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PoliGAF 2015-2016 |OT3| If someone named PhoenixDark leaves your party, call the cops

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Excuse me but, according to Stuart Stevens (esteemed Daily Beast columnist and, surely a complete coincidence, Romney's top 2012 campaign strategist), the Vox is just as unhinged from reality as The Blaze. Therefore we cannot take anything it says seriously, because both sides do it.

https://twitter.com/stuartpstevens/status/674226414934036480
https://twitter.com/stuartpstevens/status/666333851363360768

This is one Vox article he'd probably agree with. I don't think any campaign strategist could look at Rubio's campaign and think he's doing a good job. Besides the ones working for Rubio himself, I suppose.
 
I've never gotten the narrative against Silver. That is, the people saying that he's showing himself to be a fool this election, or whatever. I mean, there are basically two premises that people seem to be agreeing on, no matter where they fall in their opinion on Silver's analysis this cycle.
1. Nate Silver has, in the past, been very good about predicting the outcome of elections by doing statistical analysis of past trends. And,
2. This election is fundamentally different from any previous election, at least in the modern era.
If both these premises are true, then Nate Silver missing the boat on Donald Trump is exactly what you should expect to happen. In fact, if you want Nate Silver to be a guy who only analyzes presidential elections by looking at past data and you don't want him to become a pundit who flails around after each new piece of news, you should want him to be bearish on Trump's odds, because historically, Trump like candidates don't have a lot of evidence in their favor.

But then, I've never really read his arguments as "Donald Trump won't win" but moreso "We can't be certain that Donald Trump will win." And I do think he acts like a fool when he goes on Twitter and tries to bait Trump all the time. That's just silly.

Also, the Fivethirtyeight website still sucks.
 

Makai

Member
HeOfbXI.png
 

Iolo

Member
This is one Vox article he'd probably agree with. I don't think any campaign strategist could look at Rubio's campaign and think he's doing a good job. Besides the ones working for Rubio himself, I suppose.

Perhaps. While looking around I did find this article where he pretty much gushes over Rubio's approach to immigration reform.

Stevens said:
That’s led us to a remarkable moment in American politics. A junior senator who is considered a future star of his party is taking the lead on an issue that offers almost no foreseeable political gain with the party's base.

Why? I think it’s pretty simple: because Rubio cares about the issue, understands its importance, and sees that we’re at one of those critical contingent moments when a representative can step up and help solve what has seemed like an intractable problem and effect change that will impact the people he represents.

Heath Thompson, a Rubio confident [sic], says, “this really isn’t about politics for him. I know that’s a cliché that we all say during campaigns, but that’s how he is. This is entirely about Marco following his principles, and doing what he thinks is right. Is that popular or politically advantageous? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter

[...]

However this plays out, I’m betting that Marco Rubio will look back on this immigration battle with pride and no regrets. When you are in the middle of a fight this hot and with these stakes, that confidence is a tremendous advantage.

No ragrets.
 

PBY

Banned
Once again it seems people haven't bothered to read the article.

If you take 538 as saying "here's what we think based on very little while we wait for the real data to arrive" there isn't much contradiction to be found. I certainly don't think they are asserting things as strongly as their critics seem to think.

I agree.

That said, in any other year, these kinds of numbers would equal a near shoe-in for said candidate. I feel like if Mitt was polling like this, we wouldn't be looking at someone else asking when said other person will surge.

Basically, I'm asking - what is driving this wait and see approach? Is it really only endorsements?
 

thefro

Member
Huck better quit before Colbert goes on vacation for the holidays at the end of the week so we can get a Hungry for Power Games.
 

Holmes

Member
One factor of Trump's success in Iowa will be how well Carson does. He and Cruz share a lot of the same vote. If Carson and Cruz can split that vote enough, then Trump can squeeze through. But ultimately, Trump does not need Iowa. He wants it and will throw a tantrum if he loses it, but he has so many other states locked up at the moment, especially compared to Cruz, that he would be fine.
 

PBY

Banned
One factor of Trump's success in Iowa will be how well Carson does. He and Cruz share a lot of the same vote. If Carson and Cruz can split that vote enough, then Trump can squeeze through. But ultimately, Trump does not need Iowa. He wants it and will throw a tantrum if he loses it, but he has so many other states locked up at the moment, especially compared to Cruz, that he would be fine.

He def doesn't need Iowa. BUT if he does get Iowa, then Trump really becomes a thing.
 

Gotchaye

Member
I think this is wrong for two reasons: first, because you seem to be endorsing illogical arguments; second, because I think discussion should generally remain civil, and the proposal is nothing more than demonizing others with whom one disagrees.

