Juliajms

They lost me when Cruz accused Rubio of going on Univision and saying in Spanish (!!) that he wouldn't fight President Obama's immigration bill. It was completely ridiculous. They were calling each other out on any compromise they ever made on the subject and it was completely disingenuous.

This Republican debate is truly surreal. I'm watching two Latinos argue about who hates immigrants more. "I do!" "No, I do". I'm not particularly liberal on immigration, but this is ugly. This was truly a race to the bottom exchange by pretty much everyone except Jeb.

The Republican establishment packed the group at the GOP debate. I'm not sure if I should be grateful or annoyed at more dirty tricks and rigging by the elite. http://www.vox.com/2016/2/13/10987776/republican-debate-audience-booing

I don't disagree that the structure of our system is rigged, but people who don't vote just make that even more of a guarantee. I also think that most of the people in power who are hard right on social issues are at this point the worst out there on economic issues, and are also heavily racist, so while social issues aren't a monolith, they are a smokescreen. For instance, Republicans in states like Kansas who campaigned in large part on "family values" have spent years ardently working to stop minority voters from being able to go to the polls and also spent years wasting money on garbage like drug tests for welfare. I think in a great many cases they are not at all a smokescreen. I find educated liberals vastly underestimate the influence of religion on this society. There are a ton of people out there who truly believe life begins at conception and that's how Jesus wants it. If you hold that belief of course it's going to be a litmus test, how could it not be? On top of all that he entire state of Kansas is basically owned by the Koch brothers and is quickly going to hell in a hand basket thanks to that fact. There are also a ton of poor working class white people who resent welfare. Scared to death that a neighbor one wrung lower on the economic ladder will get something for free. Obviously, they should be worried about corporate welfare and the billionaires not paying their fair share, but they don't see that. They see poor kids getting the proverbial skittles and resent it. That's suck a backwards ingrained mentality that I don't know how anyone can break through it, tbh.

I don't blame people for being cynical about politics. There are a lot of people in this country just struggling to make it through the day. I remember the summer during college I worked in a grocery store. Every day my feet hurt so much I sure as hell wasn't spending much time worrying about politics and I didn't even have kids to take care of. I think a lot of people forget how hard he daily grind can be if you are doing a blue collar job. Also, yes it makes a difference who is elected, but we've had a democrat in the white house for the last 8 years and economic inequity is at an all time high, so if people think the very structure of our system is rigged, I'd say they have a point. I think it matters more in terms of social issues than in economics and poor people are not monolithic in terms of social issues. I often hear people say "why don't these people vote their interests?" They do, it's just that they have interests other than economics. This is still a deeply religious country no matter how much that frustrates some of us (myself included).

I'm sure Obama will try to shame the Republicans into letting his nominee come to a vote, but these are a bunch of shameless zealots who are going to use every possible tactic to delay. This really makes my blood boil. I hope every reasonable citizen will contact their members of congress and demand that they do their damn jobs.

In a completely non personal way, I'm pleased that Scalia's days on the court are over. Sorry for his family, of course.

Closer to "mooslim" is correct. You'll hear it now that you know. I didn't know for the longest time and I don't think you have to know if you are the average person. You can't know everything about everything. If you are the president (or want to be) and we are at war in the middle east you should get it right, imo.

Interesting. Yikes, all of a sudden I feel old. I'm used to people in those types of positions being older than me, usually by a lot. I see he's from Texas.

Speaking of vice presidents in the unlikely event Sander's won, I could see HRC as his VP, but I can't imagine vice versa. They seem to get along so well it almost seems like the natural solution, but I'm sure she's going to want to go more to the center. My guess is she'll go for a white Christian male. I haven't seen much talk of VP choices on the talk shows, but I'm interested to see who makes the short list.

I like that HRC pronounces "Muslim" correctly. It's a small thing, but in these times it's nice to see. I definitely agree with the pundits who say she's stronger on foreign policy, although given her resume it would be sad if she weren't.

Doesn't that mean she basically got the actor playing T-Dog fired?

At least Sanders has come out and disavowed his sexist followers. Hillary was up on stage with her cronies telling women that there's a special place in hell for them if they don't fall in line. Not sure how it gets more condescending than that. Sanders can't control a few dozen online nutters, nor is he responsible for them, but Hillary can control the message on her own stage. Too bad she was smiling, clapping and agreeing. I won't really let it turn me against HRC, when the threat of Trump and Cruz looms, but it was a ridiculous blunder.

