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US President 2016 - the Great Horse Race

who cares if the debt is paid off

eta: let me guess, you are also against raising taxes
 
angelo said:
It's a fact, and no matter what spin is put on it. The strong US Dollar is a sign that the economy is in growth mode.
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That's the indicator you've chosen and you're sticking with it. The masses don't really understand "strong dollar" but do understand "long line at the food bank."

How are you going to tell them that they're better off than they feel?

Everyone responding to this point keeps saying "it's better than it feels". Well, how will you tell the voters that it is better than it feels? How will you tell them to ignore what they personally know? The average person doesn't follow GDP, Dow Jones, etc. They follow their paycheck and the price of groceries. So when they see those two indicators aren't doing well, how will you tell them they're actually better off than they think they are because of all the other indicators? How will you get them to follow GDP and Dow Jones instead of paycheck and grocery prices?
 
Jason Harvestdancer said:
How will you get them to follow GDP and Dow Jones instead of paycheck and grocery prices?
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Raise the minimum wage so that they have surplus income available for investing. Most leading economic theorists agree that if you start giving McDonald's workers $15/hour, they'll use to additional income to speculate on derivatives.
 
Jason Harvestdancer said:
angelo said:
It's a fact, and no matter what spin is put on it. The strong US Dollar is a sign that the economy is in growth mode.
Click to expand...

That's the indicator you've chosen and you're sticking with it. The masses don't really understand "strong dollar" but do understand "long line at the food bank."
Click to expand...
True. Where are these long lines at the food bank? From what I can see, the lines are not any longer than before, and appear a bit shorter.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Jason Harvestdancer said:
How will you get them to follow GDP and Dow Jones instead of paycheck and grocery prices?
Click to expand...

Raise the minimum wage so that they have surplus income available for investing. Most leading economic theorists agree that if you start giving McDonald's workers $15/hour, they'll use to additional income to speculate on derivatives.
Click to expand...

Oh so correct. I spend my extra $60 a week buying derivatives, much better investment than the heroin I was using.
 
Nice Squirrel said:
Tom Sawyer said:
Raise the minimum wage so that they have surplus income available for investing. Most leading economic theorists agree that if you start giving McDonald's workers $15/hour, they'll use to additional income to speculate on derivatives.
Click to expand...

Oh so correct. I spend my extra $60 a week buying derivatives, much better investment than the heroin I was using.
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It's all about priorities in one's budgetting. I've recently found that when I cut back on cocaine and whores, I have enough extra cash to feed and clothe my children.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Nice Squirrel said:
Oh so correct. I spend my extra $60 a week buying derivatives, much better investment than the heroin I was using.
Click to expand...

It's all about priorities in one's budgetting. I've recently found that when I cut back on cocaine and whores, I have enough extra cash to feed and clothe my children.
Click to expand...

You don't "free range" your children out to local piecework factories? You Canadians are so weird.
 
ksen said:
who cares if the debt is paid off

eta: let me guess, you are also against raising taxes
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It depends on how much debt the country has. Too much debt ties up too much money on interest payments.
 
Jason Harvestdancer said:
Everyone responding to this point keeps saying "it's better than it feels". Well, how will you tell the voters that it is better than it feels? How will you tell them to ignore what they personally know? The average person doesn't follow GDP, Dow Jones, etc. They follow their paycheck and the price of groceries. So when they see those two indicators aren't doing well, how will you tell them they're actually better off than they think they are because of all the other indicators? How will you get them to follow GDP and Dow Jones instead of paycheck and grocery prices?
Click to expand...


Well first off it would be nice if you backed up this vague claim that everyone "feels" the economy is worse off than it was six years ago.


As to the claim that the average person only follows their paycheck and the price of groceries, well then the evidence is pretty clear. For several years now, the economy has been adding jobs every month. That means that every month more people are actually getting paychecks. Millions who lost their jobs during the recession are back to work. Are they all back at their old jobs? Probably not. Are they all making the same amount as when they were laid off? Probably not. But to claim that the "average person" hasn't noticed that they've gone back to work, or that their friends are back at work, or haven't heard a single news story about how the unemployment rate has dropped is absurd.


The old campaign slogan goes "are you better off than you were four years ago?" Millions of people can say "yes." The millions who have gone back to work. The millions who no longer have to rely on unemployment insurance. And that's just the "average" voter. Those millions who have some sort of retirement plan wrapped up in the stock market (like a 401k) can say "yes, absolutely." Millions of homeowners who watched the value of their most important asset plummet can say "yes, absolutely." Inflation is pretty low at the moment, so the "groceries" half of your argument kinda falls flat, too.


So I ask again...where are you getting these "feels" from?
 
Non scientific Slashdot poll (I'd say Slashdot leans libertarian/left)

The current candidate I'd most like to see resign:


Jeb Bush 2858 votes / 20%

Hillary Clinton 5239 votes / 37%

Rick Perry 1125 votes / 8%

Lawrence Lessig 308 votes / 2%

Rand Paul 641 votes / 4%

Marco Rubio 722 votes / 5%

Bernie Sanders 664 votes / 4%

Is Cowboy Neal running? 2331 votes / 16% (Long standing inside joke)
 
Early Tea Party ===> Occupy Wall Street ==> Bernie Sanders

The early tea party, before it was taken over by the rightwing crazies, was very much a grassroots uprising against the establishment.

Occupy Wall Street followed a similar patern, wasn't taken over by political operatives, and fizzled out.

Now it seems that "We are the 99%" is finding new footing in Sanders.

Will third time be the charm for financial and political reform? Even if Sanders loses to Hillary, will this shift Hillary significantly?
 
Also, will Bernie's disheveled look count for him or against him? I mean, has nobody told him to fix his wild hair? Or is that a conscious choice to set him apart?
 
Trump still has a double-digit lead over everyone else in the GOP Presidential field. It's frigging September and Trump is not only still in the race, but handily winning the race by almost Clintoneque margins.

It hasn't gotten less funny and it hasn't started getting old. I am so very happy about this. :)
 
Sanders leads in Iowa and New Hampshire now.
Tom Sawyer said:
Trump still has a double-digit lead over everyone else in the GOP Presidential field. It's frigging September and Trump is not only still in the race, but handily winning the race by almost Clintoneque margins.

It hasn't gotten less funny and it hasn't started getting old. I am so very happy about this. :)
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Actually, it is getting less funny. He hasn't said as outlandish things. I mean more than what a Cruz would say. Actually, it looks like Trump made a comment yesterday about Fiorina being ugly and wouldn't get votes because of it. So I suppose you are right.

Trump's popularity is a testament to 30 years of right-wing propaganda. I wonder how shocked he is over his polling numbers. Obviously, at this point he needs to be asking himself, does he actually want to run?
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Tom Sawyer said:
Trump still has a double-digit lead over everyone else in the GOP Presidential field. It's frigging September and Trump is not only still in the race, but handily winning the race by almost Clintoneque margins.

It hasn't gotten less funny and it hasn't started getting old. I am so very happy about this. :)
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Actually, it is getting less funny. He hasn't said as outlandish things. I mean more than what a Cruz would say.
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Wasn't he just mocking Fiorina for being ugly yesterday? Granted, I haven't paid much attention to the US Presidential race in the last couple of weeks since the election is over a year away and who fucking cares about it, but Trump still seems to be going around being Trump.

Jimmy Higgins said:
His popularity is a testament to 30 years of right-wing propaganda. I wonder how shocked he is over his polling numbers. Obviously, at this point he needs to be asking himself, does he actually want to run?
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I can't see him wanting to be President. He needs to find a way to convince himself that it's a goal, though, because I want this to continue.
 
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