I don't think I'm doing the first, since I'm not talking about using this sort of psychological argument as an argument that something is false. The context here is that this is the sort of theorizing people do when they're already convinced that they've got the right position - what's true about the actual issue in question is settled in that person's mind. My point was that this produces a new question - "how can reasonable people disagree with me on this?" - that people are often going to want to answer in this psychologizing way. It's a really common and useful thing to do. Like, teachers have to do this all the time; their job is not so much to come up with strong, logical arguments for whatever-it-is but to figure out why a student doesn't grasp those arguments. Now, as it happens I think this kind of psychologizing isn't irrelevant when it comes to thinking about whether things are actually true, but half of that relevance is in considering whether we're the ones who are biased, and that's not what I'm getting at here.

Second, I don't think I'm being pro-demonizing, although like I said it's an awkward sort of conversation to have in an ideologically diverse group. Basically, people are going to psychologize. Ruling it out as a subject of inquiry and conversation just means you're going to get really simple models of political opponents' psychology - sometimes even just implicit ones. Like 90% of the time someone looks at a high-stakes disagreement and just assumes that the other guy understands the stakes in the same way but has reversed values (hence "you hate America"). Much better to be able to ask if that's really very plausible and to work out an actually-realistic model of opponents' psychology that doesn't require conceding that there's a very good chance that they're right (given that it's permissible to be confident in one's political beliefs, and anyway good luck changing that). We psychologize everything; it's not just politics but how we typically respond to apparent rational disagreement. Look at two people disagreeing about something that happened to them five years ago and each will be looking for a way to explain why the other isn't remembering things right. And mostly we're really bad at it, but I think that's only reason to go explicitly and carefully. Obviously "pro-life is anti-sex" is heavily sloganized, and to the extent it's attributing a motive to pro-lifers it's going to be wrong in almost all cases, but that's my point. It's typical of the sort of psychologizing you're going to get when people aren't taking time to actually think through what's making their opponents tick. There are a lot of people who take this as what pro-lifers are consciously motivated by just because they don't recognize that this is something that deserves careful thought. I think I was clear in the last post about the ways in which this can go wrong, but nevertheless people are going to do it, so they should do it well.
 
Perhaps. While looking around I did find this article where he pretty much gushes over Rubio's approach to immigration reform.



No ragrets.

Leadership!

I'm kind of surprised Rubio's former immigration stance hasn't been brought up much. Maybe it's simply because negative ad blitzes haven't really started yet+Trump is dominating all attention.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Leadership!

I'm kind of surprised Rubio's former immigration stance hasn't been brought up much. Maybe it's simply because negative ad blitzes haven't really started yet+Trump is dominating all attention.

If there is a Rubio surge I expect Trump to use it as a flail and repeatedly strike him with it.

You're likely dead on about why it hasn't been brought up though, I'd like to add the addendum that the establishment wants Rubio and the others may not see the benefit in doing their best lobster impersonations.
 
Perhaps. While looking around I did find this article where he pretty much gushes over Rubio's approach to immigration reform.

No ragrets.

I found another article and it actually sounds like he's firmly in the Rubio camp of TV ads > ground game. When comparing Cruz and Rubio's campaigns he said, "Rubio has a much better vision of how to win."

He also says he doesn't think Trump is a serious candidate because he isn't spending money on ads and he won't even make it to the Iowa ballot (lol). This was a month ago, but still. It just sounds like he's just saying the same things other establishment republicans are saying.
 
My only desire for the debate is to see Rubio finally get questioned on his Gang of 8 immigration antics. He's skated through the last four debates; hopefully some entreprenening candidate brings it up....
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
I found another article and it actually sounds like he's firmly in the Rubio camp of TV ads > ground game. When comparing Cruz and Rubio's campaigns he said, "Rubio has a much better vision of how to win."

He also says he doesn't think Trump is a serious candidate because he isn't spending money on ads and he won't even make it to the Iowa ballot (lol). This was a month ago, but still. It just sounds like he's just saying the same things other establishment republicans are saying.

Why would Trump need ads? He's getting more coverage than anyone else running could ever dream of. He doesn't need to pay money to put himself out there, everyone else does it for free. Why pay for what you get for free?

What I'm trying to say is this guy sounds like a grade A moron.
 
I like to take people at their word when it comes to their motivations and assumptions. This is probably because I've spent so much time having my own motivations questioned, or dealing with people ascribing false motivations to the politicians I agree with. For example, "Obama hates America," or "Democrats support (insert any liberal policy) because they just want to control people's lives." Or, "Obama wants to take away your guns in order to pave the way for a dictatorship." It's infuriating when it's done to you, so I try to avoid doing it to others.

