US Politics

[oprih]

Trump will win these unless he decided to run as independent.

 

[Ice Cube]

 

[RabzonKhan]

 

[Post Colonnial]

it is a shame that neither party are able to field one well rounded and qualified candidate. Hillary is incompetent, Sanders is clueless about economy, Trump is a disastrous jerk, Cruz is hot air, Rubio is under experienced, Bush is not leadership material, Christie is too niche, Kasich and Paul seem to have given up, Carlie won't get even her own vote.

Romney and Gore seem like intellectual giants in front of this crowd. If Modi was n the ballot he will win.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Hillary Clinton Biography
Government Official, U.S. First Lady, Women's Rights Activist (1947–)

When Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, she became the first American first lady to ever win a public office seat. She later became the 67th U.S. secretary of state in 2009, serving until 2013.

Synopsis

Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, going on to earn her law degree from Yale University. She married fellow law school graduate Bill Clinton in 1975. She later served as first lady from 1993 to 2001, and then as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009. In early 2007, Clinton announced her plans to run for the presidency. During the 2008 Democratic primaries, she conceded the nomination when it became apparent that Barack Obama held a majority of the delegate vote. After winning the national election, Obama appointed Clinton secretary of state. She was sworn in as part of his cabinet in January 2009 and served until 2013. In the spring of 2015, she announced her plans to again run for the U.S. presidency.

Background

Hillary Diane Clinton was born Hillary Diane Rodham on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She was raised in Park Ridge, Illinois, a picturesque suburb located 15 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.

Hillary Rodham was the eldest daughter of Hugh Rodham, a prosperous fabric store owner, and Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham; she has two younger brothers, Hugh Jr. (born 1950) and Anthony (born 1954).

As a young woman, Hillary was active in young Republican groups and campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964. She was inspired to work in some form of public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and became a Democrat in 1968.

Education and Early Career
Rodham attended Wellesley College, where she was active in student politics and elected senior class president before graduating in 1969. She then attended Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton. Graduating with honors in 1973, she went on to enroll at Yale Child Study Center, where she took courses on children and medicine and completed one post-graduate year of study.

Hillary worked at various jobs during her summers as a college student. In 1971, she first came to Washington, D.C. to work on U.S. Senator Walter Mondale's sub-committee on migrant workers. In the summer of 1972, she worked in the western states for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern.

In the spring of 1974, Rodham became a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate Scandal.

(Chief Counsel Jerry Zeifman would later contend that he fired Clinton from the committee for what he deemed as unethical professional behavior connected to Nixon's due process. These allegations have been contradicted by other media sources that deny Zeifman's authority over the young attorney at this time, with no comment from Clinton herself.)

After President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August, she became a faculty member of the University of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville, where her Yale Law School classmate and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well.


Marriage to Bill Clinton

Hillary Rodham married Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, at their home in Fayetteville. Before he proposed marriage, Clinton had secretly purchased a small house that she had remarked that she liked. When he proposed marriage to her and she accepted, he revealed that they owned the house. Their daughter, Chelsea Victoria, was born on February 27, 1980.

In 1976, Hillary worked on Jimmy Carter's successful campaign for president while husband Bill was elected attorney general. Bill Clinton was elected governor in 1978 at age 32, lost reelection in 1980, but came back to win in 1982, 1984, 1986 (when the term of office was expanded from two to four years) and 1990.

Hillary joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock and, in 1977, was appointed to part-time chairman of the Legal Services Corporation by President Carter. As first lady of the state for a dozen years (1979-1981, 1983-1992), she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Arkansas Legal Services and the Children's Defense Fund. She also served on the boards of TCBY and Wal-Mart.

In 1988 and 1991, The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 most powerful lawyers in America.

On September 26, 2014, Clinton became a first-time grandmother when daughter Chelsea gave birth to Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.

Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Though she publicly supported her husband, Mrs. Clinton reportedly considered leaving her marriage. He was impeached, but the U.S. Senate failed to convict and he remained in office.

Senate Win and Presidential Run

With her husband limited to two terms in the White House, Mrs. Clinton decided she would seek the U.S. Senate seat from New York held by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He was retiring after four terms. Despite early problems and charges of carpetbagging, Clinton beat popular Republican Rick Lazio by a surprisingly wide margin: 55 percent to 43 percent. Clinton became the first wife of a president to seek and win public office and the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. She easily won reelection in November 2006.

In early 2007, Clinton announced her plans to strive for another first—to be the first female president. During the 2008 Democratic primaries, Senator Clinton conceded the nomination when it became apparent that nominee Barack Obama held a majority of the delegate vote.

