the center for the general? Maybe even to the right of center? I wouldn’t be entirely surprised, although entirely disappointed, but I’m actually not at all sure she will.
David Fud
It seems there is a corollary to Cleek’s Law, which begs to be named DougJ’s Both-Sides-Don’t-Do-It Principle or some such: Liberals want the opposite of what conservative pundits want. Since they are a broken record of both-sides-do-it-ism and other unfounded, but impressive sounding, arguments supporting the 1%, liberals, unlike conservatives, don’t need to change their position daily.
Amir Khalid
@Gimlet:
How did a 15-year-old kid get himself registered as a presidential candidate? That shouldn’t be possible.
jl
@Iowa Old Lady: Are you really in Iowa? How are you holding up under the strain? I think that part of the country is lovely and sad to see it buried under politicians so much every four years.
As long as you bring up the Iowa State Fair, I heard that the GOPers are still downing corn dogs and deep fried twinkies on a stick, but have not verified that by looking at the salacious visuals.
I heard HRC headed straight for the pork chops on a stick. So, who says HRC cannot run a good campaign?
the Conster
@Amir Khalid:
Yeah, agreed. I can’t remember how many times I heard that America would NEVER elect a black man as president, until the financial meltdown scared people enough to go with the calm, smart, smiling presence who assured us that there would be steady hand on the levers. Hillary has enough of that, especially compared to Trump. JEB! is a dud, Carson’s appeal is strictly wingnutty, and Walker without the Kochs would be an assistant manager at a Cracker Barrel in Racine.
raven
@Right to Rise: Motherfucker wouldn’t know a peak if it bit him on the ass. You either douche.
Helen
Frank Luntz is on Fox talking up Trump. Didn’t Trump just call for Fox to fire Luntz? Did Fox bring the hammer down on Luntz and tell him to toe the line?
David Fud
@Right to Rise: DougJ, you shouldn’t troll your own thread. It is unseemly.
Baud
@jl:
I expect Hillary to drive a semi before this election is over.
jl
@Right to Rise: Why don’t you put up a thread on best genre of comedy movies? Would be nice if you reminded people to go back to Laurel and Hardy and Keaton and Marx Brothers. That would be really interesting.
smintheus
I want Cruz to win. He’s repulsive from so many different perspectives.
the Conster
@Right to Rise:
Only if he has a brain transplant and is hidden away until then. Every time he opens his mouth, he fails. No one wants what he’s selling, because he’s selling 8 year old National Review magazines, and encyclopedias from 1996.
Baud
@Helen:
Trump = Ratings for Fox > Employees’ feefees.
rikyrah
I want Trump to stay in it as long as he can, and to continue to be TRUMP- not talking in Frank Luntz-approved language, and forcing the Clown Car to take position upon position that is completely untenable for the General Election. The beauty of Trump is his language. That is what he brings to the table.
Randy P
@Right to Rise: Are you old enough to remember Baghdad Bob?
Iowa Old Lady
@jl: Yeah, Perry was at the Fair yesterday.
I’ve never been to the fair. I count that as a plus.
Right to Rise
Trump is out by Halloween.
PaulW
I want Jeb to lose the primary. I want the Bush legacy to crash and burn. I want him to suffer the humiliation he can’t even win over his own party. I want all that SuperPAC money wasted.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Amir Khalid:
I’d go with this: “Right Place, Wrong Time.”
raven
rachel has the bush buffoon on now
Tree With Water
“Dead parrot walking”.
When all is said and done between now and November 2016, I have hopes the republican party will have been discredited with enough sensible Americans as to see it essentially destroyed as a major political party.
Amir Khalid
@jl:
It makes me cringe to know you didn’t make this stuff up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Right to Rise: I agree – Halloween 2016.
Elmo
@smintheus: Cruz is the candidate Sinclair Lewis was talking about. “wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.”
Applejinx
I want to see Trump run, because the thing is if he did somehow win he’s pissed off the entire Republican establishment. They’d be deadlocked, unable to do anything for sheer spite, and we might survive best that way.
I want Bernie to run against him. The two owe-nobody-nothing candidates. I have a bunch more helping of Bernie to do, money isn’t enough by a long shot. That’s not how we elected Obama twice.
