Comments

  1. says

    With Jeb gone, doesn’t that leave a Bland Gap with some potential American enemy? You know, sort of like the (non-existent) Missile Gap that America supposedly had with the Russians when Kennedy was running.

  2. F.O. says

    At least now there’s no chance to have another Clinton vs Bush, that would have been embarrassing for democracy, now at least the lip service is paid.

  3. robro says

    I thought it was supposed to be “Buy Bush.”

    Now just waiting for Kasich and Carson to bow out. I can’t find any news on how they did in SC. Interesting that Rubio did better than Cruz. The Donald…jeez!

  4. robro says

    This is a chilling statement in the Washington Post: “Exit polling found that more than seven in 10 South Carolina voters Saturday identified themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christian…” That’s one why it’s good to be from the South…far from it.

  5. Ragutis says

    As much as I would like to indulge in schadenfruede, Jeb! was probably the least bad of the Republican candidates. Now we’ve got a megalomaniacal buffoon, a narcissistic theocrat, and a neophyte dimwit who’ll dance for whichever billionaire finds him useful.

    Feeling masochistic, I subjected myself to Cruz’s speech. Within seconds of saying that he’d return the nation to its constitutional roots he said that the people, not “political insiders” choose Supreme Court Justices.

    Also, his older daughter doesn’t seem to like him much. First there was that video of her avoiding a kiss, and tonight, a minute or two into the speech, she flat out bailed. Exit stage left.

    @robro: Kasich got 8% (like Bush) and Carson 7%. I didn’t hear anything about what Kasich said, but Carson reportedly told his supporters that “This is just the beginning.”

  6. raven says

    Not surprised. John Ellis is cosmically dumb. At the start of his campaign, he made a few phone calls and raised $100 million. He then:
    1. Talked about abolishing Social Security. Not realizing that most of his supporters are old white people surviving on…Social Security.
    2. Wanted to start a war in the middle east for some unknown reason. Not realizing we are sick of failed wars in the middle east.
    3. Seemed confused as to what women are and what they do but bashed them anyway. Not realizing they are the majority of the population.

    He walked most of that back after someone woke up his Thinking Brain Service Dog.

    John E. is a classic example of someone born to great wealth who has never had to do anything on his own in his life. At his level, you have servants to dress you. It’s quite possible JE doesn’t even know how to tie his shoes.

  7. R Johnston says

    @ragutis @8

    As much as I would like to indulge in schadenfruede, Jeb! was probably the least bad of the Republican candidates.

    There wasn’t a counterfeit dime’s worth of difference between Jeb! and Trump or Cruz; Jeb! just got better press. In the end, each of them would sign anything a radical Republican Congress put before them, nominate judges solely based on their Federalist Society stamp of approval, and generally attempt to inflict some Randian Dominionist hybrid awfulness on the American public. Jeb! may be marginally more genteel than those clods, but Terry Schiavo was not an aberration but rather representative of Jeb!’s beliefs on how to govern. Jeb! is a truly awful human being, deserving of nothing but the same scorn deserved by Trump and Cruz.

  8. Nick Gotts says

    Carson reportedly told his supporters that “This is just the beginning.”- Ragutis@8

    Surely there was someone there to add: “…of the end!”?
    There are rumours Carson will fold after the Nevada caucus on Wednesday. The scam may have run its course.

    I’m surprised Jeb! dropped out, as money is surely not a problem. But it could be family pressure, pressure from the Republican establishment to get out of Rubio’s way, or maybe he’s just not quite dim or self-deluded enough not to recognise he’s just making himself a laughing-stock at this stage. I’d also expect Kasich to fold if he doesn’t do exceptionally well in Nevada. And I think Sanders really had to win Nevada, not just get close. Any Presidential election other than Clinton vs Trump, Cruz or Rubio would now be very surprising.

