Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

God I just can't get enough of this guy.
I love this man!
I disagree with 100% percent of what he says and stands for, but I love him!
I think he is going to come out of this debate tonight with his lead intact.
Crazy. Crazy, man.
The Republican Party's Frankenstein's Monster.

I vote for Megyn Kelly for President.

IMO Trump represents much of what is wrong with this country.

I don't expect the utterly vile Mr. Trump to get the GOP nomination, but if he runs on a third party line, he could prove to be Hillary's best friend.

hautbrionlover wrote:I don't expect the utterly vile Mr. Trump to get the GOP nomination, but if he runs on a third party line, he could prove to be Hillary's best friend.

I was initially skeptical he might really do this, but I am no longer so sure. He is throwing so many grenades right now, it appears he might actually enjoy campaigning as a spoiler.

I've only seen this from afar, but just viewed some videos of Trump over the Net.

All I can see is: if Trump is nominated, and elected, than God help America and the rest of the world.

Alex R.

Amen Alex...

I was a little concerned that a lot of candidates seem to say let's build up a big military and kick ass.
And I don't think I've ever seen a debate with 10 participants.
Should we not have the push up contest first to see who is included.
And if a party has 16 candidates does that party really have a unified message?

And for y'all worried about Trump and America, you should really be more worried about the EU and the mess with Greece.
That hasn't played out yet and is a lot more dangerous than Trump spouting off.

Donald Trump has zero chance of being president of the United States, whether he runs as a Republican or a third party candidate.
As vile as he is, give me someone who speaks his mind over these phony Marco Rubio and Scott Walker types.
Those two guys make me want to gag.
I said it in the last election and I'll say it again this year: Watch out for Rubio. He is just phony enough to get elected.
As Republicans go I actually like Jeb, it is just too bad that he is so far right when it comes to religious issues and abortion.
The problem with a Jeb presidency is that the supreme court would be stacked conservative for the next 20 years.

I'm betting the Republican ticket will be Jeb Bush and Nikki Haley.
Nikki is perfectly poised to be a VP candidate. Has curb appeal. Been in the news bringing the flag down. Southern lady. Smarter that Palin.

So The Donald seems to have much less loyalty to the GOP than his own ego, do you think he will do a Ross Perot? That might hand the presidency to Hillary on a platter.

Didn't the Donald at times have negative net worth running into the hundreds of millions? Another unworthy to get bailed out by the Fed and QE.

Comte Flaneur wrote:So The Donald seems to have much less loyalty to the GOP than his own ego, do you think he will do a Ross Perot? That might hand the presidency to Hillary on a platter.

Didn't the Donald at times have negative net worth running into the hundreds of millions? Another unworthy to get bailed out by the Fed and QE.

His companies have declared bankruptcy at times. His had family seed money and made it grow.
But he very well could be another Perot. Perot really made a mistake with his VP candidate.
He was a deer in the headlights at the debates and became SNL fodder.
The biggest TV nightmare since Nixon and Kennedy.

RDD wrote:And for y'all worried about Trump and America, you should really be more worried about the EU and the mess with Greece.
That hasn't played out yet and is a lot more dangerous than Trump spouting off.

Hm, Greece is OK for the next couple of months, but the thousands of 'refugees' from Northern Africa and wherever are a big concern for the entire free world at this moment. Can't stop 'em and even if 90% is legit a refugee, we have to fear a lot the next couple of years.

Yep a scarey future ...........
At least we all have our wine laid away.
I have half seriously considered an underground cellar/bunker.

>>>And for y'all worried about Trump and America, you should really be more worried about the EU and the mess with Greece.

Greece? 2% of the EU economy.

An epiphenomenon compared to the the tidal wave of disaster with the prospect of a man like Trump in the White House.

Alex R.

Then just let them default. Lend them no more money.

But Trump will fade...............

I like the idea of your NC wine cellar/bunker, Rob, we'll know where BWEers can report in the event of emergency.
Bush-Haley would be an excellent Republican ticket. Some would think maybe a little too southern weighted but that means nothing, see Clinton/Gore.
It's all about the strength of the individual, not where he or she is from.
Bush will be the nominee in the end. Rubio will show well (unfortunately), setting him up for next time, after Clinton (yuck) beats Bush.

Now, you guys are all familiar with the story of the time I was alone in a room with Hillary for 45 minutes in Lewiston back in '91, right?

JimHow wrote:... I said it in the last election and I'll say it again this year: Watch out for Rubio. He is just phony enough to get elected...

I saw Rubio on the Daily Show 3-4 years ago, and I had the exact same thought. He was scary good at the phony-baloney stuff.

At the end of the day though, I do wonder if the republican rank and file would nominate a non-white candidate.

