2016 Election

[Toad]

Going to be a lot of happy 16 year olds doing summer grunt jobs and weekend burger flipping for $15/hour.

I remember being a teenager and working for "Vend-O-Bait" putting minnows, crickets, leeches, worms in zip-lock baggies for $3/hour. (Circa 1980-ish)

[Ryan Ruck]

Well, well, well... Looks like Fauxcahontas is running for President after all!

http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/feci...259000929488+0

[MinutemanCO]

Well, well, well... Looks like Fauxcahontas is running for President after all!

Got me laughing out loud at work with that one, Ryan.

[Toad]

From Wiki -

"The New England Historical Genealogical Society found a family newsletter that alluded to a marriage license application that listed Elizabeth Warren’s great-great-great grandmother as a Cherokee, but could not find the primary document and found no proof of her descent.^["

Sooo... hypothetically a distant grandmother 5 generations removed. Makes her "possibly" 1/64th Cherokee. Less than 2%. That's quite a stretch to self identify with, and it's not even documented. Could be just one of those family stories where the actual truth is lost in time.

[Ryan Ruck]

Got me laughing out loud at work with that one, Ryan.

Lieawatha is also an acceptable substitute.

[Malsua]

Sacalyingshit?

[MinutemanCO]

You guys should go on the road with this bit.

[Ryan Ruck]

Bernie Sanders Leads Hillary Clinton by 9 in New Hampshire, Gains in Iowa: Poll

September 7, 2015

Bernie Sanders has jumped out to a nine-point lead over front-runner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, and he's gained ground on her among Iowa voters in the Democratic presidential race, according to a pair of brand-new NBC News/Marist polls.

In New Hampshire, the Vermont senator gets the support of 41 percent of Democratic voters, Clinton gets 32 percent and Vice President Joe Biden gets 16 percent. No other Democratic candidate receives more than 1 percent.

Back in July's NBC/Marist poll, Clinton was ahead of Sanders in the Granite State by 10 points, 42 percent to 32 percent, with Biden at 12 percent.

Without Biden in the race, Sanders' lead over Clinton in the current survey increases to 11 points, 49 percent to 38 percent.

In Iowa, Clinton maintains her previous advantage over Sanders — but her lead has declined from 24 points in July (49 percent to 25 percent) to 11 points (38 percent to 27 percent); Biden sits at 20 percent. View the full New Hampshire poll here.

Wouldn't that be ironic if it came down to Trump vs Sanders, Capitalism vs Socialism...

[Ryan Ruck]

Bush Dials China For White House Campaign Donations

September 8, 2015

Jeb Bush, the former Republican Florida governor now running for president, is tapping US expatriates in China for campaign contributions, as he starts a series of fundraising calls in Asia to raise money for the 2016 race.

Mr Bush is expected to raise about $100,000 when he speaks by video conference to supporters in Hong Kong and mainland China on Wednesday. Each of the 40 people scheduled to attend the breakfast event, which will be held at Hong Kong’s International Finance Center, will pay $2,700 — the maximum allowed under campaign finance rules — to hear Mr Bush speak.

Mr Bush was the early favourite to win the GOP nomination but his campaign has struggled to gain momentum as he faces 16 rivals, including Donald Trump, the real estate magnate who has surged to lead the field. However, he continues to dominate in terms of fundraising. By the end of June, he and his outside supporters had attracted $114m in donations.

While Mr Bush comfortably leads the other Republicans and Hillary Clinton, frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, in fundraising, the fact that there are 22 contenders coupled with looser campaign finance rules means 2016 will easily surpass the $2.6bn spending record in the last election.

Mrs Clinton on Tuesday unveiled proposals to reform campaign finance, echoing a popular line from her stump speeches about the need to reduce the influence of big money.

“We have to end the flood of secret, unaccountable money that is distorting our elections, corrupting our political system, and drowning out the voices of too many everyday Americans,” she said.

Mrs Clinton advocated overturning a Supreme Court ruling that allowed outside groups to provide unlimited funding for candidates, passing legislation to force more disclosure of donations, and pushing the SEC to require companies to reveal all contributions. She also wants to create a small donor matching system to force candidates to pay more attention to the view of regular voters.

But Mrs Clinton also faces criticism for talking about reform while raising money from rich donors and relying on so-called Super-Pacs, the political action committees which can raise unlimited sums for candidates following the 2010 Supreme Court ruling.

On the Hong Kong call, Mr Bush will speak for 10 minutes before taking questions, according to Michael DeSombre, global president of Republicans Overseas, who is organising the event. During the 2012 election, Mr DeSombre, a partner at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, helped raise more than $2m in Asia for Mitt Romney, who lost out to Barack Obama.

“That caught people’s attention and helped them realise there’s an opportunity to raise good money here,” said Mr DeSombre, who said his group is focusing on the 8.7m Americans living overseas.

“If they were a state, they would be the 13th biggest by population, but historically they have not had a voice because many do not vote.”

Mr Bush is by no means the only 2016 contender who is hoping to raise money from Americans living overseas, but he is expected to have a big advantage in Asia because of the networks created by his father and brother, who both served as president.

One supporter said the Hong Kong event was just the first of many that he would hold in Asia. He said few of the other Republican candidates had the ability to raise as much money in Asia because “Bush just has stature in the region”.

The Bush campaign declined to discuss the Asia push, but Allie Brandenburger, a spokesperson, said Mr Bush “welcomes the support he has received from American expatriates all over the globe”.

Mr DeSombre said the US business community in greater China was keen to have its voice heard on issues from foreign policy to the tax demands on expatriates. While many Republicans have called on the US to take a tougher stance on China, some of those in China are less keen to rock the boat.

