POTUS Election thread

[GeneralHankerchief]

Good analysis Hooah, just one minor quibble:

Sanders supporters, of the kind that I have encountered in the wild, reek of "hey this guy is offering me free stuff, lets vote for him!"

Pretty much every voter who prioritizes the economy (as opposed to social values or foreign policy) uses this as a guideline. Which candidate is it going to be easiest for me to make/keep money? Sanders just chooses to hammer that point home harder than most.

[Sarmatian]

Pretty much every voter who prioritizes the economy (as opposed to social values or foreign policy) uses this as a guideline. Which candidate is it going to be easiest for me to make/keep money? Sanders just chooses to hammer that point home harder than most.

Isn't this basically how everything works? The reason why big corporation invest in politicians, particularly republicans?

[GeneralHankerchief]

Exactly, for the most part, unless (as previously mentioned) voters de-emphasize it over social issues and/or foreign policy. I think Hooah's knocking Sanders for it mostly because he's delivering the same message but with a couple of key differences:

1) It's less subtle
2) It's going through different channels than usual

[Sarmatian]

Exactly, for the most part, unless (as previously mentioned) voters de-emphasize it over social issues and/or foreign policy. I think Hooah's knocking Sanders for it mostly because he's delivering the same message but with a couple of key differences:

1) It's less subtle
2) It's going through different channels than usual

I wouldn't say it is the same.

Since the system isn't in the balance, but heavily skewed towards one side, harsher rhetoric is easily more justifiable in one case than in the other.

[Sarmatian]

A question about the nomination process - Bernie won some 150 000 votes, about 60% and Hillary won 90 000, or about 38% or something like that. Yet, an article I read stated they both got 15 delegates each. How is that possible? Is that a mistake?

[GeneralHankerchief]

A question about the nomination process - Bernie won some 150 000 votes, about 60% and Hillary won 90 000, or about 38% or something like that. Yet, an article I read stated they both got 15 delegates each. How is that possible? Is that a mistake?

Not by design, but it's probably a mistake in principle (not going there though).

Basically the Democrats have an additional wrinkle to their nomination process called "superdelegates" - essentially elected officials and other party hotshots, who are not bound by the results of the primaries and are allowed to support whoever they damn well please. So even though Sanders won big in the New Hampshire primary, most of the state's superdelegates have pledged themselves to Clinton - with I think two remaining undecided at this point.

A big hurdle Obama had to deal with in 2008 was overcoming Clinton's at-one-time heavy advantage in terms of superdelegates, and Sanders is going to have the exact same problem.

[Sarmatian]

Basically the Democrats have an additional wrinkle to their nomination process called "superdelegates" - essentially elected officials and other party hotshots, who are not bound by the results of the primaries and are allowed to support whoever they damn well please.

Well, that is rude.

How many jumped ship and went over to Obama by the time of the convention in 2008?