US presidential elections

First topic message reminder :

Morning all,

So after the win in Iowa for Ted Cruz last night where do we see this going?

I'm thinking Clinton v Rubio. Lots of twists and turns still to come though.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Wow just been watching the CNN debate...Trump hammered to sh*t..

It will only get worse for him.

If he gets to face Hillary later on (which I don't think he will) he will get taken apart piece by piece on one policy after another.

She is a far better communicator, has decades of national/international governmental experience behind her, is just as shrewd, just as confident... but is a lot smarter than Trump in a political/business sense.

Despite his privileged upbringing and ruthless business acumen; he lacks the most important political attributes of using careful diplomacy in dealing with others and a proper ability to communicate sensibly and effectively.

Doesn't matter how much Trump gets a ripped apart and exposed - he's being supported by idiots, not intellectuals.  Jingoistic mediocrely educated whoop & hollering morons.

Think he's looking good for the nom.

Hilary will be such a contrast if/when they go head to head (fooked if Bernie gets it as he's a ying to Trump's yang and may alienate more neutral/balanced voters that would go for Hilary) that she should win more of the middle ground vote - unless Trump very successfully pulls back the centre ground once he's used the retards to get the nom.

TopHat24/7 wrote: - he's being supported by idiots, not intellectuals.  Jongoistic mediocrely educated whoop & hollering morons.

Good descriptive words, Toppy.

I was about to write about the "dullards" as well but took it off just before posting.

Hillary can still be charged....

The reason Trump is doing well is like Bernie.

People are peed off with Washington...end of story

People are always peed off with Washington though, aren't they?

Don't get me wrong...I have very little faith in career politicians of any ilk myself and would probably get quite excited if Alan Sugar decided to run for PM. But if faced with the prospect of someone like Trump in office, with Tony Blair as the only alternative, I would vote Blair.

Besides, its not always the leader's fault. Most presidents and prime ministers are only as effective as the political machinery they have to work with.

An ineffectual Cabinet, strong opposition parties, public opposition...all manner of things can conspire to stop leaders following through on their election promises.

Problem with Donald is he really is alienating people at a faster rate than he is influencing them. Has to be on a hiding to nothing in the actual elections, surely?

no surprise he got slaughtered though. You'd have to be a pretty poor politician not to rip him to shreds.

Idea is to win the nomination and then move into the center...A lot of people think he's a Democrat in GOP clothing anyway...

Clinton has dreadful personal polling numbers...

Quinnipiac poll - 59% of Americans think Hillary is dishonest......

Saying that 49% of Americans think Trump would be a disaster as President...

All about what the independents in bellwether states like Ohio....Pennsylvania and Florida think......

Nobody else really matters..

Some know it all folk (incl on here) continue to be made to look stupid by Trump's continued rampant success.....

We love you, Donald, we do;
We love you, Donald, we do;
We love you, Donald, we do;
Oh, Donald, we love you!

Internet forums are a God send for people like toppy. He gets to prepare his sentences with big or unusual words and make it sound like he instantly thought of them

Yeah damn him and his ranged vocabulary making us normal folks feel inferior.

big or unusual words? Don't think I got past 3 syllables or 9 letters.....hardly Rosie Dent.

If you can't keep up don't worry, it's not your fault I'm sure, just a damning indictment* of the British education system. Next time I will endeavour try my best to post more like Duty's tremendous effort above.



*https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/indictment

Isn't the internet a brilliant place to portray yourself ad some highly educated and posh London boy. Thing is toppy, the character that you've developed for yourself isn't believable in the slightest.

*as

Though, to help dumb things down, I can only 'LOL' at your actual post, considering I'm probably one of the least 'fake' 'characters' on here. Apologies if that's uncomfortable for you, but wasn't there someone else on here recently with a first class degree, masters and PhD? That's pretty punchy too I'd say! (though personally I don't doubt it)

TopHat24/7 wrote:big or unusual words? Don't think I got past 3 syllables or 9 letters.....hardly Rosie Dent.

If you can't keep up don't worry, it's not your fault I'm sure, just a damning indictment* of the British education system. Next time I will endeavour try my best to post more like Duty's tremendous effort above.



*https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/indictment

Oh one is awfully sorry, my dear fellow. In this bucolic setting where one cheerfully resides, it is easy to become ensconced in the blinding glow that is sweet serendipity. The fugacious and ephemeral nature of time makes such moments rather important to grasp.

Tip, tip.

See, aja, now THAT'S how someone posts when they use a thesaurus to construct their sentence.


Duty - I wasn't specifically taking a dig at you, FYI.

2016: Trump can't win
2017: President Trump can't do that can he?
2018: I hope my district wins the food this Games...

