Call the election

[tw]

As was said often in Nam - It just doesn't matter.

Santorum won 11 state primaries before McCain finally was recognized as a clearly superior leader. No informed person has any idea (at this point) who will be the nominees. Some states were so myopic as to change their primaries (or caucuses) to before or just after the Super Bowl.

[Clodfobble]

You mean before Mitt Romney, not McCain...

[Aliantha]

As an outsider, when there was only one celebrity in the race (Hillary) it was kind of ok. There's always one candidate who everyone already knew; but as time has gone on and it's looking pretty likely that it'll be toss up between two celebrities, both with disastrous reputations for discretion and less than ideal public profiles, it says a lot about what the people in power think the people of the USA want.

Are these clowns really what the people want?

[xoxoxoBruce]

We really want Putin, but he's busy.

[Aliantha]

Oh we all want Putin. He's the bad boy with power! haha

[xoxoxoBruce]

This is killing Bernie, all those youthful supporters don't vote.

[Griff]

It's more complicated for college agers and young adults. The retired old bastards have all day go to the same precinct they've been in for a life-time and vote party line. In PA, the youngsters need to be registered with one of the two old parties which have largely failed them in their lifetimes, and sign up for absentee ballots well ahead of the primary or register in their new voting district. You can be a completely tuned out dumfuck as an old-timer and vote. The youngsters have to actually engage...

[glatt]

It just occurred to me last night that I haven't seen ANY tv commercials for any candidates, and our primary is in a week on super Tuesday. I read in the paper this morning that some ads are running in Richmond, but none here.

It's nice, but I also feel neglected.

[Aliantha]

I can't believe you have to register with one of the parties to be allowed to vote. Kind of seems a bit dumb to have to vote if you've already declared your allegiance. I guess you could be 'just trickin'.

[sexobon]

I think he's talking about voting in the primaries to elect a Party candidate to run in the general election. You have to be a member of a particular Party to elect their candidate; otherwise, people could sabotage a Party's process by voting for the candidate least likely to succeed against candidates from other parties in the general election.

[BigV]

In Jan 2017, President Rubio and Vice President Clinton will be sworn into office.

[BigV]

In Washington I'm delighted and proud to say we have truly open primary elections. Now, to be fair, they're late, they don't mean much, we don't have many delegates at stake and some political organizations disregard the outcomes entirely (Democrats, I'm looking at you ).

In our primary elections, the top two vote getters advance to the general election. Now, I've never seen a national general election where the two candidates were NOT from opposing parties, but there have been many lower scope elections where the top two candidates that advanced to the general election were both from the same party.

You *DO* have to be registered to vote to vote, but you don't have to show up anywhere. We have had all mail in elections for years. No need to sign up for absentee ballots, you just have to be registered. Your ballot arrives at your address of record some weeks in advance of the election, you do have to put a stamp on the envelope unless you wish to hand-carry it to one of several special ballot-collection-boxes scattered throughout the city (don't know if that's only Seattle, I've only voted in Seattle my whole time in Washington).

Furthermore, there's movement in the state legislature to make voter registration *AUTOMATIC* when you deal with other state agencies that require proof of citizenship/residency to do your business, like the DMV, etc. You can *opt-out* of being registered, but otherwise, your pertinent data for that agency that matches what the ?? state voter registrar ?? needs gets forwarded to that part of the gummint and you get your voter registration card in the mail, just like your other business.

Now college students need to get their mail in ballot, sure, like they need to get their other mail from home. Unless they've registered in the place where they actually are, in which case they'd still need to pick up their mail. That's a preeeetttty low bar, young people. You do have to look up from your phone, so.. non-trivial.

But it's pretty easy to vote here. I love it.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by BigV

... Now, I've never seen a national general election where the two candidates were NOT from opposing parties, ...

From Wikipedia:

Starting in the 2008 election, Washington State implemented the Top two primary, which applies to federal, state and local elections, but not to presidential elections.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Scott Adams (Dilbert's dad), explains why Trump will win.
Clown Genius

Like many of you, I have been entertained by the unstoppable clown car that is Donald Trump. On the surface, and several layers deep as well, Trump appears to be a narcissistic blow-hard with inadequate credentials to lead a country. The only problem with my analysis is that there is an eerie consistency to his success so far.

Is there a method to it? Is there some sort of system at work under the hood?
Probably yes. Allow me to describe some of the hypnosis and persuasion methods Mr. Trump has employed on you. (Most of you know I am a trained hypnotist and this topic is a hobby of mine.)

For starters, Trump literally wrote the book on negotiating, called The Art of the Deal. So we know he is familiar with the finer points of persuasion. For our purposes today, persuasion, hypnosis, and negotiating all share a common set of tools, so I will conflate them. Would Trump use his negotiation and persuasion skills in the campaign? Of course he would. And we expect him to do just that.
But where is the smoking gun of his persuasion? Where is his technique laid out for us to see?

Everywhere.

[glatt]

I posted about this in another thread, but I was undecided until yesterday morning when I read this article. It's long, but I found it worth while to go back and read the whole thing.

http://static.currentaffairs.org/201...ump-presidency.

It shocks me and makes me think now that Trump will be our next president. I can't go back and change my prediction in this thread, but there you go. I call Trump.

I'm voting for Bernie to try to stop that from happening, but it's going to happen anyway because Hillary will win for the Dems and Trump will eviscerate her. This is not a normal election and the normal rules don't apply.