“China is an issue that divides a lot of Republicans out here,” said Mr DeSombre. “The question is: how do we engage in a positive way while still being strong?”

[Ryan Ruck]

Perry is officially out. I expect most all of his supporters to go to Cruz. Would have been nice if he officially threw his support behind Cruz during his speech though...

[Ryan Ruck]

Ted Cruz Wins FreedomWorks for America Straw Poll at the 9/12 Grassroots Summit

September 13, 2015

FreedomWorks for America polled activists at the 9/12 Grassroots Summit in Orlando, FL. Activists from Florida and the surrounding states voted for who they want the 2016 GOP presidential nominee to be.

The final results for the top three vote getters were as follows:

Sen. Ted Cruz - 41%

Ben Carson - 12%

Donald Trump - 8%

FreedomWorks for America is a grassroots service center that provides the tools needed to grassroots volunteers seeking to elect candidates who fight for lower taxes, less government, and more freedom. For more information, please visit www.freedomworksforamerica.org.

[Ryan Ruck]

Watching the CNN Republican Debate and I've got to say, Jake Tapper is doing a shit job in my opinion.

I'm glad he's allowing the candidates to interact instead of treating this like an interview, a la Megyn Kelly, but he's totally allowing this to be The Donald Trump show. Trump vs Paul. Trump vs Jeb. Trump vs Walker. etc.

We're 40 minutes in and Ted Cruz is just now getting his first words in aside from his introduction.

Gee, wonder if that is intentional...

[Ryan Ruck]

Getting a little better...

Maybe CNN just had to get their Trumpgasm out of the way.

[Ryan Ruck]

Still think this (and all future debates) should have been pared down to the top 5 or at most half of the remaining field. There are just too many people up there.

I think I said it before but there just isn't going to be a President Christie or a President Huckabee.

[Ryan Ruck]

Can't really say my opinion on any of the candidates has changed from my thoughts during the first debate.

Trump still with a lack of substance on a lot of things and in fact, I think he started to let his liberal tendencies show when the topic of the tax code came up.

Really thought it was funny when Jeb was going to lecture Cruz about matters of the Supreme Court. You know, the same Cruz that has clerked and argued in front of the Supreme Court? Cruz was spot on with his analysis of the Roberts nomination by GWB as well.

Overall, all of the other candidates did well.

I want to see the breakdown on speaking time by candidate as I suspect Cruz is near the bottom.

My top 3 were Cruz (despite the very little time he was given), Carson, and Fiorina. Ironically, my ideal tickets would be either Cruz/Carson or Cruz/Fiorina. I also think Walker had a good showing as did Rubio.

[Ryan Ruck]

Can someone explain to me why the talking canned ham known as Karl Rove has any credibility to be commenting on anyone's debate performance on O'Reilly's post debate show? Please remind me how many wins has he chalked up again?

I'll wait while the multitudes are counted...

[Ryan Ruck]

[Ryan Ruck]

I must have missed Cruz on O'Reilly's show before The Amazing Talking Canned Ham appeared.

Looks like my hunch on the low speaking time for Cruz has been confirmed. Now if I can just find the actual times...

O’Reilly to Cruz: Did CNN Moderators ‘Ignore’ You Because You’re ‘Hard Right’?

September 17, 2015

Ted Cruz‘s total speaking time at the CNN debate tonight was among the lowest of all the candidates, and Bill O’Reilly asked him afterwards if it’s because he’s “hard right.”

Cruz said that during the CNN debate and the Fox News debate, he didn’t get much time to speak. He told O’Reilly he tried to jump in to talk about climate change, but “the moderator didn’t want me to answer that.”

O’Reilly observed that it’s possibly due to the liberal media’s “political correctness.” Cruz said, “The media interviewers don’t like focusing on substance, they like the back and forth bickering.”

The bickering got called out by Chris Christie during the debate tonight when he told Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina to knock it off.

Watch the video below, via Fox News:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/oreilly-t...ZuQJHBclA2EzfO

[Ryan Ruck]

This is what NPR says for candidate speaking times.

On The Clock: Trump Gets Most Time In GOP Debate

September 16, 2015

There were only four candidates on stage for CNN's first debate and the moderators had their work cut out for them.

The candidates in Wednesday's debates are supposed to have 1 minute to answer each question, according to CNN. And each candidate was to have 30 seconds to respond to another candidate's answer if his or her name was mentioned. Moderator Jake Tapper, who acknowledged that it would be a challenge to enforce those rules for so many candidates, said "I don't know if bringing out a whip and a lion tamer's chair would help but we're just going to try to enforce the rules and ask the questions and see what happens."

Here is NPR's final tally for how much air time each main stage candidate got in the primetime debate:

Trump: 18:47

Bush: 15:48

Fiorina: 13:30

Carson: 12:56

Christie: 12:36

Rubio: 11:21

Cruz: 10:45

Paul: 10:28

Kasich: 9:44

Huckabee: 9:20

Walker: 8:29

And the 6 p.m. debate tally:

Graham: 19:47

Santorum: 15:38

Jindal: 13:06

Pataki: 10:58

Our count of the first Republican debate last month showed that frontrunner Donald Trump got more air time than any of the other candidates (around 10 minutes and 30 seconds), followed by Jeb Bush at 8:33. Rand Paul got the least at 4:51. Fox had said it would try to give the candidates equal time to speak.

So Cruz got almost half the time Trump did.

[Toad]

Just too many people up there to do anything other than talk in sound bites and canned talking points. I hope it gets whittled down sooner rather than later.