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A Fucking Thread About the 2016 Elections, Seriously, What the Hell, I Don't Even

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    Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    Irond Will wrote: »
    neocons were, on the whole, agnostic when it came to domestic/ social policy. their big thing was hyper-aggressive foreign policy and whatever tools back home that needed to be implemented to enable that were just fine. they aren't the same ideology of the tea party - they represent completely different and ideologically opposed factions under the republican umbrella.

    They're not the same ideology as the Tea Party, they do share several goals in common they vary on how far they'll go to get it - but they were still intent on being crazy fuckers about it. Due to the overton window shifting ever rightward and since time has passed that how horrid they were it's easy to forget how bad they were. They were extreme then, except now they look like teddy bears with the Tea Party taking their insanity to 11. They weren't only bad with foreign policy, they had truly awful at politics at home - they started and thrived in an "us vs them" environment calling anybody that dared to question their actions traitors, Fox News blossomed under their guidance, protest zones were created, privacy became under fire to disturbing degrees, anti-Middle Eastern/anti-Islam racism was so bad that people were murdered by it, they shut down congress sessions rather than let Democrats speak, Democrats were forced to have meetings in basements or some other shoddy place in congress since they weren't alowed to have rooms to discuss matters and so on. It was turtles all the way down home and abroad.
    the charge that bush was a terrible leader is, i think, apt, as well as that he lacked the courage of his convictions as well when surrounded by his cadre of hard-right apparatchiks. i don't, though, think that he was a poor-hater and a racist the same way that his colleagues were. in the end maybe it doesn't even particularly matter - the only social policy proposals his office managed to produce were transparently bad and meanspirited.

    Agreed.

    Harry Dresden on
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    DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    Bush's domestic social policy was shit but he did do some great humanitarian work that it seems like he never can get any credit for.

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    JarsJars Registered User regular
    yeah it's interesting to hear about the reverence they have for him in africa. too bad he never tried to do the same things in this country.

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    SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Bush's domestic social policy was shit but he did do some great humanitarian work that it seems like he never can get any credit for.

    Yeah if only he hadn't lied us into a war, while in the middle of another war, completely ignoring the actual main reason for the initial war, actually done something to try and prevent the attack on us, done something during Katrina, not squandered a budget surplus, not tried to force social security privatization, not completely shitted up the economy, not fought for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, not swiftboated, not vetoed stem cell research, not put Justices Alito and Roberts on the Supreme Court

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    AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    Bush's domestic social policy was shit but he did do some great humanitarian work that it seems like he never can get any credit for.

    Great humanitarian work completely hamstrung by an absolutely asinine policy (abstinence-only sex ed) that undermined the program's goals put in place to placate the religious right.

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    PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Not to mention that dividing everyone into "takers or makers" sounds like a philosophy developed by sociopaths.

    The GOP is the party of small business owners (albeit run by the big business owners). In a nation where the standard business model involves fucking over the worker in one way or the other, it helps to be a bit of sociopath if you are the boss.

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    V1mV1m Registered User regular
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rafael-cruz-average-black-minimum-wage

    So does this help or hurt Ted Cruz? I'm thinking primary voters might eat this shit up.

    Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) father said that African Americans "need to be educated" about Democrats, adding that "the average black does not" know that the minimum wage is bad.

    Rafael Cruz, the junior senator from Texas's father, made the comments at the Western Williamson Republican Club's August meeting on Aug. 21. The comments were highlighted by Buzzfeed on Tuesday. The event was advertised as the elder Cruz speaking "passionately on what can be done to return our nation to the principles that made America exceptional."

    "I said, as a matter of fact, ‘Did you know that Civil Rights legislation was passed by Republicans? It was passed by a Republican Senate under the threat of a filibuster by the Democrats,'" Cruz said. "'Oh, I didn’t know that.’ And then I said, ‘Did you know that every member of the Ku Klux Klan were Democrats from the South?’ ‘Oh I didn’t know that.’ You know, they need to be educated."