    For what they’re worth at this stage, polls suggest Clinton would beat Trump, more-or-less tie Cruz, but lose to Rubio, and the enthusiasm with which the Republican establishment will back “their” candidate would also favour Rubio most (whether they hate Cruz more than they fear the thought of candidate Trump, I’m not sure). I can’t understand how he’s still viable after the malfunctioning of the soundbite module in the Republican “debate” – I’d have thought his rivals would have been flogging that footage for all they’re worth. But maybe they are? Anyone seem it being used by rival campaigns?

  9. Ragutis says

    I’m surprised Jeb! dropped out, as money is surely not a problem.

    Actually, I think they’ve been burning through money like crazy, and the donors have been getting more and more reluctant to throw good money after bad. Word was that he needed a strong 3rd place in S.C. for the big donors to even consider opening the spigot again.

    Jeb! is a truly awful human being, deserving of nothing but the same scorn deserved by Trump and Cruz.

    Agreed. I’ve been here in FL for 38 years. (Fuck, I’m old.) And I live about 10 minutes from the hospice Terry Schiavo was at. It’s where my mom passed away a year and a half ago. We drove by that circus a couple of times a week and if you thought that it dominated the national news… And that was just one facet of his job as Gov.

    So, no, I’m not a fan. But while he may deserve similar levels of scorn (as, frankly Christie, Fiorina, and ALL of the Republicans that entered the race do) the idea of President Jeb! never terrified me the way the idea of Trump or Cruz in the Oval Office does. Those two fuckers are demented. As horrible as he’d have been, I never feared him beginning another Crusade, instigating WWIII, or destroying alliances in a fit of pique.

    Clinton had better figure out how she’s going to get all those hipsters and college kids that are with Bernie. She’s going to need a BIG turnout to win in Nov. Vice President Warren might do it.

    This is a chilling statement in the Washington Post: “Exit polling found that more than seven in 10 South Carolina voters Saturday identified themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christian…

    And yet Trump creamed the actual evangelical and the Catholic that goes to an evangelical church.

    I wonder, if he gets the nomination, will Rubio twist the knife and ask Jeb! to be his running mate?

  10. says

    So, no, I’m not a fan. But while he may deserve similar levels of scorn (as, frankly Christie, Fiorina, and ALL of the Republicans that entered the race do) the idea of President Jeb! never terrified me the way the idea of Trump or Cruz in the Oval Office does. Those two fuckers are demented. As horrible as he’d have been, I never feared him beginning another Crusade, instigating WWIII, or destroying alliances in a fit of pique.

    Personally I rank the Republican top 3 as probably Trump being better than Rubio, and both being better than Cruz.

    Someone with an ideological system like Cruz will try to tinker with absolutely everything. No part of the government, no matter how small, will be safe from a Cruz presidency, and since it’s in the service of his fictional demonic sky-daddy, effectively all the changes will be bad.

    Rubio is somewhat similar, only instead of being in the service of whacked-out religion, he’d be in the service of far-right economics. A corporate stooge will at least be willing to not meddle everywhere, but all the meddling they do engage in will be bad.

    Trump is a liar. At this point, he’s blatantly and obviously a liar. Back before he was running for president, he was arguably more liberal than Hillary Clinton on some issues. He’s also an egomaniac. Put all that together, and it means he will ignore any part of the government he doesn’t care about and be willing to break his horrible campaign promises left and right — and, as with pointing out that Bush was responsible for 9/11, going against right-wing orthodoxy just helps him prove to his supporters that he’s truly an outsider. As for breaking

    Clinton had better figure out how she’s going to get all those hipsters and college kids that are with Bernie. She’s going to need a BIG turnout to win in Nov. Vice President Warren might do it.

