Ben Carson: Bungling Surgeon

Would anyone want Trump or Carson being on point representing America if something like Paris happened during their tenure as POTUS?

 

I don't agree that Obama or Clinton is primarily to blame for losing statehouses and Congressional seats. Not directly, anyhow.

The Congressional seats are now laughably gerrymandered in some states. It's fish in a barrel, and kudos to the GOP for understanding that you win the House with election/map drawing tactics, not rhetoric or policies.

And a lot of the local/state races, voters respond to the candidate who throws a ton of money at an election. Why? Sheer name recognition. It's too much of an uphill climb for the financial underdog, regardless of their party.

If I were a major leader in the Democratic Party, I'd tell these celebrity donors to stop putting all their money on the top candidates, and start spreading it around better.

 

I guess Howard Dean went broke running for President.

The Dem field is empty for a couple of reasons. The 2010 & 2014 midterms wiped out their bench. So, the only potential candidates with any standing are old folks like Biden, Kerry, or Gore.

It's also increasingly left wing. Bernie Sanders holds positions that are perfectly acceptable within the Dem establishment, but he could never get elected nationally. Neither could most Dem Senators or Governors, and the ones who could can't get through a primary.

One of the things that helped Obama was that he was young, without a long voting record, and he was able to define himself (literally writing his won narrative). For the same reason, Dems are already talking about someone like Julian Castro (or his brother), as a future nominee. Younger, not nationally known, not defined.

But, lastly, and this is important, Dems were afraid to run against the Clinton machine. Normally, you'd see some younger folks run to raise their profile for a future election. The Clintons forbade that. Everyone knows the Clintons make up enemies lists, and hold grudges.

The appeal of the Democratic Party remains, but Obama and the Clintons have done much damage to it.

 

Can we not pretend that this is a new phenomenon?

The desire to draw minority majority districts also contributes to this.

 

It's not a new phenomenon, but the GOP has done a terrific job over the last 15-20 years.

 

Yeah, I'd hate to have someone like Trump as president during a time like this.

He has no nuance. He would just bomb the shit out of ISIS. That wouldn't help. And, surely they would not fear someone who might be "crazy" enough to not hold back in the fight against them.

Our enemies love it when we have crazy entertainers, like Reagan, who are too stupid to understand how the world works, as President.

Look at the gains the Soviet Union made under Reagan.

 

As the Dems did previously.

 

That's an interesting distinction. I think Cruz's views originate with him and that he genuinely believes in everything he says and does. He's a bright and earnest guy who is very much the product of his family history, but, as you mention, he has a screw loose. My impression of Rubio is that he's latched on to a few things out of necessity and at the urging handlers who insist he stand for something, hopefully a social area in which he can do little real damage, while attending to their economic bidding.

,

 

This is a dangerously naive post. My goodness.

 

Lol. Would you rather be respected or feared?

Terrorists respect no one.

No one fears Obama.

 

Consider California ... In the last election, only 58.9% of the HofR votes were cast for Democrats, yet somehow Democrats wound up winning 39 out of 53 seats (close to 72%).

Consider New York ... In the last election, of the HofR votes cast for either Democrats or Republicans, Democrats got around 57% ... yet somehow won 18 out of 27 seats (67%).

Now consider Texas ... In the last election, of the HofR votes cast for either Democrats or Republicans, Republicans got about 64.5%. Republicans hold 25 of the 36 Texas HofR seats (around 70%).

If Texas were more "laughably gerrymandered" a la the more progressive big states, it would have a HofR delegation with 27 to 29 Republicans.

Maybe gerrymandering only bothers you in certain states with particular partisan leanings. Or maybe, just maybe, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

 

Horse. And. Shit.

The United States military is the most feared in the world. Obama has been a warrior president his entire tenure.

He's personally authorized the deaths of thousands, tens of thousands?, in drone strikes.

And you still haven't told me how how to fix the office coffee pot.