2016 Election

[Malsua]

I couldn't be bothered. I might listen when there are 3 of them.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yeah, like I said, my opinions didn't really change since the last debate and the truth is you didn't really miss a whole lot.

No one made any big faux pas and no one really came up with anything groundbreaking.



Like you were saying Toad, the soundbite crap sucks. I think the best part of last night were the closing statements by each candidate where they had time to articulate their ideas and positions.

I know I'm a Cruz fan boy but I especially liked his which had specifics, not just a bunch of generalities.

With only 4 debaters in the lower tier debate yesterday (which I didn't even bother to watch), future debate forums are going to have to move a couple people down to it or do away with it all together.

[Ryan Ruck]

Hmm... On one hand this is not good because he was another one of my fallbacks (ahead of Perry actually) but on the other hand, if the less popular Conservatives drop out, some (hopefully all) of their support goes to Cruz.

UPDATE: Walker At 0% In New National Poll

September 20, 2015

UPDATE (WKOW) -- A new national poll shows Governor Scott Walker polling at 0 percent in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The CNN/ORC poll released Sunday shows there were five candidates who received less than one percent of support from likely Republican voters. Walker was among them, joined by former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and former New York Governor George Pataki. Less than one percent equates to zero percent, statistically.

Some pundits are saying Walker won't even be in the race by the next Republican debate on October 28th. Marquette Law School poll director Charles Franklin doesn't think things are that bleak, but he says few candidates have been able to rally after such a fall.

"Any time you see a candidate fall the way he has - and more importantly not just fall to 8 or 9 percent, but to fall below three percent - I think you have to say this is a campaign that's in very serious trouble," Franklin tells 27 News.

Franklin says he expects Walker to do what he can to stay in the race at least a few months longer, because a November debate will be held somewhere in Wisconsin.

********

Madison (WKOW) -- A new national poll shows Governor Scott Walker polling at 0 percent in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The CNN/ORC poll released Sunday shows there were five candidates who received less than one percent of support from likely Republican voters. Walker was among them, joined by former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and former New York Governor George Pataki. Less than one percent equates to zero percent, statistically.

The results show Donald Trump is still the front-runner with 24 percent, but has lost ground from earlier in the month. However Carly Fiorina jumped to second place with 15 percent.

Another category Walker falters in is recognition. Walker has the second-worst polling numbers in name recognition. The poll shows 25 percent of likely Republican voters say they've never heard of him. All other candidates except for Ohio governor John Kasich were more recognizable to likely Republicans.

The poll began the day after the most recent Republican debate on CNN.

[Malsua]

So Carson is down and Carly is up? Oof. I'll take her of shrillary, but only slightly.

Walker...he would be ok, but he's not coming back from 0%. We need to get rid of some of these also-rans. Gaglisch and shuckabee should go somewhere and suck each other off so we don't have to hear from them.

Pataki isn't going anywhere but further down the rathole, he should go back to retirement. You can keep Christie in there for someone to make fat jokes about. Leave in Carson, Cruz, Carly and Trump...we'll go from there.

[Ryan Ruck]

It's official. Walker is out. Too bad as he was a solid guy.

Interesting how two Conservative governors, one from one of the most successful states right now, are both out. Guess the governorship line on the resume isn't a deal breaker this cycle.

It's funny you say that Mal. I had a chance to hear Walker's speech live and he basically fired a parting broadside into Trump asking all the other low polling candidates to bow out so a real conservative can rise up above him.

I'll see if I can dig up the video...

[Ryan Ruck]

Here we go. Thanks CSPAN!

[Ryan Ruck]

Sanders Draws More Than 20,000 In Boston, Building On A Strong Week

October 3, 2015

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew a crowd of more than 20,000 here on Saturday night, building on the momentum of a week during which he posted a quarterly fundraising total that nearly matched that of Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The boisterous turnout at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center appeared to far exceed a previous record for a primary candidate in Massachusetts: a crowd of about 10,000 that came to see then-senator Barack Obama eight years ago as he campaigned for the presidency, according to the Boston Globe.

Sanders — who has drawn large crowds around the country, including 28,000 in Portland, Ore., in August — also attracted about 6,000 people to a rally earlier Saturday in Springfield, Mass.

Sanders's campaign initially issued an estimate of 20,000 for the rally here. A few hours, it revised the total to 24,000, citing a count of people gathered outside the hall provided by an official at the venue.

Massachusetts is among about a dozen states with primaries or caucuses planned for March 1, the day known as Super Tuesday. Both Clinton and Sanders have started visiting and building organizations in those states, in anticipation of a nominating contest that could remain competitive well beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sanders this week reported raising $26 million during the past three months, just shy of the $28 million Clinton said she had raised. Sanders, who was written off by many as a fringe candidate just a few months ago, referenced his fundraising total early in his hour-long remarks, saying he was proud of the way he had raised money since launching his campaign: from 650,000 donors who’ve given an average of just $30 each.

