@sysprog @jootjoint @steviedee
Only James Garfield in 1881 went straight to the presidency from the House. Then he was assassinated a year later. There were other House members who eventually won the presidency including GHW bush, JFK, and Lincoln but only one sitting House member who ran and won. Paulie’s bucking history.
Wow, they’re really going to do it aren’t they? I should build bleachers outside the Republican convention and sell tickets & popcorn.
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I ran into an acquaintance who pointed this out to me:
There IS an anti Southern bias in the U.S, Anyone can see it. Why would the idiot-girl in “Officer and a Gentleman” have a SOUTHERN accent (in the Pacific Northwest)? Why would the most hateful deputy in “First Blood” have a drawl (also in the Pacific Northwest)? This does not negate 200+ years of slavery or 100+ years of Jim Crow. It’s just a fact.
If Ryan had the accent of Haley Barbour there would be Boss Hogg commercials about him instead of people clamouring over his “intellect” and “skill”. This Upper Midwestern schtick of his allows Ryan to be just as regressive as Jeff Sessions.
Without the accent.
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In other words, when a Ryan says “no” he means “yes.” It’s solid Republican logic.
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Paulie can’t and won’t do anything worth doing. He’d love, love, love to do something on voting rights but he can’t tell the critter who chairs that committee to do anything, that’s not his job…
@mattinpa I saw this one! Henry Fonda, Eugene Palette and Barbara Stanwyck as the love interest and directed by Preston Sturges.
@daveyjones64 You called it humblebragging when he denied that he’s running, but it seems that someone who springs to the front of line in July and wants to win only five months later in November and who most of the electorate have never heard of is going to have a lot of uphill work and probably piss off all those delegates who are behind the other three
Its a long shot, IMO, but this is how it works
Trump loses on the first ballot, Cruz loses on the second and probably third ballot. Delegates start getting panicky and starting looking for a quick way out of the mess while the national cameras are rolling. Ryan gets presented as someone who can bridge the gap between establishment and anti establishment wings, while declaring he doesn’t want the job…which clearly means he is above reproach. That argument sells with the majority of delegates and they rally behind him to give him the nomination. Ryan takes the stage and delivers a humblebrag speech that says all republicans need to unite against the evil of Hillary, aka Obama’s third term, and though he is reluctant, the danger is so great that he will humbly take up the banner and lead them all into the breach.
Nobody gets EXACTLY what they want, but they settle for someone who isn’t prerceived as completely loathsome by either wing…and hey, he IS bailing them out in a tight spot, even though he says he doesn’t want the nomination. He said so himself, repeatedly. Some grumbling, but they mostly put it behind them and move on to the fall.
The notion that Ryan is also unbloodied by the primaires, as opposed to Trump and Cruz, will also be whispered in lots of ears.
Like I said, its a major reach, but have no doubt that Ryan has his eyes looking for just such an opening to emerge.
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“So let’s have a battle of ideas, let’s have a contest about whose ideas are better and why our ideas are better.”
“And then after that great contest (which some would call a “primary”) is over, let’s give the prize to someone who wasn’t even involved in it–namely, me.” Gosh, what a swell idea!
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Let’s follow this to its eventual conclusion: The Kochs have hand-picked Ryan as their pliable savior puppet and the GOP, desperate to not look like the fools they are with a Trump ticket, makes the necessary back room deals. Trump who then [rightly, I might add!] declares that he hasn’t been “treated fairly” and launches a 3rd party/write-in campaign to keep “his” voters from supporting the evil GOP. (I agree again, though probably for different reasons).
Ryan loses in a landslide, HRC is the 45th president, the senate turns blue and the GOP - well, who cares. Trump becomes a daily caller to Fox and his obsession is tearing down the GOP and Ryan. (once again I find myself on the same side as the Idiot Hair!)
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Ryan agonized over rouging his nipples…
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Ryan should consult Cruz, who always enjoys a bit of nipple play before each debate (only reason I can come up with for the hand on heart under the jacket…)
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Garfield was actually a U.S. Senator-elect from Ohio and U.S. House member simultaneously, resigning from the House and foregoing induction into the Senate due to winning the Presidential election.
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Ryan takes the stage and delivers a humblebrag speech that says all republicans need to unite against the evil of Hillary, aka Obama’s third term, and though he is reluctant, the danger is so great that he will humbly take up the banner and lead them all into the breach.
It’s like the Stonehenge scene in Spinal Tap.
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Oh, trust me, that hand travels…He’ll sniff it on the sly.
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People seem to be forgetting that there will be some actual discussions and debates between presumed nominees Ryan and Clinton as to the substance of their policies and platforms. Ryan’ll talk vouchers and privatizing social programs especially anything to do with healthcare, HRC will talk of expanding them and making sure women get proper coverage for pregnancy, childcare, etc. Moreover Ryan got only about 500,000 votes in the 2012 election from his district which has over a million people. He’ll be introducing himself to the country, and trying to do it in under five months.
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Channel surfing the other night and I came across this very scene, it is to die for.
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He won’t be running on “his” agenda…(he will, but he won’t call it that), he will be running on a “republican agenda”. That keeps him pure with the base, and provides some protection from attacks from Dems, in that it will give him a lot of latitude on most positions, something that someone who actually went through the primaries wouldn’t have.
Think of it this way…he wouldn’t have to sell the base on his ideas and actually win their votes in a primary…he can merely proclaim that they are their ideas and run with it. Which is an approach that is perfectly in keeping with Ryan…remember, he hung his budget plan around the entire republican party’s collective neck,and then said it was THEIR plan.
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Meanwhile, our first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson became President of the US. As did James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren. Granted, the nominating process was different back then, but its still worth noting.
Hillary Clinton, as former first lady of Arkansas and the United States, also has two elections to the Senate in her background, winning both times by double digits, the second time by a huge margin. So essentially, she’s in a league of her own. If he gets picked by his party elites, it’ll be the battle between cheese and a fine wine…(and no, I don’t mean whine for all those Hillary haters out there).
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That’s essentially how he became Speaker of the House for his party.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Except on a larger scale.
And it should be pointed out, he still can’t get shit accomplished as it is right now.
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I’m not disagreeing with you because what you’re saying makes sense in theory. In reality, he’ll lose - by how much I don’t know. At some point, he has to go back to his “day job” and if he gets little respect from krazy kaucus NOW, imagine how they’d treat him after he’s a two time loser. I would think that self-preservation would kick in at some point.
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Or maybe the difference between Georgi Vodka and Perrier Jouet?