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Clinton is a political animal of course, and represents some of the worst aspects of our political system (in the same manner as Mitch McConnell actually, a lifetime of political engagement and power-brokering), but that doesn't make her worse than Trump by any stretch of the imagination.
Her biggest problem has been a 30 year smear campaign directed against her, because she was considered such a political threat. I have watched this unfold over decades. She is principled and tries to do good things inside and outside of government, but had become more concerned with being the first woman president and striking her blow against the glass ceiling than supporting her party's traditional causes. I personally have simply regarded her as an idealist with mediocre leadership potential and outsized ambition.
Trump didn't have a decades long smear campaign directed against him, just a reputation as a hustler and swindler he forged himself, mostly as a New York real estate Jack Ashe. He has only himself to blame for whatever people think of him, and his behavior from the white house has done nothing to assuage the public's concerns (in fact he has made it worse). His exaggerations and lies seem to reflect a lifetime habit forged in selling his brand and taking people's money.
Trump is a carnival barker with no leadership ability. He will sign anything ... anything! that his party puts in front of him because he wants to look like a winner (and thereby advance his own personal selfish agenda). Being a 'winner' in this context is a higher priority than being a man of principle or a man of the people.
i actually liked bill clinton, he was a centrist, though he was politically slightly left of center. be he could see the way the country was going and he adapted. hillary though was going to double and triple down on everything obama did, including the debt, and bringing refugees at a rate of 500% over what obama did, and chances are she also would have governed by executive order, many of which would have been unconstitutional and we would have been spending far more time in the courts to stop that.
trump was not the best candidate by any means, in fact there are people i would much rather have had than trump. but sorry, hillary is a vile, evil woman who felt entitled to be president.
Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland
That would be the most fair. Rich people who buy really expensive luxury cars, yachts, expensive second homes, private planes, etc. would pay more. These things are choices they are making, not necessities. And to them, it's a drop in the bucket. They still have plenty left over for necessities.
Poor people who drive an old, second hand car, their kids wear cheap clothes, they never go anywhere would pay much less in taxes. They are buying necessities and have few, if any, luxuries. I know people who are like this, working sometimes 80 hours a week and the taxes are killing them.
exactly. eliminating payroll and income taxes for the private citizen would be like giving them a pay raise, and would take the pressure off them somewhat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Gringo
Dems are powerless and irrelevant. Haven't been in such a weak position in 90 years.
tRump doesn't need one single Dem vote in congress to advance the Pub agenda. His party (and yours) controls ALL the levers of power.
Where is any major legislation that Trump promised at all?
Results don't support this notion of an omnipotent party that can do anything it wants.
What happened last night in VA and NJ isn't going to help things. Any number of GOP Congressman are going to be having second thoughts about this President and his agenda.
Irrelevant? Hell. As a democrat,I wouldn't trade places with Trump and the GOP Congress at this point. We are seeing the beginnings of a GOP implosion.
They are the swamp rats of the GOP. They are not immune from criticism for perpetuating the status quo. They are part of the "establishment," that benefits from maintaining the oligarchy. They can all go to Hell. They are the reason Trump won.
Gillespie's loss is no "referendum" on the Trump Administration. Keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel good. A Democrat State electing another Democrat governor is no "referendum" on this President. Remember, Virginia was not a state that Trump won on Nov 8, 2016. So this isn't a surprise. Gillespie was a long shot, and he wasn't a good candidate anyway.
The GOP handed the Dems a gimme and they screwed it up by nominating someone even worse.
Hillary wasn't worse by any rational standard whatsoever. She won the popular vote by the largest amount other than Obama, meaning she was more liked than Trump.
But 3 decades of lies by Republicans attacking her character make it hard to overcome, and obviously Russia played an enormous role in helping Trump.
It's not just the VA race that has incumbent GOP scared....look at the local races in the Philly burbs where trump did well and a GOP stronghold. Yesterday some seats went to Dems that have NEVER been Dems. It's a bit of inside baseball but these local races are not lost on GOP incumbents in House and Senate. Look for many more GOP retirements and many more GOP losses.
Bucks County Democrats ended Election Night Tuesday with surprise victories in four of five county row offices.
The results of the county sheriff, prothonotary, recorder of deeds and controller mark the first time in more than 30 years that a Democrat held a single county office other than county commissioner, let alone four.
Yes, those House Republicans running for re-election next year, as well as those Senate Republicans (at least, those that have not recently announced that "I'm out of here") have a difficult choice to make: 'embrace' Mr. Trump and what he (at times) stands for, or distance themselves from Mr. Trump."
