luka

Well-known member
I can't see him becoming president but he's rewritten tje rulebook for everyone else. A cannier operator could learn a lot
 

Leo

Well-known member
trump's mastery of twitter enables him to bypass the traditional media filter, and he gets tons of free press coverage on almost every tweet. not sure anyone else who's not a major celebrity would be able to run a campaign like that.

it really is incredible, he not only says outlandish things (he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose voters, he wants to punch a protester in the face, etc.) but also some that are the opposite from republican orthodoxy. he's running as a republican, but he and his followers have transcended the party, much to the horror of the establishment GOP.

a lot of people are just sick of corrupt politicians in both parties, special interest groups who donate to and control the pols and a broken political system (also the reason bernie sanders has done so well). many of them feel we don't have anything to lose by electing someone like trump and potentially blowing things up, since the situation is so shit now.

i suppose a trump nomination would result a clinton presidency, but man would that be a dirty fight until the november election.
 

trza

Well-known member
A gotcha question at the end of a telephone poll where respondents are asked if they agree with "emancipation". Its like asking kids if women's suffrage needs to be abolished, they always say yes.

But back to Trump, the stuff he is tapping into has always been there. Its just nobody has gone after it on a nationwide scale since maybe Reagan in 80 or Nixon earlier. Cruz thought he was replicating Reagan with is far right positioning and playing games with the party and the media. But all the "conservative principles" he spent months arguing about with Rubio and Bush turned out to be not so popular in the end.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Here's something that at first sounded odd but maybe not: a Trump/Rubio ticket.

Rubio compensates for areas where Trump needs help: young/"future of the party", appeals to Hispanic voters (potentially), knowledgeable on foreign policy (supposedly), legitimately more religious, and placates the Republican establishment, who would then hold their noses and get behind Trump for president.

Also, both Trump and Rubio have unloaded strong attacks on Cruz but not each other. Why else would Rubio not be attacking Trump, the guy he needs to beat, and instead be content to celebrate his various second-, third- and fifth-place finishes? Maybe they've already made their backroom deal.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I don't know, it seems implausible, but anything is possible once the nomination is done. I know that neocon Max Boot is on my FB and Twitter feed saying that he would vote Clinton rather than Trump (which is particularly telling seeing as he is one of Rubio's most influential foreign policy advisors), as is the libertarian star writer Virginia Postrel, so there is obvious deep-seated hostility to Trump across the GOP spectrum. It's an existential crisis for the party.
 

trza

Well-known member
Rubio's biggest asset is that he is personally popular in Florida, he could have been a lifelong senator or run for governor or make another presidential run in the future. He had a press conference with Nikki Haley and Tim Scott and some other minority Republicans that looked about as much as the opposite of Trump as his party can look. Haley was one of the loudest critics of Trump even if it was mostly indirect and timid and ineffective.

In a normal year a regular Republican would consider Rubio, Haley, or another minority as a running mate. Republicans with longer time horizons in politics, ones who have to make a living somehow after everything gets sorted out are staying away from Trump, they fear the toxic elements of his campaign will stick to them for decades.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The thing with Rubio is that he got minor traction for a few weeks, but then was immediately shown up as a flimsy persona on a national level. That left Cruz, who is as dangerous as Trump but has better (or even some) advisors (in particular, the impressive Victoria Coates). Now both seem utterly irrelevant, even if the remaining 1% scorers drop out. I was driving around the Deep South in September with my father, when the first GOP debates were being shown and Trump was way on top. We were both like, yeah, this will level out, he'll be gone by January. Wrong again! Then again, we were also in America during Corbyn's victory, constantly getting updates on Dad's iPad. We thought Sanders was the relevant comparison, but it was obviously Trump.
 

Leo

Well-known member
yeah, trump's probably more likely to pick a military general or businessperson instead of a career politician. florida governor rick scott has been mentioned, he was an early supporter of trump's and comes from a business background (pharma) as opposed to government. or maybe sarah palin. ;)
 
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craner

Beast of Burden
Palin's a shoe-in, but also a tragedy. I think it ought to be remembered that she was an impressive bipartisan governer of Alaska, took on the corrupt Alaskan oil cartel. The 2008 election destroyed her as a serious person.
 
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Leo

Well-known member
shows you how much i know: just heard trump say he'd probably pick a politician who knows how washington works and can help get things through congress.

also, it could be argued that palin destroyed herself in that election.
 
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luka

Well-known member
When the plague descended on Thebes, Oedipus sent his brother-in-law to the Delphic oracle to discover the cause. Little did he realize that the crime for which Thebes was being punished was his own. Today’s Republican Party is our Oedipus.

Lol fucking clown
 
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