I do like to attack assumptions that are clearly baseless though, or at least get people to consider alternatives. Like I might ask, "If you knew that liberals want stricter gun control because they honestly think it would reduce murder rates, what would you say to them?" Or, "If liberals only want universal healthcare to control people's lives, why do the countries at the top of the freedom index all have universal healthcare systems?"

When it comes to abortion, most pro-lifers will tell you they believe abortion is murder. There are definitely some who have puritanical anti-sex attitudes as well, but there are filtering questions you can ask to identify these people. Like, "would you support easier contraceptive access to prevent unplanned pregnancies?" And if the answer is no, I'd ask why not.

Until I have a clear reason to do so, I really hesitate to "psychologize" anyone in a debate, just because of its potential to poison the well.
 
I believe it is. My aunt actually works at that hospital...

I constantly have to correct writing from people who learned to type on typewriters and therefore automatically put two spaces between sentences. (Thank god for search and replace.)

Three spaces between sentences would probably give me an aneurysm.
 
I found another article and it actually sounds like he's firmly in the Rubio camp of TV ads > ground game. When comparing Cruz and Rubio's campaigns he said, "Rubio has a much better vision of how to win."

He also says he doesn't think Trump is a serious candidate because he isn't spending money on ads and he won't even make it to the Iowa ballot (lol). This was a month ago, but still. It just sounds like he's just saying the same things other establishment republicans are saying.

I love this article. My favorite quote:

I think Bush, and I have felt this from the start, should go after Trump and define himself by dominating Trump.

"University of Wisconsin needs to make its case to the playoff committee by dominating Michigan State." Okay. A little easier said than done there. Jeb hasn't dominated Trump because he's not capable of doing so. He's not capable of doing it in the debates, in social media, or in interviews. He's already tried to attack Trump and completely failed.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/25/jeb-bush-attacks-donald-trump-in-bid-to-save-candi/?page=all

Mr. Bush took jabs at Mr. Trump’s credibility Wednesday, saying his comments about American Muslims cheering as the World Trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, showed that the billionaire businessman was not a “serious” candidate.

Voters would eventually have to decide if Mr. Trump is ready to “sit behind the big desk,” Mr. Bush said in an interview on Fox News.

“There wasn’t thousands and thousands of people cheering. That’s just not true,” he said. “This county was under attacks, and people were angry and they were in mourning, but there was no cheering.”

He blasted Mr. Trump for disrespecting 9/11 victims by creating an “alternative universe.”
 

Vlad

Member
I constantly have to correct writing from people who learned to type on typewriters and therefore automatically put two spaces between sentences. (Thank god for search and replace.)

Three spaces between sentences would probably give me an aneurysm.

Uhhh, since when is two spaces between sentences wrong? As far as I know, it's one space after a comma, two after any sentence-ending punctuation.
 
Uhhh, since when is two spaces between sentences wrong? As far as I know, it's one space after a comma, two after any sentence-ending punctuation.

Since computers, basically.

People were taught to put two spaces between sentences when using typewriters because typewriter characters are monospaced (i.e., all of the characters are the same width), which generally makes the text look really uneven. Two spaces were necessary so you could actually see the end of a sentence.

This isn't a problem when typing on computers because the characters are proportional (except when using a typeface like Courier, which is intentionally monospaced). Two spaces between sentences is overkill.
 

Iolo

Member
I found another article and it actually sounds like he's firmly in the Rubio camp of TV ads > ground game. When comparing Cruz and Rubio's campaigns he said, "Rubio has a much better vision of how to win."

He also says he doesn't think Trump is a serious candidate because he isn't spending money on ads and he won't even make it to the Iowa ballot (lol). This was a month ago, but still. It just sounds like he's just saying the same things other establishment republicans are saying.

He doesn't explicitly say ads > ground game, just that Cruz can't win merely by galvanizing conservatives. In fact he doesn't mention why Rubio's "vision" is better; I guess that's step 2 in "establishment candidate -> ? -> nomination". However, he does make a lot of questionable pronouncements as per usual, such as where he blames Obama for unlimited campaign money:

I have become radicalized on campaign finance reform. I would go back in a heartbeat to federal funding even with super PACS. I don't see that happening. But it's a great negative legacy of the Obama era to get away from that. I think it's a great moral failing that the [2008] Obama campaign ended that.

Matthew 7:3 bro
 
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