For U.S. repubs>> Who is the leader of the party right now?

[Ben Shockley]

ok.

If that's a sarcastic shot across the bow, Philosopher --excuse me: a heavy-handedly mocking shot across the bow --and particularly if it's one meant to suggest that I was doing here, or normally engage in, what I was trying to illustrate; namely, "slipping into posts highly-disputed, totally ideological, self-serving assertions [regarding recent political history] as if they are accepted historical canon," then I invite you to provide examples.

[Falkie2013]

Funny how the title of the thread ( like so many do on here ) totally degenerates into something entirely different.

Leader of the Party ?

Ryan, Boehner or Romney. I think history will tell us that Romney is not as bad as Obama and his minions depicted him.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas everyone.


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[MV/Liberace!]

That, and Christie will get his ass handed to him once everything the Romney campaign dug up on him comes out.

http://swampland.time.com/2013/11/02/the-hunt-for-pufferfish/

yeah, that's right.  there's also this.

[West of the Rockies]

Didn't more people vote for an American Idol final than for the '04 presidential election?  Is it such a leap to think we'll one day merge the two together and have a "So You Think You're Smart Enough to Be President" reality show, the winner of which becomes our fearless leader? 

Trying to predict who the fractured right (or the fractured left) will elect seems a bit of a fool's errand now.

[PB the Deplorable]

Didn't more people vote for an American Idol final than for the '04 presidential election?....

On Idol, don't teenage girls vote multiple times?

[West of the Rockies]

I've heard the name Roger Ailes mentioned as a possible Republican candidate in '16; one pundit called him energetic and charismatic.  I don't know... he doesn't look remotely presidential to me; he looks amiable enough but very aged and not overly healthy.  We do seem to be in an age where celebrity of a sort is enough to declare oneself fit to lead the nation.  Curious times....

[PB the Deplorable]

Lots of people run with no intention - and no hope - of getting elected.

Some have an idea or policy they want to put out there and they know it will receive attention if they run.  Others just want some name recognition so they can sell books and appear on talk shows later.  Some hope to get a cabinet position or be selected as VP.  Some are putting in groundwork for a future campaign, or putting together an organization for a campaign for a different office.


When Obama first decided to run, rumor was his true goal was Mayor of Chicago, but his campaign took off (in fact his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel later became Chicago's mayor).  I think this may be true since there was no reason to think he would be a factor in the primaries at all - it's actually an amazing story.  He really didn't have much national political experience, no name recognition, no foreign policy experience, had only been on the legislative side and not the executive side of govermnment, was waay Left of the country, and didn't meet the natural born citizen requirements.  And at the time there was a real question whether someone other than a non-white male could even be elected.

[Ben Shockley]

Obama... didn't meet the natural born citizen requirements.

Gosh, *Boy -- if only any Congressional Republicans had ever heard about this!!  Obama could be summarily removed from office (if not from his niche in your fixated consciousness), and in the process you could get the notoriety you so richly deserve by appearing as star witness presenting all the irrefutable evidence that you and you alone possess.

And at the time there was a real question whether someone other than a non-white male could  even be elected.

Little Freudian slip there, *Boy?
Anyway, there's no question as to whether *Boy believes any non-white-male ever should be elected!

[PB the Deplorable]

Hey Ben, what are you doing to celebrate Michelle's 50th today?

[West of the Rockies]

Damn!  She looks awesome for 50! 

[Yorkshire pud]

Damn!  She looks awesome for 50! 

Oh you'll be so busted if the NSA finds out you're in the running for courting her attention.. 

[Gd5150]

Its pointless for any Republican to even fart at the idea of running or even worse, being a front runner. The CNN media will go into overdrive with 24/7 coverage tearing them apart. Already not looking forward to the 3 years of debates by deer in headlight losers on both sides of the isle.

[West of the Rockies]

Well, since Fox News beats CNN & MSNBC for ratings/viewers, I think blaming a loss in '16 on "the media" is a bit foolish.  I don't know, maybe if the Republican party decided to put forth a candidate who actually gave a damn about something besides corporate wealth and health, maybe they'd do better with voters. 