Virginia is a Blue State now (according to Larry Saboto) - so the "difficult choice" is probably not going to happen in most States or Districts. Ed Gillespie was careful not to call himself an "Anti-Trumper - but he distanced himself from President Trump and got George Bush to campaign/fund raise for him. George Bush is an Anti-Trumper.
Contrast that to the woman running for Lt Governor - she embraced President Trump and even begged him to come to Virginia to campaign ..... which Ed Gillespie vetoed.
Look at the vote totals ...... she got more votes than Gillespie.
Jill Vogel - Lt Governor race --- 1,218,044
Ed Gillespie - Governor race --- 1,168,804
It's not a big difference, but she should not have received more votes that Gillespie, she wasn't even well known. Gillespie got more votes when he ran for the Senate than he did when he ran for Governor and he had the Bush Family behind him both times.
SPLIT TICKET: With Gillespie Camp Divided, Fredericks Reports That Jill Vogel Wants Trump to Campaign For Her |Blue Virginia Those comments ran directly counter to Ed Gillespie, who has refused to invite the President to Virginia. According to the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin, the Gillespie campaign is deeply divided over whether they want — and need — the President to come to Virginia and help “jolt his supporters who may have been indifferent about the race or uneasy with an establishment-aligned candidate such as Mr. Gillespie.” The Trump question has roiled the Gillespie campaign and, according to the Times, causing fierce debate and pitting staffer against staffer. And Fredericks’ latest revelation that Vogel has essentially invited the President to Virginia adds yet another factor into the debate consuming the Gillespie camp.
Let's not pretend that Jeff Flake (the out of here) had any chance at all in his 2018 election. He is virulently Anti-Trump and can't get elected in Arizona because of that. If the Leftists are actually thinking that Republicans will attempt to run for office by running against President Trump, they are truly living in a very strange Echo Chamber.
Hillary wasn't worse by any rational standard whatsoever. She won the popular vote by the largest amount other than Obama, meaning she was more liked than Trump.
But 3 decades of lies by Republicans attacking her character make it hard to overcome, and obviously Russia played an enormous role in helping Trump.
Worse just in different areas. Hyper corrupt power freak vs a vulgar narcissistic game show host. Kind of like being asked if you would rather be boiled in oil or flayed.
And the popular vote still means nada in the presidential election. I would love to see something done to neuter both parties as this past presidential choice is unforgivable.
I actually think the way the Dems disavowed Obama in 2014 laid the groundwork for the number of minorities and liberals who stayed home in 2016. The millennia black vote killed them in particular.
The Clintons campaigning so heavily for Alison Grimes Lundgren really sticks out in particular.
A lot of Black folk came out JUST for Obama and not for the mid terms.
Worse just in different areas. Hyper corrupt power freak vs a vulgar narcissistic game show host. Kind of like being asked if you would rather be boiled in oil or flayed.
And the popular vote still means nada in the presidential election. I would love to see something done to neuter both parties as this past presidential choice is unforgivable.
worse in being outdated, old and tired...
whether everything was true or not wasn't the issue. How the hell do you push a nominee who is under investigation by the FBI?
Virginia is a Blue State now (according to Larry Saboto) - so the "difficult choice" is probably not going to happen in most States or Districts. Ed Gillespie was careful not to call himself an "Anti-Trumper - but he distanced himself from President Trump and got George Bush to campaign/fund raise for him. George Bush is an Anti-Trumper.
Contrast that to the woman running for Lt Governor - she embraced President Trump and even begged him to come to Virginia to campaign ..... which Ed Gillespie vetoed.
Look at the vote totals ...... she got more votes than Gillespie.
Jill Vogel - Lt Governor race --- 1,218,044
Ed Gillespie - Governor race --- 1,168,804
It's not a big difference, but she should not have received more votes that Gillespie, she wasn't even well known. Gillespie got more votes when he ran for the Senate than he did when he ran for Governor and he had the Bush Family behind him both times.
But Gillespie spent the last month of his campaign peddling Trump-endorsed populism (Bannon recently noted his "rally around the Trump agenda"), even while he tried to keep his distance from Trump himself. The fact that an unknown Lt Governor Republican candidate garnered more votes than Gillespie himself suggests to me that voters who would have otherwise voted Republican rejected his message and/or preferred his opponent. The fact that Gillespie got more votes as a Senate candidate (before he adopted some of these hard-line positions) tells me that it was probably more the former than the latter.
The thought process for the GOP going forward isn't going to be about Gillespie losing, but that he was pummeled by the centrist message peddled by Northram.
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