    Democrats actually controlled the Senate when the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed the chamber. Cruz might be referring to the bloc of Southern Democrats that opposed the Civil Rights Act.

    Cruz went on to tout Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Succeed by Jason Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board who is African-American. Riley, Cruz said, talks about how "all the handouts to blacks have kept blacks in the poorhouse."

    "Jason Riley said in an interview, Did you know before we had minimum wage laws black unemployment and white unemployment were the same? If we increase the minimum wage, black unemployment will skyrocket. See, he understands it, but the average black does not."

    Well you have to admit, he's got a point; when American blacks were paid zero for their work, they all had steady jobs for life.

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    silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rafael-cruz-average-black-minimum-wage

    So does this help or hurt Ted Cruz? I'm thinking primary voters might eat this shit up.

    Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) father said that African Americans "need to be educated" about Democrats, adding that "the average black does not" know that the minimum wage is bad.

    Rafael Cruz, the junior senator from Texas's father, made the comments at the Western Williamson Republican Club's August meeting on Aug. 21. The comments were highlighted by Buzzfeed on Tuesday. The event was advertised as the elder Cruz speaking "passionately on what can be done to return our nation to the principles that made America exceptional."

    "I said, as a matter of fact, ‘Did you know that Civil Rights legislation was passed by Republicans? It was passed by a Republican Senate under the threat of a filibuster by the Democrats,'" Cruz said. "'Oh, I didn’t know that.’ And then I said, ‘Did you know that every member of the Ku Klux Klan were Democrats from the South?’ ‘Oh I didn’t know that.’ You know, they need to be educated."

    Democrats actually controlled the Senate when the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed the chamber. Cruz might be referring to the bloc of Southern Democrats that opposed the Civil Rights Act.

    Cruz went on to tout Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Succeed by Jason Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board who is African-American. Riley, Cruz said, talks about how "all the handouts to blacks have kept blacks in the poorhouse."

    "Jason Riley said in an interview, Did you know before we had minimum wage laws black unemployment and white unemployment were the same? If we increase the minimum wage, black unemployment will skyrocket. See, he understands it, but the average black does not."

    Well you have to admit, he's got a point; when American blacks were paid zero for their work, they all had steady jobs for life.

    This is so misleading, because it fails to recognize how all the racist Democrats left to form the Dixiecrats, and eventually aligned with the Republican party.

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    V1mV1m Registered User regular
    You mean like: It's odd how the GOP don't seem to spend much time reminding people in the South that Lincoln was a Republican?

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    FoefallerFoefaller Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    You mean like: It's odd how the GOP don't seem to spend much time reminding people in the South that Lincoln was a Republican?

    ...or fail to mention and explain how the policies of radical Republicans during Reconstruction directly lead to why much of the South is a terrible place to live compared to the rest of the country even today?

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    Dark_SideDark_Side Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    Heh, I kind of thought this might happen; beyond the initial Hillary conjecture, and the couple of perennial republican contenders + Christie there's nothing else to talk about when it comes to the 2016 election and now we're just rehashing the GWB administration's failures.

    Dark_Side on
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    TaramoorTaramoor Storyteller Registered User regular
    So was Christie ever indicted or in any way punished for the whole Bridge thing?


    With Christie and Perry both getting indicted before they begin their runs for the Presidency I think it could prove to be an interesting primary.

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    MillMill Registered User regular
    We haven't even had the 2014 elections. So it's hard to say what the field will look like in 2016. Always possible that someone does something significant between now and whenever the primaries start, to put them on the radar.

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    Captain MarcusCaptain Marcus now arrives the hour of actionRegistered User regular
    Foefaller wrote: »
    V1m wrote: »
    You mean like: It's odd how the GOP don't seem to spend much time reminding people in the South that Lincoln was a Republican?

    ...or fail to mention and explain how the policies of radical Republicans during Reconstruction directly lead to why much of the South is a terrible place to live compared to the rest of the country even today?

