Slappy Statist Candidates for US President 2016

[Chef Ramsay]

Hillary Clinton calls for automatic, universal voter registration for everyone aged 18

As you may have heard, Hillary Clinton is already leaning into the ever-simmering battle over voting. Her Democratic allies are preparing to wage a national legal battle against GOP state-level voting restrictions, and she is calling for a national 20-day early voting period.

But now, Clinton is rolling out another proposal in her push for an expansion of voting access: In a speech in Texas that is underway right now, she is calling for universal, automatic voter registration.

Automatic voter registration for citizens has long been championed by voting reformers as a key part of modernizing our voting system. Clinton’s proposal would require the registration of all citizens in every state when they turn 18 years of age, unless they opt out. She is also endorsing the general goal of universal registration for those over 18, without endorsing a specific mechanism to accomplish this. According to the Brennan Center, there are various ways to add people to the voter rolls, such as when changes of address are filed. States can also implement required universal registration for people of all ages, as Oregon has done. Clinton cited Oregon as an example today.

Voting reform advocates favor universal, automatic registration as a way to streamline and simplify the registration process, to eliminate matching problems between state databases, reduce the possibility of voter registration fraud, and maximize voter participation.

In political terms, Clinton’s call for universal voting registration appears to be a bid to energize millennial voters. As it is, the broader voting access push — like her recent moves leftward on immigration, climate change, and sentencing reform — is partly about mobilizing core Obama coalition groups, including minorities. Today’s proposal is more heavily focused on the young. After all, one of the key unknowns of the cycle is whether Clinton will be able to turn out Obama voters on the same levels he did, and young voters — who were excited by the historical nature of Obama’s candidacy — are key to that.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/04/hillary-leans-hard-into-the-battle-over-voting/

[Chef Ramsay]

Scott Walker embraces the worst king of corporate welfare

Walker, who is running for president, is largely seen as a strong fiscal conservative. His recent announcement should surely put that idea to rest.

I would advise him to read the lessons of free market economist Frederic Bastiat, who in 1850 wrote the incredible piece “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen.”

More...http://www.redstate.com/diary/freedomrepublican/2015/06/07/scott-walker-embraces-worst-kind-corporate-welfare/

[bryant.coleman]

Graham: 'Don't vote for me' if you're 'worn out by war'

And people will vote for this type of warmongers. Unless Rand Paul wins the GOP nomination, both the main candidates this time will be war-crazy psychopaths (Hillary on one side and Jeb Bush or Carson (?) on the other side). If the Americans want warfare, suffering and the economic collapse resulting from it, then so be it.

[Harry Hood]

Chef, great thread idea! I look forward to reading this one.

Lindsey Graham 'definitely' considering 2016 bid

As for Lindsey Graham, this guy made a really dumb comment in his "coming out" speech for the 2016 presidential bid. He said he had or foreign policy experience than the US' current Secretary of State! He cites his many trips to Afghanistan and Iraq to visit US troops as "foreign policy experience"...what a naive statement.

This should guy campaign on his real experience rather than trying to claim something he cannot support.

[BLKBITZ]

Graham: 'Don't vote for me' if you're 'worn out by war'

And people will vote for this type of warmongers. Unless Rand Paul wins the GOP nomination, both the main candidates this time will be war-crazy psychopaths (Hillary on one side and Jeb Bush or Carson (?) on the other side). If the Americans want warfare, suffering and the economic collapse resulting from it, then so be it.

In all reality that is what is most likely to happen bush v Clinton.

[Harry Hood]

Graham: 'Don't vote for me' if you're 'worn out by war'

And people will vote for this type of warmongers. Unless Rand Paul wins the GOP nomination, both the main candidates this time will be war-crazy psychopaths (Hillary on one side and Jeb Bush or Carson (?) on the other side). If the Americans want warfare, suffering and the economic collapse resulting from it, then so be it.

In all reality that is what is most likely to happen bush v Clinton.

I think you're right but I hope we're both wrong. These dynasty family Presidencies don't help anyone. The beauty of democracy is having new people, new blood in the office every period of years. To have father-son and/or husband-wife teams is only going to hurt the process of fair progression of the government.

