One of the reason’s Bernie Sanders isn’t gonna be President….
Like Trump….
He lacks some empathy….
Bernie Sanders slipped into a bit of a Larry David moment on the campaign trail Tuesday, grumbling at a squealing baby to pipe down.
“If we could keep that down a little bit,” the Vermont senator said in a moment captured on video that was posted to social media. “OK — thanks.”…
image…(Mary Schwalm/AP
James,
Why the need to misquote? He didn’t say “Have that babystop crying”. Sanders comment was to the baby – and I took it as a 95% joke – to keep it down.
But since you don’t care about honesty, I wanted to comment about your favorite candidate who also doesn’t believe in honesty either. I heard a quote from Biden the other day,and he said “I say this to you as a Biden.” My immediate visceral reaction was “oh well – here comes another lie”. Biden has a history of saying things that are just not true. He might be able to get away with it in this current environment because compared to Trump, he is actually rather honest. But as Democrats, we like to criticize Republicans for being silent when Trump says something that he just made up. Isn’t it being hyocritical to not criticize Biden when he does the same? And if you don’t see the hypocrisy, I can guarantee you that Republicans and independents can.
Your point on Biden making gaffs IS legit …
Donald Trump IS knocked for mistakes everyday….
Biden does the same , but NOT on the same scale and NOT deliberately like Trump….
Biden IS taking incoming political fire for his actions….
You HAVE noticed that when the other candidates knock Biden too hard they get told to ‘cool it’….
The party and others are after Donald Trump’s job….
They, and I are willing to cut Biden some slack since he has the best odds of sending Trump out of his job…
It is your right to knock Biden….
I spent time knocking Obama while he was in office on this site…
But?
I want a winner Z….
And if that is Joe Biden?
I’ll take the gaffs along with etc White House…
The cost benefit works for me…
And a lot of other Democrats right now…
I disagree on Sanders meaning his comments as a joke…
I think he was serious…
Honestly
I wasn’t talking about Biden making gaffes. I was talking about him lying. His gaffes are a different, and less serious issue.
I don’t share your opinion that Biden has the best chance against Trump. In head-to head against Trump, he currently out-performs other Democrats, but that gap is narrowing, and expect it will continue to narrow.
I suspect that Biden’s advisers are smart to give him a light campaign schedule at this time, but ultimately he is going to have to face the press. Right now, I have real concerns that he is not up for the job. I rank him near the bottom of theDemocratic pack. In a 3-way Biden Trump race that include Kasich, I might support Kasich (if he had a chance). I haves strong negative visceral reaction. Whenever I hear Biden talk.
I respect your choices Z….
But right now….
Ole’ Joe Biden IS the BEST choice for Democrats according to those who have answered pollster’s question’s for the last 6 months.. despite Gaffs , lies and gotchas..
I’m doubting that there will be a serious Independent candidacy .
Me also….
3rd party votes made up 6% of the total in 2016. I suspect it will be lower next year and possibly dramatically lower–say 1-2% of the total.
Look at what happened after Nader and other 3rd party candidates took 4-5% of the total vote in 2000. In the next election the major party share increased from 94-95 % to 99%. Third parties dropped to roughly 1%.
GW Bush waa able to capitalize on that and increase his share of the popular vote from 47% in 2000 to 51% in 2004.
Trump got 46% in 2016. *If* the 3rd party vote drops from 6% to 2-3% and Trump cannot significantly raise his % of the popular vote above what he got in 2016 it becomes virtually impossible for him to win again.
I think your analysis means good news for Democrats and bad for a another possible Trump squeak by 2nd term….
I agree Jack. And the reality is that unless a 3rd party candidate is polling at at least in the upper 20s at the time of the election, it would be a thrown- away vote.
I would not throw away my vote in a presidential race.
The Libertarian Party may nominate former Republican Congressman Justin Amash ,who left the Republican Party over Trump.
Amash may draw some anti Trump and libertarian leaning Republican voters.
He could poll several million votes.Former New Mexico Governor drew 4.5 million votes on the Libertarian line in 2016.
I agree Jack, there won’t be a viable third party candidate and the only way to remove Trump is to vote for the Democrat.
Even if it’s Bernie.
This Cancer with a Sharpie needs to go.