U.S. Secretary of State

Shortly after winning the U.S. presidential election, Obama nominated Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. She accepted the nomination and was officially approved as the 67th U.S. secretary of state by the Senate on January 21, 2009.

During her term, Clinton used her position to make women's rights and human rights a central talking point of U.S. initiatives. She became one of the most traveled secretaries of state in American history, and promoted the use of social media to convey the country's positions. She also led U.S. diplomatic efforts in connection to the Arab Spring and military intervention in Libya.

The State Department, under Clinton's leadership, came under investigation after a deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, killed U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others on September 11, 2012. An independent panel issued a report about the Benghazi attack, which found "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies" at the State Department.

Health Issues

Clinton, who said she took responsibility for security at the outpost in Benghazi, was scheduled to testify about the attack before Congress in December 2012. She canceled her scheduled testimony, however, citing a stomach virus and, later, a concussion that she suffered after fainting (the cause of which was later reported as dehydration). Some members of Congress questioned the timing of Clinton's illnesses, including Representative Allen West, who stated that he believed the secretary of state was suffering from "a case of Benghazi flu" on the day she was scheduled to testify.

On December 30, 2012, Clinton was hospitalized with a blod clot related to the concussion that she had suffered earlier in the month. She was released from a New York hospital on January 2, 2013, after receiving treatment, and soon recovered and returned to work.

Benghazi Testimony and Resignation

Clinton's testimony on the Benghazi attack came on January 23, 2013. Speaking to members of the House Foreign Relations Committee, she defended her actions while taking full responsibility for the incident, and was moved to tears when discussing the American citizens who were killed in Benghazi. "As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility, and nobody is more committed to getting this right," she told the House. She added, "I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure."

Since taking office in 2009, Clinton repeatedly stated over the years that she was only interested in serving one term as secretary of state. She officially stepped down from her post on February 1, 2013.

Bid for 2016 Presidency

In early March 2015, Clinton faced controversy and criticism when it was revealed that she had used her personal email address to handle official governmental business during her time as secretary of state. In a news conference held at the United Nations, speaking initially on gender equality and the political situation in Iran, Clinton stated that she had utilized her personal email for convenience as allowed by state department protocol. She later turned over all governmental correspondence to the Obama administration while deleting messages that could be construed as personal.

After much speculation and assumptions over whether Clinton would run for the U.S. presidency, her plans were made official in the spring of 2015. On April 12, Clinton's campaign chairperson John D. Podesta announced via email that the former secretary of state was entering the race to secure the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2016 elections. This was immediately followed by an online campaign clip, with Clinton herself announcing that she's running for president at the end of the video. She is considered a front-runner and, if successful, would be the first woman to earn the nomination for a major party's presidential bid.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Chaos in Carson campaign as top aides resign

Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts both resigned, as Carson's operation struggles to regain momentum.
By Kyle Cheney 12/31/15

Ben Carson's campaign manager and top communications aide resigned on Thursday, throwing the retired neurosurgeon's presidential run into chaos, with conflicting reports emerging about who will take over the struggling operation.

Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts both resigned, effective immediately, after weeks of speculation about a shakeup. Carson last week indicated such a move, saying that "everything" was "on the table" as far as changes with his campaign, though he later walked that back and said, “I think the people that I have are spectacular.”
Armstrong Williams, a close Carson confidant, told POLITICO he expects Bennett's replacement to be General Robert Dees, a top foreign policy adviser. "General Dees is going to run the organization," Williams said, rejecting reports that veteran political adviser Ed Brookover would be taking over. "Brookover’s a good guy. Very responsive, people like him ... You have no idea what General Dees is going to ask of Brookover or anybody else."

Williams said Dees would bring more than foreign policy heft to Carson's campaign leadership. "This guy has managed many operations around the world. He’s managed people. He knows how to lead," he said. Read more


Cruz: The GOP race will be over by March
By Katie Glueck 12/31/15

Ted Cruz took a victory lap Thursday following a strong fundraising report, repeatedly telling supporters on a phone call that he expects the race to be over by March -- but only after getting through an increasingly nasty run-up to the Iowa caucuses.
The political attacks, he warned, will get “uglier and uglier and uglier.”

“We’re winning right now, and as a result, I want to tell everyone to get ready,” he said on the call. “Strap on the full armor of God. Get ready for the attacks that are coming. We’ve already seen hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in attacks directed at us. Well I went to tell you that come the month of January, we ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Still, Cruz observed at several points during the call that he expects that the race will finish well before the end of the primary season in June, saying “there’s a very good possibility that the Republican primary will be decided by the end of March.”