“I do not represent the agenda of the billionaire class or corporate America, and I do not want their money,” said Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist. “We are running a people’s campaign. … We have something they don’t have. Look around this room. This is what we have that they don’t have.”

Sanders served up largely the same list of priorities as he does at other stops around the country, including addressing the “grotesque” amount of income inequality in the country, making health care a right and combating climate change.

Sanders also gave a plug Saturday night to the work of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a favorite of the political left.

“As your Senator Elizabeth Warren reminds us, this is a rigged economy,” Sanders said. “And this is the economy we are going to fix.”

In the wake of this week’s shootings at a community college in Oregon, Sanders also spoke about the need for some additional gun control measures, including closing the “gun-show loophole” on background checks.

Sanders, who has a mixed record on gun control, including a vote against the landmark Brady Bill in 1993, also stressed the need for improving mental health services.

“In my view, we need a revolution in terms of mental health in this country,” Sanders said. “People who are in crisis should not have to wait weeks or months for the care they need.”

His speech was enthusiastically embraced by the overflow crowd, which interrupted Sanders frequently with applause and chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”

Jim Kernohan, a high school physics teacher in Boston, was among those eagerly waiting in the crowd Saturday night to hear Sanders for the first time.

Kernohan, 53, said his son, who works in Manchester, N.H., had recently seen Sanders and told him how electric his appearance was. “So I had to see it for myself,” he said.

Even before Sanders spoke, Kernohan said he was sold on Sanders, based on his calls to provide free public college tuition, tax Wall Street trades and overturn the Citizens United court decision, which has allowed more money to be spent influencing politics.

Justin Mendoza, a Sanders enthusiast who attended the rally, marveled at the energy in the crowd afterward.

“It was beautiful, wasn’t it?” asked Mendoza, 24, a health-care worker in the Boston area.

Sanders had planned to hold a rally in August. It was postponed, however, because the campaign couldn’t find a venue on short notice large enough to hold the number of people they anticipated.

[vector7]

Watching the CNN Democratic debates for about 40 mins...just couldn't take it any longer.

If we have more terms from Commies like Clinton or Sanders after Obama's 8 years and 19trillion in debt, you will need your own fallout shelter and or passage to another country before the balloons go up.

[Malsua]

I hope their gun ban stance will be their undoing. If not, there's going to be hell to pay and those socialists are picking up the tab.

[Ryan Ruck]

Didn't even bother to waste my time. Nothing but a bunch of losers up on stage spewing lies.

I've got a lot better things to do, like pick lint out of my belly button.

[AGEUSAF]

I forgot lol the kid wanted to watch Minions.

[Ryan Ruck]

Definitely a much better use of time!

The Minions are at least entertaining!

[Ryan Ruck]

THOROUGHLY read the piece and then see my comment after.

Six Cash-Strapped Republican White House Hopefuls Face Tipping Point

October 16, 2015

Half a dozen Republican presidential candidates are edging toward financial crisis, raising the specter that some may be forced to drop out of the sprawling field of contenders.

They all spent more than they took in during the third quarter, according to campaign finance reports filed on Thursday. The six are: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former New York Governor George Pataki, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

Together, they raised $6 million but spent more than $9.5 million during the summer on everything from postage to travel to campaign rallies. All six are trailing badly in the polls.

"They are living on the edge," said Lawrence Noble, former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission."We are getting close to the time when a lot of these candidates are going to say, 'We can't do it, it can't be done,'" said Noble, now a senior attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance non-profit.

Campaigns have tipping points: the moment when a candidate does the math and realizes that he does not have enough money on hand or the prospect of more money from donors to stay in the race. One telling sign is the "burn rate" - jargon for how much a candidate spends versus how much he is raising. If the burn rate is high and donor enthusiasm low, then trouble ensues.

The math is simple, said Austin Barbour, who ran Rick Perry’s fund-raising Super PAC before the former Texas governor dropped out. Barbour is now a senior adviser to the campaign of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

When direct donations to campaigns are lackluster, as in the case of these six candidates, there may not be enough money to cover basic operating costs like travel, staff salaries and office equipment. Those costs are not typically covered by big money Super PACs, which are supposed to operate independently of the campaigns.

“It’s really tough to survive with such little money,” Barbour said. “It puts a lot of pressure on a campaign because no one wants to put their candidate in debt.”

DANGER ZONE

The third quarter reports show the challenges. Any burn rate over 100 percent is considered dangerous by campaign finance experts. Pataki’s was 226 percent, Graham 188, Paul 181, Jindal 144, Huckabee 110 and Santorum 101.

Of those, Paul and Graham have the most money in the bank, with $2.1 million and $1.7 million respectively, while the rest are money-challenged. Pataki, for instance, had less than $14,000 on hand as of Sept. 30, less than the $17,600 billionaire candidate Donald Trump spent on yard signs in the third quarter alone.