    What? No. It was Johnson's fault for not implementing Lincoln's policies properly, and the devil's bargain that brought Rutherford B. Hayes into power ended Reconstruction for good and left us with a sharecropper/corrupt local politics economy.

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    Captain CarrotCaptain Carrot Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
    Taramoor wrote: »
    So was Christie ever indicted or in any way punished for the whole Bridge thing?

    These things take a while.

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    Dark_SideDark_Side Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    Taramoor wrote: »
    So was Christie ever indicted or in any way punished for the whole Bridge thing?


    With Christie and Perry both getting indicted before they begin their runs for the Presidency I think it could prove to be an interesting primary.

    Nothing so far. But as Carrot pointed out, it takes awhile. With the tidal wave of forces growing behind the scenes against him, (SEC even investigating now..) I doubt Christie walks away unscathed or electable. He'll be lucky to stay out of jail.

    Dark_Side on
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    OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    With any luck, the charges drop on the afternoon before the first debate.

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    FoefallerFoefaller Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    Foefaller wrote: »
    V1m wrote: »
    You mean like: It's odd how the GOP don't seem to spend much time reminding people in the South that Lincoln was a Republican?

    ...or fail to mention and explain how the policies of radical Republicans during Reconstruction directly lead to why much of the South is a terrible place to live compared to the rest of the country even today?

    What? No. It was Johnson's fault for not implementing Lincoln's policies properly, and the devil's bargain that brought Rutherford B. Hayes into power ended Reconstruction for good and left us with a sharecropper/corrupt local politics economy.

    I think this mistake is the problem with most of the history classes I had, pretty much all the way college: First year/semester always ended with the Civil War, Second Part usually picked up right around the time Hayes gets into office, and Reconstruction is normally skipped with the belief that it would be/was covered in the other class.

    Only thing I remember from the one time in my education they did cover it was that the radical Republicans were all about equal rights to freed slaves and punishing former Confederates, Johnson was about bringing them back while against the majority of civil rights laws and amendments that were past despite his vetoes and the South got fucked because of it.

    Also, that the one guy who was the one vote short for Johnson's impeachment was from Kansas and killed his political career for not doing so.

    Foefaller on
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    enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    Johnson was, in fact, awful. Problem with putting a Southerner on the ticket. Coates just had a long rant about how awful he was on Twitter.

    enlightenedbum on
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    Captain CarrotCaptain Carrot Alexandria, VARegistered User regular
    Foefaller wrote: »
    Also, that the one guy who was the one vote short for Johnson's impeachment was from Kansas and killed his political career for not doing so.

    Ehhh. None of the Republicans who voted to acquit Johnson did that well after the trial, but not unusually for the time. This was an era where most members of Congress didn't serve more than a few terms.

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    Captain MarcusCaptain Marcus now arrives the hour of actionRegistered User regular
    Foefaller wrote: »
    Only thing I remember from the one time in my education they did cover it was that the radical Republicans were all about equal rights to freed slaves and punishing former Confederates, Johnson was about bringing them back while against the majority of civil rights laws and amendments that were past despite his vetoes and the South got fucked because of it.

    Johnson was born dirt poor and grew up hating the planter class. His inaugural speech was delivered after he had a few drinks to calm his nerves, and by all accounts it was a rant.
    After Hamlin delivered a brief and stately valedictory, Johnson rose unsteadily to harangue the distinguished crowd about his humble origins and his triumph over the rebel aristocracy. In the shocked and silent audience, President Lincoln showed an expression of "unutterable sorrow," while Senator Charles Sumner covered his face with his hands. Former Vice President Hamlin tugged vainly at Johnson's coattails, trying to cut short his remarks.

    There is speculation that Johnson pardoned former Confederates simply because he liked hearing the aristocrats beg.

    re: 2016 elections

    I think Rubio's going to be a contender. He's a minority and he hasn't been tarred with any major scandals, and both of those are very scarce in the GOP right now. The Democrats don't have really have anyone aside from Hillary.

