If I had a vote, I would have to vote for Hillary, grudgingly. I don't like her and think she sucks at foreign policy, but Trump is dangerous and the only way the vote matters to prevent him is to vote for her.
For the best one-piece summary of the current state of affairs in the ME, I suggest reading the following: http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/no-donald-its-not-a-world-war/ Many beyond-idiotic things come out of the man-child's mouth, but a willingness to "work with Russia" was not one of them. This militaristic posturing by the Clinton camp is dangerous claptrap that can only lead to more chaos (which Clinton seems adept at fomenting), which is exactly what the US cannot afford given it's current financial state.
Woops, hit the wrong reply button. I'll suggest reading the following article. Best one-piece summary of the ME conflict that I've come across: http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/no-donald-its-not-a-world-war/
I'll preface by hoping that I'm completely wrong if/when Hillary is elected. re:emails....She did the email server for several reasons, one in particular was so that she could keep her Crackberry. IIRC, State was revamping their security so emails were harder to send and communicate at higher clearances. Maybe Powell laid some groundwork with the suggestion, but her running with the idea is all hers. I agree that the Bush Admin gets away with email mass murder by hiding around sheer incompetence and culpable deniability when they lost and deleted 22 million emails that are now removed from posterity with zero emails saved for Cheney. Personally, I favor Obama's thoughtful, sometimes paralyzing approach to foreign policy, but if you're a hawk, you'll probably favor Hillary's past attitudes. It's just that with the Iraq War, our power projection needs more time to rebuild itself and regain credibility, whereas those from the Robert Kagan school of thought wants to double down on the blood and treasure lost, show no weakness, and strike harder, faster and swifter at any sign of challenge to our power. Which is pretty shock and awesome against the red commies, but feels more like we're being lead by the nose when it comes to stateless actors that use asymmetric warfare. Vietnam what? Hillary is a step down in aggressiveness from a neoCon but I have a fear or dread that she'll pull a Yugoslavia play, as she did with Libya, without considering the sheer incredible luck that the Serbs surrendered after airstrikes rather than call NATO's bluff of ground troops to flush the Serbs out with demoralizing and costly urban warfare. Another terrible choice is not faithfully honoring the agreement with the White House to have clear separation as SoS with the Clinton Foundation in order to reduce the appearance of conflict of interests. There's a thread for it, and while I'd love reading "where's the scandal?" over and over again, the sheer stupidity/laziness/gall over it should be apparent to anyone. The Wall Street speeches. Totally r****ded when again, her SoS role was seen as a stepping stone for the presidency. What was she planning to do in 2015... run for the GOP? And just because I'm thinking about those damn speeches. That doesn't look like pay for play when she banked 22 million from them? Does it bring any confidence from those old Bernie/Hillary debates when she promises to not only uphold Dodd Frank and also to regulate the Shadow Banking system when those speeches reveal a different attitude? I guess you can say my expectations are so low, she has nowhere to go but up for the next two years.
Do you know why Senators are rarely elected to the Presidency? It's because when you actually have a record of making decisions it's always easy for people to second guess them. Everyone that says Ms. Clinton makes bad decisions or has bad foreign policy... the reason you can say that is because she is the one who has had to make the choices and whatever choices she makes are subject to whims and vagaries of thousands of other people's motives, including madmen, religious nuts political power brokers and profiteers. But we do learn through experience and more of it is not a bad thing even if mistakes were made. Though in the complex world international politics, the mistakes/successes are almost all subjective determinations made from self-interested biases. My polling place in West Houston was a 45 minute wait yesterday... will go back and vote for Democrats,
I will punch my vote for Clinton for the first time since the 08 primary, and then I will go on living life with a level head and an even keel.