Actually, I'm more worried about Clinton's chances. There's better competition for Bush than there is for Clinton. Maybe Marco Rubio can make a good play of it!

[Harry Hood]

Show me the money: Corporate media set to win election cycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jMejvSdUNY

As the 2016 election cycle gets underway, many in the mainstream media are preparing for the barrage of (and money for) political advertisements thanks to SuperPACs and similar institutions. “Lionel” of LionelMedia joins Anya Parampil and takes a look at how the mainstream media takes advantage of the political season.

Hahah, this is by far the one guarantee in this election or ANY ELECTION!

How sad this reality is...

[Chef Ramsay]

Chef, great thread idea! I look forward to reading this one.

Lindsey Graham 'definitely' considering 2016 bid

As for Lindsey Graham, this guy made a really dumb comment in his "coming out" speech for the 2016 presidential bid. He said he had or foreign policy experience than the US' current Secretary of State! He cites his many trips to Afghanistan and Iraq to visit US troops as "foreign policy experience"...what a naive statement.

This should guy campaign on his real experience rather than trying to claim something he cannot support.

Graham isn't serious about running for Prez, he just wants to be up on the debate stage so he can troll Rand's realist foreign policy and drive the meme that he's out of the party's mainstream. Rand has become more dangerous to the status quo and that's why they want to turn this primary into a debate on foreign policy rather than on domestic economic issues and jobs which is what mainstream America desperately cares about. TPTB want the Hillary v. Jeb/Rubio matchup so the show keeps on rolling as is.

[Chef Ramsay]

GE Aviation Presses Kasich as Ex-Im Becomes Republican Test

The Cincinnati-based operating unit of General Electric Co. employs more than 9,000 people in Ohio, spends $1.2 billion a year with state suppliers and garners almost 60 percent of its revenue from international sales supported by the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Yet Kasich, who’s considering a Republican presidential run, opposes the agency as “corporate welfare.”

GE Aviation contacted Kasich twice during the past 10 months seeking an endorsement of the bank, spokesman Rick Kennedy said. After the governor spoke against it last month, two company executives held a conference call with members of his staff and his development agency to express their surprise and to “educate.”

Congress faces a June 30 deadline to reauthorize the 81-year-old bank, which helps foreign companies buy U.S. goods with taxpayer-backed loans and which was routinely renewed in the past. Republican candidates now face a choice of whom to anger: business allies who say killing the agency would hurt exports and jobs or ideologically driven Tea Party voters who deride “crony capitalism.”

“This issue has become politicized to the point where the facts are sacrificed,” David Joyce, chief executive officer of GE Aviation, wrote last month in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

When Kasich was in Congress, he voted to reauthorize the bank. That was before the need to fix a broken system and give companies a better opportunity to compete, Kasich said. Opponents say the bank uses taxpayer-backed assistance to disproportionately benefit large corporations and that it interferes with the free market.

“Any time anybody has a subsidy, they want to keep it,” Kasich said in an interview. “I love GE, they’ve been great in Ohio, but I think they can figure their way around this.”

The only Republican candidates who have publicly supported the bank are Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Graham has highlighted the bank’s impact on Boeing Co., which builds the 787 Dreamliner in North Charleston and is its largest beneficiary. Santorum, who has made restoring manufacturing a focus, says the institution is critical.

Among Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley support reauthorization. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont opposes “rewarding companies that are outsourcing jobs overseas,” spokesman Warren Gunnels said.

More...http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-05/ge-aviation-presses-kasich-as-ex-im-becomes-test-for-republicans

[Chef Ramsay]

Chris Christie would crack down on legalized marijuana as president

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says that if he were president, recreational marijuana would be outlawed — even in the states that have voted to legalize it.

In an interview outside a New Hampshire drug treatment center that aired on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, Christie said he would enforce federal drug laws in Colorado and Washington.

“Yes, sir,” Christie said when asked whether he’d “go after” recreational marijuana users in those states. “I think there are a lot of people in Colorado who are not too thrilled with what’s going on there.”

When it comes to weed, Christie is the most outspoken of any of the 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls. In a radio interview last year, Christie vowed recreational marijuana would never be legal in New Jersey “as long as I’m governor.”

