Over here, foolsguinea noted that the current Republican presidential field (announced and presumed) of 16 names looked like a single-elimination tournament. So I thought “What the hell – let’s do this”.
How this works: The objective is to pick the person from each pairing you think would be the **best **(or least worst, if you prefer) **President **of the two choices. Losers will be eliminated, winners will be paired up with other winners, and bingo bango, off we go again.
Please do not just vote for the person you think would be easiest for Clinton (or whomever) to beat; if we’re doing that I’ll just declare Trump the winner and we can all go home.
Voting for this round will end this Saturday at 5pm EDT.
Current Governors:
Walker vs Kasich
Jindal vs Christie
Past Governors:
Perry vs Huckabee
Pataki vs Bush
Current Senators:
Rubio vs Cruz
Graham vs Paul
Others:
Santorum vs Carson
Fiorina vs Trump
Remember - you don’t have to think they’d be a great (or even good) president; they only have to be better than the other guy/gal.
Kasich
Christie
Huckabee
Pataki
Rubio
Paul
Santorum
Fiorina
IMO, this ought to be seeded – neither Fiorina or Trump ‘deserve’ to make it to the next round. I think it should be seeded by likelihood of being nominated: something like 1 Bush, 2 Walker, 3 Rubio, 4 Paul, 5 Kasich, 6 Huckabee, 7 Cruz, 8 Christie, 9 Santorum, 10 Perry, 11 Pataki, 12 Jindal, 13 Graham, 14 Carson, 15 Fiorina, 16 Trump
Kasich
Christie
Huckabee
Pataki
Rubio
Paul
Carson
Trump
I dithered for a long time over Rubio v Cruz, Carson v Santorum and Trump v Fiorina and eventually I just took the isidewith quiz and picked the person whose percentage was highest on the assumption that the more similarities between my views and their platform the better a politician they would be. Except for Trump and Fiorina. Trump, at least can fake being a successful businessman.
My votes in bold. Curse you for making me vote for Rick Santorum! I could have gone either way on Graham/Paul, but the latter actually has a policy I like so we’ll do that.
Not gonna vote. There’s going to be so little daylight in between the policies they’d try to implement, that it really doesn’t matter which one gets in the White House.
And for a moment I considered the possibility that a Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina would be ‘least worst’ because they’d screw up their own parade. But no - if the GOP elected a President who couldn’t govern, while holding onto their Congressional majorities, Boehner and McConnell would just get together, decide what legislation they wanted to pass, pass it, and President Dumbfuck would rubber-stamp it.
I make these choices as one who has the good fortune of living abroad, thus not having to suffer through political ads that are soon coming to your TV.
Walker
Walker vs Kasich— Kasich can work with Democrats. Walker can’t
Jindal vs Christie— Jindal. Poor governor, but Christie has a hint of scandal on him now.
Past Governors:
Perry vs Huckabee- Huck. Much smarter, much nicer.
Pataki vs Bush- Pataki. Successful, well liked governor.
Current Senators:
Rubio vs Cruz- Rubio. More bipartisan.
Graham vs Paul- Paul. Hate eliminating Graham so early, but Paul takes the party in a new direction, whereas Graham is just McCain Jr.
Others:
Santorum vs Carson- Carson. They may both be Christian extremists, but Carson has done something with his life.
Fiorina vs Trump- Trump. Successful business person beats failed business person.