New Hampshire Primary Running Thread

What DD said, WFFW.

 

I've always been partial to Mobutu Sese Seko myself. Love the hat.

 

I just don't know that there will ever be a point where the Republican party becomes un-hijacked by the Tom Coburns of the world though. I understand that the point isn't to shift right. I don't want that. Timothy Noah over on Slate wrote something after the 2004 election that really made sense to me, and it kind of echoes your point:

"The process of moving the Democrats rightward has no end point, because every time the Democrats shift rightward the Republicans respond by shifting a little further rightward so they can continue to denounce the Democratic position as radical leftism. That explains why the GOP of today is so much further right than the GOP of the Reagan era, when Republicans were still willing to support expansion of the earned income tax credit for low-income workers; more progressive taxation of Social Security benefits; arms control; and promotion of human rights abroad. (This rightward shift was documented compellingly by Joshua Green in "Reagan's Liberal Legacy" in the January/February 2001 Washington Monthly.) In theory, there ought to be a point where the GOP has moved so far to the right that nobody will vote for its candidates. But in practice, I'm not confident that such a point exists."

I don't know if that can ever be bullied out of the party. How to you reverse that thinking? People actually think Hillary Clinton is a pinko leftist when she's never been anything but a centrist and you and I know it. I don't know the answer, but I'm just wondering out loud if maybe it the next generation of GOPers, the ones who might look at Obama and see something different, if there is any way to win them over with a little compassion and understanding. Why does the blue collar working class in this country consistently vote against its own economic self interests? I don't know. But I don't know if slugging and fighting and scratching and clawing, at least out in the open, is going to do anything but create more angry loons who will keep shifting further to the right.

 

I choose No. 18.

 

Of course, for some, it's "What's the matter with the GOP? Why can't they get with the program?"

Maybe you should look in the mirror sometime.

 

The only way it happens is to crush that movement politically and salt the earth so it never rises again. That means beating the national GOP to the point where the choice is for it to reform or to become a regional southern Christian party for the foreseeable future. There has to be a price tp be paid for handing your party over to the crazies. That's the only one I can think of.
Fine, Lyman, follow them over the cliff. "Conservatism," as I understood it, is dead. What's left is sneering and bullying and raw, stupid power.

 

At one of the Democratic debates, none of the candidates knew any of the details about the tax bill before Congress. One of the candidates is a New York senator. One is an Illinois senator.

I won't hold my breath waiting for this bunch to fix things.

 

I won't hold my breath for a cite that says what you say happened.

 

If only we had a reformer with results who could ensure not only that the country remain bitterly divided but that two families could hold the White House for thirty fucking years.

That would be swell.

Jeb in 16!

 

I've a very good friend who lives in Florida, lifelong Dem, and he says Jeb is the best governor he's seen. Go figure.

I think Obama and McCain are the two people who come closest to that standard this go-round, Zeke. Some might say Huck, but I can't abide by him.

 

I think youtube has clips of those debates. If I knew the exact date, I'd let you watch and listen for yourself.

But here's a hint: Sometime between when the candidates' debates started and when Congress passed the tax bill in December.

Off you go. May your feet be like wings!

 

I vote for Forrest Whitaker.