The 2016 Presidential Candidates

[Ixt]

I read the news today, and heard about the 21st candidate entering the race... so I felt compelled to make this graphic.


But seriously, this is getting ridiculous... come on, America.
-_-

Vote Jax 2016!!

 

[Scolenex]

The thing you have to understand about contemporary American presidential politics is that maybe half of these candidates want to be president. Only four or five think they have a shot at being president.

Without going into names. Let me talk about various motivations to run besides winning.

Enough presidential campaign losers have gone on to lucrative careers later that many are seeking to pad their resumes. Especially for media jobs, but this can sometimes pave the way to scoop up (or maintain) a congressional or gubernatorial position later.

Some of these candidates are incumbents to another elected office but they fear they are losing ground. If they fail a presidential bid they can hold their head up high, saying they reached for the big prize and walk away without contesting their next office's election with honor rather than suffering the ignominy of losing their congressional or gubernatorial position.

Enough past presidential campaign losers have had their main platforms co-opted by mainstream candidates. Some of them are just trying to influence the future president rather than trying to be president themselves. Sometimes the candidate cares about their ideas more than their title.

Vice presidential candidates are often picked from the well performing primary losers of the current presidential election to co-opt their supporters. Some of these people are running for VP. Sometimes presidential campaign losers get juicy appointed jobs by the president if their party wins.

Some of these people just want attention. They are bored with their current vocations and are running for president for fun. In most cases all it costs a candidate is time. The vast majority of campaign funds are from individual donors or outside superPACs It's common practice at the end of the primaries for the primary winner's financial backers to pay any outstanding debts left by the surrendering losers of their party. If you have a one-in-a-million chance of being president and it costs nothing to try, why not?

Oftentimes, someone's first presidential bid is very weak but four to eight years later they come back strong. Some of these people are seeking to pave the way for a presidential run in 2020 or 2024.

Some of them are unbearable narcissist real estate moguls and declining reality TV shows and just want to say outrageous things for attention the same way a four year old would act up.

 

[pendrake]

Some of them are unbearable narcissist real estate moguls and declining reality TV shows and just want to say outrageous things for attention the same way a four year old would act up.

"Some" is it...?

 

[pendrake]

@Ixt — "JAX" = video game [?] reference I don't know..?

The news I listened to said a sixteenth republican had entered the race.

Add Hilary and that lone dude opposing her...

How did someone get to 21 by adding 16 + 2?

 

[Ixt]

I'm 25. Many of my friends are under 30. Their friends, too, seem to be under 30 (for the most part).

Myself, my friends, and friends of friends... what I'm hearing from millenials is that this breeds disillusionment. This is why millenials aren't voting: our political climate is a sham.

 

[Ixt]

@Ixt — "JAX" = video game [?] reference I don't know..?

The news I listened to said a sixteenth republican had entered the race.

Add Hilary and that lone dude opposing her...

How did someone get to 21 by adding 16 + 2?

Jax is the only Mortal Kombat fighter that I had room for. He's the best candidate of the bunch.

There are presently 21 candidates from two parties running for president: Hillary Clinton, Lincoln Chafee, Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, and Scott Walker.

In reality, there are more than 21... which I'm fine with. The rest come from a variety of interests. I'd love to see more parties with voices in that way.

However, 21 runners coming from two parties?

What a joke. :|

 

[pendrake]

So who are the other three?
NVMND - I see your edit in previous post.

Next question why does this list have
18
Republican names? ( 18 + 5 = 23 )

Edit;
You don't have Everson or Gilmore...

 

[Ixt]

Expected declarations, maybe.

 

[Scolenex]

Add Hilary and that lone dude opposing her...

How did someone get to 21 by adding 16 + 2?

Because there are five Democratic candidates. It's just Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the only two people talk about much. Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and Lincoln Chaffee are also running for the Democratic party nomination. The followings for the latter three are laughably small.

 

[pendrake]

Because there are five Democratic candidates. It's just Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the only two people talk about much. Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and Lincoln Chaffee are also running for the Democratic party nomination. The followings for the latter three are laughably small.

That site I linked to had those five names, but then it had spare republican names.

 

[Scolenex]

That site I linked to had those five names, but then it had spare republican names.

Every week or two a new Republican politician declares a run for the presidency. So memes and jokes about the candidate fields become out of date quickly.

Fairly soon, there will be a shake out and candidates will start withdrawing. Normally the first shakedown that narrows the fields is the Iowa Straw Poll (about a week or two away if it wasn't cancelled). But the Republican Party cancelled the Iowa Straw Poll, so I expect candidates will start dropping after the first two primaries, Iowa and New Hampshire (about six months away).

It's also likely that one or two candidates will drop out shortly before or after the first televised debates.

In any event I would be half my bamboo that Jeb will win the GOP nomination (he has raised more funds than any two or three other GOP candidates) and all of my bamboo that Hillary will win the Democratic nomination (she has no real challenger).

 

[Slanputin]

Although I'm removed from US politics it's certainly interesting to watch, if only for a different system/insight into culture. However, I've got to say, how the hell did a fool like Donald Trump ever get to be in the position where people think he's a viable candidate for presidency? The man's a parody of himself!

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

how the hell did a fool like Donald Trump ever get to be in the position where people think he's a viable candidate for presidency?

 

[Arli]

Although being removed from US politics it's certainly interesting to watch, if only for a different system/insight into culture. However, I've got to say, how the hell did a fool like Donald Trump ever get to be in the position where people think he's a viable candidate for presidency? The man's a parody of himself!

