And Finally the GOP Klown Kar Arrives in Time for 2016

[Saz]

[Libertarian602]

You are correct, sir. But his dad, and brother has. So let's hope he doesn't continue the family tradition.

[Saz]

[Libertarian602]

I think the necessity of the first Gulf War is debatable. But, you're correct about Bush Sr's prowess when it came to foreign affairs. Between being the Head of the CIA and UN Ambassador, he did build allot of good working relationships with foreign governments, and what not.

[Spider]

I love watching the Republican campaign process. Always the same. They have to appeal to rednecks to win their primaries, and so generally say crazy shit...and then they have to do an extreme flip during the general to be even a little palatable to everyone else.

They should just nominate Ted Cruz. His default condition is zany hard right. No need for the traditional flip flop.

[Divinity11]

Our constitutionally mandated Electoral College has evolved to a point where it is slanted in favor of the Democratic party’s nominee, which is why the GOP would like to change it.

All Hillary has to do to win the necessary 270 electoral votes is sustain this historic equation: 1992 + 1988 + Florida = a Democrat in the White House.

That first number represents the ten states with a total of 152 electoral votes that have been won by every Democratic presidential nominee since 1992.

The second number represents the nine states with a total of 90 electoral votes that have been won by every Democratic presidential nominee since 1988. Together, those states command 242 electoral votes.

Thus, if Hillary follows the Electoral College precedent that has held since 1992 and also wins Florida, with its 29 electoral votes (or any combination of states yielding 28 votes), she wins.

The only thing that could get in her way would be a "hanging chad." Perhaps the GOP should hire Katherine Harris to help run their campaigns.

[Indy]

Here's the problem: somebody like Hillary becomes... seemingly inevitable because the GOP won't rid itself of the cancer that is people like Cruz, Huckabee, Santorum, etc. And as everybody here has pointed out, even moderately sane candidates like (at the time) McCain, Romney and Jeb Bush have to pander to the nose-breathers to get through the primary. If they manage that, they've just given their Democratic opponent all the sound bytes they need to bury them in the general election.

Romney tried to sell himself as "severely conservative" to the base (which he never was) and appeal to Ayn Rand-ian plutocrats by bitching about the 47% (ooops, caught on tape!), all the while pretending that the affordable health care he passed in Massachusetts wasn't the same as what Obama passed (it was), which he now inexplicably opposed. By the time the debates rolled around, he was in full 180 mode and frankly during the last two I couldn't tell the difference BETWEEN him and Obama on policy, according to what Romney would say.

The last time a Republican won it was BECAUSE he sold himself as a moderate ("A kindler, gentler conservatism") with some deft pandering to the religious right, whom he promptly abandoned after winning because they were just stringing them along to win votes.

The endless cycle of: pander to the crazies in the primary and then try and back out in time to win the general election.

My unscientific take on this is that it's the rise of rabid right-wing media, which has changed the political narrative for conservatives from actually governing to destroying imagined enemies, which are always the same: the "left." Look no further than the TPM, where truckloads of them arrive in Washington not to govern or serve but to wage war on Obama and Dems. Just as right-wing media has no accountability for delivering to people (save for rage and incitement), now all candidates have no accountability either--as long as they're fighting the Christo-conservative jihad against things like gov't, liberals, atheists and people of color taking over their country.

All the while serving as bag boys for plutocrats and oligarchs, making sure that the top 10% vacuum up even more of the nation's wealth while enjoying privileged status not available to those in the lower classes.

If you're a moderate you're Neville Chamberlain in the opinion of these outlets, and their viewers/listeners. So until that changes, I don't see any change in this endless cycle. What all the FOX's of the world have done is convince fringe lunatic voters that they're the mainstream, and they're the people who need to be satisfied in order for candidates to take office. Candidates should be proxies for these people to fight their "war," and not do things like, you know: fund roads and bridges, help struggling families, flatten the income disparity, protect them against financial crimes by Wall St., etc.

[John Galt]

if you wanted alliteration, "Clown Car" works and both are actual words. Why did you chose to use not-words?

[Divinity11]

[Indy]