JimHow wrote:Donald Trump has zero chance of being president of the United States, whether he runs as a Republican or a third party candidate.
As vile as he is, give me someone who speaks his mind over these phony Marco Rubio and Scott Walker types.
Those two guys make me want to gag.
I said it in the last election and I'll say it again this year: Watch out for Rubio. He is just phony enough to get elected.
As Republicans go I actually like Jeb, it is just too bad that he is so far right when it comes to religious issues and abortion.
The problem with a Jeb presidency is that the supreme court would be stacked conservative for the next 20 years.

Honestly I vote conservative...but no one inspires me the least....trump is the train wreck u can't watch nor can't look away from

But your comment on Rubio is so true....I laugh at all Rubio supporters....for me it is just so obvious how phoney the guy is but others are so blind (and I am talking about some highly intelligent respected people) his prosaic speeches are all platitudes/fluff/smoke and mirrors....though the dems blow chunks to

We r all screwed....drink good wine,

....alot of it

I was listening to The Donald's interview on CNN last night and it happened fast but I thought for a second he was referring to Megyn Kelly's hormones. Apparently he did. I think he is now done; interestingly, not because of his debate performance, but his post-debate performance. He is out of control! Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

I think Greece is a bigger than a mere side effect. If the members of the EU let Greece implode, investors will quickly lose faith in at least Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy and the odds increase that the UK will vote itself out of the game.

Yep, Greece is a slippery slope.

When will we see the headline GOP TO TRUMP: YOU'RE FIRED!!!

I think he went too far with the blood comment.
He can try to explain it away all he wants.
But..............

Yes but he still has a double-digit lead in the post-debate polls.
The usual rules of political gravity do not seem to be applying to Mr. Trump.
As the field narrows down he will come back down to earth.
In the meantime, with 17 candidates in the mix, his apparently rock-solid 24% support will continue to be a strong plurality.
Our best hope is that he runs as a third party candidate and syphons 7-15% of the vote -- mostly Republican men -- away from the GOP, and hands the election to Hillary.

and then there's the student loan debt situation...that worries me a lot.

In the interest of disclosure I'm an independent with conservative leanings. if it wasn't for the right wing wack jobs screaming to burn the place down I'd probably be a Republican. Fiscally I'm conservative but their solution to getting our house in order lacks compassion for maintaining a safety net for the most vulnerable. The Democrats seem intent on pushing us into a socialist state and I'll leave it at that to debate another time.

The Republican party has completely gone off the rails and if they don't get their act together quickly we might as well get used to at least four years of Hillary. The roots of the Republican dysfunction go all the way back to Newt. he was the first to openly challenge the party leadership and go his own way leaving a wake of destruction. Newt labeled it the "Republican Revolution" but rather than leading to a new constitution for the party it lead to anarchy. Donald's tactics are really Newt's on steroids. With the success Newt had it lead to empowering the tea party to further fracture the Party. With 17(?) candidates in the race their mantra seems to be it's every man for himself with all fighting for public and media attention. With The Donald throwing live grenades at every opportunity he's sucked all the oxygen out of the room and left none for the rest of the field to communicate their message. The best they can hope for is page 2 of the news while Donald grabs all the headlines. I can just imagine what will happen at the convention when it comes time to formally state the party platform, it will be an impossibility. These guys can't even agree on what to have for lunch. You can't win by just constantly screaming that Obama has screwed up the works and Hillary is the devil incarnate, as true as it may be. They have to somehow put forth a clear alternative as to what they would do instead and I think that's an impossible task given the cast of characters.

I remember when I ran for Congress back in 1994, the year of the "Gingrich Revolution."
Prior to that time politics had been feisty but you could still disagree with the other side without considering them Satanic.
You still had statesmen like Reagan and O'Neil, H.W. Bush and George Mitchell, Bob Dole, etc., etc.
I was running in the Democratic primary in Maine's second congressional district.
There were 7 of us running for the Democratic primary nomination.
There were 4 Republicans running to represent the GOP.
I was the fiscal conservative, the Paul Tsongas/Warren Rudman deficit hawk, maverick Democrat.
The primary elections were in June to narrow it down to the Democratic and Republican nominees, who could then face off against each other in November.
As the primary progressed we were focused obviously on the Democratic candidates.
Towards the end of the primary campaign there was a debate up at the University of Maine at Machias where the candidates from both parties joined in.
In other words, for the first time in the campaign, we 7 Democrats were in the same room with the 4 Republicans.
To that point, I hadn't really focused on the Republicans. I knew them by name but hadn't met any of them personally.
I'll never forget the shock of that forum: These were totally different animals. They were political freaks.
Gone forever were the moderate Republicans of Snowe, Dole, old man Bush, etc.
These were the early precursors to the Tea Party: Belligerent, caustic, anti-government, no-new-tax pledging, second amendment fanatic sovereign citizens.
A new era had dawned.

