Republican debate thread 9/16

Does anyone from Yale or Michigan remember him? How come we haven't heard from them?

I'm just asking questions.

 

If Ben Carson gets the Republican nomination, I'll bet we'll learn more about his college years than we ever learned about Obama's.

We've already seen the Boston Globe go deep into the current front runner's college years:

Donald Trump was brash, even at Wharton business school - The Boston Globe

And, the Washington Post investigated claims that he cheats at golf:

Does Donald Trump cheat at golf? A Washington Post investigation.

But, Obama had already written an autobiography, so there was no need to research his past. He had already done the work for us!

 

I would submit that this is true in lots of professions -- medicine, hard science, politics, law, theology, journalism. In only one, however, are those laboring under such assumptions given awesome power to sally forth in areas far beyond their epistemic horizons.

 

What president(s) well-versed in geopolitics thought it would be fine and dandy to start the Cold War in 1947 (Truman), or topple a democratically elected Iranian prime minister in 1953 (Eisenhower) . . . or go to war in Vietnam (Kennedy/Johnson) . . . or illegally sell arms to Iran (Reagan) . . . or help the mujahideen in the 80s (Reagan) . . . or go back on our word not to expand NATO into Russia's sphere of influence (Clinton/Bush43/Obama) . . . or start a war in Iraq that has come back to bite us in the ass and cost us a trillion dollars (Bush43)?

Frankly, I wouldn't mind a leader who said, "Wait a minute. We do not know the unintended consequences from fucking around in these places. As of right now it's no concern of ours." Because when our "experts" come up with an idea, they get it wrong a staggering percentage of the time.

 

I don't know why you limit your skepticism to the realm of the geopolitical. It's not like there's this seemingly never-ending stream of domestic policy successes, either.

 

Yeah, you're right. But it just seems like the domestic failures can be more easily reversed/amended and don't have a generations-long stink like some of the worldwide fuckups do.

 

And we've gotten to the heart of why many now seem willing to embrace a candidate with no government experienced. They've seen what those experienced people have been doing.

 

I was really impressed by what I saw on stage during last night's Republican debates.

That was one really big and shiny jet plane

 

A-freaking-men.

 

You can't make this shit up: A "Drudge" poll shows 52 percent of respondents think Trump WON the debate.

**DRUDGE POLL** WHO WON THE 2ND REPUBLICAN DEBATE '16? - Results (poll 9081166)

 

"I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.,This is about the character of our nation, and if we will not stand up in and force President Obama to veto this bill (to defund Planned Parenthood), shame on us," -- Carly Fiorina. At the risk of causing a pissing match, which I hope we can avoid, I'd like to ask those on this board if you've ever witnessed this kind of thing. If you did, I wonder if you've also covered an execution on death row. Did it bother you any more than the inmate who got in his position by killing someone? If you haven't experienced either, think about it. How do you separate the two with any kind of conscience? Fiorina is a woman and nailed this.

 

Do you realize that Fiorina was called on that lie pretty quickly after the debate?

Carly Fiorina is wrong about the Planned Parenthood tapes. I know because I watched them.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos Challenges Carly Fiorina's False Description Of Planned Parenthood Videos