The call came one day after the Texas senator’s campaign announced he had raised around $20 million in the last three months of the year, an impressive haul that adds to his momentum in Iowa, where he leads in recent polls.

“I want to encourage everyone to get ready, because starting tomorrow morning, we are in a 90-day sprint to win this nomination, and then to turn around and win the general election,” he said. “To defeat Hillary Clinton in November of 2016 and to turn this country around.”

Cruz is widely expected to be among the top two finishers in the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, with many activists and operatives saying he looks on track to win it outright. His front-runner status has led to a growing number of attacks from rival campaigns and other outside groups, leading him to reassure supporters Thursday that it was better to be attacked than ignored.

“There’s an old line, if you’re not taking flak, you’re not over the target,” he said. “If we were sitting here on Dec. 31 and no one was attacking us and no one was going to be attacking us, I would be deeply, deeply concerned because it would mean we weren’t winning.”
Cruz continues to trail behind Donald Trump in national polls.

His political director, Mark Campbell, asserted, “The other thing we’re really watching with great fascination is how more and more of the establishment wing of the Republican Party is coming to our campaign as the alternative to Mr. Trump. We wish Donald Trump a happy New Year and hope he had a wonderful holiday season, but all of us believe very firmly that Ted Cruz will be the next President of the United States.”

 

[Zabaniyah]

America needs a leader who is sharp and witty in this day and age.

Sloppiness would be a liability.

I have not evaluated them seriously enough. Not Trump, that is for sure.

Carson is worse than Trump.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Here Are All The Dates You Need To Know For Election 2016

We've got you covered.

Sam Levine Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post
01/04/2016

It may seem as though the 2016 presidential election has been going on for an eternity. But technically, it hasn't even started yet! Soon, though, voters will actually begin to choose who they want to be the next president. Lucky them. Lucky all of us.

Here are some of the big dates to keep in mind in 2016:

Jan. 14 -- GOP Fox Business debate in North Charleston, South Carolina

Jan. 17 -- Democratic debate hosted by NBC in Charleston, South Carolina

Jan. 28 -- Fox News GOP debate in Des Moines, Iowa

Feb. 1 -- Iowa caucuses

Feb. 6 -- ABC News/Independent Journal GOP debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire

Feb. 9 -- New Hampshire primary

Feb. 11 -- PBS Democratic primary debate in Wisconsin

Feb. 13 -- CBS Republican primary debate at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina

Feb. 20 -- Nevada Democratic caucus and South Carolina Republican primary

Feb. 23 -- Nevada GOP caucus

Feb. 27 -- South Carolina Democratic primary

March 1 -- Super Tuesday: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia primaries; Alaska (GOP), Colorado and Minnesota will hold caucuses

March 5 -- Kentucky (GOP), Nebraska (Dem.) and Kansas caucuses; Louisiana primary

March 8 -- Idaho (GOP), Mississippi andMichigan primaries;Hawaii Republican caucus

March 13 -- Puerto Rico GOP primary.

March 15 -- Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina primaries

March 22 -- Arizona andUtah primaries; Idaho Democratic caucus

March 26 -- Alaska, Hawaii and Washington hold Democratic caucuses

April 5 -- Wisconsin primary

April 19 -- New York primary

April 26 -- Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island primaries

May 3 -- Indiana primary

May 10 -- Nebraska (GOP) and West Virginia primaries

May 17 -- Kentucky (Dem.) and Oregon primaries

May 24 -- Washington Republican primary

June 5 -- Puerto Rico Democratic primary

June 7 -- California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota primaries

June 14 -- Washington, D.C., primary

July 18-21 -- Republican National Convention in Cleveland

July 25-28 -- Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

Sept. 26 -- Presidential debate at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio

Oct. 4 -- Vice presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia

Oct. 9 -- Presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis

Oct. 19 -- Presidential debate at University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Nov. 8 -- Election Day

 

[RabzonKhan]

 

[RabzonKhan]

Poll: Neck-And-Neck 2016 Races in Iowa, New Hampshire

by MARK MURRAY
JAN 10 2016

Three weeks until the first presidential nominating contest, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are running neck and neck in Iowa, while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are also locked in a tight race in the Hawkeye State.

What's more, Clinton and Sanders are within the margin of error in New Hampshire, while Trump has built a 16-point lead in the same state.

