Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The Democratic machine has kept the non-politician out of the public race so far. Maybe look into Lawrence Lessig and see if you like him?
Not that he'll win the primary, but I think people would like Lessig if they realized he was running.
I'm sorry, but Lessig is a ridiculous candidate. His entire premise was that he would run on a single issue (campaign finance reform), implement those reforms and then immediately resign. And now he acknowledges that this was a foolish idea and claims to be running as a real candidate who will not resign immediately.
How can anyone take him seriously as a presidential candidate?
Anonymous wrote:Hillary is as smart, unprincipled and dishonest as Bill, but without his endearing (to some) rogue qualities. I can't fathom why O'Malley -- who seems like a mix of Clinton's and Sanders' better qualities, while avoiding Hillary's stench and Bernie's nuttiness -- isn't getting more traction given this field. Thoughts?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm a moderate who thinks differently. Clinton has the skills, but she also has an incredible lack of integrity. She has proven for 30 years that she will do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, will ignore laws, will ignore ethics standards and will lie to cover up what she has done. Expediency and personal gain (usually political) are her only guidelines. While a person like this can operate as a senator or cabinet member like Secretary of State, such a person should not serve as the President.
I'm the other moderate. I think you've been snookered by the anti-Clinton media messaging. She certainly has her own political warts and missteps, just like any other politician, but saddling her with lines like "incredible lack of integrity" is the sort of vague whisper attack that gets us nowhere IMHO.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Me too. I think Hillary is actually quite qualified, but she's got so much baggage and I'm not fond of her on a personal level so I'm not sure I'd feel great about voting for her. I love Bernie's message but I simply don't think they are realistic for the US.
I will not vote for a Republican.
Plus one to all of this.
Anonymous wrote:I'm a moderate who thinks differently. Clinton has the skills, but she also has an incredible lack of integrity. She has proven for 30 years that she will do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, will ignore laws, will ignore ethics standards and will lie to cover up what she has done. Expediency and personal gain (usually political) are her only guidelines. While a person like this can operate as a senator or cabinet member like Secretary of State, such a person should not serve as the President.Anonymous wrote:
I'm a moderate who thinks differently. Clinton has the skills, but she also has an incredible lack of integrity. She has proven for 30 years that she will do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, will ignore laws, will ignore ethics standards and will lie to cover up what she has done. Expediency and personal gain (usually political) are her only guidelines. While a person like this can operate as a senator or cabinet member like Secretary of State, such a person should not serve as the President.Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Me too. I think Hillary is actually quite qualified, but she's got so much baggage and I'm not fond of her on a personal level so I'm not sure I'd feel great about voting for her. I love Bernie's message but I simply don't think they are realistic for the US.
I will not vote for a Republican.
I'm a moderate who thinks differently. Clinton has the skills, but she also has an incredible lack of integrity. She has proven for 30 years that she will do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, will ignore laws, will ignore ethics standards and will lie to cover up what she has done. Expediency and personal gain (usually political) are her only guidelines. While a person like this can operate as a senator or cabinet member like Secretary of State, such a person should not serve as the President.
I have not voted for a Republican since George HW Bush, but I will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Regarding OP's question about Biden, he too was my candidate of choice, but he has a very good reason for declining to run. His adult son just died in May and his family is still grieving. He is not ready for a hard presidential campaign and his family is not ready to be pushed back into the forefront of the media circus. Right now, they are the media equivalent of B-listers and they do not want to be pushed back to the A-list. They also need more time to mourn which they won't have if he was making a presidential run. I have never lost a child, but I have known friends who have. And every family is different with how long it takes them to grieve. But I have never seen a family lose an adult child, especially one that they were close with, who have been able to move past the grief in less than a year. I know some that 2-3 years later are still having problems coming to grips with the loss of their child. Six months? He's not even close to being able to put that behind him. I'm not even sure that come election day next year that he'd be ready to run for President, let alone actually hold that office.
Anonymous wrote:Me too. I think Hillary is actually quite qualified, but she's got so much baggage and I'm not fond of her on a personal level so I'm not sure I'd feel great about voting for her. I love Bernie's message but I simply don't think they are realistic for the US.
I will not vote for a Republican.
Anonymous wrote:The Democratic machine has kept the non-politician out of the public race so far. Maybe look into Lawrence Lessig and see if you like him?
Not that he'll win the primary, but I think people would like Lessig if they realized he was running.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Me too. I think Hillary is actually quite qualified, but she's got so much baggage and I'm not fond of her on a personal level so I'm not sure I'd feel great about voting for her. I love Bernie's message but I simply don't think they are realistic for the US.
I will not vote for a Republican.
Plus one to all of this.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Sorry but n this field of 20+ candidates, if you can't find ONE that can keep the country's head above water, you are looking at the wrong things. You are trying to find someone you like, not someone who can govern. I am a hard core liberal, but even I could find three Republicans who are capable of not running us aground.
I'm a moderate, but I agree with your underlying point. There absolutely are qualified candidates in the race. People treat this like a high school popularity contest, when it's really more like a job interview. We've got a very specific and difficult job that we need to fill. Who can do it? My list of who's most qualified?: Clinton, Christie, Kasich, Bush. Rubio, O'Malley, Sanders, and Jindal are in the camp of probably not actually qualified, but likely close enough to qualified not to run the country into a ditch. None of the others are really qualified IMHO: Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Cruz, Huckabee, Santorum (either because they simply lack relevant experience, or because their views are so far outside the mainstream that they'd be ineffective leaders for the country).