    Clinton can’t do that. It’s years and years too late for her to manage it by, you know, not supporting every war which comes along, or not taking lots of money from the big banks, or not supporting fracking or Keystone XL. And a large part of the reason people don’t like her is that her positions are so elastic that it’s obvious she doesn’t mean any of them — within the last five years, she was explicitly and loudly pro-TPP, pro-war, and pro-banks. When she turns around and suddenly says she’s against all those things because Sanders has demonstrated that they are actually unpopular, she only makes herself look untrustworthy. Her own bad judgement has doomed her, and if Warren accepts the VP position, it will probably do more to tarnish Warren than to boost Clinton.

    If Clinton does indeed get the nomination, she will probably lose; she will almost certainly not help any Democrats running for Congress get out the vote, and she will definitely kill off the long-term prospects of the Democratic Party. All those young voters she’s insulting repeatedly by telling them they’re too stupid to know what’s good for them? If she gets the nomination, they will conclude — and rightly so — that the Democratic Party hates them, and they won’t be back in the next election. Turnout is already way down for the Democrats, even beyond the levels of the last few elections. Sanders could possibly reverse that. Clinton will only exacerbate it.

  11. says

    @15 It is amazing, in a grotesque sort of way, that Trump could conceivably be considered the best of the republican candidates because he’s probably lying about how horrible he is.

  12. says

    @#16, Anders Ryndel

    @15 It is amazing, in a grotesque sort of way, that Trump could conceivably be considered the best of the republican candidates because he’s probably lying about how horrible he is.

    There was an article over at Salon.com pointing out that Trump’s campaign is literally a string of outrageous lies purely intended to keep media attention focussed on him. He’s probably giving very exaggerated versions of views he actually does hold, so he’s not a good candidate by any measure, but I don’t think he actually intends everything he says, either — being the most outrageous scumbag possible keeps him in the spotlight.

    But really his candidacy is no more amazing than Hillary Clinton’s — it used to be that a politician who explicitly said “ignore my multi-decade track record and only listen to my campaign promises because I am purely an opportunistic hack who will do whatever seems opportune at the moment, and my positions of even a year ago don’t reflect what I think now” would have been plausible only as a character in a parody. And in 2008, a Democrat who had not only voted for the Iraq war* but was a cheerleader for every other conflict and was even directly responsible for the ongoing disaster which is Libya would have been tossed out on their ear. And yet — Clinton thrives, and even brags about her “experience”, which appears to be on a par with that of George W. Bush at this point.

    *It is revolting to me that Clinton’s vote for the war in Iraq has gradually become less of an issue over time, even as the number of dead Iraqis has risen and ISIS has formed as a result of the invasion and become the latest group we’re all supposed to be scared of. What is the official Clinton stance on Iraq? “Those million Iraqis would probably be dead by now anyway”?

  13. firstapproximation says

    Nick Gott,

    Any Presidential election other than Clinton vs Trump, Cruz or Rubio would now be very surprising.

    I’m still hoping/half-expecting Trump to run as an independent, so maybe Clinton vs Rubio vs Trump. Don’t know what to make of rumors that Bloomberg will jump in. In any case, it very much looks like the American people will have to decide whether they want to be ruled by politicians bought by the billionaires or the billionaires themselves. That’s democracy.

  14. Nick Gotts says

    Actually, I think they’ve been burning through money like crazy, and the donors have been getting more and more reluctant to throw good money after bad. – Ragutis@14

    Thanks – I knew Jeb!’s campaign had been spending money like water, but assumed there was plenty more on tap.

  15. anat says

    Re: Kasich – I’m guessing he is sticking around in hope to repeat his NH performance in a state or two, to prove his value as VP.

  16. says

    Nick@12; I was thinking that maybe Rubio had a certain amount of teflon until I reminded of the following at Vox (thank you AlexanderZ@10)

    But Trump hasn’t seriously attacked Rubio yet.

    When Ben Carson looked like a threat to Trump, Trump took him down. When Jeb Bush looked like a threat to Trump, Trump took him down. And when Ted Cruz looked like a threat to Trump, Trump took him down.