If we do get stuck with Hillary I think that might not be as bad a fate as it looks: I’ve already posted about how she calculates and triangulates but we can NOT assume she is just taking orders from Wall Street. She takes money from Wall Street, lots of it. Even took money from Trump. They all do, unless they’re Sanders. That doesn’t mean she won’t sell them out if she figures they’re doomed and the zeitgeist demands she be the biggest populist socialist ever.
Which it most certainly did NOT during Bill’s presidency. They called it correctly at the time, like it or not. And she missed when she lost to Obama, because she didn’t believe in the rules change, and it cost her. I don’t think she’ll make that mistake again.
Every stadium Bernie Sanders fills, every person begging Elizabeth Warren to run, is another little voice telling Hillary, ‘sell out the banksters! Do it. They’ll give you nothing but money and everybody you know has bucketloads of the stuff. But triangulating and selling out the banksters will give you a legacy…’
And she would be right.
We shall see if she’s that smart, because it’s not up to her. She can have a failure of nerve again, if she likes. It won’t go well. If she gets the nom and then fucks this up, she could give us President Trump.
Baud
@raven:
You’ll need to be more specific.
Randy P
@Amir Khalid: Then I suppose you wouldn’t be a fan of deep-fried beer
smintheus
@mb: Trump reminds me of Berlusconi. I think he’s a very dangerous demagogue partly because of his methods (faux-populist bullying nationalistic buffoon), partly because of a lot of people’s willingness to accept and forgive virtually everything he does because he did it. Berlusconi was the same way and he presented a serious threat to Italian democracy.
redshirt
@smintheus: Cruz is the scariest of all the Repukes. If he gets elected President, we all die in 6-9 months.
Baud
@Applejinx:
I think Bernie loses to Trump. He would do better against any other GOPer.
raven
@smintheus: But think of the bunga bunga parties!
Helen
@Rommie:
This. There is not enough popcorn in the world.
Also, too
Heh!
jl
@Randy P: I want some. Actually, I want some deep fried whisky too, though not until it is thoroughly tested and it can be made in a way that it does not explode in your face.
Amir Khalid
@Randy P:
God would smite me with lightning just for the beer.
smintheus
@Elmo: That describes nearly all their candidates though, and Cruz is particularly repellent. He looks like a used car salesman. Even his Senate colleagues loathe him.
smintheus
@redshirt: Cruz can’t possibly get elected. He is even more guaranteed to lose than Santorum.
jl
@Baud:
” I expect Hillary to drive a semi before this election is over. ”
Suppose if HRC could hold her own in a monster truck demolition derby? She would win no matter what, period, full stop, case closed, end of story. She would slice through the GOP like red hot knife through butter.
raven
@jl: Like crap through a goose!
Thoughtful David
@Right to Rise: Be sure to get paid up front.
Roger Moore
@PaulW:
This. I want all of them to waste all of their money chasing the nomination and not have any left for the general.
schrodinger's cat
@mb: What about his rhetoric about immigrants? Its illegal immigrants and their citizen children who are the target now, who knows who will be next.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Fewer.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: I have also heard of fried sticks of butter on a stick.
schrodinger's cat
I don’t know who is going to win the clown show, but the title for the most pathetic candidate has to go to Jindal.
beltane
@Right to Rise:
True. Trump will be out festooning Jeb’s campaign headquarters with toilet paper and rotten eggs.
Cervantes
@jl:
Notice that Reagan wasn’t punished for it and Bush was.
Mike in NC
The Donald was going to appear in Mobile at a venue that could hold 2000 people. Now he’s changing that to a stadium that can accommodate about 30K. Trumpmentum!
beltane
@smintheus: Speaking of Italy, this fellow’s funeral is a taste of what Donald Trump’s inauguration would be like: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/21/disgust-in-rome-at-mafia-dons-glamour-funeral-complete-with-godfather-music
Very classy, very huge.
the Conster
@schrodinger’s cat:
I’ll second that. Total sad, un-self aware, self hating FAIL.
Cervantes
@Baud:
That was cruel.
Iowa Old Lady
@Cervantes: You’ll notice I pretended that question never happened.
DougJ
@rikyrah:
Yeah, I agree with that too.
Groucho48
I’d say I’d prefer the candidate who is least likely to win Florida and/or Ohio. Not sure who that would be.