That's been going round Facebook a lot this morning.

Personally I preferred Rob Delaney's "On the bright side, we can look forward to Trump killing himself in a bunker 10 years from now".

#Godwinslaw

Don't do Facebook, but a friend said it the other day, here I was thinking he was original and witty, another sham exposed in the off topic section.

You have to expect Carson to pull out now, and if Rubio doesn't win Florida (he's behind Trump in the polls) you'd expect him to be out of it, though i think his dislike of Cruz will see him go to the death, probably at the detriment to his party.

Interesting reading this about Cruz...

They call Mr Cruz a dangerous, self-indulgent obstructionist who is better at making enemies than friends.

aja424 wrote:Thing is toppy, the character that you've developed for yourself isn't believable in the slightest.

Are you kidding me? I work in Laandon and Toppy's 'character' is bang on. He is like all the young bucks that stride around the City. Confrontational and full of self confidence. I don't actually mind it. I've been there myself. He will realise at some point that the rest of the world aren't impressed or bothered about City boys and that there are more important things in the world.

Humility comes to us all. Eventually.

I always picture Toppy as Stuart 'the Brand' Baggs from the Apprentice, though without the being dead bit.

Though in this mortal existence which nomenclature designates life, isn't our fleeting being most conspicuously encompassed by the transparency of death?

On topic it just goes to show you can threaten to ban one religious group and insult the leader of another and still win the nomination.

I've always pictured Toppy as a Debenhams Bob Crowe

so it looks almost set for Trump vs Clinton. Well, much as I'm not a fan of Clinton, she'd be considerably less dreadful than the Trumpster.

Trump clearly has a game plan. Hillary only has a 1 point lead over him in the polls now, that could change. Interesting that Bernie still beats all 3 of them.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:

aja424 wrote:Thing is toppy, the character that you've developed for yourself isn't believable in the slightest.

Are you kidding me?  I work in Laandon and Toppy's 'character' is bang on.  He is like all the young bucks that stride around the City.  Confrontational and full of self confidence.  I don't actually mind it.  I've been there myself.  He will realise at some point that the rest of the world aren't impressed or bothered about City boys and that there are more important things in the world.

Humility comes to us all.  Eventually.

Ahem. You know I don't work in the City....

ShahenshahG wrote:I've always pictured Toppy as a Debenhams Bob Crowe

Any association with that repulsive evil parasitic scum bag is about the worst insult that's ever been hurled at me on here.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

ShahenshahG wrote:I've always pictured Toppy as a Debenhams Bob Crowe

Any association with that repulsive evil parasitic scum bag is about the worst insult that's ever been hurled at me on here.

I dunno, i've been on a few threads and people have said alot worse.

Alistair wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

ShahenshahG wrote:I've always pictured Toppy as a Debenhams Bob Crowe

Any association with that repulsive evil parasitic scum bag is about the worst insult that's ever been hurled at me on here.

I dunno, i've been on a few threads and people have said alot worse.

If it is the worst thing ever said to him on here I fully intend to raise my game.

Rowley wrote:

Alistair wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

ShahenshahG wrote:I've always pictured Toppy as a Debenhams Bob Crowe

Any association with that repulsive evil parasitic scum bag is about the worst insult that's ever been hurled at me on here.

I dunno, i've been on a few threads and people have said alot worse.

If it is the worst thing ever said to him on here I fully intend to raise my game.

Knowing your extensive vocabulary, Rowley he's in deep trouble.

I only use my vocabulary to irritate Tina.

And it does.

rick_dagless wrote:2016: Trump can't win
2017: President Trump can't do that can he?
2018: I hope my district wins the food this Games...

Well, it would help keep the franchise going, no doubt:

THE HUNGER GAMES 5: Escape from Mexico

THE HUNGER GAMES 6: Muslims Catching Fire



...or something along those lines...



Just seen this on the BBC's live election page.



Fat, ginger tyrants...

So this is where you bastards are hiding.  Break my balls to pay the Culture Cup a visit and no-one can be arsed except for Shah.

He's now my favourite poster after Jeff.

Duty281 wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:big or unusual words? Don't think I got past 3 syllables or 9 letters.....hardly Rosie Dent.

If you can't keep up don't worry, it's not your fault I'm sure, just a damning indictment* of the British education system. Next time I will endeavour try my best to post more like Duty's tremendous effort above.



*https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/indictment

Oh one is awfully sorry, my dear fellow. In this bucolic setting where one cheerfully resides, it is easy to become ensconced in the blinding glow that is sweet serendipity. The fugacious and ephemeral nature of time makes such moments rather important to grasp.

Tip, tip.

the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

Senior Republicans now rounding on Donald Trump. Pointless if you ask me, i think he could run as an Independent and still push Hillary close.

