GOP Debate Threads

[DutchJazzer]

Hmm. In my view he is not doing a very good job of capitalizing on this opportunity. The way his voice keeps hitting those high notes does not feel presidential. The way he is all over the board does not impress me. I feel sorry for him because of the lies that have been told at his expense, but I believe that Rubio would have knocked the ball out of the park in the same circumstances. I think Trump probably would have too. I'm not a fan of Cruz, but I think he would have killed the media in a similar situation.

obama used to hit **** out of the park in all debates journalist things. with snarky comments like 80's called etc etc.
so i dont care about the rubio, obama like fan fare. that does not make or break a president

that being said i am starting to like rubio, the more i see and hear of him

 

[b_line]

Stoked did nothing wrong. I'll bet there are many, many people who saw this story and now have honesty concerns about Carson. B_line merely made the mistake of wanting evidence to confirm his bias so much that the moment he found something there was no more need for critical thinking. He assumed this media source had done that for him. We all make those sorts of mistakes. Politico needs to apologize for this hack job. Unfortunately they probably never will, and even if they do, they will keep on pulling this kind of ****. It will be interesting to see if this story ultimately helps or hurts Carson.

Ok, so Ben Carson should now be lauded for misrepresenting the facts about how the military school works? No student at west point is ever offered a scholarship. It's not how they even work. Students there dont pay tuition as they are effectively using the gi bill. If you want to call that a scholarship, fine. But realize that they serve a minimum if 6 years after their schooling to pay the tuition back. AND he would have needed a congressional appointment, which I'm sure they w I us have helped him find.

Call it what you want, but it's a misrepresentation of facts to make readers think he is awesome. Sounds pretty similar to the first claims politico made.

 

[DutchJazzer]

Ok, so Ben Carson should now be lauded for misrepresenting the facts about how the military school works? No student at west point is ever offered a scholarship. It's not how they even work. Students there dont pay tuition as they are effectively using the gi bill. If you want to call that a scholarship, fine. But realize that they serve a minimum if 6 years after their schooling to pay the tuition back. AND he would have needed a congressional appointment, which I'm sure they w I us have helped him find.

Call it what you want, but it's a misrepresentation of facts to make readers think he is awesome. Sounds pretty similar to the first claims politico made.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Ok, so Ben Carson should now be lauded for misrepresenting the facts about how the military school works? No student at west point is ever offered a scholarship. It's not how they even work. Students there dont pay tuition as they are effectively using the gi bill. If you want to call that a scholarship, fine. But realize that they serve a minimum if 6 years after their schooling to pay the tuition back. AND he would have needed a congressional appointment, which I'm sure they w I us have helped him find.

Call it what you want, but it's a misrepresentation of facts to make readers think he is awesome. Sounds pretty similar to the first claims politico made.

Did you even read the excerpt from the book? you don't think it's possible, and even likely, that at an event like the one he described that someone might encourage him to apply to West Point and tell him that his credentials would earn him a scholarship? It seems crazy to me that you or anyone else believes he has been caught in a lie on this subject.

The insane thing is that I'm defending him in this, yet the more I see about him the more I do not believe he is presidential material. Still, I despise the tactics that are being used against him.

 

[colton]

Add Ben Carson to the list of lying candidates. He fabricated basically hus entire childhood in his biography. He claimed to have been admitted to Westpoint and offered a full scholarship, yet he never even applied.

Now he is an idiot and a liar.

There's a difference between lying and miscommunicating. I saw an interview with him yesterday where he talked about this, and his answer seemed plausible. He said that he had been told it was extremely likely that he could get a West Point appointment, which in the book got written as "he was offered a West Point appointment". I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.

I'm kind of with you on the idiot thing though. For a brain surgeon he certainly doesn't seem to have a lot going on upstairs sometimes. Maybe that's just a communication thing, too, hard to say.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Don't know what story y'all are talking about really. Just saw his name.


"We could do a lot worse"-- sadly the official slogan of the 2016 GOP race to nomination

You left off the last half of the slogan. It reads, "We could do a hell of a lot worse. We could elect Hillary."