“For the people who are enamored with the idea with the income, the tax revenue from this, go to Colorado and see if you want to live there,” he said. “See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado where there’s head shops popping up on every corner and people flying into your airport just to come and get high. To me, it’s just not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey, and there’s no tax revenue that’s worth that.”

But Christie also admits the war on drugs has been a failure.

“We can no longer incarcerate our way out of this problem,” he said. “This is a disease, and every life is precious. We need to have the ability to give people the tools to deal with the disease. No other disease do we say to folks, ‘No, no, no. You don’t deserve treatment.’”

More...https://www.yahoo.com/politics/christie-would-crack-down-on-legalized-marijuana-121023583856.html?from=FBPAGE&account=Yahoo%20News&campaign%20=Q2&post_id=190381658&Paid_support=No%20Paid%20Support&linkId=14783471

Stupid thing to say considering this won't stake him out new territory in the primary but then he says the war on drugs has been a failure - I don't get it.

[Chef Ramsay]

Ralph Nader (standard Green Party Candidate): Hillary Tried To Overcompensate For Gender With Shocking Militarism

Former Green Party and independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader labeled 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a “deep corporatist and a deep militarist” who has made peace with the nation’s power structure.

“I think Hillary is not the Hillary of when she was 30 years old. She made peace with the power structure and she is a deep corporatist and a deep militarist. One can almost forgive the corporatism. She moved to New York with Bill because that’s where the power is and Wall Street but her militarism is absolutely shocking,” he said during a discussion about his new book, Return to Sender, which focuses on unanswered letters Nader wrote to U.S. presidents about an array of issues.


Nader cited the war in Libya during President Obama’s first term to support his position on Clinton.

“She almost singlehandedly did the Libyan war. The Defense Department was against it, [Secretary Robert] Gates, and she persuaded the White House that it was an easy topple without knowing that in a tribal society with nothing to replace it you would have a civil war, sectarian killings spilling into Africa, weapons everywhere, Mali, central Africa and she’s being accused of Benghazi – the big thing is the huge amount of geography that has been destabilized because of the Libyan overthrow,” he added.

More...http://pjmedia.com/blog/nader-hillary-tried-to-overcompensate-for-gender-with-shocking-militarism/

[Chef Ramsay]

In Raleigh (NC), Donald Trump all but announces presidential bid

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump all but confirmed he’ll run for the Republican presidential nomination during a stop Saturday at the N.C. GOP convention.

Trump says he’ll make his formal announcement on June 16. “I think a lot of people are going to be very happy” with the decision, Trump told The News & Observer before a sold-out speech Saturday night. “They’re tired of watching America go down. ... It’s about making America great again. I can do it, and nobody else can do it.”

He made a point of using the phrase “if I run” in his speech but voiced frustration with a disclaimer: “June 16, will you come, please, fast – I’m so tired of saying that.”

Trump referred to the constantly growing field of Republican candidates as “clowns,” and said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio have already made major gaffes.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article23312226.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Bachelor Lindsey Graham promises a 'rotating first lady'

“Well, I’ve got a sister. She could play that role if necessary,” the 59-year-old South Carolinian presidential hopeful told Daily Mail Online in an interview published Tuesday. “I’ve got a lot of friends. We’ll have a rotating first lady,” he added.

His sister, Darline Graham Nordone, resides in South Carolina with her husband and two daughters from previous marriages, suggesting that she would not be able to be in Washington all the time.

...

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/lindsey-graham-rotating-first-lady-bachelor-president-118783.html#ixzz3cb7HIysb

[Chef Ramsay]

One voter shows up at Santorum event in Iowa

At first, one was the loneliest number for Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday.

Just one Iowan showed up at 2 p.m. campaign stop Monday at a restaurant in the unincorporated community of Hamlin, population 300, according to a report from The Des Moines Register — Peggy Toft, an insurance agent who chairs the county’s Republican Party.

“We didn’t have a lot of notice that he was going to be there,” Toft said in a telephone interview with POLITICO, explaining the low turnout.

But even she would not endorse Santorum outright.

The Audubon County Republican chair said that she is “leaning” toward supporting Santorum but has not yet made a decision about whom she would support in the caucus.