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    nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    Johnson made Reconstruction 100 times worse than it would've been with Lincoln still around

    He was one of the biggest shitheels we ever had for a president

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    PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    Johnson made Reconstruction 100 times worse than it would've been with Lincoln still around

    He was one of the biggest shitheels we ever had for a president

    Anyone would be overshadowed by following up Lincoln... but Johnson basically went and spat on everything Lincoln had been working for when he died.

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    nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    Should've been a standing reminding to never ever pick a running mate to fill out your ticket

    Course nobody learned that lesson

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    yossarian_livesyossarian_lives Registered User regular
    So anyway, it's looking like Perry might actually go to prison which would probably destroy any chances he has for the primary.

    Article from Salon lays out just how serious this whole thing is. If Perry falls then maybe Christie is in trouble too.

    "I see everything twice!"


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    Ethan SmithEthan Smith Origin name: Beart4to Arlington, VARegistered User regular
    edited September 2014
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rafael-cruz-average-black-minimum-wage

    So does this help or hurt Ted Cruz? I'm thinking primary voters might eat this shit up.

    Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) father said that African Americans "need to be educated" about Democrats, adding that "the average black does not" know that the minimum wage is bad.

    Rafael Cruz, the junior senator from Texas's father, made the comments at the Western Williamson Republican Club's August meeting on Aug. 21. The comments were highlighted by Buzzfeed on Tuesday. The event was advertised as the elder Cruz speaking "passionately on what can be done to return our nation to the principles that made America exceptional."

    "I said, as a matter of fact, ‘Did you know that Civil Rights legislation was passed by Republicans? It was passed by a Republican Senate under the threat of a filibuster by the Democrats,'" Cruz said. "'Oh, I didn’t know that.’ And then I said, ‘Did you know that every member of the Ku Klux Klan were Democrats from the South?’ ‘Oh I didn’t know that.’ You know, they need to be educated."

    Democrats actually controlled the Senate when the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed the chamber. Cruz might be referring to the bloc of Southern Democrats that opposed the Civil Rights Act.

    Cruz went on to tout Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Succeed by Jason Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board who is African-American. Riley, Cruz said, talks about how "all the handouts to blacks have kept blacks in the poorhouse."

    "Jason Riley said in an interview, Did you know before we had minimum wage laws black unemployment and white unemployment were the same? If we increase the minimum wage, black unemployment will skyrocket. See, he understands it, but the average black does not."

    Mannnnn I've been basically focusing on the minimum wage for like a year and minimum wage laws don't even have a strong effect on unemployment I get so ticked off when I see stuff like this

    Ethan Smith on
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    spool32spool32 Contrary Library Registered User regular
    So anyway, it's looking like Perry might actually go to prison which would probably destroy any chances he has for the primary.

    Article from Salon lays out just how serious this whole thing is. If Perry falls then maybe Christie is in trouble too.

    Got to the part where it said the special prosecutor was a conservative, literally laughed out loud. Fucking Salon, I swear. That article was awful.

    Dig up the perry thread and @ me and I'll rip it to bits, if you're curious.

    It's not "looking like" Perry is going anywhere he doesn't want to.

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    SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    wazilla wrote: »
    I sometimes wonder if it's worthwhile to have someone run for president that has some obvious "flaw" that shouldn't really be a flaw, just so the brightest possible light is shined on the issue and discussion can be had on the largest stage.

    Then I think about how tremendously improved race relations aren't in America and I put that one to bed.

    Eh, I only give that a 47% chance of even getting peoples attention, much less sticking

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    TraceTrace GNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam We Registered User regular
    1) The indictment was not brought by the Tavis County DA. Nor were any other Democrats involved. It’s worth quoting at length from Smith at the Texas Tribune:

    Not a single Democratic official was involved at any point in the process, except to recuse him or herself. That’s what the victim of Perry’s “offers,” Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, did. So did District Judge Julie Kocurek.

    Kocurek referred the criminal complaint to Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, a Republican and Perry appointee. Stubblefield could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he assigned it to Judge Bert Richardson, also a Republican. He, too, could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he appointed conservative, well-respected former federal prosecutor McCrum as special prosecutor. Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison once recommended McCrum for the job of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. McCrum could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he took it to a grand jury.

