The 2016 Presidential Election Trainwreck

[frank ryan]

The Libertarian Party, most likely led by Gary Johnson, will be ther most conservative party. A true conservative stint be able to run as a third party because it's too late to get on most states ballots.

Well then, God help us. I don't think Johnson is leading much of anything.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Not a commentary on his politics, but he looks like a creeper in pictures. Something is off about him. I considered throwing my vote away last election and voting for him but his photo is unsettling.

Ha! I've thought the same thing. Something about his hair is off. Also, I didn't like that picture of him in jeans.

Come on. He looks like Tom Effing Cruise compared to Trump.

[USUC]

Come on. He looks like Tom Effing Cruise compared to Trump.

Tom Cruise? That isn't helping your argument.

[frank ryan]

Come on. He looks like Tom Effing Cruise compared to Trump.

Sorta creepy weirdo.jpg

[Topper]

Absolutely. As abhorrent as the candidates are, this campaign is going to be mesmerizing. Things can change, of course, but I think Hillary will take Utah.

I've been going to CB more frequently of late, and I had to laugh at one poster's comment that he expects the debates to end up with the candidates pulling each other's hair. One can only dream...

In the depths of my despair, that would actually entertain me.

I am actually in need of meds of the thought of another Clinton presidency. The only saving grace of Trump would be for him to savage her so badly, injure so that she will have a lame duck presidency. There is nothing on her agenda that I approve of. Eliminate handgun ownership? Check, I'm against that. Aggressive misguided foreign policy. Against that. Neo-Keynesian deficit spending with increased progressive taxation. Against that. Sexist appointments in all places of government. I thought we were beyond that. Universal healthcare? Nope. Increased regulation of small business. No thank you. Opposing energy needs and pipelines. Disagree. If there were a checklist of major policies with which I disagree, she checks them all off. We might welcome back stagnation after she is all said and done. We can only hope and pray for complete evisceration of both candidates so each is neutered. It is sad state of affairs that either procreated.

[SeattleUte]

So does a more traditional conservative candidate emerge as a 3rd party/independent?

What is that? Since hearing Cruz's atrocious exit speech tonight I've been thinking about the conservative politicians of the past who were successful nationally--Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, Romney, others?--and I don't think any of then were anywhere near as overtly religious as Ted Cruz. This frequent talk of God, Judeo-Christian nation, etc. goes over like a lead balloon anymore, apparently outside Texas, Utah and a few others. Trump is the proof. He can't pass for religious, talks about the size of his penis, etc., but plenty of religious folks are all for him. And Cruz was the only candidate who was at all competitive with Trump, and only for a while. The Republicans really are being hoisted on their own petard--the extremist elements have consumed the party.

[Uncle Ted]

Sorta creepy [ATTACH]6920[/ATTACH]

Actually he looks pretty good for a 63 year old. I have seen much creepier:

[Northwestcoug]

Surveying the wreckage after today, it kind of feels like King Theoden in 'The Two Towers', when he exclaims, 'How did it come to this?'.

Friends, the GOP is irreparably broken. It is but a shadow of the party it used to be. It has become a club for evangelical and angry, reactionary voters. It bears no semblance to the fiscally responsible party it ostensibly claimed to be even just a few years ago. And now, it will be lead by someone who is really nothing but an embarrassment.

There are few of us who are not angry at this predicament. As I see it, we have three options. All of them are essentially wasted votes, but one is more strategic than they all. First, you can go the Topper route, and claim against all reason that a vote for Trump is responsible, if only because Hillary is an even worse candidate. Even if against all odds Trump beats Hillary, what will we end up with? Will it be anything resembling a republican president that you will be proud of? I seriously doubt it.

You can also go the Uncle Ted/Y Ohio route and protest with a Libertarian vote. It will ensure a Hillary presidency, though I will admit it leaves your integrity intact. But will a third party candidate do anything to change the GOP into what you want to vote for in the future? We've seen the third party protest before; did anything change afterwards? The GOP establishment will view a third party candidate, even if it garners a surprising percentage of votes, as a temporary blip. It will not feel any pressure to fix itself.

The third option is most unpalatable to a lot of you, though it is the most strategic in the long run. There is no person who is loathed more by the GOP than Hillary, not by a longshot. And that includes Obama. Commentators and conservative voters alike find it hard to rationally explain why she is unfit for office (note that I'm not saying she is fit for office; I'm just saying the conversation quickly devolves to hyperbole anytime she is involved). Imagine for a minute, how would the GOP react if it realized a lot of people who previously supported republicans actually voted for Hillary. It is morally reprehensible to vote for her, as far as the GOP is concerned. If come November Hillary is president with a large support from previously conservative voters, how would the GOP reconcile that? Would they write it off as a fluke or blip, and go on supporting candidates like we had this year? No. It would be such a shock to their system that the only explanation they would come to is center-right voters are absolutely disgusted with the GOP right now. They would fix their nomination process in one election cycle, reform their platform, and vet and support serious candidates in the future.

