Wednesday Open Thread [9.23.2015]
IOWA–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY—PPP: Trump 24, Carson 17, Fiorina 13, Cruz 8, Rubio 8, Bush 6, Huckabee 6, Walker 5, Paul 4, Jindal 4, Kasich 2, Santorum 1, Christie 1, Perry, Graham 0
IOWA–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY—PPP: Clinton 43, Sanders 22, Biden 17, O’Malley 3, Webb 3, Chafee 2
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY—Bloomberg: Clinton 33, Biden 25, Sanders 24, Webb 2, O’Malley 1, Chafee 0
“This year is different, and what is happening now is leaving a searing impression. This is toxic for the Republican Party — potentially lethal for it.” — Ex-Bush official Peter Wehner, quoted by the Washington Post, on the “shrill rhetoric” of GOP presidential candidates.
In a speech delivered in 2012, Ben Carson said the big bang theory was part of the “fairy tales” pushed by “high-faluting scientists” as a story of creation, BuzzFeed News reports.
He also said he believed the theory of evolution was encouraged by the devil. Said Carson: “I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct. Amazingly, there are a significant number of scientists who do not believe it but they’re afraid to say anything.”
Can we revoke his medical license? If I were a former patient of his, I would be worried about his work on my brain. I mean, either Dr. Ben Carson is the most cynical bastard ever to run for President, since as a neurosurgeon has cannot possibly believe what he is saying, or… he is dumb as fucking shit.
When Ben Carson said on Sunday that he would not want to see a Muslim elected president, he did not just reignite a volatile conversation about the role of Islam in American life — he also exposed another fissure between many Republican leaders and elements of the party’s grass roots.
In the years since President George W. Bush sought to separate the Islamic extremists behind the Sept. 11 attacks from the millions of practitioners of what he called a religion of peace, many in his party have come to reject the distinction.It is hardly the only point of disagreement between Republican leaders who are determined to reorient the party to win in a changing country, and activists who are uneasy about what they see as threats to their way of life. But the debate over Islam is particularly worrisome for Republicans because it so vividly highlights the vacuum that has been created by the absence of a unifying leader who can temper the impulses of the rank-and-file.
“The conservative movement needs a pope,” said Matt Lewis, a conservative writer. “Whether it was William F. Buckley writing the Birchers out of the movement or George W. Bush using his voice and office to speak out about Islam, we need people who, like them, will take leadership positions.”
It was one of the few things George W. Bush did right, his constant reminders that Islam was a religion of peace being perverted by its fundamentalists.
We get it, Republicans. You’re mad as hell. You’re sick of the “professional political class.” You’ve put two CEOs and a neurosurgeon at the top of national and New Hampshire polls. Because why not?
Listen to Joel Arends, chairman of Veterans for a Strong America, explain why his group has endorsed Donald Trump. He wants a president with “courage,” and he doesn’t think experienced politicians have any. “It’s time to consider somebody else,” Arends said at a Trump rally in Los Angeles. “It’s time to say to ourselves, do we really need a former governor?” “No,” the crowd roared. “Do we need a current senator?” “No!” “Do we need a reformer businessman?” “Yes!”
One caution: Politics is not as easy as it looks. Two of the professional outsiders in the GOP nomination race don’t even seem aware of the old saw that it’s a game of addition, not subtraction. Trump started out alienating Hispanics and other immigrants, then moved on to women. Now he and fellow GOP hopeful Ben Carson are competing to see who can be most offensive to voters who are Muslim. That’s a lot of groups and people! Who will be next?
Marco Rubio took a huge jump in the PredictWise betting market after Scott Walker’s exit. I feel he is a one note wonder and then after that, an empty suit.
The Realities Of Joe Biden Running For President
We demand authenticity, but what happens when we get it?
Campaigns don’t always handle authenticity so well, and neither do the media nor Twitter, in avenues that go beyond politics, and in ways that have always existed, but are probably accelerated by the current intensity of the news landscape. Sometimes the candidate (or the athlete or the actress) becomes a little too authentic. The issue isn’t that this person is fake; it’s that this person has said the incorrect thing at the incorrect time. These conditions benefit a certain kind of person: someone who is controlled, but feels authentic.
Biden isn’t that. He is someone who speaks about loss in a precise and striking way; he is also someone who tells the president something’s a big fucking deal. National politics offer a risky proposition: Your personality can sometimes be flattened by the process (Mitt Romney), or by a moment (Rick Perry), into a narrow set of traits. But who can know beforehand whether that will happen or in which direction?
I surprised US NEWS and WORLD REPORT quoted Joel Arends, chairman of Veterans for a Strong America, without mentioning that he is a fraud and his group has one member – him.
I’m just glad Carson called out those high-falutin’ scientists. We need scientists who will do their falutin’ at regular heights.
The most ironic part of it is that in a technical and I believe accurate sense Carson himself is a “high-fluting scientist”. Funny old game.
What is ironic is a lawyer trying to explain how the foremost pediatric neurosurgeon in America and arguably the world is dumb. You are officially irrelevant.
As amply demonstrated by Dr. Carson, a person can be brilliant in one skill but deficient in others. Still, “dumb” is so inarticulate a criticism (and so obviously baseless) that one can only take it as frustration or sarcasm.
Also, too, how does one become “officially irrelevant”? Don’t we have enough paperwork already?
Because if there is one thing Delaware republicans know about, it’s how to be officially irrelevant.