So...I'm Thinking About Next U.S. Presidential Election

[Imran Siddiqui]

[Dinner]

my attitude about the dem primary is "anyone but hillary"

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

In the primary I will vote for anyone but Hillary but in the general I will vote 3rd party instead of Hillary.

[giblets]

Why do you like Hillary?

x-post

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think I already mentioned it to rah in this thread, no? Or was that another one? Or was that a different question than the one you asked? (It's a 6 page thread, give me some leeway )

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wait, I realized that was a slightly different question that rah asked...

One sentence summation: I think Clinton has great progressive credentials from advocating for universal health care while first lady, to being the 11th most liberal voting member of the Senate during her term in office, while also offering a more pragmatic approach than some of the darlings of the left in order to be able to govern effectively.

In addition:
I think she'll be more aggressive in pushing her domestic policy than President Obama has been, who seemed to want to bend over to the Congressional GOP to get them to work with him, when they were dedicated to blocking everything he wanted to do. Btw, I do say that as a fan of President Obama over all.

[giblets]

She was planning on running for President as soon as she was elected to the Senate so all of her votes (including the Iraq War vote) were made with the goal of running for office in mind. It probably won't matter if she doesn't want to work with the GOP, because the odds of the Democrats taking back the House of Representatives in 2016, 2018 or 2020 are pretty low. She'll have to work with the GOP to get anywhere.

[Imran Siddiqui]

So she predicted that the country would take a more leftward turn after the financial meltdown in 2007, after she was already in the Senate for 6+ years? She's a prophetess!

[giblets]

This guy shouldn't waste his time, he won't win:

Jim Webb tests Iowa waters, weighs run as Hillary 'alternative'

DES MOINES, Iowa – Could Hillary Clinton be worried about former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb? Or is it just coincidence that she has an op-ed piece running in the Des Moines Register on the same day Webb is meeting with Democratic legislators at the Iowa Capitol?

Certainly Clinton has a lead in the Hawkeye State that at present looks insurmountable. But as former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley observed recently, he’s seen plenty of candidates who were inevitable right up until the point they were no longer inevitable.

And there is a real sense among many Democrats in Iowa that – at the very least – there needs to be a robust debate among a group of candidates. The last thing they want is a "coronation."

That’s where Jim Webb comes in. He’s in the middle of his second trip to Iowa since announcing the formation of a presidential exploratory committee. On Sunday, he presided over one of those famous Iowa ‘living room’ events with a group of about 40 people that included many veterans. Unlike recent Clinton events, the session – at the home of Dick Goodson -- was a free-flowing question-and-answer session that the press was actually invited to attend.

The group, which included many potential caucus goers, was happy for the chance to hear another Democratic voice.

“The way you really get a good party and a good representation to run for president is by having contested races,” Goodson told Fox News. “That’s what the Republicans are doing. And I think it will serve them well.”

While no one asked Webb about it, the controversies swirling around Hillary Clinton were very much on the minds of these voters. Kristi Lund Lozier said she was “gung ho” for Hillary in 2008, but that it’s time to move on.

“I think she had her chance,” Lozier told Fox News. “I think she’s got a lot of issues that she needs to deal with. I don’t think she is a slam dunk, nor should she be a slam dunk.”

Such sentiments are music to the ears of Webb’s organization. They’re hoping doubts about Clinton will present an opening that Webb – with far less name recognition and cash than Hillary – could walk right through.

Webb himself is careful not to criticize Clinton. When asked by Fox News to comment on her troubles, Webb replied, “I’m just not putting it into the formula. I mean, those are things that they have the capability of responding to, and I’m sure they’ll have their answers. What we’re really trying to do is connect on the issues that we care about and we’ve been working on.”

Webb appeared to connect at the veterans event. “I think he could end up being a very viable alternative to Hillary,” said Jane Brimmer, though Brimmer still hasn’t written off Clinton. She told Fox News that a Clinton-Webb ticket “might be an interesting combination.”

Other voters were indeed looking for an alternative to Hillary. Jim Marren, a Vietnam veteran, says he’s had enough of hearing about Clinton controversies. “I think she kind of feels like she’s an elitist. She can get by with these things,” Marren told Fox News. “It doesn’t ring right to me. You know, it kind of makes me a little leery about how trustworthy is she gonna be as a president?”

