# 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:** 45
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/882 "2015-02-27T21:03:12Z")
And the Draft Romney movements gains traction! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/883 "2015-02-27T21:33:18Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > SPLC apologizes to Ben Carson: > > [www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/publication/splc\_statement\_carson\_feb2015.pdf](http://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/publication/splc_statement_carson_feb2015.pdf) The “apology” begins thus: > [@](#): > > In October 2014, we posted an “Extremist File” of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as we’ve come under intense criticism for doing so, we’ve reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it. > > We’ve also come to the conclusion that the question of whether a better-researched profile of Dr. Carson should or should not be included in our “Extremist Files” is taking attention from the fact that Dr. Carson has, in fact, made a number of statements that express views that we believe most people would conclude are extreme. They are described below. > > We laud Dr. Carson for his many contributions to medicine and his philanthropic work, and we, like so many others, are inspired by his personal story. Nevertheless, particularly because Dr. Carson is such a prominent person, we believe that his views should be closely examined. Three and a half pages of Dr Carson’s statements follow. Most of which quite a few people _would_ consider extreme. But, hey, he’s not as bad as\* some\* of the Klansmen & neo Nazi creeps that SPLC watches. They’re not sure where he fits in the spectrum–but do want people to see what he stands for. I’d term the apology passive-aggressive. Good for SPLC! ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/884 "2015-02-27T22:46:04Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Scott Walker: I can defeat ISIS because I defeated 100,000 union protesters.](http://www.salon.com/2015/02/26/scott_walker_i_can_defeat_isis_because_i_defeated_100000_union_protesters/) > > They weren’t **armed,** you idiot. fine. But exactly what experience did Barack Obama have to prepare him for international problems? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/885 "2015-02-27T22:57:42Z")
[Jeb Bush amuses all and sundry.](http://www.salon.com/2015/02/27/jeb_survives_cpac_how_the_establishment_favorite_cushioned_his_conservative_heresies/) > [@](#): > > “I’m not an expert on the ways of Washington,” Jeb Bush, 30th-generation American power WASP, son and brother to other Presidents Bush, told CPAC on Friday. > > He was lucky that most of audience didn’t laugh out loud. (I laughed out loud.) Why would he say a thing like that? Well, as a dodge. Sean Hannity, who interviewed Jeb for about twenty minutes Friday, asked him about funding for the Homeland Security department. Should the Republican Congress hold its ground and risk (/ensure) that the government goes into shutdown? Jeb responded that Congress should definitely defund Obama’s executive actions on deportation in its DHS appropriations bill. Okay, but is it worth risking a shutdown? That’s when Jeb said that he’s “not an expert in the ways of Washington.” He doesn’t know all this procedural rigmarole, he wants you to believe. > > Uh huh. Jeb Bush obviously knows the situation in Congress. He obviously knows Congress. As he acknowledged later in the Q&A, he knew exactly where in Congress the reauthorization for No Child Left Behind was, at that minute. When asked later what he’d do about ISIS, he said “I like the idea Senator Corker’s talking about.” He knows what’s going on, probably even better than most actual members of Congress know what’s going on, and he definitely does not think it would be a good idea for Republicans to shut down the Department of Homeland Security over President Obama’s executive actions on deportation. But he doesn’t want to say that at CPAC. He has enough RINO-sellout positions to worry about already. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/886 "2015-02-27T23:00:12Z")
Obama was on the Foreign Relations and Homeland Security Committees when he was in the Senate. He was chairman of the subcommittee on European Affairs. While in the Senate, he met with Mahmoud Abbas. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/887 "2015-02-27T23:00:14Z")
Of course, the Right considers SPLC to be a rabble-rousing bunch of lying Communists no matter who they criticize. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/888 "2015-02-27T23:01:21Z")
Pretty weak tea, considering that over in the Democratic thread, I’ve been assured that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t have to take positions on what’s going on yet. Double standard much? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/889 "2015-02-27T23:11:34Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > fine. > > But exactly what experience did Barack Obama have to prepare him for international problems? Not less than he relevantly claimed to have, I’m sure. The problem with this is not that it shows Walker unready for international politics but that it shows Walker to be a clueless idiot. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/890 "2015-02-27T23:34:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Obama was on the Foreign Relations and Homeland Security Committees when he was in the Senate. He was chairman of the subcommittee on European Affairs. While in the Senate, he met with Mahmoud Abbas. For the 2 whole years he was Senator before running for POTUS? Hardly time for him to vote “Present” on something. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/891 "2015-02-27T23:42:17Z")
I second that. Nearly every Republican candidate is starting out with more experience actually running something, and only two less years foreign policy experience. foreign policy experience defined as sitting in a committee and talking with other Americans. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/892 "2015-02-27T23:44:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I second that. Nearly every Republican candidate is starting out with more experience actually running something, and only two less years foreign policy experience. . . . than Barack Obama in 2008. But he won’t be running in 2016, and none of them can compare to HRC in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/893 "2015-02-27T23:44:14Z")