Those are the results of two brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls - the first NBC/WSJ/Marist early-state surveys of 2016, which for the first time measure likely voters.

In Iowa, which holds its caucuses on Feb. 1, Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump by four points among likely caucus-goers, 28 percent to 24 percent - within the poll's margin of error of plus-minus 4.6 percentage points. They're followed by Marco Rubio at 13 percent and Ben Carson at 11 percent. No other Republican candidate gets more than 5 percent of the vote.

Yet among the larger universe of potential Iowa caucus-goers, Trump actually leads Cruz by two points, 26 percent to 24 percent, suggesting that a larger turnout could benefit Trump in the state. (Back in October's NBC/WSJ/Marist poll, Trump was at 24 percent among potential caucus-goers, Carson at 19 percent, and Cruz and Rubio at just 6 percent.)

On the Democratic side, frontrunner Hillary Clinton holds just a three-point lead among likely voters over Bernie Sanders, 48 percent to 45 percent, while Martin O'Malley gets 5 percent.

But among potential Democratic caucus-goers, Clinton's advantage grows to six points, 49 percent to 43 percent. (In October, Clinton's lead here was 11 points, 47 percent to 36 percent.)

New Hampshire: Four Establishment GOP candidates split up almost 45 percent of vote

In New Hampshire, which holds its presidential primaries on Feb. 9, Trump gets support from 30 percent of likely Republican primary voters.

He's followed by Marco Rubio at 14 percent, Chris Christie at 12 percent, Ted Cruz at 10 percent, and John Kasich and Jeb Bush tied at 9 percent each.

That means that the four Republicans vying in the establishment lane of the GOP contest - Rubio, Christie, Kasich and Bush - are dividing up 44 percent of the total vote, according to the NBC/WSJ/Marist poll.

The GOP numbers are essentially unchanged among the larger pool of potential Republican voters in New Hampshire.

In the Democratic race, Sanders is ahead of Clinton by four points among likely primary voters, 50 percent to 46 percent, which is within the margin of error of plus-minus 4.8 percentage points. O'Malley is at 1 percent.

Among the larger universe of potential Democratic primary voters, Sanders' lead increases to six points, 50 percent to 44 percent. In October, the Vermont senator held a nine-point lead over Clinton.

Sanders outperforms Clinton in general-election matchups

The NBC/WSJ/Marist polls also show that Sanders outperforms Clinton in hypothetical general-election matchups in these two presidential battleground states - something other surveys have found, too.

In Iowa:

• Clinton leads Trump by eight points among registered voters (48 percent to 40 percent), but Sanders is ahead of him by 13 (51 percent to 38 percent);
• Cruz tops Clinton by four points (47 percent to 43 percent), but Sanders beats him by five (47 percent to 42 percent);
• And up Rubio is up by five points over Clinton (47 percent to 42 percent), while he's tied with Sanders (44 percent to 44 percent).

In New Hampshire:

• Clinton is ahead of Trump by just one point (45 percent to 44 percent), but Sanders tops him by 19 points (56 percent to 37 percent);
• Cruz beats Clinton by four points (48 percent to 44 percent), but Sanders leads him by another 19 points (55 percent to 36 percent);
• And Rubio bests Clinton by 12 points (52 percent to 40 percent), while Sanders leads him by nine points (50 percent to 41 percent).

The primary reason why Sanders tests better in these general-election matchups is due to his stronger performance with independent voters.

The NBC/WSJ/Marist polls were conducted Jan. 2-7. In Iowa, the poll measured 2,821 registered voters (+/- 1.8), 1,094 potential GOP caucus-goers (+/- 3.0%), 456 likely GOP caucus-goers (+/- 4.6%), 977 potential Democratic caucus-goers (+/- 3.1%) and 422 likely Dem caucus-goers (+/- 4.8%)

In New Hampshire, the poll measured 1,888 registered voters (+/- 2.3%), 887 potential GOP primary voters (+/- 3.3%), 569 likely GOP primary voters (+/- 4.1%), 690 potential Dem primary voters (+/- 3.7%) and 425 likely Dem primary voters (+/- 4.8%).

 

[RabzonKhan]

Conservative elite, sounding a bit panicked, says Trump will destroy GOP

By Howard Kurtz
January 11, 2016

The Republican establishment, which has always distrusted and discounted Donald Trump, is getting increasingly nervous.

So nervous, in fact, that some of its media voices are starting to denounce their party’s front-runner in the strongest possible terms.

As in, refusing to vote for the man if he’s the nominee. As in, loudly proclaiming that he will destroy the GOP.

