2016 Roundup

[nacho]

Oh, yes. This is bad news for her.

But...we knew that. We're only assuming it's a Hillary race because she's the only Old Guard on the Dem side.

But maybe the days of the Old Guards are finally over?

It's that thought that kind of makes me want to see Trump make a run here. Yes, he's bad for all of us. But he does represent a big change in politics. If we end up Trump v. Sanders, it'll break the machine. Then, if we survive the next four years, we may have a new political attitude in place to fill the vacuum and...

...wait...


Are those air raid sirens?

[Reginald McGraw]

Fascinating watch on CNN last night. Bernie's polling very well in NH (as he should) and should win by a lot. Then we'll see what happens next.

[nacho]

And now we start the body count! Rand Paul joins Graham, Huckabee, Jindal, Pataki, Perry, and Walker.

On the Dems side, O'Malley and Guy We Haven't Heard Of are out. So I guess that'll be a Clinton/Sanders ticket, or vice versa. We can stop paying attention to that side now.

[RottingCorpse]

I'm so yellow dog Dem at this point that I can just stop paying attention until November right?

I'm okay with either Hillary or Bernie at this point.

[nacho]

But now is when it gets fun! Until Trump self-destructs, then it'll be 

[RottingCorpse]

It is getting a little fun, especially with no dog in the hunt. I can simply sit up in my tower and eat popcorn while the future of this dying republic crumbles and dies.

[nacho]

Santorum is out!

[monkey!]

[nacho]

So, then. Trump takes NH by a landslide. Cruz is a distant third.

Meanwhile, Sanders crushes Hilldawg.

I think the game is afoot.

[nacho]

Monkey just reminded me that we have to explain our weird, medieval system to him.

So Feb 20th is South Carolina (and a couple inconsequential states) for the Republicans. "Super Tuesday" is March 1st, where a whole bunch of states go at once. Whoever emerges from that is probably the person who'll survive the whole run. The whole thing is over in mid-June, but we'll have a clear picture by then. Conventions (and nominations) are in July. Then the two nominees fill up our news cycles until November.

Basically, the nomination is tied up when the candidates win a certain number of delegates from the states. There are thousands of delegates up for grabs. Committed delegates supposedly have their votes locked in, but I'm now expecting July to be about breaking the system in fun and exciting ways.

[Reginald McGraw]

South Carolina, New York and Michigan are interesting ones to watch on the Dems side. Hillary has huge polling leads in these states. I think that's where the Sanders wheels come off.

Trump continues to poll as the front runner in every single race by wide margins. And NH came in right on the poll numbers for him.

[nacho]

I hate how the internet is freaking out about Trump. Getting him into office would be the best thing ever for American politics -- it would unite Congress, force people to think twice about staunchly sticking to their party lines, and he won't be able to do anything of consequence. Nor, do I think, does he want to!

All of the other Republican potentials would lead us to war and destruction. I get a Dead Zone feeling for all of them.

[Reginald McGraw]

Also, if you want to be sad about what the primaries actually mean... Google "democratic delegate count" Note Hillary's "super delegate padded" lead of hundreds after losing or almost losing in the first two primaries.

[nacho]

The superdelegate thing pisses me off to no end.

Though Hilldawg tried to use her superdelegate support to oust Obama, to no avail. This is how it looked in 08. If she continues to crash and burn, then the supers could easily shift over to Sanders. There's no historical precedent where the superdelegates have "stolen" the election. Ultimately, they'll follow the masses.

[nacho]

The Republican death toll continues. Fiorina is out.

Unconfirmed: Christie is also out. He's making an announcement sometime today.