I’ll take low experience and many fewer dead Americans than, say, McCain’s decades of experience and the thousands more Americans that he would have ordered to their deaths for no or even negative gain. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/894 "2015-02-27T23:55:09Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I second that. Nearly every Republican candidate is starting out with more experience actually running something, and only two less years foreign policy experience. foreign policy experience defined as sitting in a committee and talking with other Americans. And that has what to do with the likely Democratic candidates how? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/895 "2015-02-27T23:58:15Z")
It means that trying to portray the Republican candidate as too inexperienced to be President will mean expecting Americans to have a really short memory. As for Clinton’s experience, the State Department and the Senate are real experience, but I’m not sure where the media gets her “extensive resume” from, unless it’s the thing no one dare say aloud- “Co-President”. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/896 "2015-02-28T00:00:08Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It means that trying to portray the Republican candidate as too inexperienced to be President will mean expecting Americans to have a really short memory. We’ve already proven that, haven’t we? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/897 "2015-02-28T00:00:12Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I’ll take low experience and many fewer dead Americans than, say, McCain’s decades of experience and the thousands more Americans that he would have ordered to their deaths for no or even negative gain. I’d say that’s speculation. President Obama might be causing more American deaths in the future. ISIS is still advancing. If they get control of a government, that will mean war at some point in the not too distant future with an actual state. It’ll be Afghanistan all over again. John McCain may have been hawkish, but we don’t know how well he would have conducted his duties as Commander-in-Chief. Hillary Clinton is also very hawkish and supported the war in Iraq. Which of course she gets a pass for now. BTW, that should be a pretty good debate line for any Republican accused of being a warmonger: “Only one person on this stage voted for the war in Iraq.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/898 "2015-02-28T01:00:07Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I’d say that’s speculation. President Obama might be causing more American deaths in the future. ISIS is still advancing. If they get control of a government, that will mean war at some point in the not too distant future with an actual state. It’ll be Afghanistan all over again. ISIS is never going to take Damascus or Baghdad or Ankara. **All their neighbors hate them.** The Kurds hate them. The Turks hate them. The Iraqi Shi’ites hate them. Most Iraqi Sunnis hate them. Assad hates them. All other Syrian rebel factions hate them. The Egyptians hate them. The Israelis hate them. The Saudis hate them. Iran hates them. Hezbollah hates them. The Yezidis hate them. The King of Jordan really hates them. After that recent business in Libya, all the region’s Christians must hate them to the degree Christian love allows. Even al-Qaeda hates them. They can’t hang. Soon as even one or two of those neighbors get their acts together, ISIS will be gone like the dust a Muslim washes off his hands before prayers. American ground troops will not be necessary, there will be plenty of other armies butting in line to get at them. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/899 "2015-02-28T01:02:48Z")
Perhaps. It depends on their will to fight. While the Arab armies are far more impressive than ISIS on paper, what happens if they run away? You could be right, but they do have a real chance of establishing a de facto state in the Sunni Arab areas of Syria and Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/900 "2015-02-28T01:06:36Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Perhaps. It depends on their will to fight. While the Arab armies are far more impressive than ISIS on paper, what happens if they run away? You could be right, but they do have a real chance of establishing a de facto state in the Sunni Arab areas of Syria and Iraq. They already **have** that. But we have no reason to fear it’s going to get any bigger. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/901 "2015-02-28T01:07:52Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I’d say that’s speculation. President Obama might be causing more American deaths in the future. ISIS is still advancing. If they get control of a government, that will mean war at some point in the not too distant future with an actual state. It’ll be Afghanistan all over again. I see no reason to believe that ISIS (which has… what, 20,000 fighters?) could ever control more than a smattering of relatively low density territory. > [@](#): > > John McCain may have been hawkish, but we don’t know how well he would have conducted his duties as Commander-in-Chief. If he would have followed through with his rhetoric on Iran, then he would have been an absolutely awful C-in-C. War with Iran would terribly damage our national security. > [@](#): > > Hillary Clinton is also very hawkish and supported the war in Iraq. Which of course she gets a pass for now. BTW, that should be a pretty good debate line for any Republican accused of being a warmonger: “Only one person on this stage voted for the war in Iraq.” Besides Rand Paul I see no Republican that has admitted the Iraq war was a terrible blunder. Hillary has – admitting a mistake and explaining what one has learned from it should work against the typical Republican hawk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444.md?page=44) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444.md?page=46)