I suspect Jeb! is still the most likely nominee but it’s less than 50-50. What he has going for him is a decent organization and an Uncle Scrooge-like pile of cash, already. I think we won’t be seeing a lot of Bush out in the wild after this week. Lots of scripted appearances with friendly questioners. Lots of TV commercials and ads. Eventually, lots of thoughtful position papers that the Village will slaver over. Meanwhile, the grifters will start to fall by the wayside. I’m still not convinced that Trump is in it for the long run. Though, he is probably starting to think about it. But, he’s going to get bored and people are going to get tired of his stream of consciousness blathering.
Cervantes
@Iowa Old Lady:
Sorry!
Roger Moore
@Cervantes:
Bush wasn’t punished for breaking his no new taxes pledge. He was punished for being president during a recession that hadn’t had much in the way of a recovery by the time the election rolled around. The anti-tax crusaders used his loss for marketing purposes, but the tax increase had relatively little to do with it.
smintheus
@beltane: Huh. Used to live in Rome and I never heard of San Giovanni Bosco, or of this clown Casamonica. But you’re right, there’d be a lot of tasteless banners in a Trump inauguration.
jl
@Cervantes:
” Notice that Reagan wasn’t punished for it and Bush was. ”
So, are you working out a grand theory of Dub? He invaded Iraq and because its leader threatened his daddy years back. And likewise he destroyed the national GOP for being unfair to his daddy.
Which reminds me, seems like Jeb!? has serious unresolved mommy and daddy issues just like dear old Dub. I wonder how many disasters that problems would produce during a Jeb!? presidency. Bill Clinton type horn dog psych problems seem trivial in comparison.
Chris
Whatever does the most damage to the party. I have no idea what that is, but I hope it happens.
SiubhanDuinne
@Right to Rise:
That’s straight out of Field of Dreams, that is.
Cervantes
@Roger Moore:
I was going by the exit polls in ’92, according to which 25% said Bush’s having broken his “pledge” was “very important” in their voting decision, out of which more than 60% voted for Clinton.
I’d call that punishment — wouldn’t you?
trollhattan
@Right to Rise:
And I shall be the Queen of Moscow and the Duke of Earl.
Cervantes
@trollhattan:
That would be confusing. How would we address you?
Right to Rise
@trollhattan:
I remember when people used to say George W. could never be POTUS.
Cervantes
@jl:
I like it.
But my days of working out grand theories are more or less over.
Families can be difficult. That family was awful.
On the other hand, there are signs that G. W. and Laura did a better job as parents.
trollhattan
@Cervantes:
P.O. Box 34586, Dukedom of Muscovy…Duck!
trollhattan
@Right to Rise:
Well, you see, Barbara can’t be right every time, but she was right when she said John should not run.
Cervantes
@Right to Rise:
Me, too.
Oddly enough, we never heard that from Rehnquist, O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, or Thomas, did we?
jl
@Cervantes:
” On the other hand, there are signs that G. W. and Laura did a better job as parents. ”
Oh hell yeah. If the GW Bush daughters were leading the GOP presidential primary polls, i wouldn’t be half as worried as I am now.
When the RiR troll mentioned ‘Jen Bush’ I got my hopes up for a second, thinking we had a troll scoop here at this blog about an actually qualified GOP candidate for the office (except a year too young), and if she is still GOP… probably is.. I guess.
Heliopause
I don’t agree. All three are very weak-minded and the real power will be whatever Sejanus-like characters they surround themselves with, just as with W Bush. Nothing to choose from in that group.
Carson and Cruz are literally insane and could conceivably be dangerous. Trump, well, I’m all for him taking this thing as far as he can and turning this country of ours into the world’s laughing stock. I only hope that he’s finally stopped before anybody in other countries gets hurt, they don’t deserve us.
mb
@schrodinger’s cat: I hate Trump’s anti-immigrant talk — but I think it is mostly talk. I think Trump is mostly talk. I don’t think he’ll ever become president, but I am truly not sure he’d be any worse than any of the other GOP assholes.
Let’s imagine that Trump did get the nomination. He’s going to have to continue to run on this immigration bullshit. What do you think that does to the Latino vote? Think maybe it motivates them a little? I do. I think HRC’s achilles heel is turnout. If Hillary doesn’t get something close to Obama numbers in minority votes, she’s sunk. The less dangerous the GOP nominee appears — say a Jeb! — the less motivated the minority vote and bye bye first woman president, hello fourth term for the Bushies. Give me Trump any day. I think, in a weird way, he’s reachable on any number of policies.
