# 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:** 83
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1642 "2015-06-20T13:28:33Z")
Perry just called the shooting in South Carolina an [“accident.”](http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rick-perry-calls-charleston-shooting-an-accident/ar-AAbRarY) So, yeah, that can’t be good. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1643 "2015-06-20T13:42:34Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Isn’t Scott Walker the candidate of the Party establishment? It has so far seemed to be Jeb!, but he’s been stomping on his own dick quite a bit lately. Walker and Rubio seem to be the money’s Plan B and Plan C, despite their own issues. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1644 "2015-06-20T17:31:24Z")
To the extent you can say it about anybody in the race or likely to be, I think Jeb! is “the establishment candidate.” At least for now. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1645 "2015-06-20T19:57:41Z")
In that “who the money’s plan is” sense though “establishment” is not what I was referencing. Romney was “the establishment candidate” in that sense, but he could not limp across to nomination without pandering to the Tea Partiers and to the hard core Religious Right as much as possible, which still together represent a majority of those who vote in GOP primaries. This time that TP/RR majority will be very divided between more than a dozen candidates all trying to prove their arch conservative cred; the (smaller) more center Right (in particular on social issues) space may very well be his alone to try to occupy. If Bush collapses then Walker or Rubio will become the establishment darling but for now they are seemingly leaving the (for GOP) social moderate space for JeBush to claim alone and would likely not try to claim it after he theoretically tanks. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1646 "2015-06-21T06:48:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Right now [Jeb]'s one of the few mature adults in the GOP race. [Maturity in action.](https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/611913974175502337/photo/1) > [@adaher](#): > > Okay, I agree with that, but he could also fall and his support could go to Kasich. Kasich is the quintessential Brodercrush: a Midwestern GOP governor who is well-known to political insiders but has little name recognition, let alone support, in the rest of the country. The King is gone but he’s not forgotten: I’m sure others in the Beltway media, having had a half-century to internalize Broder, are talking him up. But he’s still going nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1647 "2015-06-21T15:51:10Z")
Forgotten, but not gone. Which is worse. ---
**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:** [June 21, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1648 "2015-06-21T16:43:28Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Forgotten, but not gone. Which is worse. No, David Broder is gone these past four-ish years. David BROOKS is still plaguing the world. ETA: No biggie…I always have to google to remember which one is which. ---
**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:** [June 22, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1649 "2015-06-22T05:00:58Z")
Ted Cruz’s photo op sort of went awry. [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ted-cruz-twitter-gun-ap-photographer-picture-119270.html](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ted-cruz-twitter-gun-ap-photographer-picture-119270.html) ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1650 "2015-06-22T11:57:34Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ted-cruz-twitter-gun-ap-photographer-picture-119270.html](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ted-cruz-twitter-gun-ap-photographer-picture-119270.html) Poor Ted, maybe _that’s_ why he’s returning the money? [QUOTE=NYT] Mr. Cruz, a Texas senator, said Sunday night that he would be returning about $8,500 in donations that he had received from the Texas donor, Earl Holt III, who lists himself as president of the Council of Conservative Citizens. A manifesto that appeared on a website registered to Mr. Roof said that the manifesto’s author had first learned of “brutal black-on-white murders” from the Council of Conservative Citizens’ website. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1651 "2015-06-22T14:06:45Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > [Maturity in action.](https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/611913974175502337/photo/1)… Well, I never said I’d vote for him. Good to see the Bush familial strain of Foot-in-Mouth Disease is still virulent. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1652 "2015-06-22T18:14:36Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Well, I never said I’d vote for him. Good to see the Bush familial strain of Foot-in-Mouth Disease is still virulent. I think the question here is, was this foot-in-mouth disease in the sense of an embarrassing off-script verbal miscue, or was this what Team Jeb was going with as the best way to try to thread the needle here? If the latter - and it’s hard to see how it could have been otherwise, by that point - it was a cowardly dodge, and shows why we shouldn’t buy into any notion that Jeb represents any sort of ‘grownup’ wing of the GOP, however diminished. Not that it matters much: it’s not a party for grownups anymore, and if Jeb! wants to be the nominee, he can’t act like one anyway. Like it or not, he too would be a captive of his party if elected. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1653 "2015-06-22T18:44:09Z")
[Ben Carson admits the Charleston shooting was an act of racism: “Let’s call this sickness what it is.”](http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/06/22/ben-carson-south-carolina-shooting-column/29074387/?utm_content=16566042&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter) Meanwhile, [other Pub candidates are dodging and weaving.](http://www.salon.com/2015/06/22/desperate_republicans_scrambling_to_prove_that_large_swaths_of_their_base_arent_racist/) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1654 "2015-06-22T19:47:55Z")
That’s the second time Carson has been the smartest man in the field. First time was on the vaccine issue. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1655 "2015-06-22T20:05:56Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That’s the second time Carson has been the smartest man in the field. First time was on the vaccine issue. I was worried because I couldn’t tell if he was opposed to vaccines despite being a neurosurgeon, or if the rest of the field was. (Carson supports vaccination). That makes me wonder what other candidate opposes vaccination? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1656 "2015-06-22T20:20:01Z")
They all support vaccination, they just also support parents opting out. Even Carson does, I believe, and while Democrats may talk, none are brave enough to risk the wrath of these rather nutty parents. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1657 "2015-06-22T20:22:03Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > I was worried because I couldn’t tell if he was opposed to vaccines despite being a neurosurgeon, or if the rest of the field was. (Carson supports vaccination). That makes me wonder what other candidate opposes vaccination? [None actually oppose vaccination, but some question whether it should be “mandatory.”](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/2016-candidates-child-vaccinations_n_6598186.html) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1658 "2015-06-22T20:24:45Z")
Since it’s not mandatory, what’s to question? Supporting the status quo is by definition not radical, and since Democrats don’t actually have the guts to make it truly mandatory, there’s no effective difference between the parties. Plus the anti-vaxxers are in both parties. ---
**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:** [June 23, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1659 "2015-06-23T18:02:11Z")
Huckabee vows not to marry a gay man [if elected president.](http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mike-huckabee-pledges-block-gay-marriage-if-elected-president) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1660 "2015-06-23T18:51:31Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Huckabee vows not to marry a gay man [if elected president.](http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mike-huckabee-pledges-block-gay-marriage-if-elected-president) Well, that should clear his schedule nicely. ---
**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:** [June 23, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444/1661 "2015-06-23T19:02:30Z")
I’ll be very interested to see how this string of Republicans like Nikki Haley turning on the Confederate flag will play out in the Republican primary. I think it’s likely that there will be a big pushback among the Republican base in the South, and whichever candidate (likely Perry, if I had to guess) declares their love for the Confederate flag will have a big advantage. The timing couldn’t be better. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444.md?page=82) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-2016-republican-candidates/709444.md?page=84)