More...http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/rick-santorum-iowa-event-one-voter-turnout-118774.html?ml=po

[Chef Ramsay]

Chafee: Let’s Go Metric, Bring Snowden Home

Ban capital punishment, halt drone strikes and bring home Edward Snowden.

These are a few of the radical proposals unveiled by Lincoln Chafee in his low-key, no-frills presidential campaign announcement Wednesday evening.

Standing before a bland white wall in front of a sparse audience at a George Mason University venue in Arlington, Virginia, Chafee – the former Republican U.S. senator turned independent Rhode Island governor – became the fourth official Democratic candidate for the White House in 2016.

Chafee delivered on his promise of bold, different ideas, which explains why he may be the biggest long shot in this cycle's sprawling field of candidates.

His most unique proposition: Transferring the United States to the metric system.

"Here's a bold embrace of internationalism: Let's join the rest of the world and go metric. Only Myanmar, Liberia and the United States aren't metric and it will help our economy," Chafee said. "It doesn't take long before 34 degrees is hot."

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/run-2016/2015/06/03/lincoln-chafee-lets-go-metric-bring-edward-snowden-home

[Chef Ramsay]

Those Pumping Rubio, Crying Victim Over Crony Capitalism/Fiscal Irresponsibility News

It looks like they're going to try and spin this to favor Rubio as a "victim" of NY Times reporting.

To sum it up, it appears Rubio got "favors" (money) for promises he made to businesses into his various PAC funds, but used those monies to "live a life beyond his means". Yet, he reported having a low net worth to appear poor.

You really have to read all the info, just to see how corrupt Rubio is. This info also kept Romney from choosing him as a VP in 2012.

More...http://blog.reidreport.com/2010/10/jeb-bush-marco-rubio-mentor/comment-page-1/

[Chef Ramsay]

Politico: Jeb Bush shakes up his campaign team

He announced that Danny Diaz, a 39-year-old consultant known for his aggressive style, would serve as his campaign manager.

Struggling to establish his own brand and regain his footing in the early voting states where he lost ground, Jeb Bush shuffled his political team Monday just one week ahead of his expected official campaign announcement.

The former Florida Republican governor announced that Danny Diaz, a 39-year-old consultant known for his aggressive style, would serve as his campaign manager in place of Dave Kochel, an operative with deep experience in Iowa politics who had been brought aboard earlier this year and was widely expected to serve as in that capacity.

The surprise move came after several tumultuous weeks for Bush and amid recent polling that suggesting his standing has fallen both in national polls and in the key early state of Iowa.
Bush’s campaign-in-waiting said Monday that while Diaz would handle the campaign’s day-to-day operations, Kochel would “build and oversee a political operation to achieve success in the early states and beyond.”

One person briefed on the moves, revealed as Bush flew to Europe, said the final decision rested with Bush’s top adviser, Sally Bradshaw, who had watched with dismay as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker appeared to run without the stumbles that plagued the two-term Republican governor.
“Sally and company felt like they were losing the media battle to Walker and Rubio. Last week this decision was made,” the source said. “Kochel found out last week.”

More...http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/jeb-bush-shakes-up-his-campaign-team-118764.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Bachelor Lindsey Graham promises a 'rotating first lady'

Unmarried creep Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says that if he becomes president, he will have a “rotating first lady.”

“Well, I’ve got a sister. She could play that role if necessary,” the 59-year-old South Carolinian presidential hopeful told Daily Mail Online in an interview published Tuesday. “I’ve got a lot of friends. We’ll have a rotating first lady,” he added.

His sister, Darline Graham Nordone, resides in South Carolina with her husband and two daughters from previous marriages, suggesting that she would not be able to be in Washington all the time.

...

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/lindsey-graham-rotating-first-lady-bachelor-president-118783.html#ixzz3cb7HIysb

Neocon dude has a problem if he can't nail down another broad being a senior US Senator unless he's putts from the rough. Many of us have long thought this about this warmongering dipshit, nothing against respectable alternative lifers that aren't prone to promoting violence.

[Chef Ramsay]

Poll: Jeb Bush now at 21 percent in New Hampshire, ahead of the field by eight points

A leftover from yesterday via Howie Carr and Gravis Marketing. We all knew the great sighing falling-in-line for Bush 8.0 would come eventually. We just didn’t know it would happen this soon.

