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The Eighth Republican Debate: It's just straight ethanol at this point.
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
8pm EST on ABC, with a stream via http://abcnews.go.com/
There is also no undercard tonight, thank god.
Where is it?
Somewhere in New Hampshire, naturally.
Why is this debate important?
The NH primary is next week, and now that we've had one caucus the candidates have some kind of primary performance to defend.
Who is moderating?
David Muir and Martha Raddatz will be the ones allowing the candidates to speak over their allotted.
Tonight's Players
Trump is still riding high nationally despite his loss in Iowa. This does mean the man's ego has taken a serious blow, and I expect that his rivals will constantly allude to Iowa should Trump try to bloviate. The fact that Trump is showing up at all is either a sign that he feels maybe skipping the last debate hurt him a bit in Iowa, or he just really wants to tweak Fox's nose. Either way, expect Trump to brush off Iowa and constantly point at his his national lead.
Cruz will probably have an ego tonight. His blurb is basically the opposite of Trump's: he's going to bring up Iowa a lot and remind Trump that he is not as invulnerable as he thinks. I expect these two to butt heads a LOT over the course of the evening, as they are shaping up to be the major horse race of this fight. Also the mainstream Republicans are really laying into Trump now, giving Cruz a nice advantage. Unless Cruz drops the ball, this could be a lengthy primary.
Rubio is still holding firm as the Establishment Pick, and will likely keep serving as the safe and reliable conservative alternative to Beavis and Butthead up there. He has been going up in the polls, and I think that trend will continue as more conventional Republicans drop out and their supporters find Rubio to be the only real option. People don't mention that Rubio was less than a percent behind Trump in Iowa, so he is still a contender.
Carson has been slowly falling in the polls. Much like his energy in a debate, Carson's numbers are rather boring and slowly going down over time. At this point I think Trump and Cruz have simply beat him out for the "fringe asshole" category, and the public just can't juggle three people like this. Chances are Carson will just fade out over time and quietly drop out later this month, but he has had spikes in the past so who can say for sure. Expect Carson to whine for more airtime.
Bush is, I dunno. I think he's in some kind of fugue state or his brain hasn't yet realized what's going on; rather than being one of the top threats, Jeb has polling numbers typically reserved for better-known perennial candidates or small-name candidates. Jeb's numbers have been practically the same for the past month, which is not good when you're fifth place. And Trump has this tendency to walk all over Jeb, so I fail to see how the poor guy is going to stand out at all with the Donald present at this debate.
Christie is polling almost the same as Huckabee, whom has dropped out after Iowa. And Christie also had the same results in Iowa as Huckabee, so...you do the match. Expect Christie to continue his strategy of "Find a way to bash Hillary in literally every response to a question." as he desperately tries to pander to the conservative crowd.
John Kasich balanced the budget.
Sterica on
+14
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Posts
Is Trump just sucking sideways on a corn cob?
:rotate:
Ugh I don't know if I could stand to watch a bear try to maul someone to death and Christie is pretty far down in the polls so maybe the movies are a better play
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
On a serious note, no kiddie table debate from now on, thank God.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
I only now just got over the hangover from the last one.
But, let's see what happens now that the stakes are higher.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
It is not poe: Branco is just a really, really gullible tea party dupe.
I first read that as Establishment Prick.
And saw nothing wrong with it, then after few seconds i went "wait what?" and reread.
Praying on Twitter must be the most pretentious thing ever.
This man is second place in a race to be the nominee for the President of the United States of America
I would argue that both can only occur together.
Talking about NH the talking head starts out "There is only about a million" pause while somebody shouts on her ear piece "three million people in the state."
Well I feel like they'll provide excellent analysis.
... whelp.
I bet they talk about the undeclared voters with no realization that all but ~5% have strong partisan leans. It's the same in Massachusetts- there's no downtime to being undeclared
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Tonight is all about quantity, not quality.
Backpfeifengesicht
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Here it is:
http://abcnews.go.com/video/embed?id=14476486
Shame it doesn't get rid of the internet-only commentary...
I vaguely remember Herman Cain back on early '12
Everyone was going on and on about how he was an African American Republican candidate
This has not happened with Ben Carson
My theory
Not sure what to draw from this except the commentators couldn't figure out the difference.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Seriously.
What do you do before a debate?
Jeb! Bush: "I call my mom for advice!" (How are you so bad at this Jeb!?)
Ben "Psycopath" Carson: "I take all the little pieces of paper people write their advice to me on and I light them on fire."
Carson wins with his burnt offering unto the Lord.
Seriously that's a thing I just watched him say
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Do not engage the Watermelons.
His campaign funds
I swear the only reason Carson looks so sleepy all the time is that if he loses his calm for only a mere second, he'll go full psycho murder on everyone in the room.
EDIT: I'm just saying, after what Cruz did to Carson in Iowa, I'd wear a belt with a large belt buckle if I were him.
I dunno, he may be second, but it's an extremely distant second
Unfortunately for him, everybody in the room is wearing a belt
It's...kind of a religious thing. He's probably using the whole Ash Wednesday thing as a way to offer up these apparent blessings as prayers to god.
It doesn't make it any less weird.
Do not engage the Watermelons.