Trump Lost....

[Jarlaxle]

Trump is infinitely better than Cruz, he's a Democrat at heart after all!

Rubio's strong showing is a pleasant happening. I could tolerate him as President, unlikely as it is that the R will win.

I would rather see Sanders than Rubio.

[Big RR]

So would I.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm leaning that way too...

[Lord Jim]

I much prefer Rubio to Sanders, Clinton, Trump, and Cruz...

He'd make a very strong and effective general election candidate, he's very sound on defense and security and I would be quite happy to vote for him.

[Sue U]

Rubio's biggest problem (at the moment) is that he has endorsements like this (the video is the definition of "squirmish" ):

Santorum can't name any of Rubio's Senate accomplishments

By Nolan D. McCaskill

02/04/16 07:52 AM EST
Updated 02/04/16 05:20 PM EST

Rick Santorum had one job to do in his appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday. He failed.

The former Pennsylvania senator, who dropped his presidential bid Wednesday, told co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski he is supporting Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign because the Florida senator is someone “who can work together with people.” But Santorum struggled to name one accomplishment Rubio has had in the Senate.

“He’s been in the Senate for four years,” Scarborough noted. “Can you name his top accomplishment in the Senate — actually working in the Senate doing something that tilted your decision to Marco Rubio?”

“If you look at being in the minority in the United States Senate in a year when nothing got — four years where nothing got done, I guess it’s hard to say there are accomplishments,” Santorum said. “I mean, tell me what happened during that four years that was an accomplishment for anybody? It was complete gridlock.”

Scarborough shot back that Republicans have been in the majority for the past two years and asked what Rubio has accomplished there since being part of the majority. “Joe, look, the Republicans have been in the majority for one year and one month, of which, as you know, he was running for president primarily,” Santorum said. “The first four years he was in the minority, and nothing got done. And by the way, what happened this year under the Republicans?”

Scarborough insisted he wasn’t defending Congress or being difficult in his questioning. “I’m just asking you to name one accomplishment that Marco Rubio —” Scarborough said as Santorum tried to interrupt. “But list one accomplishment. Just one. Just one that Marco achieved. Maybe a bill that he wrote. Maybe a moment in a committee.”

Brzezinski then jumped in to make it easier on Santorum, offering a fill-in-the-blank question. “Jeb Bush ran Florida. Donald Trump built a company,” she began. “Marco Rubio... — finish the sentence.”

“OK, Marco Rubio was, No. 1, the speaker of the Florida House, which is not something that’s a minor deal,” Santorum answered. “I mean, he was elected by his colleagues to be the speaker of the House. No. 2, yeah, he spent four years in the United States Senate being frustrated like everybody else that nothing got done, and then you can’t point to him and say well nothing got done and therefore he has no accomplishments.”

That argument is “bogus,” Santorum said, slamming the “feckless Congress.”

“It’s actually not a bogus argument,” Scarborough said. “All I’m asking is a simple question. I’ll ask it one more time, and don’t attack me because we’ve been friends for a very long time.”

“No, no, no, let me ask the question one more time,” Scarborough said as Santorum tried to interrupt. “List one accomplishment that Marco Rubio has achieved in four years in the United States Senate. It doesn’t even have to be a passed bill.”

“Well, I know he included something that went after the insurance companies in the most recent omnibus. I know that he fought for that to stop bailing out insurance companies,” Santorum said. “That’s one thing that I’m familiar with that I just saw recently, but — and again, he was on the campaign trail and accomplished that. The bottom line is there isn’t a whole lot of accomplishments, Joe, and I just don’t think it’s a fair question.”

***

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/r ... ord-218723

[Lord Jim]

In just the past few days since Iowa, Trump's lead in New Hampshire has dropped from 20-25 points to 11:

(CNN)Donald Trump continues to hold a wide lead among likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, according to a new CNN/WMUR tracking poll, with the pack vying for second place is beginning to break up.

Behind Trump's field-leading 29% support, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio climbs to second place with 18% following his strong third place finish in Iowa, followed by Ted Cruz (13%) and John Kasich (12%) in a near-tie for third. Jeb Bush holds fifth place at 10%, a hair behind Cruz and Kasich, with Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina well behind at 4% each.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/ ... wmur-poll/

[Jarlaxle]

I much prefer Rubio to Sanders, Clinton, Trump, and Cruz...

He'd make a very strong and effective general election candidate, he's very sound on defense and security and I would be quite happy to vote for him.

He is one of the gang of eight. I'd rather see Sanders elected.

[Lord Jim]

He is one of the gang of eight. I'd rather see Sanders elected.

You think Sanders will be stronger on border security than Rubio?

ETA:

BTW, if the bi-partisan compromise immigration bill that Rubio was involved in crafting that passed the Senate had become law, (which it would have if Boehner had put it on the floor in the House) the resources being devoted to border security would be greater than they are today.

[Lord Jim]

I think Trump has had a difficult time getting his bearings ever since his defeat in Iowa Monday night...

The night of his loss he did two things in his concession speech that were extremely uncharacteristic...

He was gracious, and he was brief...

Then he spent most of Tuesday doing something even more uncharacteristic...

He shut up and didn't say anything...