Something I'm not sure about, if anyone else could answer, but given Trump is running for the republican nomination but is not the party leader or someone with any actual authority in the party, presuming he wins the nom from the voters - can the party still block him from running as a Republican?

Admit this would probably be political suicide even if they could, but am just curious how it works.

No.

If he wins the Nomination he stands as the Republican candidate. If it was that simple they wouldn't be panicking.

The problem is that he does have some support from key Republicans, which is something Rubio can't boast.

Rubio is probably the biggest issue in this. He has no backing from senior members and is behind Trump in his home state of Florida, if he stood down and backed Cruz, then it could swing it, especially if Jeb and Kasich sided with Cruz as well. Problem there is, nobody believes Cruz can take Trump down, and Cruz isn't well liked.

If they do combine to take Trump down, and it fails, it would just see Trump run for President under the Republican flag, but without it's backing. Which if he got in, would cause issues in the Senate etc. Though i'm sure Truss could probably confirm better than I if that's the case.

The issue with Trump is the manner in which he puts things across; which while it resonates with some voters, it divides it's party. The David Duke situation is an example of something that he really should just come out, disavow the bloke and draw a line, but he can't. People forget that Cruz actually shares similar views on immigration as Trump; such as deporting undocumented aliens. Cruz's views on carpet bombing ISIS are swept under the rug (unintended pun) because of Trump's failure to disassociate himself, or at least clarify comments he's made on Gaddafi, Mussolini etc.

There's a great piece in the New York Times on claims each candidate has made during the campaign and whether they are correct, and you'd be surprised that Donald is far from the biggest liar.

I've just returned from the States (I was in New York) and one thing I did notice there was how truly awful the political chat was on TV. Yes, Trump is terrible. He runs his mouth without a shred of policy but this is barely even questioned on TV.

Some bemoan a lack of policy but they're then shouted down by a louder mouth and that's the end of it.

And I didn't even watch Fox!

Alistair wrote:i think he could run as an Independent and still push Hillary close.

One problem there is that there are a number of states where the registration to be on the ballot closes before the Republican convention, so he'd either need to be collecting signatures already, or get someone like the Libertarians or Greens to put him on as their nominee.

TopHat24/7 wrote:given Trump is running for the republican nomination but is not the party leader or someone with any actual authority in the party, presuming he wins the nom from the voters - can the party still block him from running as a Republican?

Admit this would probably be political suicide even if they could, but am just curious how it works.

Basically, as long as he doesn't get a majority of delegates on the first ballot at the convention; yes. At that point it gets fought out on the convention floor (and probably gets very ugly indeed). They could theoretically also change the rules, but that would be even worse.

Thanks all.

TopHat24/7 wrote:Thanks all.

Here's that link if you're interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/fact-check.html?_r=0

Alistair

The situation is slightly more complex than you outline above. What actually happens is that each State sends delegates to the Party Convention, and they vote for the Presidential candidate based on the outcome of the various State ballots (and it gets more complex because each State has different numbers of delegates, and differing rules - some states the winner of the caucus takes all the delegate nominees, in others it is split according to the proportion of the vote or results in individual districts). Similar to (and even more complex than) the electoral college system used in the Presidential election.

A State's Republican Party delegation could decide to nominate a different candidate, but my understanding is that this tends to occur as potential candidates drop out and their delegation becomes free to nominate someone else until such a time as one candidate has a majority of delegate support.

Interestingly, although Trump has been headlined as the big winner on Super Tuesday, he didn't do much to extend his lead in delegates, taking 243 ahead of Cruz's 220. Also, Cruz has a LOT of money left, while Rubio's finances are OK and Donald's are starting to look a bit tight.

Amazingly, Jeb Bush spent as much as Rubio and Cruz combined in his unsuccessful campaign (and 5 to 6 times more that Trump).

OF what I've read about Ted Cruz (and ignoring whether he actually is entitled to run for President, as no-one ever properly defined 'natural-born'), he is a right wing Republican, considered very highly intelligent, an excellent debater and about as likeable as an STD.

Thanks, Dummy.

I think it's probably not worth reading too much into the delegate situation, considering Cruz took Texas quite comfortably and that was worth 99 delegates to him.

That's where Rubio will fail, he'll lose Florida to Trump and that's going to end his campaign and derail Cruz's.

Strange that Mitt Romney is coming out to take shots at Trump, he's the person you'd least care about given his efforts.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/trump-named-islamophobe-year-1370412671

Wear that title with pride, Donald.

I for one hope Trump will win. The Obama years nearly destroyed the emerging markets and a continuation of that would not have been good.

Me too. Though we will probably live to rue China's emergence as our new overlords