Lee Atwater didn't help the discourse either.

I think we should put to bed once and for all the idea that Republicans are the fiscally Conservative party. They are only so when it comes to democratic priorities, but they've shown they will spend and borrow and tax cut for the rich for their priorities until the budget is busted. This goes back to Reagan too. George HW Bush was actually a really good president though, but in today's climate he would be a RHINO.

Hey, has anyone noticed we have a socialist military?!?

The Republic Party seem to be turning to a very 19th century platform and it is hard to see why any working person would voter for them.

However, they have steadily gaining ground:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political ... .S._states

Go figure...

This book is not recent, but it helps to show how people accept, lemming like, to facilitate their own decline by voting for the Republicans: http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kans ... 080507774X

All the best,
Alex R.

Alex, I usually don't comment on political posts but you raise an interesting point. I feel the Republicans have become more of a local/state party and the Dems are National. This can be at least partially drawn to a deft way they gerrymander. Multiple decades they happen to be in power when the results of the census comes in and they have to add or subtract legislators. They are experts-not that they are the only party to do this, but timing is all. Also, Fox News has been non-stop tooting the GOP horn for years and it is paying off somewhat.

I'm a fiscal conservative, but the Republican Party is anathema to me. The GOP's actions have been anything but fiscally conservative. They no longer even represent smaller government. When it comes to social policy, their advocacy for the government's power to abrogate individual rights and personal liberties frightens me, and their tactics in promoting that agenda disgusts me.

David, you must be absolutely appalled by the Democrats then. "Advocacy for the government's power to abrogate individual rights and personal liberties" pretty much defines the party these days. (That said, we are in agreement regarding the Republican party establishment, which stands for apparently nothing but re-election.)

Trump is like watching a train wreck. Can't look away. I'm with Jim. I find it entirely entertaining , mostly because I have not the slightest fear he will actually be elected. I don't think he even wants to be elected. He's just enjoying the attention. Countdown till he finally says something so over the line that everyone universally shuns him. Came very close this week I think. Won't take long. That said, most of the inside the beltway people could learn from what he's tapping into, that they clearly don't understand or appreciate.

I'm not so sure Hillary is a shoo in. She has none of the political skill of Bill and far more baggage than even he had at the time he ran. For all her buzz and obvious intelligence, she also still has very little concrete accomplishment.

Still feel a general national hunger for an outsider (see Trump above). Really hard to say who might emerge.....

I'm pretty appalled by the Dems as well, for different reasons.

I agree that Trump is fun for the entertainment value, since it seems inconceivable that he would gain the White House.

Hillary does have a lot more baggage going in than Bill did, and probably more than her eventual opponent. A lot of that is her fault, and a lot of it has been skillfully dumped on her.

Both parties are spending money to fast...republicans at least fake it better then the dems...both r getting us past the point of no return...just maybe the Republicans a little bit slower...I wonder which party will be the last one holding the bag

Do I need to say it once again? Ok, we are living in a plutocracy not a democracy; at least if you view our electoral process. Thank you Supreme Court for hastening this change.

Hey JScott, good to hear from you. One of the great things about these political threads on BWE is how the friendly discussions we have about wines can cross over to friendly discussions about politics. on a lot of other blogs about politics -- as well as on other blogs about wine -- the discussions often turn uncivil, but not here. Hillary is just as gross as many of the Republicans. The Clintons are about money, money, money. The thing that scares me most about the Hillary candidacy is less the whole sleazy Clinton background and more the fact that she just seems tired and washed up. She's over the hill. She is to the Democrats what Jeb seems to be to the Republicans. Trump has no chance. Walker is a dud. Jeb is tired. Watch to for Rubio.

Hi Jim! Wish I had more to add on a regular basis but such is life. Still drinking some wine but have little confidence in my ability to add anything of substance or reliability.

I do very much enjoy the civility of discussion here and still find the political stuff very interesting. It stays civil because David is such a gentleman even if I am a boor. (jk)

I remember being impressed by the quality of JScott's posts in the discussion leading up to the last Presidential election 3-4 years ago.

I absolutely concur on The Donald and She who thinks She she has the Divine Right to be President. The Don is in it to get the attention, to massage his gargantuan ego, which is already the size of Las Vegas. He is getting all the attention while all the other bozos are being relegated to the inside pages. It is great to watch. Great theatre. I don't think he seriously wants to have the responsibility of being POTUS. I look forward to the next Heilemann and Halperin.

I get the impression that Hillary really divides opinions. People either love her with a passion or loath her with a passion. Does she divide opinions in the Democrat party too? And does she have any credible opponents for the nomination?