As stated I agree it wasn't a good idea but what she was doing wasn't outside of what her predecessors and many of the people around her were doing. Clinton get's blamed though as though she was somehow exceptional in what she was doing. It wasn't. True Clinton is in rhetoric more hawkish than Obama but in regards to the biggest situation where her hawkishness was on display was Libya. Remember again that Europe was desperately demanding action on Libya and the media was full of repors about a blood bath as Gaddafi was slaughtering his oppoenents. Clinton assembled an international coalition that successfully took down Gaddafi without comitting US ground forces. In regard to Syria Clinton did differ from Obama and given how much confusion there was over redlines and etc. it's possible that if he had listened to her and maintained a more consistend policy things might've been a bit better. Let me be clear I don't think there is any good solution to Syria and I don't blame the current Admin. for what's happened there but I do agree that there have been too many mixed messages coming out about it. True I will agree that she failed keep sufficient separation from the Clinton Foundation and her time at State. Given that no quid pro quo has been shown I don't think this is as damning as many have tried to make this. And again most politicians have made speeches and been paid per diems. I don't think any of this is out of the norm yet Clinton is portrayed as somehow being beyond the exception. Further since many of the speeches have now been released what they show is someone who is very nuanced and thoughtful when taken in full context. Since you've cited another thread I would suggest checking the thread about her speeches where much of them is posted. I will never claim that Clinton is perfect. She certainly has many many failings but the hyperbole around her that she is a horrible decision maker and has consistently failed is just not supported by her history. Was it a horrible decision to get more funding for education and health care for children in Arkansas? Was it a horrible decision to work with GW Bush Admin. to get more funding for NYC in the wake of 911? Was it a horrible decision to work with Democrats and Republicans on the Lilly Ledbetter Bill to close the gender wage gap? Was she a failure to become a partner at a major law firm in her 30's? Was it a failure to be elected Senator from NY with a good margin and then reelected overwhelmingly? Clinton isn't a paragon of virtue but she certainly isn't the caricature that many people buy about her.
this will only be the 2nd time i have not voted 3rd party. gary johnson has exposed himself as dangerously ignorant and i would be embarrassed to vote for him this time. i despise the clintons and think that they are everything wrong with status quo politics, but the ONE thing she has going for her is that she is not donald trump. i usually cast my vote in protest to the two party monopoly, but this time i want to cast my vote in protest against the repulbicans. im actually voting straight ticket democrat...not because i support democrats, but b/c the republicans are so horrible.
Interesting take. You know, I'm so pissed off about Trump being nominated that I'm actually considering voting for Hillary just to make a point. As it stands now, I'm voting for Evan Mac, but I'm not sure a vote for him makes a difference. If Texas is really as close to turning blue as some say, maybe voting for (gasp!) Hillary will make more of a difference than Evan. I'm not gonna lie.....part of me wouldn't mind seeing that happen just to say "I told you so" to all the fools who thought nominating Trump was a good idea.
I considered doing the same, but I just don't want to be part of the problem. Things are going to get pretty bad in the country over the next few years due to giving the keys to the castle back to Democrats so soon after Republicans were able to reign in spending back to the out of control levels it was at before the Democrats took over control the last time. Add to that the fact that we're about to get even more awful SCOTUS justices and the Obamacare nonsense falling apart.....yeah I just don't feel good supporting either party. The Republicans due to Trump, the Democrats due to Clinton AND about a dozen awful policies that they'll promote. Hopefully things won't get too bad and we'll get better options in 4 years.
I think helping Texas move more towards the political center and away from the insane right-wingnut tea-bagging mentality that has captured most of our state government is an admirable goal.
I'm really struggling not to go the Micheal Moore route and vote for Trump as the biggest possible FU to the whole establishment... media, washington, wallstreet... all of them hate Trump and this would be a huge FU to the whole lot. I'm also terrified that Trump will try to grab Putin's daughter by the hooha and start a war so????
I am hoping IN turns super blue at least for this term, if HC wins, there is a very good chance IN will have the governor and both senators from the Dem party. This have not happend in a long long time if ever.
I think for the sake of the country, I'm going to vote for Clinton. Begrudgingly. Then, I'm going to vote for Republican everyone else. That way, nothing gets done.
I think that Bush and his father genuinely had good intentions and don't deserve the vilification they got from the left. Trump, on the other hand...
I've never voted for a Dem before in my life, outside of a mayor in league city because the republican was a bad tipper, but I may be doing the same thing as you. * I've voted third party for president in every election since I turned 18.
I mean what do y'all expect? This is an inner city basketball forum. Poor mans sport. Of course it's liberal. Go get on Texags or shaggy bevo, it's 80%+ republican.