Nah, I’m just kidding. This is an outlier. Isn’t it?

Carly Fiorina ahead of Chris Christie and Ted Cruz in New Hampshire? C’mon, I … can totally believe that, actually, given the state’s fondness for outsiders and “mavericks.” In fact, for a supposed outlier, the only number in this poll that’s strikingly out of sync with other recent polls of New Hampshire is Jeb’s. He’s fully 10 points higher than he was in Bloomberg’s poll of the state last month. Maybe not coincidentally, the other noticeable gainer is Donald Trump, who was at five points two months ago in a WMUR poll, then at eight points in Bloomberg’s poll in May, and now at 12 points, good for fourth place right behind Scott Walker and Rand Paul. What Jeb and Trump have in common is brand-name recognition: It may be that some New Hampshire Republicans are finally just tuning into the race, are barely familiar with any of the candidates, and are seizing on the names they know when pollsters dial them up to ask who they’re supporting. That’s the only theory I can come up with (apart from the outlier theory) to explain how a guy like Bush, who’s run a dismal non-campaign for the past six months, might be seeing his support in New Hampshire grow regardless.

Speaking of which, riddle me this: What problem with Jeb’s campaign was yesterday’s shake-up at the top supposed to address? As far as I can tell, there’s no problem with the Bush 2016 effort writ large. They’re raising truckloads of cash, they’re touring the early states, they’re doing plenty of interviews, etc. The problem with Bush 2016 is Bush. How does a new campaign manager solve that? Or is this a case, as in sports, where you can’t fire the players when they underperform so you’re forced to fire the manager instead?

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/06/09/poll-jeb-bush-now-at-21-percent-in-new-hampshire-ahead-of-the-field-by-eight-points/

Bush enjoying the Romney lead in NH of 2012 by the establishment types according to this poll.

[Chef Ramsay]

Iowa GOP officially cancels straw poll

The Iowa straw poll, a political jamboree that has been fixture in the Republican presidential nominating process for nearly four decades but has come under criticism in recent years, was officially cancelled Friday by state GOP leaders in a unanimous vote.

In a conference call Friday morning, members of the Iowa Republican Party's state central committee decided not to move forward with the event this summer, calling their decision an important step toward strengthening the Hawkeye State's first-in-the-nation standing in the nomination process.

“I've said since December that we would only hold a straw poll if the candidates wanted one, and this year that is just not the case," said Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann."...This step, while extremely distasteful for those of us who love the Straw Poll, is necessary to strengthen our First in the Nation status and ensure our future nominee has the best chance possible to take back the White House in 2016."

The straw poll is an Iowa political tradition that dates back to 1979 and serves two basic purposes: raising money for the Iowa GOP and showcasing the presidential candidates and their relative strengths months ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

But the summertime event has faced an existential crisis since the last time it was held, as Republican strategists and officials have questioned its utility in predicting how hopefuls will fare in Iowa and whether it's a worthwhile investment of candidate time and money. In 2011, then-congresswoman Michele Bachmann won the straw poll; she went on to finish last in the 2012 caucuses.

It had also become expensive to compete in the poll. Candidates have had to pay for plum spots at the event, which has been likened to a county fair or a carnival. Hopefuls had to shell out big bucks to transport supporters and pay for food.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has been one the poll's most prominent critics, once saying the gathering had "outlived its usefulness." The emerging crop of White House hopefuls also showed little interest in the event.

While representatives for seven candidates and probable contenders dropped by a straw poll planning session last month, no one from the top-tier campaigns was there.

Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee -- who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses -- were opting out. Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) had signaled that he would not participate. And Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seen as an early front-runner in Iowa, had been non-committal.

Even as the effort to undermine the straw poll picked up steam, many Republicans rallied to try to save the event. In May, 156 state Republican activists took to the pages of the Des Moines Register with an op-ed urging candidates to participate.

And in January, the state GOP central committee voted 16 to 0 to begin planning a straw poll. This year's version had been slated to take place in Boone instead of Ames, where it has been held in past years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/12/iowa-gop-officially-cancels-straw-poll/

They don't want Rand's supporters showing up en masse and winning this thing in a landslide. Keeping Rand from gaining traction is goal number one for establishment party officials all over the country as well as the mainstream media.