Many progressives in the Democratic Party are eager to see a challenge mounted against Clinton. Sen. Elizabeth Warren – their favorite – has so far said she’s not interested. Could Webb be the one? He certainly holds some positions that are to the left of Hillary – economic fairness and an aversion to Wall Street among them. But he also has positions that are to the right of her on the Second Amendment and affirmative action. He’s been described as a "hodgepodge" of political positions, but Webb says he’s fine with that.

“The positions that I take aren’t because of some party platform. They’re thinking through the issues and trying to figure out what is fair and what is right,” Webb told Fox News.

Lynn Hicks, the opinion page editor for the Des Moines Register, thinks Webb could fit right into a sweet spot with Iowa voters looking for an antidote to ‘Clinton fatigue’.

“I think Hillary’s got some baggage,” Hicks told Fox News. “I think whether its emails or other things, I think people are asking questions about that.”

How could Webb possibly battle the financial juggernaut that Clinton is putting together? He admits that’s the biggest problem he faces. But as witnessed with the veterans event, Webb is willing to put in the shoe leather necessary to engage in the sort of retail politics that can make a little money go a long way. Don’t forget, in 2012, Rick Santorum beat a much-better funded Mitt Romney by basically living in Iowa for a year, visiting all 99 counties here at least once.

Webb is also targeting a demographic group that could prove elusive to Clinton – disaffected white working class Democrats who have gravitated to the Republican Party in recent presidential elections. His message of economic fairness is aimed at places like Clay County, Ky. – the poorest county in the nation which is 94 percent white.

“I’ve just been basically been saying – hey – if we’re going to have this message, let’s have it for everyone and the people who left the Democratic Party for various reasons – one of them being Ronald Reagan,” Webb told Fox News.

Is Webb a longshot? To be sure. But Iowa is one of those places where a candidate who is committed to voters can suddenly catch fire. It’s said caucus goers want to see a candidate in person at least four times before they’ll support him or her. If Webb pulls the trigger on a run, he plans to spend a lot of time in the Hawkeye State meeting as many people as he can.

“I’ve seen, you know, a good receptivity of people willing to listen,” Webb told Fox News. “And we’ll just see where that ends up.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/27/could-jim-webb-be-hillary-alternative/

[Sava]

I won't vote for a white man

[giblets]

Lindsey Graham's low standing in national polls is matched by relatively little interest from Facebook users in his new 2016 presidential campaign.

Graham's announcement generated 142,000 interactions such as likes, posts, comments and shares from 84,000 people in the 24-hour period around his announcement. Of the other nine candidates in the 2016 race, only former New York Gov. George Pataki did less Facebook traffic, with 81,000 interactions from 59,000 people.

On the Republican side, the leader is Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul who generated 1.9 million interactions from 865,000 unique people in the same time frame. The overall leader is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with 10.1 million interactions generated by 4.7 million people.

Prior to his announcement, about 12,000 people had been chattering about Graham on Facebook each day.

He got the the most interest from users in South Carolina, where he held his kickoff rally. Washington, D.C. was also the most interested in Graham, followed by North Carolina, Maine and New Hampshire. And people were most likely to mention his name in the context of foreign policy and international relations, the driving issues behind his campaign.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-users-not-so-interested-lindsey-graham-2016/

You can never have too many old white Republican men running for president.

[Sava]

We're calling Graham a man now?

[DaShi]

I loved the deafening silence during several parts of his announcement speech. The utter look of confusion on his face was priceless.

[-Jrabbit]

Since we have this lovely thread available, here's a mostly-factual article from The Nation on Bernie Sanders' time as mayor of Burlington. Yeah, The Nation is lefty, but at least it's got some old-school journalism cred.

http://www.thenation.com/article/208849/bernies-burlington-city-sustainable-future?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email%20Nation%20%28NEW%29%20-%20Most%20Recent%20Content%20Feed%20-%20filter%20fix%2020150502&newsletter=email_nation#

Welcome to your socialist paradise...Burlington, Vermont.


Mayor Bernie Sanders, 1981

[dannubis]

running up huge debts and not paying them, the GOP way

or syriza...

[C0ckney]

the debts were run up well before their time.