Especially since whichever Democrat wins, they are going have to do a hell of a lot of compromising to get anything at all done. The best thing Hillary Clinton said to rebut Bernie for me was "I'm not going to raise your taxes to pay for Donald Trump's kid's to go to college". Thank you. Still, it doesn't matter because no one is getting free college through. At best one of them might get increased grants for poor kids. That's as likely to be Bernie as HRC, imo.

I think any one of the Republican's will be tougher than Bernie. Bernie basically gave Hillary a pass on the email. Hell, he ran an ad defending her against Trump's sexism in Iowa. Christie is not the only mean person in this race. Not by a long shot. Trump would have a lot to say about the past scandals as he already has. Sure, people are always coming for the Clinton's, but that's because the Clinton's keep giving them things to come after. They don't get a pass just because they've always got a scandal of some kind brewing. It gets old even for those of us who are on their side. Personally, one of the things I've appreciated about no drama Obama is not wondering what craziness I was going to wake up to every morning.

This part is for damn sure. I was reading that the elite democrats kind of weeded the field for HRC by encouraging some of the interested parties to "wait their turn" and I'm starting to wonder if that did more harm than good. Is Michael Bloomberg thinking of running as an independent? If so, I really hope he thinks better of it.

You make a good point about the crazy talk Marco Rubio engages in. I wonder who benefits from his downfall, if he really is falling down. When I read debate twitter it was full of people thrilled with Rubio calling abortion a human rights issue instead of a social issue. Even though I think Marco is a nutty extremist I can't really take joy in this situation because when I look at the Republican field one is as bad as the next. Meanwhile, someone asked me who I was voting for the other day and I had to admit I don't think it matters much. I'd be happy with either HRC or Sanders. Also, when it comes to nuking or even carpet bombing the Middle East, I wish someone would call these guys on their whole right to life shtick. Half a million children under the age of 5 have died because of our gulf wars and these guys want to blow up the civilian population over there again. Some people just won't learn.

Thought you might enjoy this one Carl. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/can-marco-rubio-reboot-after-robot-gaffe

^ I can't argue with that. Also, Jeb has absolutely no charisma, imo.

I feel a little sorry for him, his politics aside he is probably under great personal pressure to win. Yeah, Jeb just seemed befuddled when Trump started to rise, it was kind of sad to watch his confusion. Not that I blame him, I find it inexplicable myself.

I agree. The media is just trying to drum up some drama. Maybe it was slightly more confrontational than their other debates, but it was nothing like the Republican debates. Sanders and Clinton are basically civil with each other which is refreshing. I feel like that he isn't hitting below the belt the way he could. Hell, he even ran that ad in Iowa kind of defending her against Trump's nastiness. I figure HRC is bound to win and I don't look forward to how ugly the debates between her and the Republican nominee are going to be. I'm sure she can handle herself, but I dread it.

I agree that Jeb should just call it a day. I start to feel sorry for him, but then I remind myself that he feels entitled to win because two members of his family very wealthy family were already President.

About the time Rubio said a 10 year old rape victim shouldn't be allowed an abortion, he became as extreme as Cruz in my book. Rubio doesn't give me the creeps the way Cruz does, but that just makes him all the more dangerous. I'm pretty please that Carly Fiorina is a non entity. She deserves all the dust she's being paid right now.

I'm watching Cruz's speech. He might as well just give up politics and become a televangelist. That's what he really wants to be. I figure this tradition of letting Iowa go first has to change before too long, although the state it's not 99% white. More Latinos are coming to this region all the time. It's not representative though, I'll agree with that. Either way, It should just go by region and rotate every election cycle. Or whatever some smart person comes up with, but there isn't much reason to give so much spotlight to Iowa and NH. I do sort of like seeing these politicians pressing flesh with the rabble though. It's obvious they all hate it. trump is actually a germaphobe who hates to shake hands, so it has to be killing him. Bill Clinton is the last one I actually believe didn't want to run screaming into the night.

Which Republican doesn't hate women, lgbt and minorities though? Sure, they'll take a successful guy like Carson and tell us why that means it's all just a matter of hard work, but that's the extent of that. I'm also not so sure Trump is over. Cruz didn't exactly win in a landslide and Iowa is Christian fundamentalist heaven. He's not going to get such a sweet set up in NH. Not that it matters. If I had to vote for one on them, I'd be hard pressed to choose which is the lesser evil.