Year: 2016

GOP Candidates Don’t Know What Carpet Bombing Is

Buck Banks

Carpet bombing would be completely useless. It’s totally contrary to the American way of war. Total disregard for civilians. So, I mean, part of the concern that I have with the campaign, particularly when it comes to national security, is that the solutions being offered are so simplistic and so at odds with the reality of the rest of the world, with the way the world really works.

— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, quoted by Politico, saying the GOP presidential candidates “don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Cook: Clinton Shouldn’t Turn Too Far Left

Buck Banks

A hard move to the left would make her job of win­ning over in­de­pend­ent and mod­er­ate voters in the gen­er­al elec­tion even more chal­len­ging. In­de­pend­ents tend to have very com­plic­ated views of Clin­ton, see­ing her on one hand as smart, know­ledge­able, and com­pet­ent, but on the oth­er hand as not par­tic­u­larly likable or trust­worthy. Big ideo­lo­gic­al swings over the course of the cam­paign aren’t likely to help her cred­ib­il­ity. … It can’t be fun for Clin­ton to be Sanders’s piñata this month and next, but for March 1 on, it shouldn’t be that bad, and there is no point win­ning the nom­in­a­tion if you render your­self un­elect­able in the fall.

— Charlie Cook, National Journal

For GOP to Survive, Trump and Cruz Must Lose

Buck Banks

For Republicans, the only good outcome of Trump vs. Cruz is for both to lose. The future of the party as the carrier of a humane, inclusive conservatism now depends on some viable choice beyond them.

— Michael Gerson, who worked with Ted Cruz on George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign, writes in the Washington Post that “he is actually more of a demagogue than an ideologue.”

GOP Primary Souring Voters’ Views of the Party

Buck Banks

42%

Of registered voters said the primary race has made them feel less favorable about the GOP, compared to just 19% who said they feel more favorable, according to the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. Thirty-eight percent said the brawl for the Republican nomination hasn’t changed their view of the party as a whole.

Christie: Rubio’s Inexperience Shows as Cowardice

Buck Banks

I think that’s just a sign of his inexperience and if he can’t look me in the eye, he’s not going to be able to look Hillary Clinton in the eye, he’s certainly not going to be able to look Vladimir Putin in the eye.


— Gov. Chris Christie, telling Time that the most significant moment of the recent Republican debate came after Marco Rubio “couldn’t look at me in the eye” when the New Jersey governor was responding to an attack.

GOP Adulterers Trump and Fiorina Have No Business Attacking Other People’s Marriages

Jon Ponder
Left: Donald Trump with third wife, Melania, and their son, Barron; right: Carly Fiorina with second husband, Frank, on the campaign trail
Left: Donald Trump with third wife, Melania, and their son, Barron; right: Carly Fiorina with second husband, Frank, on the campaign trail

Given the Republican Party’s irresistible urge to poke their noses in the Clintons’ private lives — they spent millions of taxpayer dollars investigating the then-First Couple in the In the 1990s and then spent million more on a failed impeachment over a sex lie Bill told under oath — it is not surprising that the 2016 GOP candidates are raising Bill Clinton’s infidelities as a way to attack his wife.

Republicans also have a tendency to crow about the value of “traditional marriage” while simultaneously cheating on their spouses — we have been cataloging the hypocrisy of these GOP adulterers for the past decade.

Now we’re adding two more to the list.

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