The 2016 US Election (Part I)

[Lord MJ]

So I had this gem today, that somehow the media is biased against Hillary in favor of Bernie...

Bernie is NEVER asked hard questions, and he's treated with kid gloves and he skirts around issues. Meanwhile the media hammers Hillary on every aspect of her life.

Bernie refuses to take responsibility for anything and the media lets him get away with it.

Where is the media in hammering on things like his gun votes and dumping toxic waste in Texas? Or exposing that his civil rights record is very thin? Crickets.

[Omega18]

The admittedly early Florida results look very good for Hillary with her currently up 27% and fair amount of what would be expected to be her most favorable areas not showing any results yet. On the Republican side Trump is definitely going to win Florida by a clear margin.

Edit: Early voting just came in for Miami-Dade at 79.8% Hillary 18.6% Sanders. Hillary's current lead is up to 31.6%.

[Omega18]

Exit polling suggests a win for Hillary in Ohio and a fairly solid win in North Carolina. If this holds up the overall delegate margin in unlikely to look good for Sanders by the end of tonight.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Exit polling suggests a win for Hillary in Ohio and a fairly solid win in North Carolina. If this holds up the overall delegate margin in unlikely to look good for Sanders by the end of tonight.

Nobody was really expecting Sanders to win North Carolina, or Florida (and he's losing them by huge margins.) Clinton was leading by something like nine points going into Ohio. While Michigan suggested that Sanders could stage a come-from-behind victory, current Ohio exit polling indicates that the only demographic Sanders won was white men. Every other demographic in the exit polls has broken for Clinton. Women favored Clinton by the same proportion that men favored Sanders. And the early, early vote counts show Clinton flogging Sanders like he were in the South all over again. While there's still a lot of vote left to count; I'm expecting Clinton to win Ohio by a greater margin than the polls going into the primary would've suggested.

tl;dr - The story, regarding the Democratic nomination, remains completely unchanged.

[Omega18]

Florida officially called for Hillary and Trump. Given the remaining areas and how they reported so far this may be an utter blowout with an upper 30% margin by the time its all said and done.

[Omega18]

North Carolina declared for Hillary with her holding about a 18% lead. (And early returns look good for Hillary in Ohio) The delegate count by the end of the night is going to realistically mean the Democratic primary race is over in terms of plausible paths for a Sanders victory barring something causing a sudden extreme Hillary political collapse.

[Omega18]

Rubio has suspended his campaign and its looking like Kasich will win Ohio. The details of how Illinois' Congressional districts go may be rather relevant on the Republican side. So far early Democratic returns in Ohio have Hillary considerable exceeding her victory margin in the exit polls.

Edit: Ohio has now been called for Hillary it looks like a decisive win for her in the state.

[Gaidin]

Edit: Ohio has now been called for Hillary it looks like a decisive win for her in the state.

That might hurt a little bit as well. She had been downplaying that after Michigan. He was predicting it for himself.

[Omega18]

Ohio now called for Kasich. Both Missouri and North Carolina are close right now between Trump and Cruz with Trump holding the lead. Illinois looks good for Trump overall but the distribution of the non-Chicago area vote matters in terms of delegate distribution.

[Gaidin]

Takes me until *now* to hear a good speech from a Republican? Gawd these guys are sad. I'm sad the Republican voters couldn't give Kasich a victory speech until tonight.

[Omega18]

Hillary now has a 20% lead in Ohio and the big cities where you would expect her to do best due to minority voters have not come in yet. It looks like the recent polls really blew it in suggesting the race was close with it completely going in favor of Hillary this time with regards to the actual results. (Ohio is going to matter not simply symbolically but also in the sheer number of delegates she is also going to pick up there to further pad her lead.)

[Gaidin]

Trump took Illinois with roughly 40% of the vote.

[Gaidin]

Looks like Sanders and Clinton are trading hits on Illinois and Missouri now. And Missouri is all that's left for the Republicans as well.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well fuck. Good night for Trump, bad night for American Democracy. At least Ohio went to Kasich. I've also been told Rubio dropped out after losing Florida.