Viewed from one perspective, this has the smell of panic. Viewed from another, it’s a case of party stalwarts speaking out based on principle.

For decades now, there has been primary-season sniping between the establishment wing and the insurgent/hard-line/Tea Party wing. Commentators rough up their least favorite candidate, even declare them unqualified for the White House.

But if that person prevails—think Mitt Romney in 2012—the sharpest Republican critics find a way to walk it back. Well, he wasn’t my first choice, but he would be better than Barack Obama. He’s evolved on immigration/tax cuts/ObamaCare. He would pull this country out of its left-wing tailspin.

These days, the rhetoric is getting so hot that there will be no scrambling back on board. Bill Kristol has been openly musing about a third party if Trump wins the nomination.

Does the conservative media elite hope to throw some tacks under the Trump steamroller with such sharp rhetoric? Or are its members just speaking out to clear their consciences?

If it’s the former, I think it might actually help Trump to have the Beltway types arrayed against him. These are the folks he is running against, and he’s never positioned himself as a doctrinaire conservative.

Michael Gerson, a Bush White House official who writes for the Washington Post, uses sweeping language:

“Trump’s nomination would not be the temporary victory of one of the GOP’s ideological factions. It would involve the replacement of the humane ideal at the center of the party and its history. If Trump were the nominee, the GOP would cease to be.”

Cease to be. That’s pretty historic stuff.

Gerson calls Trump a “demagogue” who “has followed some of America’s worst instincts wherever they have led, and fed ethnic and religious prejudice in the process. All presidential nominees, to some extent, shape their parties into their own image. Trump would deface the GOP beyond recognition.”

In case you missed the point, Gerson says: “Trump is disqualified for the presidency by his erratic temperament, his ignorance about public affairs and his scary sympathy for authoritarianism. But for me, and I suspect for many, the largest problem is that Trump would make the GOP the party of racial and religious exclusion.”

Doug Heye has been communications chief of the RNC, a top deputy to Eric Cantor and a Bush administration official. He makes a personal declaration in the Independent Journal:

“Because of Trump’s perversion of conservatism, along with the devastating impact he would have if nominated, I cannot support Donald Trump were he to win the Republican nomination.”

Heye says Trump would be “dangerous to the United States and the world at a time when the world is at risk.” His nomination, says Heye, “would be catastrophic for Republican hopes to win the White House and maintain control of the Senate and would damage the party and the conservative cause for years to come. His having the legitimacy that comes with the nomination of a major political party would cause greater instability throughout the world at a time when the world looks to America for leadership that is serious and sober.”

This is the New York Times’ latest version of the same story, calling it a “people’s coup”:

At family dinners and New Year’s parties, in conference calls and at private lunches, longtime Republicans are expressing a growing fear that the coming election could be shattering for the party, or reshape it in ways that leave it unrecognizable.

But a very different tack from Peggy Noonan, who worked for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who turns the question back on the establishment:

“I do not understand the inability or refusal of Republican leaders to take Mr. Trump seriously. They take his numbers seriously—they can read a poll—but they think, as Mr. Bush said, that his support is all about anger, angst and theatrics. That’s part of the story, but the other, more consequential part has to do with real policy issues. The establishment refuses to see that, because to admit it is to implicate themselves and their leadership. Political consultants can’t see it because they don’t think issues matter—not to them and certainly not to the dumb voters.

“But issues do matter, and Mr. Trump has functioned this year not as a great communicator or great compromiser but as the great disruptor. He brags that he has brought up great questions and forced other candidates to face them and sometimes change their stands—and he has.”

There really isn’t much of an establishment left. It consists of some megabuck donors, elected officials, seasoned operatives and media pundits. They don’t have the power to stop Trump, and they know it.

The best they can hope for is to influence the debate. Their problem is that most of them don’t like Ted Cruz, either.

 

[ultron]

Trump is the best candidate. He will kill Obama's climate hysteria, destroy ISIS, make the world safe for Muslims and alike, take down illegal immigration, fix the economy.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Trump is the best candidate. He will kill Obama's climate hysteria, destroy ISIS, make the world safe for Muslims and alike, take down illegal immigration, fix the economy.

He is a hotheaded bully with a very selfish nasty attitude, though the issues he has raised (illegal immigration and Obama's disastrous war on terror) are very important, but the way he wants to tackle them would lead to disaster.

America deserves better!

 

[RabzonKhan]

Republican Debate 2016 FOX Business GOP 1/14/16

 

[RabzonKhan]