Flynnie wrote:


Is it time for an Obama surrogate to take a swipe at oh, let's say polygamy, magic underwear, Mountain Meadows Massacre, and other LDS "peculiarities?"

I think so.

Nah. Those are low-blows. I say stick with the unsubstantiated stuff about his taxes.

Anton Gramski wrote:


Does anyone have any memory of 1996?

I'd guess I take an above-average interest in US Presidential elections, can remember back to 1972 (didn't know what it was about, but a "landslide" sounded fun), first really paid attention in 1980, and continued ever since.

But whereas every other election has something burned on the memory, substantial (Florida 2000) or not (Dukakis in a tank), for 1996 ... there's a blur. Quick quiz for non-Americans: who was Dole's running mate? OK, you probably know, but how many of us have to think about it?

I wasn't up the Amazon or in a coma, I was a bit busy in real life but not ignoring the media, and yet the election campaign seems to have passed me by. Just me?

My earliest election memory is Reagan v Carter. My parents wanted Carter to win and were very sad when he lost by a lot. I think my mom cried. I can remember feeling frustrated each time



appeared over a state he'd just won on the news graphic.

In retrospect, Reagan was a pretty brilliant political idea. Just look at him.

1996...I remember Bob Dole being Bob Dole a lot. I remember the sort of 'waah-waah' trombone-with-plunger note when he got nominated. That was back when the Republican party still had some of its sanity, and thought it could be against things like the intervention in Kosovo and 'state building'. Dole was a total RINO by today's standards.

tee rex wrote:


I remember Bob Dole falling off the stage at one of his rallies.

I remember the primaries a lot better than I remember the general. I remember Buchanan being taken seriously for awhile, and I remember there being a lot of interest in a Colin Powell candidacy. And something about Clinton's pollster sucking a prostitute's toes. After that, it gets blurry.

Dole was a RINO at the time, there's a story (perhaps apocryphal) of Goldwater and himself having a chuckle over being right-wing nutbags in 1964 and being moderate Republicans in 1996.

That's the catch-22 of complaining too much about Obama from a center-left/left perspective. Richard Nixon is arguably to the left of Obama now, but Mitt Romney is so right-wing freakazoid compared to the liberal consensus Republicans of the 60s like Everett Dirksen and Ed Brooke that there is no upside to being snippy over Obama's politics, there's just far too much at stake to trust the country to a Republican ever again.

I feel people's pain, because the idea of a second Roosevelt with all of his ideas seems to be fading into the distance. But the other side is the bogeyman, literally.

1960 was the first US election I have any memories of. I vaguely recall discussion of Kennedy's Catholicism at school. Which, in my mind, connected the election in some unexplained way with the Tudors and Stuarts.

'64 is much clearer. And, yes, in the UK Goldwater was viewed as a raving loony who would lead us all over the edge of the nuclear precipice. But he wasn't going to win so "don't worry." The conventions were shown on TV — only recorded clips of course. They seemed bat-shit crazy events with straw boaters flying everywhere. I saw Walter Cronkite for the first time when the Republican show took place at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. The concept of cattle living in a palace was fascinating. Sadly, the reality left something to be desired.

Hey buddy, you are walking on very thin ice talking crap about the Cow Palace. Them's fightin' words where I come from.

An ECHL team is moving in there soon. It's a great place to watch hockey, like an imitation O6 arena. You can imagine the cloud of cigar smoke when you're inside there.

The Seals would have survived much longer than they did had they not left it for Oakland.

Ha, ha!

I just thought it was a neat concept, so totally un-English, except maybe in a bizarre 19th century children's story.

Amor de Cosmos wrote:

And just two miles down the road is Candlestick Park, which is a name straight out of a Lewis Carroll story.

I had to look up Dole's running mate. Jack Kemp, apparently.

I liked that bit where he told George Bush Snr to stop lying about his record.

Sorry to jump ahead, but I've just been reading speculation about who may run in 2016.

I'd be interested to hear from folk on here about who they may think may run, if only so I can persist with my football transfer rumours approach to every day life.

From reading a few articles, the early suggestions include Hillary (would be 69 by time of election), Martin O'Malley (governor of Maryland, former mayor of Baltimore) and Andrew Cuomo (governor of New York) for the Democrats and Santorum, Bobby Jindal (governor of Louisiana), Jeb Bush (former governor of Florida) and Marco Rubio (senator for Florida).

(This article, from a South African newspaper, has a fairly comprehensive list of possible candidates)

Given the rumblings of Revolution from both sides should the other side win, there may very well be no 2016 "election". Early doors indeed.

JM Footzee wrote:


No fucking way! President Carcetti? Seriously?

Anton Gramski wrote:


Way. Very much way. IF, and this is the current rumor, he doesn't go for Barbara Mikulski's Senate seat if she packs it in after the current term as a further stepping stone.

But yes. Martin O'Malley wants to be President very very VERY badly, and has been positioning himself for that since, oh, forever.

jefe wrote:


I've never heard of him till now. (Not saying you're wrong, but just that his name recognition outside of Maryland is pretty low, I'd guess.)

For the Republicans, Marco Rubio will certainly run, which is why, I think, he (wisely) declined to be Romney's VP candidate.

Pretty weak field for the Democrats, unless Hillary runs.

I'm similarly situated to Renart.

Chris Christie will also run for the Republicans, as further evidenced by his people leaking the story that he turned down Romney's offer of the VP slot.

I don't have a clue who will fill the Palin/Bachmann role next time around, but am sure that they will find someone.

will chris christie even be alive at the time of the next presidential election? he makes brian cowen look like a triathlon runner.

He's hired Barcelona's former medical advisor to get into shape.