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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah size means nothing, India is bigger and has its elections in a shorter period, the European elections for the European parliament are held over a shorter time and they cover the entire of the EU.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI could imagine President Hogan because of his role as The Dean in China IL, where arbitrary shenanigans were the order of the day.
General election debates are about soundbytes. Primary debates are not only about soundbytes. The importance of them is in getting candidates to define their positions, and in allowing voters to see how they answer substantive challenges to their positions (if not by the other candidates, then at least by the moderators). Debates are the only environment in which they can be forced to do the latter on the national stage and in which they will almost surely be called out in real time for evasions. What else is going to provide us with that? Cable news interviews full of softball questions without followups? Campaign news releases and internet echo chambers?
With a large number of debates, candidates can be prompted to go in depth about issue positions, with a given night centered around foreign policy or immigration. With a small number of debates, you can only skim the surface, leading to more soundbytes and shallow reductions of genuine differences of opinion than substance. This is another reason why I think we should err on the side of many debates rather than few.
I do concur about polls not mattering until 2016, however. As for why other countries have much shorter elections, it's largely because they restricted election length by law, not because they're smaller. The U.S. can't do that, both by conventional behavior of the Parties and by law. Many countries with different political systems aren't harmed by the dearth of debates that comes with short election seasons, because they're both parliamentary and use a system of voting other than the U.S.'s first-past-the-post and SMDP combo. Proportional Representation systems in particular have a vigorous exchange of ideas during the process of coalition-building and governing.
GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.Yep, I'm reasonably sure they were TV debates. Here:
- The 2008 Primary Schedule
. Iowa had the earliest, on Jan 3.
- Check out the bottom of this page
. There's a lot of good info in that page, actually, but as you can see from scrolling to the bottom of the last table, there were twelve Dem debates before Jan 3 and seven after.
I gotta say about Trump and Kelly...she's not a quality journalist, but damn, man, leave the lady alone. Just because I disagree with her politics and journalistic standards does not mean I want her attacked nonstop by Trump.
What did Megyn Kelly do to Trump to merit this level of sheer vitriol from him?
Kind of scary that Trump broke a treaty agreement with no lesser devil than Roger Ailes.
And given what's going around, apparently there was another meeting...and Ailes basically had nothing he could say or do to control Trump.
They made this monster, and now its out of their control.
If Rupert Murdoch goes senile, we could be seeing a new, even worse leadership of the American Right Wing.
Rupert Murdoch hasn't been in the driver's seat for a while.
And I don't think Trump is leading anything, personally. He's in a unique situation where he doesn't have to abide by the national consensus, but that's a little different from actually having input in said consensus. Trump is not able to finance primary battles all over the US, for example - he's not Koch Brothers rich, and what works for him is unlikely to lead less well-heeled iconoclasts to the top.
Kelly basically brought up his bad behavior in regards to women, which he then proceeded to double down on. Repeatedly, directly about her. And Fox, in a sudden spurt of moral fiber, has stood by her. I don't think Trump has ever considered that he needs to filter what he says, which is why all the awful shit he says sounds both honest and genuine.
So far it's been a blessing for him, and at this point who knows if it'll turn into a curse later on. I'm not so concerned about him wining a presidential election, but it does seem oddly more likely that he'll win the candidacy. I'm basically in wait and see mode, as panicking at this point takes too much energy.
She I think was for him the face of how Fox acted in the primary debate, they fact checked him, they made him declare that he had no party loyalty, they asked him when he actually became a republican. In the end they didn't go easy on him, they engaged in something approaching actual quality journalism for a moment and it made him mad.
edited 30th Aug '15 1:25:56 AM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranWhat exactly is wrong with Kelly anyway? Apart from Shep Smith, I like her more than just about every other talking head they got. And it ain't cuz she's pretty either because all the other pretty ones grate on my nerves by a LOT.
As for Trump, here's the thing....for all his billions, he still pales in comparison to, say, the Koch brothers, and I'm sure there are others who back the GOP that also count as richer than he. And we're not even getting to the billionaires who are politically independant or liberal.
If the hairdo thinks he can buy the election, he's gonna go bankrupt, personally and otherwise.
Kelly may well be the best of the Fox talking heads, but that doesn't change the fact that her job by and large consists of racist fearmongerin and paranoia stoking in an attempt to lie to people so much that they they go against their own interests and vote Republican.
The best of bullshit mountain is still part of bullshit mountain.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranThat's is genuinely it, he didn't want to be asked about women or if he's loyal to the party, he wanted to be asked to elaborate on how Mexicans are all rapists out to destroy the US.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran![]()
No, but my family, and their friends, are Republicans. And they hate this guy. I think some of them would rather vote Democrat than let him get the White House. Mind you I haven't gone out west, where my more "radical" right wing relatives live, but I'm sure they wouldn't like the guy ether.
I fail to see what's so bad about thinking you can succeed, unless their method is "follow everything Donald Trump says and we will magically become rich."
Honestly, panicking about anything this far out is a waste of your time and energy. Frontrunners have a tendency to fall apart, especially when it's still so far out.
For the 2008 election, the frontrunner in 2007 was Rudy Guiliani, and McCain was fighting Fred Thompson for 2nd place. McCain also wasn't in the top 4 for fundraising and was polling in the single digits at one point. Meanwhile Clinton led all polls for the Democrats until January of 2008.
For the 2012 election, in August of 2011 Michele Bachman and Ricky Perry were temporarily at the top of the heap.
For the 2004 election, Howard Dean was the frontrunner at this point in the race.
For the '96 election, Dole was losing early primaries to Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan.
For '92, the early primaries were won not by Bill Clinton, but Tom Harkin, Paul Tsongas, and Jerry Brown.
I know it's impossible not to think or talk about it, but it's still very, very premature to worry. It's absolutely worth watching, and taking it as a caution about the state of the party and politics in general, but that's about it.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |

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