William_the_Bloody

I'm still on a political kick (must be all the elections, first the UK, than the US primaries & now Canada)

A forum to discuss the Democratic Primaries (I'll make a Republican one in a bit)

Thoughts:

The Democratic Primaries are much less exciting than the Republicans this time around, largely because most of the Democratic Party has already crowned Hillary as the frontrunner, however kinks in her armour are beginning to show.

Clinton trails top Republicans in battleground states - CNNPolitics.com

Bernie Sanders is the only one to give Hillary a bit of her run for her money, so far, but Joe Biden might be dropping his hat into the race soon.

Two names that would make the Democratic Primaries more entertaining: Elizabeth Warren & Howard Dean.

2016 National Democratic Primary - Polls - HuffPost Pollster

Exo

I'm on the Bernie Sanders hype train. I don't know where we're going, but it seems to be the best option as far as hype trains go.

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TheBig3

Of the 5 Democrats, I think I'll likely vote for Clinton. I don't want to really, but she's got what I like in a politician - Statesman, knows Washington, and is used to dealing with world actors.

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John Wilkes Booth

lol @ joe biden

trump will crush him

Justthefacts

Considering I'm a socialist, and Bernie Sanders is a Democratic socialist, he's who I'm going for.

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John Wilkes Booth

says who?

trump runs the trump empire of luxury hotels, golf coarses and casinos

trump tower > biden's entire political career

William_the_Bloody

If everyone could please keep this to democratic versus democrat (likewise republican versus republican for the other) it would be greatly appreciated.

I respect both Trump and Biden but I don't want my posts turning into a partisan Republican vs Democrat flame war.

Biden versus, Hillary or Sanders though is more than welcome or a dissection of a candidate is more than welcome. It is why I made these threads.

John Wilkes Booth

fair enough. seriously though i don't think biden has it. he's another john kerry type. hillary seems like a better choice than biden... just in terms of marketability. and i really don't care fore hillary.

William_the_Bloody

I would tend to agree as the latest polls show that Hillary has a much larger spread on Walker & Bush than Biden does.

Biden's challenge is that he belongs to a presidency that has never hit 3.0 in gdp growth. That is pretty abysmal, and is not the stellar legacy that Clinton left Gore.

Which is why I believe Hillary is running so strongly in the polls, people remember the roaring nineties under Clinton, they were fun and prosperous times. As one of Bill Clinton's top aides once said, "It's the economy stupid."

William_the_Bloody

Bernie Sanders: Just how far will the socialist vote go in the United States?

Its hard not to dislike Bernie Sanders, even if you think his economic & tax polices would be a disaster for the United States, you cannot deny the fact that he appears to possess what few politicians have, integrity, honesty, and a willingness to stand against the lobbyists & the interests of wall street.

However the question has to be asked, just how far will the socialist vote go in the U.S.?

We have seen this surge before when Ralph Nader ran for President in 2000, who despite his popularity in the polls during the election received less than 3% of the vote.

In fairness, many democrats switched over to Gore at the last minute in order to vote for the lesser of two evils, but with Sanders running in the primaries, we might get a more accurate assessment of just how far the socialist vote goes within the Democratic party, especially if the Hillary email scandal starts to damage her run.

Here are some of the current challenges for Sanders....

1) Sanders has trouble appealing to centrists within the party with moderates viewing him just as unfavorably as favorably....

Bernie Sanders’s limited appeal — even to Democrats - The Washington Post

2) As of yet, he has a limited appeal amongst low income voters, particularly in minority communities, & this is where it gets interesting, because you would think this is where the hard left vote would come from, but it does not. In fact, outside of the African American vote, Obama who was viewed to the left of Clinton also had trouble picking up moderate votes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/up...abt=0002&abg=0

Which begs the question? Is this just a question of education? social values? or is it because low income voters don't want to take the chance with an economic platform that could hurt them the most via a slowdown?

In other words how far will the socialist vote go in the US?

To be fair Sanders is not a socialist, he does not advocate for nationalization of industry, (though he does advocate for worker co-ops) but he is a strong social democrat and pump and prime Keynesian, here are some links to his policies.

Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward

https://berniesanders.com/issues/