Amash would be the only possible Libertarian nominee who could pull numbers similar to Gary Johnson.
Former Rhode Island Gov and Sen Lincoln Chaffee also supposedly expressed interest in the Libertarian nomination, but I have a hard time seeing him get more than half a percentage point in the general election.
Yeah Amash is at least a real and consistent consistent libertarian.
Chaffee has been all over the place.During his Senate years he was considered one of the vanishing “liberal” Republicans.Then he became a Democrat for awhile.
Of course the Libertarians have been known to select people with tenuous connections to the libertarian philosophy for their national ticket.Bob Barr, a former Republican Congressman was the presidential nominee in 2008.Barrs “Libertarianism”seemed to be a matter of convenience.He was pretty much just a Right Wing Republican with some disturbing links to the Council Of Conservative Citizens, the old White Citizens Council.
Then, in 2016, present Republican presidential aspirant and former Mass. Gov. William Weld became the VP candidate ,even though he wasn’t a member of the party.Weld had always been sort of a “moderate” northeastern Republican with no known affinity for libertarianism.
Increasingly, it appears, the LP is nominating national candidates based more on their national recognition (with the hope of increasing the LPs national vote) than their philosophical consonance with libertarian posions.
Nothing wrong with that politically at least.Libertarians, however, often denigrate the two major parties as lacking philosophical consistency.Maybe that’s true, but nominating people like Barr, Weld and maybe Chaffee, says nothing for their “consistency” either.
As a Rhode Islander, I don’t find it all that strange that Lincoln Chafee would consider running as a Libertarian in a multi-candidate race.
He won the 2010 election for Governor as (despite his name and Senatorial career) an outsider with liberal (e.g. pro-choice, pro-green) goals and conservative economic principles partly inherited from his late father, local icon Gov. & Sen. John H. Chafee. But Linc Chafee won the Governorship (backed by a heterogeneous mix of Democrats, Republicans & independents) with 36% when the other votes were spread among three other significant candidates (including the petulant and hapless Democrat Frank Caprio, who told his President where to put his endorsement.).
36.1 % Lincoln Chafee (ind)
33.6% John Robitaille (R)
23.0% Frank Caprio (D)
_6.5% Ken Block (Moderate Party)
[three others together less than 1% ]
Still, given his surprisingly weak Democratic performance in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb, I don’t expect a Chafee Libertarian candidacy to prove that significant unless (like Ross Perot and Ralph Nader) he flips a very-closely-fought state between Red and Blue.
Most libertarians I know are not pro-green – which brings up why I can never be a libertarian: what is best for an individual is often not what is best for society.
Yes, most Libertarians are enamored ,as are many Republicans, with something called “market solutions” to environmental issues.
It’s a nice talking point but it’s when you get to specifics they always seem to be lacking.
Amusingly, as a post here points out ,the Trump Republican Justice Department seems to be objecting to private automobile manufacturers making an agreement with California as to a major environmental issue .One could see this as a”market solution.”
I don’t find it surprising that Chaffee ,who seems to like running for political office ,would seek the LP nomination for the reason I previously stated(the LP desire to have a nationally known figure on their ticket) and his lacking any chance to be on the ticket of either of the two major parties.
To contend though that Chaffee is a”libertarian “ particularly as opposed to say Amash is quite a stretch.In my view, Chaffee is actually what used to be called a “Rockefeller” Republican, his flirtation with the Democrats and possibly the LP notwithstanding.
I agree with Jack (having lived in Rhode Island when Lincoln Chafee was Mayor of Warwick, U.S, Senator and Govcrnor. Like his late father, Gov. & Sen. John Chafee (widely revered by Rhode Islanders of all political persuasions), Lincoln Chafee could probably best be identified as an old Yankee pro-choice, pro-environment liberal or Rockefeller Republican.
Although those were precisely the kind of people that the Goldwater Revolution and its successors sidelined or pushed out of the G.O.P., still a whole host of much more conservative Republicans came here to campaign (unsuccessfully) for Chafee’s renomination and re-election to the Senate in 2006 almost entirely because they wanted to keep a majority of (or at least parity in) the Senate.
Chafee liked to point to the National Journal’s left-right rankings which put him exactly in the 50% centre point as the Senate’s most liberal Republican (a place also occupied by Gene Tayor, the most conservative Democrat in the House).