Then by late Tuesday, he was pushing a (false) narrative about how he wasn't expected to do well in Iowa so his second place finish was a great victory...

Wednesday, he shifted to "Cruz stole the vote, and I really won"...(what the Cruz campaign did was clearly dirty pool, but there's no evidence that it had any significant impact on the vote) threatening lawsuits, etc....

I was hoping he would stick with that "I was robbed in Iowa" theme, and become as obsessed with it as he has become obsessed with Megyn Kelly, but apparently somebody in his campaign effectively explained to him:

"Donald, we're in New Hampshire now, and New Hampshire voters are legendary for not giving a flying fuck about what happened in Iowa. If you want to have a chance of winning this primary, let it go"

So by last night in his interview with Anderson Cooper, he had switched gears again, now saying, (in a rather low key way) "I've put Iowa behind me, I'm focused on New Hampshire"...

There have been a series of polls that have come out in the past 48 hours that all show Trump's lead cut roughly in half from the mid 20s to between 10-13 points over Rubio...

He no longer has complete domination over the cable news campaign coverage, and to make matters even worse for him, due to the weather his plane couldn't even make it in to New Hampshire today for his one scheduled appearance, (denying him even more media oxygen) and now he's headed to South Carolina...

(And his first major appearance after his defeat in Iowa was in Arkansas...that's also going to sit really well with New Hampshire voters...)

All in all, not a great week for The Donald...

[Joe Guy]

He's on live from South Carolina right now on 'One America Network'...

[Lord Jim]

He's on live from South Carolina right now on 'One America Network'...

Good for him...

Maybe next he'll be carried live on Public Access...

[Joe Guy]

He's gonna build a wall on the border, stop drug addiction and get Russia to help us destroy ISIS. The government lies about the employment rate. Bergdahl is a traitor!

We're going to be great again!!!

The Trumplemmings are lining up behind him. He's got the power!!

[Lord Jim]

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this vital Trump News, Joe...

When I checked a couple of minutes ago, on CNN Erin Burnett was interviewing John Kasich, FOX was doing a story on the Super Bowl, and MSNBC was running a commercial...

Obviously the lamestream media has decided that the don't want to help Make America Great Again...

A bunch of stupid losers...

[Joe Guy]

But Trump says we shouldn't protect South Korea and Germany for free and that Common Core will be eliminated when he is elected. And we will all be able to say 'Merry Christmas' again!!!

It's easy to see that Trump will take America over the hump!!

[Long Run]

But can he eat 50 eggs?

[MajGenl.Meade]

If they're not Hudboiled he can!

Donald is bouncing around the country - he's a human Trumpoline!

[wesw]

Donald trump IS....

cool hand luke!

(one comparison, guaranteed to piss jim off, and one video for Gob!)

multi tasking!

[kmccune]

The Civil war ,hard to believe a few could get so many ,to die for the "Union " .if you watch the reenactments ,you will see that battles between the two sides were very unpopular ,they had to have "skirmishers" go out and get the battles going .The "South " didnt have a chance of prevailing ,the amazing thing was that it lasted so long and destroyed so much ,it rewrote the laws of "civilized " warfare ,Guys like Sherman wanted to make it less cruel ,by making it so terrible ,that it wouldnt drag on so long . This country is a country of contradictions ,and I have the governments permission to say so (I think ) Make of it ,what you will ,Trump has a big following in the Old School (Fortress America , aint what She used to be )

[MajGenl.Meade]

Skirmishers didn't "get the battle going", kev. Skirmishers were the warning "trip-wire" for any unit advancing or defending in the field as battles began. They make first contact with an otherwise unseen or unsuspected enemy line. (Never mind re-enactors - they love to illustrate things out in the open so people can see them).

Woods, folds in the ground, unsuspected movement by the enemy - it just was not good to discover such things by accident with the main line. Being surprised wasn't good at all.

A "few" didn't get "so many" to do anything. "So many" rushed to the colors on both sides because they wanted to - they wanted to fight, for their various reasons, for what they believed to be right. "The few" had their reasons all right - but it was a very democratic war in so many ways - a popular one. While no-one wanted to die or get wounded, battles were not "unpopular" - rather the reverse. For every "horrors of war" letter you can find "this is boring - let's go out and beat them" ones.

The chances of dying in battle were lower than those of dying in camp of disease. Both sides grew more wary of their own early enthusiasm and learned that trenches, stone walls and defending from same were rather less risky than advancing against them. I'll never understand what it's like to advance into fire - and I'm reasonably sure I'd be hanging back and the file closers would be whacking me with the flat of their swords.

As to Sherman, that's one of his things as you wrote - but if you look into it, what he meant (and what he did) was make it terrible not for the enemy troops (he wasn't terribly good at that, some say) but for the folks at home who supported them. I rather think he enjoyed marching through Georgia and the Carolinas without much of a fight and setting fire to things.

Not sure what all this has to do with Donald Trump, who is an awful prospect and an illustration of ignorant and atavistic mindlessness. He himself is obviously smart and "speaks dumb" to appeal to a particular audience

[Lord Jim]

Donald trump IS....

cool hand luke!

No, actually he's "Losing Hand Luke"....