Well some updates: Cruz was first place in Iowa, and Sanders and Clinton virtually tied; some controversy with coin tosses is occurring.

Candidates that have since dropped out: Ben Carson (probably), Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Martin O'Malley.

There was a town hall debate where I personally feel Bernie shines and Hillary just stumbled around and avoided answers. Just look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCnwOjgVdog

So, who's your money on for NH?

NH.. I really don't know. I didn't expect Cruz to win Iowa, so even though Trump's ahead by a fair bit, I'm hesitant to call it for him. On the side of the Dems, Bernie's got a massive lead right now - but again, who knows if that'll translate to votes. It's too hard to call it, I don't want to call it.

Considering Bernie was down about 7 points in Iowa (on average), and he got .2% below Clinton at the actual caucus, I think there is a good chance that he will perform almost as well as in the polls. Of course, there are always exceptions, so it is possible that Clinton could win; I hope not.

Also Rand Paul is a joke. Well, all the Republicans are jokes, and I guess Rand is the lesser of the evils on that side. But he recently tried to pass an anti-abortion bill, so I lost all respect for him.

With the general election coming up soon and conventions in the near future it might be a good idea to bump this?

The general election matchup looks to be:

Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump

3rd Party:
Gary Johnson
Jill Stein

3rd party candidates are polling unusually high (somewhere around 6 percent for Stein, 9 percent Johnson when polled 4-way). With the Sanders phenomenon in the dem primary, Stein could see even more support from his disenfranchised supporters when people learn more about her. All things considered, there's at least a small chance that one or both 3rd party candidates could get into the debates (although unlikely).

I would have voted for ted cruz if he hadn't dropped out, trump is my second choice. We don't need hillary starting world war 3, simple as that.
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i'm 16 btw so i can't vote, i'm saying if i was legally allowed to vote those would have been my thoughts.

As a libertarian, minarchist to be exact, Gary Johnson is obviously the best choice for me. However, it's stupid to pretend that this election isn't between Trump and Clinton, and I would do anything at this point to stop Clinton. I like Ben Shapiro, but I don't believe in his philosophy that you should always vote for the candidate with the most similar views. A circumstance such as this requires absolute strategic thinking.

Why do you think Hillary would be more likely to start a world war than Trump (the dude that gets baited on Twitter)? The opposite of what you said is commonly thrown around as a reason for supporting Hillary.


Speaking strategically then, why is it more necessary to stop Clinton than to stop Trump?

A point I'd like to make is that Clinton is a rational actor. Trump, not so much. Clinton is the status quo incarnate. If she gets in, things will continue along the same path as they have under Obama. Trump's volatile and doesn't play by a script. We call people like him 'irrational' actors. Giving an irrational actor control of the world's largest military and nuclear weapon reserves, to me at least, sounds like it might not be a good idea.

There's an argument to be made that regardless of who's in charge, foreign policy remains the same. In other words, the president doesn't really decide on these thing. In that case, an irrational actor in the white house would be slightly less damaging. America would still be the world's laughing stock, though.

I'm equally scared of Trump and Clinton foreign policy wise - Hillary Clinton is on the books as currently wanting a "No-fly Zone" in Syria, was a driving force behind Libya and was completely against any Iran talks before they were proven to be effective (after which she changed her stance). Trump on the other hand... the guy is so reactionary and petty nothing would surprise me. Not only that, but he's also on the books as supporting torture even "if it doesn't work" and wants to "go after their families;" referring to suspected terrorists. Nothing like turning the good ole' USA into a terror state in order to... fight... terrorism? wait.. something's wrong here....

With NATO forces moving up towards Russian borders, this isn't the time that I really want either of them in charge of a military.

The only outstanding thing that scares me about Trump is any possible supreme court positions he'd be able to nominate people to. His energy plan is shit but... that's 4 years and we can backpedal on that. His tax plan is also shit, but we can backpedal on that too (I sincerely doubt either of them would get reelected for a second term - but maybe I put too much faith in the American people).

All things considered I'd just say fuck it and stick it to the American establishment by telling everyone I know to vote 3rd party. Imo Trump and Hillary are almost equally bad (with exception maybe to supreme court picks on the Trump side - not that any Hillary picks would be by any means good), so we might as well TRY to bring more attention to the current third parties and hopefully get them on more state ballots next election and/or a larger share of the votes. I see this election as an opportunity to prepare for a bumpy ride and vote your passions instead of your fears, because in this election it might actually mean something. (5% of the popular vote in this election gives parties federal funding next election - and the more exposure for the Libertarian and Green parties the better). There's always the hope that enough people can be swayed to put either Johnson or Stein in the debates, which would give them serious attention and support.