[NowhereInTime]

Well, since Fox News beats CNN & MSNBC for ratings/viewers, I think blaming a loss in '16 on "the media" is a bit foolish.  I don't know, maybe if the Republican party decided to put forth a candidate who actually gave a damn about something besides corporate wealth and health, maybe they'd do better with voters.

Wha...?!?  How DARE you, Chomsky!  You take your wholly un-American Marxist smut and shuffle back off to North Korea, you Maoist puppet!

[NowhereInTime]

On Idol, don't teenage girls vote multiple times?

On Fox News, don't we keep talking about Benghazi until our eyes bleed?

[NowhereInTime]

yeah, that's right.  there's also this.

Please.  Because the Romney camp did such a great job digging up dirt on Obama ("He went to some whitey hater preacher named Reverend Wright!... Whassat?  Knew that 4 years ago, huh?")
And "Candy, he never even called Benghazi a terrorist act!  Oh, whassat?  No! NoNONONONONO! Candy, nooooo..."
They best they could do was slur being a community organizer and drop a lot of "Alinskys". 

How'd that work out?

Romney dodged Christie because he's fat and doesn't fit into Mitt's "Leave it to Beaver" Americana life mold.

You guys want to play in PA and NJ?  Maybe even NY (especially upstate)? Then you give Christie a look this time next year when "Bridgegate" been thoroughly stroked off.

Sending another self righteous dickey-doo hairdo from the Bible belt ain't gonna cut it. 

[yumyumtree]

I identify as conservative.
Ted Cruz.
Nice to know there are others who remember the seventies.
Though Ford was the first president I voted for, the way I remember it, his administration was about as bad as Carter's.

I was listening to Larry Cudlow's radio program tonight a d have to admit that he and his guests were making some sense on immigration. The Republicans are really tearing themselves up internally over this issue.

[Birdie]

I am moderate and go left on social issues. I am registered as Independent and have voted for candidates from both parties.
There is no clear cut leader of the right. It seems anyone lauded as the new golden boy either fizzles out (Cantor and Rand Paul) or does something unbelievably stupid (Cruz).
Unless an 'unknown' steps forward and offers real, actionable proposals instead of just bitching about how badly Obama has fucked up the country, there is no way a Republican will be president in 2016.
The extreme negativity and petty obstructionism have been old for a long time and the public is fed the fuck up. The TP extremism is very off-putting to moderates (which most people are). The mouthpieces, like Limbaugh and Hannity, are just as bad. The right is suffocating itself and it is sad to watch.
Compromise is not a weakness- it is how rational people get things done.
I am fed up with both the left and the right. The only group Congress serves is the corporations who write the big, fat checks. My expectations for the the next election cycle are very low.
I have found focusing on local county politics to be a much more productive and satisfying past time.

[FightTheFuture]

The  GOP 2016 Presidential nominee will be a  person that nobody is talking about. He -- or she -- will catch fire at the right time and ride a populist wave  all the way to the Party's nomination.

[Little Hater]

The  GOP 2016 Presidential nominee will be a  person that nobody is talking about. He -- or she -- will catch fire at the right time and ride a populist wave  all the way to the Party's nomination.

I think you're right, and it will probably be a governor. I had never heard of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton prior to their presidential runs.

[NowhereInTime]

The  GOP 2016 Presidential nominee will be a  person that nobody is talking about. He -- or she -- will catch fire at the right time and ride a populist wave  all the way to the Party's nomination.

Is that what they call a sewer pipe bursting now? A conservative "populist wave"?

[FightTheFuture]

it will probably be a governor.

[MV/Liberace!]

I had never heard of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton prior to their presidential runs.

have you seen the documentary about clinton's 1992 campaign?  it's called the war room.  highly recommended.

[Kate the Bionic Uterus]

have you seen the documentary about clinton's 1992 campaign?  it's called the war room.  highly recommended.

hmm... the war room... i think i remember that but will definitely look into that...

As it stands right now, kruz killed any hope for a republican president. Hillary has like a 70% approval rating and that is unheard of. Anyone who really wants to run against her is smart to keep that to themselves at this point as it would be suicide to out themselves this early. And that is my point; it is WAY too early to even think about a republican nomination.

