# The 2016 Republican candidates **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 9, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444 "2015-01-09T22:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/301 "2015-01-24T09:42:21Z")
To expound further on Carson, while there’s no rationale for him to be President, there’s plenty of rationale for him to RUN for President. If he at least demonstrates a lot of support, which is likely, then he’ll either be able to run for Senate or governor of Michigan, or just get a plum Fox News show. He only just retired from his profession a short time ago and he doesn’t seem like the type to just want to sit around. That would go against the way he’s lived his life since he was about 8 years old. So one way or another, politics is probably going to be his thing for the next 20 years or so. And while I would be willing to bet against him being President, I wouldn’t bet against him being a success on some level at politics. For all the dumb things he’s said, he’s new at this, and frankly he’s not saying anything unusual that you wouldn’t hear in your average fundie church. He just has to figure out that what sells in his church won’t fly among the majority of Americans. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/302 "2015-01-24T13:50:14Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Sitting on the back bench in Springfield, IL, while voting “Present” is hardly relevant experience. Well, you keep saying this. Can you document that Obama’s voting record was appreciably worse than the typical Illinois state representative? IOW, cite, please. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/303 "2015-01-24T13:58:52Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > To expound further on Carson, while there’s no rationale for him to be President, there’s plenty of rationale for him to RUN for President. If he at least demonstrates a lot of support, which is likely, then he’ll either be able to run for Senate or governor of Michigan, or just get a plum Fox News show. Hey, I coulda written that! The problem is, it’s a very _personal_ rationale. So you’re OK with people having bullshit Presidential candidacies in order to further their chance of either winning lesser office, or getting into the wingnut welfare racket? Because basically the idea of people running for President primarily for personal gain or advancement seems to me like the antithesis of patriotism. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/304 "2015-01-24T14:36:34Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > For all the dumb things he’s said, he’s new at this, and frankly he’s not saying anything unusual that you wouldn’t hear in your average fundie church. He just has to figure out that what sells in his church won’t fly among the majority of Americans. This might be true for some backwoods hick who’s never seen a city. For someone who’s had a career in high-level medicine in a cosmopolitan city at a hospital that’s world-renowned with all the diversity of co-workers that implies, it’s short-bus special. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/305 "2015-01-24T14:47:12Z")
Since **D’Anconia** has kept harping on Obama’s being nothing but a community organizer, I should note here in the thread that he was a community organizer _[from 1985 to 1988](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Community_organizer_and_Harvard_Law_School)_. He was a state legislator [from 1997 to 2004, inclusive](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama). **D’Anconia** , I think that if you’re going to slice and dice the record of a public figure, rather than taking the thing as a whole, the onus is on you to demonstrate that what someone did for 3 years, ending over 20 years before becoming President, is more significant than what someone did for 8 years, ending 4 years before becoming President. Makes about as much sense as someone judging my decades-long career in mathematics and statistics by my four years of undergrad. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/306 "2015-01-24T14:55:55Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > This might be true for some backwoods hick who’s never seen a city. For someone who’s had a career in high-level medicine in a cosmopolitan city at a hospital that’s world-renowned with all the diversity of co-workers that implies, it’s short-bus special. And really, the only alternative to that is to conclude that whatever his excellence as a neurosurgeon, it doesn’t carry over to _anything._ Bobby Fischer was an astoundingly great chessplayer, back in the day. Not just best in the world, but best in the world with room to spare. (It’s safe to say that about a guy who had a streak of 5 wins and 3 draws against the reigning world champ, Boris Spassky, in the match where he took Spassky’s crown.) And world-class chessplayers are _smart._ But would you have wanted Fischer running anything in civic life? I rather doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/307 "2015-01-24T15:04:10Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I still can’t believe John Bolton and Carly Fiorina consider themselves candidates. I can’t believe a nontrivial number of people consider Ben Carson to be a candidate. John Robert Bolton is running? OK, this must be nipped in the bud. I refuse to deal with the chaos of worrying what a higher profile for that mustachioed crank will do to the prices of _Marada the She-Wolf_ and _Classic X-Men._ ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/308 "2015-01-24T15:10:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Yeah? Greatest ever? Did he ever make a man with blonde hair and a tan? Well, he didn’t make one for\* you.\* > [@D\_Anconia](#): > > But you voted for him twice before, didn’t you. If so, your judgment is rather poor. I voted \*against \*Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney. Obama benefited from that. I’m not happy about the assassination program, but other than that (gee, other than the probably still illegal atrocities, whoo!) he does seem like a reasonable and less corrupt chief executive. I’m sorry the GOP didn’t nominate John McCain during an election cycle a GOP candidate could have won; _he_ might have been an OK President, even if his nominees drew from a \*party \*I don’t respect. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/309 "2015-01-24T15:15:33Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > How does Mr. Community Organizer’s experience entitle him to be heard? Tell me again, who was the GOP candidate for Senator in Illinois in 2004? Look, Obama did jump the line a bit, but he really did work on developing some foreign policy chops in the time he was in the Senate. Not entirely unlike what Ronald Reagan did in the 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/310 "2015-01-24T15:23:52Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Here’s [an assessment](http://theiowarepublican.com/2015/high-stakes-for-presidential-hopefuls-at-iowa-freedom-summit/), from a decidedly GOP POV, of those GOP proto-candidates speaking at the Freedumb Summit in iowa this weekend. Iowa GOP activist/commentator Kevin Hall goes over what Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, John Bolton, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, and Ted Cruz need to accomplish with their speeches. No Michelle Bachmann? So much for that political career. How about Mitch Daniels? What happened to him? Oh, yeah, he’s a useless corrupt sack of old buttons who can’t be trusted to serve the interests of his own constituents. Man, remember when parties had deep benches? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/311 "2015-01-24T16:23:04Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > John Robert Bolton is running? OK, this must be nipped in the bud. I refuse to deal with the chaos of worrying what a higher profile for that mustachioed crank will do to the prices of _Marada the She-Wolf_ and _Classic X-Men._ No need to worry, he’s a legend only in his own mind. But if his mustache ever got loose on its own, it might take down a city, like an escapee from one of the movies mentioned in the opening number of _Rocky Horror_. And now [Sarah Palin](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sarah-palin-interested-president-2016) and [Donald Trump](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-2016-might-run-beat-obama) are making noises about running for the GOP nomination. (ETA: Not that I take either of them seriously. Palin’s not interested in anything that looks like work, and even putting on a decent show of running for President is work. And Trump…does anybody take him seriously about _anything?_) I continue to repurpose the Mal Reynolds line, “Well, who in the damn galaxy ain’t?” ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/312 "2015-01-24T17:50:39Z")
[Poor Bobby can’t catch a break lately](http://i.imgur.com/7YMXQr2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/313 "2015-01-24T19:39:33Z")
[Huckster](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mike-huckabee-secular-theocracy): > [@](#): > > “We cannot survive as a republic if we do not become, once again, a God-centered nation that understands that our laws do not come from man, they come from God,” he said on the show “Life Today.” > > When Huckabee added that he wasn’t demanding a theocracy, host James Robison said, “We have a theocracy right now. It’s a secular theocracy.” > > “That’s it!” Huckabee said, describing the current political order as “humanistic, secular, atheistic, even antagonistic toward Christian faith.” ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/314 "2015-01-24T23:22:28Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Well, you keep saying this. Can you document that Obama’s voting record was appreciably worse than the typical Illinois state representative? > > IOW, cite, please. He voted “Present” something like 132 times. The present vote was designed to give politicians cover, without having to be on record for or against a certain position. In fact, in a sex-crimes bill, he was the only legislator, in either body, to vote that way. Everyone else unanimously approved the bill, 58-0-1 and 112-0. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?pagewanted=1&\_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0) ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/315 "2015-01-24T23:50:09Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > He voted “Present” something like 132 times. The present vote was designed to give politicians cover, without having to be on record for or against a certain position. > > In fact, in a sex-crimes bill, he was the only legislator, in either body, to vote that way. Everyone else unanimously approved the bill, 58-0-1 and 112-0. > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?pagewanted=1&\_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0) So, he took 4000 votes and voted \*present \*132 times. How many did typical Democrats in his body vote for. A third of a percent. Nice smoking gun you’ve got there. Care to retract your position? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/316 "2015-01-24T23:57:15Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > So, he took 4000 votes and voted \*present \*132 times. How many did typical Democrats in his body vote for. None, on the sex crimes bill already cited. And there were others, also cited, that he was the only present vote, or one of two present votes, in the whole chamber. > [@](#): > > A third of a percent. Care to retract your position? 3.3%, not a third of a percent. Do you care to retract? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/317 "2015-01-25T00:14:45Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > None, on the sex crimes bill already cited. And there were others, also cited, that he was the only present vote, or one of two present votes, in the whole chamber. > > 3.3%, not a third of a percent. Do you care to retract? I’ll retract the third of a percent. That said, do you retract your assertion that he does it commonly? Or do you think 3.3 percent is common? Please comment on the substance, not a silly miscalculation. Also, if I weren’t mobile, I’d have checked my math. 😃 ETA: I asked how common it is to vote present. You haven’t shown that. Can you please cite it for Democrats in that body over the same period of time? One or two specific issues where he’s the only one doesn’t mean anything, unless that never happens otherwise. (even then, one or two votes that make no sense to you, doesn’t mean much in general). ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/318 "2015-01-25T00:23:09Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > That said, do you retract your assertion that he does it commonly? No, I don’t think he does it commonly, since he’s no longer in the Illinois Senate. 😃 Anyway, there are several examples where he was the only one, or only one of two, to vote present on a bill. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/319 "2015-01-25T00:24:10Z")
Oh yeah? Well, Jeb Bush spend two years in diapers! Do we really want to elect a diaper-wearer to the Presidency? What’s he going to do, poop his pants in the Oval Office whenever a crisis comes up? Or maybe, just maybe, we can’t take just one aspect of a candidate’s history as an overall indication of the candidate’s qualifications. Nah, that’s crazy talk. On the topic of Huckabee, those pardons are rather embarrassing, but he can explain them as being the result of an overabundance of Christian mercy. And I’m pretty sure that he’d even be telling the truth. He should play well with the Christian fundamentalist portion of the party, which is after all a pretty big chunk of the base. It’ll only really hurt him with the law-and-order, tough-on-crime segment, and given how much Republicans have been slashing police budgets, I can’t see that that’s a very powerful segment of the party right now. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/320 "2015-01-25T00:38:21Z")
> [@Barack Obama](#): > > “ **You must vote yes or no on whatever bill comes up** , with the knowledge that it’s unlikely to be a compromise that either you or your supporters consider fair and or just.” _Audacity of Hope_ page 130. How can he, or posters here, justify his 132 “present” votes, based on his own criterion? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444.md?page=17)