The campaigns dismissed the suggestion they were in financial trouble.

Rand Paul's campaign stressed it still had the $2.1 million on hand. A Pataki staffer said his burn rate was just the “cost of a campaign for President.” And the Huckabee campaign said their candidate was experienced at running campaigns on shoestring budgets.

Spokesmen for Santorum, Graham and Jindal did not respond to requests for comment.

To be sure, tight budgets at this point in the race do not mean the campaigns are doomed. A candidate could have a breakout moment, like former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, whose fundraising soared after a good debate performance. Candidates can also lend themselves money, as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton did when she ran low during the 2008 White House race.

But the Republican candidates are bedeviled by another math problem. There are 14 Republicans vying for their party's nomination for the November 2016 election, more than double the number at this point during the 2012 election.

“The Republican field is way too large, there simply isn’t enough money to go around,” said Noble.

Small donors are the lifeblood of any campaign and candidates will live or die by their ability to tap into a broad base of supporters willing to contribute up to the maximum of $2,700.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who is one of the front-runners in the Republican race, reported nearly 22,000 donors in the last quarter who have given more than $200 so far in the campaign. Bush had 7,300.

In contrast, Pataki had fewer than 80 donors last quarter; Jindal had under 300; Graham had nearly 650; Santorum under 300, and Huckabee more than 800. Among these five, Paul had the most, with more than 3,500.

The candidates could conceivably win the patronage of a millionaire or billionaire, who could funnel unlimited amounts of money into their Super PAC. But these fund-raising groups are prohibited from carrying out certain campaign activities and are therefore of limited help.

For example, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had a Super PAC with money in the bank, but after burning through $6 million in three months his campaign's coffers were bare and he was forced to drop out in September.

Perry, who quit the same month, hemorrhaged money and ended the third quarter with just $45,000 on hand. His Super PAC returned $13 million to its donors.

So, let me ask this of everyone else here...

The above is an 841 word piece (I pasted it to Word). Every single Republican Presidential candidate is mentioned, including Perry and Walker who have dropped out. Except one...

Feel free to double check me but the #3 fund raiser in the entire race isn't even mentioned once.

As I'm sure you can guess, that would be Cruz.

Can you guess who they're most afraid of?

[Ryan Ruck]

Very interesting debate tonight!

For once, it wasn't The Donald Trump Show. What a breath of fresh air!

The moderators were a complete, liberal biased joke but the candidates as a whole did a good job and seemingly banded together to take them down a couple notches with Cruz leading the way. Cruz basically took a can of gas, poured it all over the moderators, and then flicked a Zippo over his shoulder as he walked away. He completely bitch slapped them all. I will look for video. Impressive!

I give Marco a good solid 2nd place behind Cruz.

Kasich really needs to go. He just seems hysterical.

Now, I want to know, when are we going to have some Conservatives moderating one of the Democrat debates?

[Ryan Ruck]

Here is Ted literally lighting the moderators on fire.

[Ryan Ruck]

NPR's breakdown of time for each candidate.

The GOP Debate Clock: Fiorina Spoke The Most

October 28, 2015

Republican presidential candidates squared off for the third time Wednesday night. The lineup looked similar to the last debate with the exception of Scott Walker, who dropped out Sept. 22.

The debate, hosted by CNBC, lasted roughly two hours, including commercials, and gave each candidate a closing statement. The timing demands were made by Donald Trump and Ben Carson, who were unhappy with the three hour GOP debate that CNN hosted last month.

Carly Fiorina spoke for the most time, followed closely by Sen. Marco Rubio.

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

Fiorina: 10:32

Rubio: 10:10

Kasich: 9:42

Trump: 9:26

Christie: 8:31

Huckabee: 7:39

Cruz: 7:34

Carson: 7:02

Bush: 6:39

Paul: 6:15

The 6 p.m. debate tally:

Bobby Jindal: 10:38

Lindsey Graham: 9:33

Rick Santorum: 9:29

George Pataki: 8:38

Interestingly, Cruz was near the bottom but damn did the Cruz missile hit home!

[Malsua]

Trump, Carson, Fiorina and Cruz are the only ones who should be on the stage. The rest need to leave.

As far as I'm concerned, I wish it were just Cruz, but I could tolerate Trump/Cruz although I'd prefer Cruz/someone else. I don't think Trump would ever do a VP slot.

[Ryan Ruck]

Agreed though I'd cautiously add Rubio. I don't trust him 100% but I'd vote for him over Trump.

[Malsua]

Rubio is an open border(for spanish speakers) shitbag. So fuck him.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yeah, I know he came out pro-amnesty but then he got his dick smacked by the Tea Party and backtracked. Which is why I don't really trust him not to go back on his back track. But he did recant nonetheless.

That said, I trust him more than Rand who, after being called on it by Conservatives, has made no effort to back track on his pandering to the #BLM crowd or supporting establishment types like McConnell.