    Yes, it’s true that Jeb Bush’s Super PAC has already spent millions trying to attack Rubio, to little apparent avail. But Trump will be far more unscrupulous once he sets his sights on Rubio. He will be willing to play to GOP base voters’ worst ethnic and racial fears. He will bring up Rubio’s brother-in-law, who was convicted for cocaine trafficking. He will publicly spread the rumors about Rubio that Bush’s team just whispered about privately. And, of course, there’s that matter of immigration reform, which Bush couldn’t attack Rubio on.

    I forgot that Trump’s gaze has not settled on Rubio yet, and if Rubio really does tend towards being a deer in the headlights when the pressure is on, he’s going to be toast when it does. Hell, what if Rubio loses Florida?

    OT, I bet Trump won’t lose New York. New Yorkers may hold their nose, but they will vote for one of their own.

    Brother Trump… well Trump has got to be bringing a huge smile to polisci professors everywhere. I’m picturing thousands of theses written about Trump and the 2016 election no matter where he places.

  17. says

    LOL, BTW, lest my previous post give the impression I favor Trump. I do not.

    However, of all the repubic hares running, he’s the one I want them to nominate. Out of all the things said about him, one cannot accuse him of wanting to establish the kingdom of dog in the US. Besides, I still secretly hope he’s a Dem houseplant. :)

  18. Scott Simmons says

    “I wonder, if he gets the nomination, will Rubio twist the knife and ask Jeb! to be his running mate?”

    Jeb probably wouldn’t be able to pull off relocating to Colorado in order to get that to pass Constitutional muster.

  19. roachiesmom says

    robro

    This is a chilling statement in the Washington Post: “Exit polling found that more than seven in 10 South Carolina voters Saturday identified themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christian…” That’s one why it’s good to be from the South…far from it.

    Jesus on a fucking stick — I need to start an escape fund!

    Seriously, that’s terrifying. I live here and know how strong the religious nutfuckery is in this state of idiocy, and that is still terrifying.

  20. roachiesmom says

    Ragutis,

    This is a chilling statement in the Washington Post: “Exit polling found that more than seven in 10 South Carolina voters Saturday identified themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christian…

    And yet Trump creamed the actual evangelical and the Catholic that goes to an evangelical church.

    That’s easy. Chump is saying all the other things most of those same people are nodding and “amen”-ing over, the way someone’s eccentric aunt or uncle says outrageous things at Sunday dinner, stuff they secretly agree with but don’t dare encourage at the table. Only this time, they don’t have to be so secret about it, Chump is making it more and more okay to just say that stuff outright.

    Therefore, he must also reallyreally be the same sort of christian they are, too.

  21. magistramarla says

    I am really hoping that Hillary Clinton gets the nomination and that she names Julian Castro as her running mate.
    I think that would get more of the Hispanic voters motivated to get out the vote.
    Friends of Hispanic descent here in Texas that I have spoken with (including my daughter-in-law) have told me that a Trump nomination truly scares them. They are also not thrilled with the Cuban candidates. The Castro twins are immigrant success stories and make many people here in Texas very proud. With Joaquin already in Congress and the smart move by President Obama of appointing Julian to HUD, the successes of the Castro brothers would do much to strengthen the Democratic ticket.
    I love Senator Warren, but I feel that she can do the most good right where she is, and I feel much the same about Bernie Frank.

  22. archangelospumoni says

    #7 Brother Robro
    Even when my now-deceased mother was amidst severe dementia, I was still thanking her and my father for moving us AWAY from Tejas several decades ago. Imagine being born there and never leaving for better pastures. Tejas is fully infested with so-called evangelical and born-thrice people who don’t mind telling you exactly what to do . . . along with being from the filthy, nasty, ugly, mostly barren, polluted, backward, arid, browned, rotten, hateful, stinky state that is currently Tejas. Put pseudo-evangelicals together with Tejas and you’re done.