 

[colton]

The insane thing is that I'm defending him in this, yet the more I see about him the more I do not believe he is presidential material. Still, I despise the tactics that are being used against him.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I am with this as well.

 

[b_line]

Full scholarship was written in the book. At best he was misrepresenting facts to look better in his book.

 

[RJF]

Where was this type of vetting/scrutiny in '08 & '12?

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Full scholarship was written in the book. At best he was misrepresenting facts to look better in his book.

Here's what the book says again:

At the end of my twelfth grade I marched at the head of the Memorial Day parade. I felt so proud, my chest bursting with ribbons and braids of every kind. To make it more wonderful, We had important visitors that day. Two soldiers who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Viet Nam were present. More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point. I didn’t refuse the scholarship outright, but I let them know that a military career wasn’t where I saw myself going.

Can you really not see that it's obvious from context that he did not apply? He never implied that he did. He's been caught in a lie that he didn't tell. The wording in the Politico column was a million times more misrepresenting than his wording in his bio.

 

[b_line]

Here's what the book says again:

Can you really not see that it's obvious from context that he did not apply? He never implied that he did. He's been caught in a lie that he didn't tell. The wording in the Politico column was a million times more misrepresenting than his wording in his bio.

I get that, but scholarship at west point isn't a thing, it's just not. As a supposed genius doctor and a kid who had just finished rotc he is either dumbing it down or misrepresenting it. It doesn't really matter though, because he won't win. The guy is a bumbling mess. He really pulls off the whole idiot savant thing.

 

[colton]

True story: I had a dream last night that I was part of the next Republican debate. Apparently the debate was in my town (not sure where that was in dream-land, probably not Orem), in a high school that had a gym like an LDS "cultural hall", i.e. with a stage to the side. I and a couple of my friends decided to declare for the Republican nomination on the spot and somehow were offered spots on the stage. Or maybe just I was offered a spot and my friends weren't. We probably decided to declare because of a general dissatisfaction of the Republican candidates (Rubio wasn't there). There weren't any chairs, though, the candidates just had to sit on the edge of the stage with their legs hanging off into the gym area. I was seated right next to Trump.

I wasn't getting much screen time until Trump started attacking me (don't know for what). He turned to me and started poking and prodding me with his finger. I let it pass a couple of times (guess my nature is like Hayward and the wet willy), but then got fed up and said something like "Listen, Mr. Trump. I've had enough. If you touch me one more time I will push you off this stage and you will land on the gym floor." Trump apparently took my threat seriously, and didn't touch me again the rest of the debate.

Later, towards the end of the debate, the moderator asked me a question, but I didn't quite catch the topic. So I did what politicians always do and answered a different question instead. I said, "Well, before I answer that question, let me point out what just happened here earlier in the debate. I gave Mr. Trump a clear ultimatum. I drew a line in the sand, stated what my position was, and because Mr. Trump believed me, he took my statement seriously. This is exactly how I will run my foreign policy. I will state America's positions clearly, I will maintain 100% honesty with the other world leaders, and if they press me, I will indeed follow through with what I have promised the ramifications will be." I continued, "Likewise, I will maintain 100% honesty in my domestic affairs. I will strive to work with leaders of BOTH parties, and because they too will trust me to keep my word when I tell them how I feel and want I want to accomplish, they will be willing to work with me as well. Together we will find ways to make this country even better, ways that will benefit the ENTIRE country, not just those on one side or the other." That got an ovation from the audience.

I went on like that a bit more, and then time was up for the debate. (Good thing, too, because I never did find out what the question was that I was supposed to be answering.) When the polls came out, I was tied with Trump as winner of the debate, something like 30% each, and my threat to push Trump off the stage was universally seen as the highlight of the debate.

Pretty awesome dream. I don't usually have ones that are that vivid.

Moral of the story: apparently I'm fed up with most of the Republican field, and with honesty of politicians in general. And it seems very possible that starting to use a CPAP for sleep apnea can make you have weird dreams.