Tag: Election 2016

Why Hillary Is Likely to Win

Buck Banks

The argument for Clinton in 2016 is that she is the candidate of the only major American political party not run by lunatics. There is only one choice for voters who want a president who accepts climate science and rejects voodoo economics, and whose domestic platform would not engineer the largest upward redistribution of resources in American history. Even if the relatively sober Jeb Bush wins the nomination, he will have to accommodate himself to his party’s barking-mad consensus. She is non-crazy America’s choice by default. And it is not necessarily an exciting choice, but it is an easy one, and a proposition behind which she will probably command a majority.

— Jonathan Chait, in New York Magazine.

After Banging the Birther Drum for Years, the GOP’s First 2016 Candidate Is a Canadian

Jon Ponder

art-canadian-flag-ted-cruzSen. Ted Cruz made it official yesterday. He’s running for president. It’s fair to say he has zero chance of winning his party’s nomination, much less the general election. It’s further fair to say he’s in the race for the same reason that Newt Gingrich teased a run for the presidency for so many cycles before jumping in — and for the same reason that Mike Huckabee, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Alan Keyes and others have run — to sell books and/or land a hosting gig on Fox or hate radio.

The twist here is that Ted Cruz was born in Canada — Calgary, Alberta, in 1970, to be precise. His mother was an American citizen, but his father was a Cuban national — and, worse, a member of Fidel Castro’s Communist Party.

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Who’s Lying — Hill or Bill?

Buck Banks

The server contains personal communications from my husband and me and I believe I have met all of my responsibilities and the server will remain private and I think that the State Department will be able, over time, to release all of the records that were provided.

— Hillary Clinton, asserting that “personal emails between her and her husband, former President Clinton, exist on a private account. But the former commander-in-chief’s spokesman has said Clinton has only sent two email messages in his lifetime, and both were when he occupied the White House,” The Hill reports. The ex-president’s spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Clinton doesn’t use email.

Cook: Bush, Walker Have 1 in 3 Chance of Winning Nomination

Buck Banks

1 in 3

Odds that Bush and Walker each seem to have of “winning the nomination — call it 35 percent for each. There’s maybe a 1-in-5, or 20 percent, chance that the nod will go to any tea-party candidate, so let’s give Cruz and Paul each a 10 percent chance. The rest of the field gets the remaining 10 percent; right now, that’s what I estimate is the likelihood that someone other than one of the aforementioned four will win the nomination,” predicts Charlie Cook.

Kristol: GOP Could Be Sleepwalking Toward Defeat

Buck Banks

It’s of course very early in the 2016 cycle. But it’s never too early for some healthy alarm. Are we the only ones who are struck that many of the leading Republican candidates, whether moderate or conservative, seem to be planning stale and tired campaigns? Hillary will herself, it’s safe to predict, run a stale campaign with tired themes. But the polls suggest she would prevail in a conventional matchup of boring campaigns. We’re all free to ignore the fire bell in the night, and hope for the best. But it would be a shame to have to explain in November 2016 how the Republican party decided to sleepwalk to defeat.

— Bill Kristol, writing in the Weekly Standard.

Poll: California Is Ready for Hillary

Jon Ponder

59%

Percentage of California Democrats who say they will vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should she run for president in 2016, according to the Field Poll [PDF]. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren trailed Clinton with 17 percent. Among Republicans, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker led Florida businessman Jeb Bush by 2 percentage points, 18 to 16 percent. The poll also found that 19 percent of California Republicans are undecided.