US Presidential Candidates

PeterZ wrote:I suppose I was kicking a deceased equine. I have no idea if Daryl agency
added value or not. Just trying to assert that the dead horse usually is employed by government.

Annachie wrote:Peter, it's like your refining the old arguement against true socialust communism.
Work done does not automatically add value.

As for my comment it was more the perception that more jobs these days are found via word of mouth or droppi g resumes at large chains than through the job placenent companies. More interested in making money than finding jobs for people.

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Donald Trump, in case you haven’t noticed, loves to say ridiculous things. Saying ridiculous things is the secret to his media success. He got famous, after all, by humiliating and firing people on national television.

Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign has been no different. Earlier this week, he decided to attack Carly Fiorina’s personal appearance during an interview with Rolling Stone:

When the anchor throws to Carly Fiorina for her reaction to Trump’s momentum, Trump’s expression sours in schoolboy disgust as the camera bores in on Fiorina. “Look at that face!” he cries. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” The laughter grows halting and faint behind him. “I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”

It’s not unusual for Trump to attack the looks of women he wishes to demean. When he wants to put a man in his place, he focuses on the man’s bank account. In 2011, he insulted Mitt Romney, of all people, by noting that Mitt Romney was basically a poor person compared to Trump.

“I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney,” Trump said.

By many indications, Donald Trump appears to believe a man’s worth as a human being is based solely on his monetary wealth, while a woman’s worth is based on her looks. After all, this is a man who complimented his own daughter by saying he would probably date her if she weren’t his daughter, on account of her “very nice figure.”

This kind of behavior, and these kind of statements, are not the fruits of a healthy outlook on life. While many people regularly mock Trump for his outlandishness, I actually feel bad for him. I pity the desperate need for external affirmation through fame and wealth. As I wrote when Trump first announced his 2016 candidacy, I don’t think Donald Trump needs a campaign; what he needs is a hug. I legitimately feel bad for the guy.

Which brings us to Jerry Seinfeld’s advice for how to handle someone like Trump.

During a reddit AMA in 2014, comedian Jerry Seinfeld was asked how he handled hecklers who disrupted his sets. His answer provides a perfect blueprint on how Republican strategists, pundits, and presidential candidates should handle Donald Trump, who is basically a C-list comedy club heckler masquerading as a White House contender.

Here’s what Jerry Seinfeld said:

Very early on in my career, I hit upon this idea of being the Heckle Therapist. So that when people would say something nasty, I would immediately become very sympathetic to them and try to help them with their problem and try to work out what was upsetting them, and try to be very understanding with their anger. It opened up this whole fun avenue for me as a comedian, and no one had ever seen that before. Some of my comedian friends used to call me – what did they say? – that I would counsel the heckler instead of fighting them. Instead of fighting them, I would say “You seem so upset, and I know that’s not what you wanted to have happen tonight. Let’s talk about your problem” and the audience would find it funny and it would really discombobulate the heckler too, because I wouldn’t go against them, I would take their side.

Republican skeptics of Trump shouldn’t become outraged every time Trump says something absurd or ridiculous. They should be sympathetic. Republican candidates on the debate stage with Trump shouldn’t attack him, they should feel empathy for him.

Don’t ridicule Trump for the kind of behavior that would never be tolerated from toddlers, let alone fully grown adults. Instead, engage him and ask him why he thinks a rich, powerful, famous man like himself feels the need to belittle the looks of a cancer survivor.

As Seinfeld noted, the key to disarming an angry, insecure heckler who’s desperate for attention isn’t a quick, witty response. It’s pity.

Michael Everett wrote:...judging from the list, the Republican Party has more wings than the Simurgh!
Please tell me all the political screaming doesn't turn people insane...

Michael Everett wrote:...judging from the list, the Republican Party has more wings than the Simurgh!
Please tell me all the political screaming doesn't turn people insane...


(Note, comment references the web-story Worm, a metahuman story in a world with city-destroying monsters. The Simurgh is one of them.)

gcomeau wrote:

Michael Everett wrote:...judging from the list, the Republican Party has more wings than the Simurgh!
Please tell me all the political screaming doesn't turn people insane...

I think the screaming is more a symptom than the root cause.


And all that talk about "wings" of the GOP is mostly exaggerated. There's really only two flavors for the most part, with a few rare exceptions. There's the actually crazy, and then there's the pretending to be crazy (with varying degrees of success) to pander to the actually crazy since the actually crazy make up such a significant chunk of the GOP voter base that said pandering is required.


Which makes the transition from Primary to General Election so fun to watch. They spend all that time trying to out-crazy each other in the primaries so the GOP base will choose them as the nominee, then they have to somehow make the rest of the country forget what they just watched.

biochem wrote:

gcomeau wrote:I think the screaming is more a symptom than the root cause.


And all that talk about "wings" of the GOP is mostly exaggerated. There's really only two flavors for the most part, with a few rare exceptions. There's the actually crazy, and then there's the pretending to be crazy (with varying degrees of success) to pander to the actually crazy since the actually crazy make up such a significant chunk of the GOP voter base that said pandering is required.


Which makes the transition from Primary to General Election so fun to watch. They spend all that time trying to out-crazy each other in the primaries so the GOP base will choose them as the nominee, then they have to somehow make the rest of the country forget what they just watched.

The same thing usually happens with the Democrats, Hilary just seems to have used her backroom connections to short circuit the process somehow. Not sure why the rest of you are letting her get away with it.

biochem wrote:

gcomeau wrote:I think the screaming is more a symptom than the root cause.

And all that talk about "wings" of the GOP is mostly exaggerated. There's really only two flavors for the most part, with a few rare exceptions. There's the actually crazy, and then there's the pretending to be crazy (with varying degrees of success) to pander to the actually crazy since the actually crazy make up such a significant chunk of the GOP voter base that said pandering is required.


Which makes the transition from Primary to General Election so fun to watch. They spend all that time trying to out-crazy each other in the primaries so the GOP base will choose them as the nominee, then they have to somehow make the rest of the country forget what they just watched.

The same thing usually happens with the Democrats, Hilary just seems to have used her backroom connections to short circuit the process somehow. Not sure why the rest of you are letting her get away with it.

But I could come up with a similar list of subgroups for the Democratic party.

Similar to the Republicans the Democratic party has:

Liberal
Moderate
Conservative

Establishment
Outsider

But instead of Religious Right,Tea Party, Hawks, and Libertarians they have.

Green
Union
Peaceniks
Populist/Occupy Wall Street
African American

Clinton is establishment

Sanders is liberal
O'Malley is liberal
Chafee is Peacenik/moderate
Webb is conservative (for a democrat)

Biden is establishment/union
Warren is Populist/outsider


The key in the primary is to establish your base in one of the party's subgroups, then to convince the other subgroups to support you as well without sounding so crazy it follows you to the general. Everyone expects politicians to throw red meat to their base(s) but the key is to do that without sounding like a raving lunatic. In the general the key is to shift to the middle to pick up the independents but not to swing so far that your base stays home.