Ohio, NC, and Florida for Clinton, apparently.

Probably Illinois too the way things are going, from what I've seen on CNN. Sanders slightly up in Missouri.

I'm sure the Clinton crowd will be gloating, going on about how Clinton has won and Sanders needs to drop out. But their are a few points to counter that.

1. NC was a lot closer than her southern wins have tended to be thus far. And would likely have been closer still if not for a voter ID law that suppresses the student vote.

2. Illinois is really close. Delegates will be effectively split.

3. Sanders has a string of promising states coming up, provided his supporters don't decide to rally behind her inevitable majesty.

4. At the end of the day, neither is close to the number of delegates they need to secure the nomination. Even when CNN insists on counter super delegates who could yet switch sides as Clinton delegates.

Yeah, tonight sucks and Clinton is the likely winner (if you call picking a weak nominee who may go down in flames to Trump winning). But I hate the inevitability narrative that's been pushed for so long.

[The Romulan Republic]

Ugg. Drumpf was just speaking on CNN.

I don't generally wish others ill, and I will never condone political violence, but I will admit that if Drumpf stumbled and felt right on his nuts as he left the stage, it would make my fucking month.

[Gandalf]

Why is Drumpf catching on as a thing? Is there no other way to make fun of Trump than point out that his family apparently had a funny sounding name when they migrated to the US?

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, it originated with John Oliver, who as I recall argued that a lot of Drumpf's appeal came from his brand name. Hence replacing Trump with his ancestral name, Drumpf.

Its petty, perhaps, but I have no desire to show the man any respect or give him any dignity.

But if Drumpf offends you, I can start referring to him as You Know Who or He Who Must Not Be Named instead.

[Gaidin]

I think that's how he caught on but more I think now it's more about the visceral emotion than anything else. But who the hell knows.

[Soontir C'boath]

Well, even if Sanders was to drop out today, I'd still vote for him come April. Though when it comes to the general election, I may just vote for Trump. My curiosity in how both Democratic and Republican politicians, given their mutual views on him as a President, will handle him is actually pretty high.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, even if Sanders was to drop out today, I'd still vote for him come April. Though when it comes to the general election, I may just vote for Trump. My curiosity in how both Democratic and Republican politicians, given their mutual views on him as a President, will handle him is actually pretty high.

As an American...

Fuck you for being willing to screw the country and the world as blatantly as possible for the sake of your "curiosity".

And Sanders supporters who say they will vote for Drumpf have no idea or appreciation for what Sanders stands for.

Edit: If you vote for Drumpf, you are voting against every Muslim, every Latino, every woman, every liberal... everybody. You are voting for a bigoted authoritarian with KKK backing. You cast that vote, as far as I'm concerned, you might as well don a white hood, get a swastika tattoo, and start burning crosses, because you ain't no better than that.

[Purple]

Edit: If you vote for Drumpf, you are voting against every Muslim, every Latino, every woman, every liberal... everybody. You are voting for a bigoted authoritarian with KKK backing. You cast that vote, as far as I'm concerned, you might as well don a white hood, get a swastika tattoo, and start burning crosses, because you ain't no better than that.

Aren't you hyperventilating just a tad? Like really. The guy is a populist pandering to the lowest common denominator. But that's it. It's not like he is going to open up death camps, rescind the civil rights acts, force women back into the kitchen or start a war with Mexico. Like he's not even going to try. And even if he did he would get zero support and end up being the shortest running president in your history.

[Soontir C'boath]

Wow, calm the fuck down. One, I don't represent all Bernie supporters and two, living in NY, it probably doesn't matter in the end. Three, I'd like to do it as a fuck you to the Democratic party before I switch my party affiliation back to none again.

Anyway, a huge part of Trump's appeal is that he may/will not go with business as usual. With Trump in the executive office, I think we may see a more functioning Congress again as they both work together to stop any of his crazy shit. I mean, fuck, we just went through eight years of stonewalling by a Republican led congress because of a black guy at the helm who at the end of the day didn't get many of what he wanted done to the extent that he wanted. Obamacare and Guantanamo to name a couple. So calm the fuck down.