Hillary Clinton
The only person who makes Trump look like the perfect president

Trump just has insecurity issues due to his business competitive father who was never with him growing which is why he resorts to name calling and writing his name on literally everything.
Hillary has a significantly more "corrupt" history than Trump by all standards.
I'm not advocating for the guy. And I definitely don't see him as the "great future of America," but Hillary is 30x worse than Trump could ever be. He's narcissistic - I can see. I'd rather have a narcissist than a complete psychopath be the president of the world's greatest superpower. Also, remarks are just that - remarks. His policies are sound. He wants to get rid of all illegal immigrants and shows no prejudice towards any group of people. I see nothing wrong with that. I'm just comparing the two - not taking sides.
Clinton is a psychopath. She considers herself above the law. She lies constantly on media. If you want specific examples I can give you them but I'm trying to keep this concise. I never said you're depending on her to save America. That being said, I'm pretty sure you're not planning to depend on a liar... are you? Lets not even go in on the leaked FBI cases and the private email she was using. Hmm... maybe we should also leave out that time when she defended a 48 year old child-rapist in court. Then laughed about it. America was not built on the Bill of Rights for the record. Nor was it built on "love and compassion." America was built on a giant, bloody civil war. Lastly, about the Bill of Rights thing: I couldn't find that anywhere. Regardless of whether that's true or not - you're forgetting that there is this thing called congress that has to approve of such things first. That will probably not happen.
Trumps lies usually relate to trivial things such as denying that he called someone a name. Most of the other times they're just a play on words by the media such as the time he said he "wouldnt leave any option out" as a tool against ISIS and afterwards, when asked if he would nuke ISIS, he denied it. I mean, technically, he didn't say he would nuke them. Whereas Hillary lied UNDER OATH, or PERJURY regarding a serious FBI matter. No lie is worse than another, but from what I've seen and researched so far, Hillary is much less hesitant to lie if it means tilting the odds in her favor. And yeah, Trump is quite the conservative
They both have their pros and cons (jk mainly cons lmao) but yah all I'm tryna say is Trump is not as bad as Hillary.


^ c/p'd from one of my earlier FB posts so ignore any grammar/irrelevant info

I'm voting Trump over Hillary, first election that I feel so strongly against a candidate that I'll vote for someone I don't like just to CB the other candidate.

Some of my reasoning:

1) Hillary, adopting Bernie's economic plan, means raising minimum wage to somewhere between $12.50-$15, which our economy simply is no where near ready for. That's a big hit to small businesses that can't afford to pay employees that. Job market is already over saturated from older people hanging onto jobs way longer and general retirement age shooting up. This only makes it even harder to get entry level jobs.

2) Like Ele said, a vote for Hillary is a vote for the status quo. I'm not satisfied with our government as it stands right now, and I don't think having 8 more years of it is within my best interest. She's essentially Obama, which goes to point 3.

3) She's playing the minority card. So frustrating. People pointing at themselves and saying "look! I'm a minority! Wouldn't it be cool if we proved there's no glass ceiling?!?" as a way to convince people to vote for her ticks me off. I want the most qualified person in office that serves my needs, I don't want anyone to siphon votes because of skin color or genitalia.

4) I'm against yet another Clinton in the white house for the same reason I wouldn't vote for Jeb Bush - I'm tired of these "Royal Families". This is the best we have? This is the greatest and brightest leaders and job creators? Clintons and Bushes? C'mon.

5) Hillary Clinton is yet another politician owned by money. This is a big one for me, I don't like politicians in the pockets of the business people who get her there. Trump is a huge win in this category and it's hard to shake.

6) I think people have a right to be scared shitless of Trump. He gets pissed off easily, he's irrational, he's in many ways a buffoon, and it'd be cool for the US to be a country you don't want to piss off. Our defense spending is already astronomical. If we're going to have this unbelievably powerful and expensive military forces, we need to use it strategically.

7) I hate Obamacare and Hillary is acting like it's something to be proud of. Ask most people in the medical field (my co-workers included), and they can tell you just how asinine this system is and how it's ruining the healthcare system.


So do I hate Trump? Yeah kinda. Is he a racist? Probably. Sexist? check. Zero experience? Damn straight. More likely to start WW3 than Hillary? Youbetcha. But I hate him less than Clinton and I want to see this country get back to free markets, looser regulations, and ass-kickin'