Who wants to be leader of a fragmented party that is unable to focus on any positive unified message that could possibly bring the country together but instead continues with the mindless childlike propaganda of pointing their finger at everything they think is a stupid idea while blind to the truth that the majority of people will vote for "that" stupid idea over no idea at all.

[West of the Rockies]

Well said, Kate...  The Republican party is in tatters.  The far-right (which does not even admit it is right-leaning) proclaims that the party is now nothing more than a left-leaning shadow of its former self.  They pine for the days of Reagan (who now would be regarded as a RINO himself).  They call everyone who is not in lockstep a RINO, a turncoat (witness the shitstorm Chris Christie found himself in even before his latest scandal).  The far-right seems to truly believe that Rand Paul or Ted Cruz can capture the American electorate, not recognizing that those characters (and others like them) are just not electable in the general election.  Yeah, the far-right just loves Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul -- they see them as modern-day crusaders for truth, hard work, self-reliance.  Non-patriot types regard these would-be candidates as far-right loons.  The party has too many Louis Gohmert's, Michelle Bachmann's, Rick Santorum's -- people who are essentially comic fodder.

Does the Democratic party have its buffoons, too?  Damn straight.  But none of those people I've mentioned from the right are electable in a general election. 

Please note I said my peace without any references to anyone's sexual preference, body parts or poop. 

[Ben Shockley]

Just a small but substantive disagreement over your wording here, WestOf:

... Non-patriot types  regard these would-be candidates as far-right loons.

The implication of your wording is that people supporting "the loons" are (implicitly the only) "patriots" while those who consider the people you named to indeed be "loons" hate the USA.
Maybe "quotes" around "patriot" would get your (undoubtedly tongue-in-cheek) point across better.  Better yet, I would very charitably substitute "Less-zealous" for "Non-patriot."

Me: I would have said something like "Anyone with a remaining toehold on sanity regards these would-be ...etc."

[West of the Rockies]

Excellent catch, Ben.  Yes, I meant to say "Tea Party Patriot".  Curiously, on this page I see an Elect Sarah Palin as President banner-ad and a "Fire John Boehner" ad, so clearly, the TP types are still making noise.

I have a TPer or two in my own family; they are kind, intelligent, well-meaning people.  They are also, IMO, misinformed. 

[Birdie]

Have you all seen how Cruz is now claiming he had nothing to do with the government shut down? The sad thing is his supporters will believe anything he says, because in their eyes, anyone on the far right is beyond reproach. A 'true patriot' and Christian would never, ever lie!
I would like to know why the birthers are not pointing out, everyday, repeatedly, how Cruz is not a 'real' US citizen, like they did with Obama. Maybe they are waiting for him to officially announce his campaign? *snort*  (For the record, I don't have a problem with Cruz's status, the circumstance is surprisingly similar to Obama's. I just find the whole thing to be ridiculously hypocritical, as usual.)

[Ben Shockley]

Curiously, on this page I see an Elect Sarah Palin as President banner-ad and a "Fire John Boehner" ad, so clearly, the TP types are still making noise.

I also saw a TP-sponsored "Impeach Obama?" poll banner --note the obligatory tax-status-protecting question mark; that's a textbook example of a "push poll."
Don't those idiots --excuse me: those deeply concerned patriots-- understand that you need criminal charges to begin an impeachment?  Just what would those be?  "Being Black" isn't a de jure crime yet, no matter how much the TPers might want it to be.

[TPers] are also, IMO, misinformed.

Exactly.  Very.

[Ben Shockley]

The sad thing is [Cruz's] supporters will believe anything he says, because in their eyes, anyone on the far right is beyond reproach. A 'true patriot' and Christian would never, ever lie! ...
(... I just find the whole thing to be ridiculously hypocritical, as usual.)

Situational ethics, Birdie: noble and necessary when practiced from the right; scurrilous and satanic when practiced from the Left.

I invite you to refer to my post of this afternoon in the "Gov. Cuomo to Right-to-Lifers" thread for my insight on the matter of right-wingers' "analysis of political discourse by way of 'revealed truth.'"