Then there's the possible GOP collapse in Congress and other state offices being devoid of Republicans as we've read theorized would happen, so it would be a nice thing to see a Democratic Congress again.

[Gaidin]

Aren't you hyperventilating just a tad? Like really. The guy is a populist pandering to the lowest common denominator. But that's it. It's not like he is going to open up death camps, rescind the civil rights acts, force women back into the kitchen or start a war with Mexico. Like he's not even going to try. And even if he did he would get zero support and end up being the shortest running president in your history.

He is. Trump and Bernie are a little bit of a Venn Diagram. The question is if you're willing to vote for the other for the crossover regardless of where they don't match.

[The Romulan Republic]

Edit: If you vote for Drumpf, you are voting against every Muslim, every Latino, every woman, every liberal... everybody. You are voting for a bigoted authoritarian with KKK backing. You cast that vote, as far as I'm concerned, you might as well don a white hood, get a swastika tattoo, and start burning crosses, because you ain't no better than that.

Aren't you hyperventilating just a tad? Like really. The guy is a populist pandering to the lowest common denominator. But that's it. It's not like he is going to open up death camps, rescind the civil rights acts, force women back into the kitchen or start a war with Mexico. Like he's not even going to try. And even if he did he would get zero support and end up being the shortest running president in your history.

I didn't say he was going to do any of those things, though I wouldn't put it past him if he thinks he can get away with it, and I certainly wouldn't put it past some of his supporters.

I said that he's an authoritarian xenophobe, which he objectively is (or at least willing to pretend to be one and pander to and incite them to get votes).

I said that voting for him was analogous to joining the KKK/Neo-Nazis (not committing actual violent acts, but just joining them), and I stand by that, because a lot of his supporters are KKK and Neo-Nazis.

[The Romulan Republic]

Wow, calm the fuck down. One, I don't represent all Bernie supporters

As a Bernie supporter (possibly the most vocal on this forum), I am well aware of that.

But you represent a subset of Bernie supporters I very much despise.

and two, living in NY, it probably doesn't matter in the end. Three, I'd like to do it as a fuck you to the Democratic party before I switch my party affiliation back to none again.

Ah, so, its not curiosity. Its "my guy didn't win, so fuck the country and the world (because its not just the Democrats a Drumpf Presidency would hurt- a bad President can hurt innumerable people, as we saw to an extent with Bush Jr.) out of spite."

That's much better.

Well, at least you're in a pretty blue state. That makes me loath you a little less. But only a little.

Anyway, a huge part of Trump's appeal is that he may/will not go with business as usual. With Trump in the executive office, I think we may see a more functioning Congress again as they both work together to stop any of his crazy shit. I mean, fuck, we just went through eight years of stonewalling by a Republican led congress because of a black guy at the helm who at the end of the day didn't get many of what he wanted done to the extent that he wanted. Obamacare and Guantanamo to name a couple. So calm the fuck down.

I can be as calm as you like and I'll still think you're an irresponsible imbecile at best, because contrary to what you seem to be implying, I have rational reasons for doing so.

And I have zero faith in a GOP Congress standing up to Drumpf. He is not without Republican political support by any means, and they want to keep the support of their rabid base.

God help us if we're ever looking to the GOP for moral leadership.

Then there's the possible GOP collapse in Congress and other state offices being devoid of Republicans as we've read theorized would happen, so it would be a nice thing to see a Democratic Congress again.

Yeah, but I'm not going to bet on it, especially with all the gerrymandering.

Gaiden- Drumpf and Sanders overlap only in minor or very general respects (like they are both "anti-establishment"). In principles, character, and policy, they are light years apart. While you may dismiss it as "hyperventilating", I have no doubt I could find more commonality between Drumpf and Hitler, policy and character-wise, in all seriousness, than between him and Sanders.