And I don’t think his immigration “plan” would go anywhere in a real world setting where Congress still appropriates funds and Mexico doesn’t suck up and pay some huge, magnificent tariff.
jl
@mb: Trump has already said, when asked about his immigration plan, that the written specifics aren’t important, they are just for loser wonks and reporters to read, who can’t manage to find anything better to do with their time.
Trump said that what is important is that people trust him to do the right thing and a good job.
So, he has out and out admitted that his detailed policies are BS.
All we really know about Trump is that he is a marketing PR genius. Does he mean whatever he says? What will he do in office? Those are silly details for losers to worry about. Trump is a Master of the Universe and a Winner, he has more important things to think about.
redshirt
Better Trump than any single one of those other clowns.
Seriously, name someone better on the R side.
schrodinger's cat
@mb: I am not as sanguine as you are. His rash talk can do a lot of damage.
redshirt
If I was a super powerful wizard I’d cast a spell that hurt you if you vote for a Republican on any level. Onto death after say 10 R votes.
workworkwork
@Eric U.: This.
I remember thinking “Hey, we survived 12 years of Reagan and Bush. How much worse can this guy get?”
Yikes.
workworkwork
@Baud: He would have been a one-term president.
The Lodger
@Baud: Oh, great. Another opportunity for the press to say how well Fiorina did.
jl
@redshirt: Trump and Carson are the only ones who have demonstrated any skill at doing anything, anything at all, ever.
Either Carson is very brilliant in some areas and very dumb in others, or he has gone a little off his rocker over the years, so that that leaves him out.
So, in that respect, at least Trump has shown he can do something well, anything at all even if many of his accomplishments are dubious. Kind of like Willard Romney in that respect.
And, never dreamed I would see the day that I wished somebody like Willard were running. But, here we are.
PaulW
@Right to Rise:
Jeb Bush is in fourth place in some polls.
This isn’t 2012 where it was a race between Mitt and Not-Mitt (the conservative flavor of the week like Cain or Perry or Newt or Santorum).
If the GOP primary voters really viewed Jeb as a viable option he’d be up there with Trump in the numbers. Instead he’s trailing in Florida, where Trump has burned more than a few bridges among Republican-area cities like Tampa with broken promises and bankruptcy cases.
Whatever fantasy you have about primary voters turning around and supporting a dull campaigner who has all the emotional enthusiasm of a wet towel just doesn’t play out. Unless the ballot machines are rigged again, in which case there’s 15 other primary candidates that will be pissed off at a party leadership that rigged the game (which won’t be pretty).
PaulW
blog flog: for all intents I view the Republican Party as dead. Cause of death: self-immolation. http://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2015/08/rip-republican-party-1856-2015.html
priscianus jr
@the Conster: I’d feel a lot better about any of the ridiculous GOP clowns if Hillary were a better candidate. … just so flat footed about everything so far, and she has allowed the narrative to become set around that fucking email server story, rightly or wrongly. Bernie has energy and enthusiasm behind him, but I’m still not feeling the Bern.
Yeah, that’s exactly why I AM feeling the Bern.
PaulW
@Eric U.:
When 2001 started, Dubya was a benign enough figure who was even having problems getting the Senate to stay in line (he alienated a moderate Senator into switching sides giving Democrats brief control of the Senate, remember?). 9/11 unleashed the Dark Lord – hi, Dick Cheney! – hiding within the administration and who made things – the follow-up massive tax cut plan in 2003, the mismanagement of two wars, etc. – worse.
mclaren
Okay. I’ll take a shot at it.
I hope the sea boils, the sky turns to lead, the Beast with seven horns rises from the Pit and devours all the GOP primary voters as they die screaming, ripped limb from limb. I hope that four living creatures with six wings and covered with eyes all around hunt down the Fox news reporters and rip them to shreds to for the dead to consume when the dead rise from Megiddo; I hope that armies of tentacled Elder Gods march ashore and suck the marrow from the bones of Rupert Murdoch and Luke Russert and Megan McArdle and Bill Kristol and toss their dessicated husks to Nyarlathoptep, the crawling chaos. I hope the Colour out of Space descends into the skulls of the beltway pundits and drives them mad until they claw their eyes out and run around howling in mindless terror, and then I hope Rl’yeh rises from the Potomac and Dead Cthulhu awakens and consumes them.