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    SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Trace wrote: »
    1) The indictment was not brought by the Tavis County DA. Nor were any other Democrats involved. It’s worth quoting at length from Smith at the Texas Tribune:

    Not a single Democratic official was involved at any point in the process, except to recuse him or herself. That’s what the victim of Perry’s “offers,” Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, did. So did District Judge Julie Kocurek.

    Kocurek referred the criminal complaint to Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, a Republican and Perry appointee. Stubblefield could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he assigned it to Judge Bert Richardson, also a Republican. He, too, could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he appointed conservative, well-respected former federal prosecutor McCrum as special prosecutor. Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison once recommended McCrum for the job of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. McCrum could have dismissed the complaint. Instead, he took it to a grand jury.

    Man what a political hit job

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    Dark_SideDark_Side Registered User regular
    So anyway, it's looking like Perry might actually go to prison which would probably destroy any chances he has for the primary.

    Article from Salon lays out just how serious this whole thing is. If Perry falls then maybe Christie is in trouble too.

    At least right now on the "who's in the worst legal trouble" spectrum, I'd argue Christie is far deeper in the hole than Perry.

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    DoodmannDoodmann Registered User regular
    Johnson made Reconstruction 100 times worse than it would've been with Lincoln still around

    He was one of the biggest shitheels we ever had for a president

    I thought it was Hayes that fucked up reconstruction by allowing the south to basically go back to being the south.

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    PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Doodmann wrote: »
    Johnson made Reconstruction 100 times worse than it would've been with Lincoln still around

    He was one of the biggest shitheels we ever had for a president

    I thought it was Hayes that fucked up reconstruction by allowing the south to basically go back to being the south.

    It was a series of decisions over several administrations. William McKinley also played a major role when he stood by and allowed Southern whites to institute Jim Crow into law and basically revolt because he wanted Southern support for the Spanish-American war.

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    enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    Doodmann wrote: »
    Johnson made Reconstruction 100 times worse than it would've been with Lincoln still around

    He was one of the biggest shitheels we ever had for a president

    I thought it was Hayes that fucked up reconstruction by allowing the south to basically go back to being the south.

    That ended Reconstruction. Johnson did everything he could to cripple it. Grant was the one who gave a shit and was the most racially progressive President we had until LBJ.

    Anyway, 2016.

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    RadiationRadiation Registered User regular
    I can't entirely recall, but is there anything standing in the way of a Bachmann run? She's a Tea Party darling, would negate a Clinton being a woman advantage, and assumes that each and every true born American is a tea party-er at heart.
    Also she was a Swiss citizen for a bit.

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    HeartlashHeartlash Registered User regular
    Who among the GOP is likely to run aside from Ryan and Christie?

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    JarsJars Registered User regular
    paul for sure. it's tradition at this point

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    MillMill Registered User regular
    I doubt we'll so Bob McDonnell run if he doesn't get jail time for taking bribes. His trail has pretty much damage his image. Then again, if he doesn't suffer any consequences, I wouldn't be surprised if he did run and it'll be hilarious to watch his opponents take his defense from his trial and bludgeon his run to death with it.

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    ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    Any chance of Rand Paul running? Maybe with Ron Paul as his running mate?

    It'll be Paul-a-palooza!

    Aaron Paul for Secretary of State!

    RuPaul for Secretary of the Interior!

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    spool32spool32 Contrary Library Registered User regular
    ElJeffe wrote: »
    Any chance of Rand Paul running? Maybe with Ron Paul as his running mate?

    It'll be Paul-a-palooza!

    Aaron Paul for Secretary of State!

    RuPaul for Secretary of the Interior!
    RuPaul better suited for Chief of Staff

    Paula Poundstone for Secretary of Defense

    Paul Mitchell for Secretary of the Treasury

    Pauly Shore for HUD Secretary

    Interior should go to Paul Bunyan

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