I agree with you. The stupid flows from his mouth when it is open. However, there are many folks that have similar beliefs/opinions to his. Its like he is saying things that the people are afraid to say. Financially, he is a genius, but he says the most moronic crap. He is today's version of Ross Perot in my opinion. He is there to be a distraction.

 

[Slanputin]

Financially, he is a genius

Didn't he bankrupt four companies, and gain most of his business footing via inheritance from his father?

It's scary that people would engage with such an ego and actually take the spew as legitimate policy. Extreme rhetoric usually does touch on the various fears, concerns, and ideologies people have, but it just magnifies it to ridiculous proportions, with the ideologue sustaining itself by massaging whatever particular issue it has within the populace to generate a following. Rampant neoliberal-gilded nationalism appears to be Trump's flavour.

The one good thing is that his presence, much like UKIP in the UK, should hopefully stir the established powers into action and reform. Too optimistic perhaps?

 

[pendrake]

About all he is doing ATM is distracting the press from savaging J Bush (or whoever it perceived as the front-running republican if not Jeb). Hilary is getting no negative attention and won't even after Trump loses steam.

In warhammer terms it is like a unit (monster) serving as a meat-shield to protect others. (Not saying this is deliberate on Trump's part.)

 

[n810]

Hillary is currently loosing in the opinion polls against either of the top 4 republicans, by around 5-10 points.

 

[Scolenex]

Although I'm removed from US politics it's certainly interesting to watch, if only for a different system/insight into culture. However, I've got to say, how the hell did a fool like Donald Trump ever get to be in the position where people think he's a viable candidate for presidency? The man's a parody of himself!

Trump is almost 70. He has more than enough money to retire on 100 times over. His kids are grown. He got bored with real estate so took up reality TV. Now that is getting stale. He doesn't have anything else to do. Running for president is fun. It's like a reality TV show for him times 100. The Trump likes being the center of attention and he likes fighting. This gives him an opportunity to do both these things. He says stupid sounding awful things but it's all calculated. Name recognition alone has propelled his poll numbers. Also he has established himself as a protest vote for people fed up with the system.

The mainstream media (and most fringe medias) are no longer competing with news sources. They are competing with entertainment shows.

Every time he says something offensive, every media outlet talks about it. Trump is getting this publicity for FREE. He gets everything he wants for free, yet he's willing to pay out some of his money to keep this going so the RNC and big name donors can't rein him in like the others.

Didn't he bankrupt four companies, and gain most of his business footing via inheritance from his father?

Yes.

It's scary that people would engage with such an ego and actually take the spew as legitimate policy. Extreme rhetoric usually does touch on the various fears, concerns, and ideologies people have, but it just magnifies it to ridiculous proportions, with the ideologue sustaining itself by massaging whatever particular issue it has within the populace to generate a following. Rampant neoliberal-gilded nationalism appears to be Trump's flavour.

He won't last forever. He's a protest vote getting a substantial minority of the Republican primary base. The thing is there are sixteen+ other candidates that all sound pretty much the same so the anti-trump vote is split in many directions. Once the candidates thin out, Trump will stop leading the polls.

The one good thing is that his presence, much like UKIP in the UK, should hopefully stir the established powers into action and reform. Too optimistic perhaps?

Yes, too optimistic. I could go into details why but Scalenex might have to moderate my comments if I do.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

I'll just leave this right here...

 

[Scolenex]

He won't last forever. He's a protest vote getting a substantial minority of the Republican primary base.

The Donald's lead in the polls is growing. He really is rubber and the other candidates are glue. Whenever one of the other GOP candidates lobs an attack at Trump, it always backfires, at least so far.

I underestimated trends. At the moment Americans faith in the Republican party is at all time low, and most of the drop came from Republicans. They aren't flocking to the Democrats. They loathe Democrats more than their own party. Supporting Trump lets Republican primary voters thumb their nose at the Republican establishment without supporting the Democrats. You can see the pattern elsewhere as among the other GOP candidates, the anti-establishment candidates are all rising with Trumps wave and the establishment candidates are slipping.

The logical part of my brain says Trump can't last long, but he has shown no signs of abating yet.

The conventional wisdom is that when the field thins out the anti-Trump vote will coalesce around fewer and fewer candidates. Problem is Trump shot up 7 points since then. Other candidates who are up include Carson who has openly mused on being Trumps running mate, Cruz who has openly defended Trump multiple times and met with him privately, and Fiorina who like Trump is a modestly successful business person who never held political office before.

Now I'm interested to watch the bottom tier candidates fall. My guess is maybe one will quit before the Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses, but I expect the field to thin out very fast after the caucuses. I'm betting one of these four will be the first to fall.

-Rick Perry is out of money (kind of) though he has a well-funded Super Pac, he had to quit paying his South Carolina staff. He is not even polling well in his home state.

-Walker has twisted himself in knots trying to hold contradictory positions and people are calling him on it.like

-Rand Paul has failed to mobilize the fanbase of his father Ron Paul and has similar problems with fence straddling that Walker has. Also he weakened himself attacking both Trump and Christie. Now a lot of his top staff was caught doing illegal things.

-Chris Christie faced early scrutiny and it buried him. I don't know if he is more corrupt than other politicians, or equally corrupt just not good at hiding it. Despite his many scandals, people like to focus on the fact that he's overweight.