Clinton-Warren 2016! (and my other brilliant political ideas)

I'm a political junkie. I like talking politics because, unlike science, it is one of those fields where I can honestly say to myself, "Brian, your ideas are so freaking right-on, it's unbelievable!" 

Of course, everybody else in the political arena feels the same way. That's the nature of political discourse: everybody can be correct, because it's pretty much all about feeling, not facts. 

So this is some of what I'm feeling at the moment, from my obviously correct personal progressive point of view.

(1) Don't do it, Joe Biden. Yikes. The idea of you running for president fills me with a mixture of fear and boredom. Listen to your friends. You'd never beat Hillary, and the effort would tarnish your legacy.

(2) Look upon Bernie Sanders' campaign as an entertaining interlude before Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, fellow Dems. Don't take him seriously. He never could become president, and he probably wouldn't be a very good president if somehow a miracle happened. Give him applause for trying; save your campaign donations for Clinton.

(3) Clinton-Warren 2016! I like the sound of this. Not an original idea, I readily admit. It could work. There have been lots of male-male President-VP tickets. Why not a female-female? This would assuage the sadness of super-liberal Sanders supporters. And Warren would bring some fire to the campaign. I loved her recent "War on Women" Senate speech. 

(4) Donald Trump is looking less and less like a joke to me. He actually can make some sense when he wants to. I can understand why he's leading the GOP field at the moment. He's a bit (OK, maybe just a little bit) like a conservative Bernie Sanders. He says what he thinks and doesn't give a crap how you think about what he thinks.

(5) Please, Donald, run as a third party candidate if you don't get the Republican nomination. A poll showed that a third of likely Republican voters would back Trump if he was a third party candidate. Seems like an excellent plan to me. As I'm sure it does to the Clinton campaign.

(6) Regardless of what Trump does, Republicans seem determined to give Dems another four years in the White House. They're trashing women's health care, insulting immigrants, pushing a war with Iran, vowing to take health insurance away from 16 million Americans, and denying the reality of global warming during the hottest year on record. Keep it up, GOP. Your idiocy appeals to liberals like me.

(7) Forcing a government shutdown this fall, an increasingly likely proposition, will be icing on the 2016 Democratic Presidential Win cake. Part of me thinks, "Congressional Republicans wouldn't be that stupid, would they?" But the larger part of me responds with "Sure they would." Which puts a smile on my progressive face.

(8) Jeb Bush is my main worry. He's the only GOP guy who seems to have a decent chance of beating Clinton. Yeah, he's bland and unexciting. But those are pluses compared to the crazies who are also vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Bush is the only one who looks presidential to me. Hopefully a crazy will win out in the GOP primaries.

(9) I'm sure Bush is trying to leave himself enough wiggle room to do what Republican presidential candidates always do: run to the middle after they get the nomination. He'd be smart to make that lots of room. If Bush came out for immigration reform, preserving Obamacare, restoring voter's rights, doing something about climate change, and legalizing marijuana -- while remaining conservative on fiscal and foreign policy issues -- he'd be an impressive candidate against whoever the Democrats nominate.

(10) Who hopefully will be: Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. Womyn Power!

Comments

[JT]

None of the above 2016

[Jim Scheppke]

Hillary says she will have an opinion on the Keystone XL pipeline once she is President. Unacceptable!!

Go Bernie! Why not Bernie/Warren? If you look back in US history, the two Roosevelts (Teddie and FDR) were no less outspoken about oligarchy than Bernie. It can happen.

[Porter]

Sanders is a self-described socialist. Where does socialism fit into the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights? Did the designers of this republic intend for government to run everything including private enterprise? Why didn't they say so?

[Geronimo Tagatac]

Sorry, I disagree. I support the only candidate not a billionaire or owned by one, Bernie Sanders. Just because the constitutional authors didn't mention anything about democratic socialism, doesn't mean a person with that political philosophy can't run for office. In fact, it's been done before.

[Porter]

I didn't say Sanders couldn't run for office. Of course he can. I just don't see where socialism fits in with the philosophical framework under which the USA was founded.

What's wrong with being a billionaire? You could be one. Would you turn down a billion bucks if you did something so well it garnered that kind of money? In many cases billionaires provide employment for many people besides enriching themselves. This is a good thing. Don't you think?

Democratic socialism is an economic failure in most European economies. Most of them are insolvent. Denmark and Sweden are doing OK though. You could move there?