I've joked about my vote for Hillary a lot lately, but I'm still serious about it. I've voted republican in the past. But I will no longer nuance my vote with 'yeah, I don't agree with their social platform but I vote with my wallet', when the GOP has devolved into a national embarrassment with a clown for its nominee. I don't think the democrats have any good solutions for the probable impending financial crisis. But then again, the current GOP doesn't either. I don't know how to best transmit my disgust to the GOP better than voting for the devil incarnate. Buy here is my pledge, and I invite all other like-minded voters to do the same. I swear I will vote for Hillary, and every democratic candidate in the foreseeable future. I will consider returning to the GOP, if and only if it becomes a serious national party again.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Sorta creepy [ATTACH]6920[/ATTACH]

OK, you win.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I doubt Trump is this stupid (or that at least his advisers aren't and he'll listen to them), but it'd be awesome if he picked Sarah Palin or Ben Carson as his running mate. But seriously folks, who will join him on the ticket? Christie? Gingrich? His best bet might be Nikki Haley, but I think she's blessed with both principles and a functioning cerebrum so I would think she'd reject him.

[Maximus]

I doubt Trump is this stupid (or that at least his advisers aren't and he'll listen to them), but it'd be awesome if he picked Sarah Palin or Ben Carson as his running mate. But seriously folks, who will join him on the ticket? Christie? Gingrich? His best bet might be Nikki Haley, but I think she's blessed with both principles and a functioning cerebrum so I would think she'd reject him.

all 4 of those would definitely accept, but I wonder if trump is smart enough to shoot higher. he needs someone that can sorta kinda at least start to excite the republicans that hate him.

[YOhio]

For those republicans suffering from TDS, think of this election not in terms of the president but in terms of the Supreme Court. Maybe that will help.

In what world do you live in where you can you can have any degree of confidence that Trump would nominate a good and competent person to the Supreme Court? Is it the fine people with whom he surrounds himself? Is it because he's so clearly demonstrated such a firm commitment to conservative principles that it's unthinkable he'd nominate someone outside of that universe? Or is it because his judgment is so impeccable that whoever he nominates would clearly be better than whoever Hillary would nominate?

What's really scary to me is if someone tells Trump that federal judges and SC justices don't have to be attorneys. The stream of goombah's lining up for their Senate confirmation hearings would be a site to behold.

[I.J. Reilly]

In what world do you live in where you can you can have any degree of confidence that Trump would nominate a good and competent person to the Supreme Court? Is it the fine people with whom he surrounds himself? Is it because he's so clearly demonstrated such a firm commitment to conservative principles that it's unthinkable he'd nominate someone outside of that universe? Or is it because his judgment is so impeccable that whoever he nominates would clearly be better than whoever Hillary would nominate?

What's really scary to me is if someone tells Trump that federal judges and SC justices don't have to be attorneys. The stream of goombah's lining up for their Senate confirmation hearings would be a site to behold.

It always amazes me when people give this as a reason to support Trump. What has he done that would inspire confidence in his judgment? Sometimes the retort is that they believe Senate Republicans can keep him in line, but I don't see this as any more probable. More than enough will fold and line up behind Trump to save their own skin that he'd be more than able to put in whoever he likes, as long as he can get Democrats to go along. Besides that, Republicans have already made it really easy to use their own words against them for whoever nominates the next SC justice with their "let the people decide" bs regarding the Supreme Court nominee.

[SeattleUte]

In what world do you live in where you can you can have any degree of confidence that Trump would nominate a good and competent person to the Supreme Court? Is it the fine people with whom he surrounds himself? Is it because he's so clearly demonstrated such a firm commitment to conservative principles that it's unthinkable he'd nominate someone outside of that universe? Or is it because his judgment is so impeccable that whoever he nominates would clearly be better than whoever Hillary would nominate?

What's really scary to me is if someone tells Trump that federal judges and SC justices don't have to be attorneys. The stream of goombah's lining up for their Senate confirmation hearings would be a site to behold.

You are forgetting that these massive Trump wins are an optical illusion--a thin slice of the American electorate is carrying him to the nomination. I continue to submit that this is a catastrophe for the Republican party (a long time coming, self-induced, and in retrospect totally understandable), but not the nation--this exposing of the Republican Party's turn to the dark side may be good for the country. I predict that Hillary is going to wallop him.

[YOhio]

You are forgetting that these massive Trump wins are an optical illusion--a thin slice of the American electorate is carrying him to the nomination. I continue to submit that this is a catastrophe for the Republican party (a long time coming, self-induced, and in retrospect totally understandable), but not the nation--this exposing of the Republican Party's turn to the dark side may be good for the country. I predict that Hillary is going to wallop him.

I agree with you. That said, I've been completely wrong from day one about how Trump would be received. There are so many wild cards in this thing that it's tough to be certain about anything that happens in November.