I hope Donald Trump is sacrificed by crazed followers of the Hound of Tindalos and his gnawed bones get hurled into the maws of the Great Old Ones as they reach out to rend asunder the terrified bodies of all the political scientists who whored themselves out to the Heritage Foundation for a quick buck writing white papers that explain why eliminating the minimum wage is actually a progressive idea.
I hope unnameable and ancient terrors crawl from underground grottos into the bedrooms of every political “expert” who sagely holds forth that “both sides do it” and suck their cerebrospinal fluid from their bodies until the pundits turn into bug-eyed fish people who wade mindlessly into the Potomac and disappear into ancient underwater cities populated by Elder Fish Gods.
Does that cover it?
Omnes Omnibus
@jl:
I hate to say this, but Cruz has a reputation as a very good appellate litigator.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
Count me as skeptical that this reflects his skill. Cruz took on a bunch of highly ideological appeals at a time when the Supreme Court was willing to pay more attention to ideology than legal reasoning. I’m not convinced that shows how smart he is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: I am just saying that he has actually racked up some achievements. Plus, appellate practice is a odd niche within litigation.
Cervantes
@jl:
Unfair to Cruz and maybe Gingrich-era Kasich — much as I don’t care for what they achieved.
DissidentFish
Well, I guess I’m a dissident here indeed. Tomorrow cannot be too soon for Trump’s bubble to pop, for me.
His rallies remind me of the part of the film Cabaret in the beer garden, where the song “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” begins as patriotism, builds towards mob, and ends, before you even know how it happened, with what cannot be stopped, a train hell bent towards genocide, towards train cars of men, women and children whose sin was being scapegoated by venal, lying, evil men.
Americans cannot turn away from Trump too soon.
I am afraid.
feebog
On this date in August 2007 Rudy Gulliani was polling in the high 20s. Fred Thompson was surging at 17%. Thompson dropped out before the first primary and Gulliani never won a delegate, dropping out after the So. Carolina primary. Trump is not going to win the nomination, much as I would like to see that happen. And Trump is not particularly accomplished. I guarantee you that almost anyone of average or above intelligence could take a 350 million dollar real estate fortune and turned it into billions of dollars over 40 years. You could do it simply by conservatively investing.
I think Jeb! and Walker would both be very weak candidates against HRC in the general. The only one who concerns me is Rubio; he may pull some latino votes, and his age may work in his favor with younger voters.
JustRuss
@schrodinger’s cat: W blew a trillion dollars invading two countries, turned our surplus into endless deficits, and presided over the worst downturn since the Depression. I don’t think Trump running his mouth off can touch that. We could do far worse. Sadly.
rikyrah
@Rick Taylor:
I still believe that Willard is waiting in the cut…..for Jeb to flame out.
rikyrah
@Helen:
Really?
Frank Luntz?
EconWatcher
@smintheus:
I hadn’t thought of the Berlusconi comparison, but you’re right, that fits Trump perfectly. I was thinking “gaudier Ross Perot,” but Perot, while clearly unglued, seemed to me at bottom a decent man.
cokane
Trump all the way. You guys have to keep the Congress in constant mind. The bigger the Dem blowout at the Prez level, the more likely they take back the House.
Zinsky
We already know that another Bush presidency would be catastrophic for the country – the first two were! Think of how the course of human history went so sadly awry when Jeb! helped his idiot brother steal his first presidential election!
tybee
@mclaren:
I like it!
cokane
@mclaren: i dunno, thatd be good but just seems improbable. but its still early in the election cycle
Applejinx
@mclaren: And a pony. Everybody loves ponies :)
mystical chick
+1 for the Prince lyric, DougJ! Way to go!
Also too: UGH on all these morons. It will be a shitshow no matter who gets the nom for the GOP. Although it would be laughable if Trump actually got in the White House. Can you imagine that? (I’d imagine watching it as a Canadian citizen, in my dreams.)
Captain C
@Cervantes:
I suspect it helped Reagan that he was a vaguely competent actor playing the role of his life as a Beloved, Kind, Grandfatherly President*.
*As long as you don’t count the opinions of the poor, minorities, liberals, various Central Americans and so forth.
ETA: Or look at his actual record.
DougJ
@mystical chick:
Been listening that album recently, it’s great!