The Dreaded Political Poll...

[shadowkat]

[ETA: Apologies - apparently I spelled Bernie Sanders, last name wrong. But hey at least I was consistent about it.]

After Book Club and work, where we skirted around the topic and then skirted back again, I'm curious as to where the political landmines lie on my livejournal flist and the degree to which I should avoid all things political. (Book club was doing a better job of skirting, work not so much -- cubical mate likes to rant about Trump on a daily basis.) I already know where they lie at work and on Facebook, and with family. The people on Facebook are pro-Bernie Saunders, the people at work are either pro-Trump, Clinton, Saunders or staying quiet. And the book club seems to be leaning towards Cruz or no one. Meanwhile my mother is actively campaigning for Clinton.

So a poll. For this poll - I attempted to list all the presidential candidates currently running, but got tired after listing over 20 of them. Most of which, I'd never heard of. I thought, geeze, there's a lot of presidential candidates. And here, I thought only ten people were running, turns out I was wrong. In case you are remotely interested - the complete list of currently registered Independent Candidates running for President on the Independent Ticket, can be found HERE:

[Poll #2035065]

I forgot to list undecided. Damn it.

I tend to stay away from this topic, because...blood pressure inducing. But I'm curious to see where my flist falls. Are you all Bernie Saunder's fans? Or are you all Trump fans? (Ghod, I really really hope not. But one never knows...Honestly I can't imagine a Trump fan reading and enjoying my journal, but stranger things have happened.)

Currently, I don't feel strongly about any of the candidates...except that I'll probably have to move to New Zealand if Trump wins. The man has dead eyes.

[ETA: Apparently there is 1524 people who are running for president of the US. As an aside? This sort of reminds me of scrolling through television channels hunting for something to watch, over a thousand channels, and still, nothing is on!]

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think you may be right...except there was no way in heck that Hillary would have won in 2008. McCain/Palin would have beaten her. There were a lot of Republicans who voted for Obama that would not have voted for Hillary back then. I don't know about now, however. I feel differently about her now than I did in 2008, and I'm noticing a lot of others do as well...

Not really sure why they hate her so much. I have co-workers who despise her. And a member of my book club sees her as Machiavellian and ruthless. (I don't).

Agree on the bit about college education - - it's not for everyone. But, I also think the educational system needs to change significantly. I remember discussing it with a fellow law student in law school. We both began law school later than most, I started it at 24/25, he did at 25/26, as opposed to right after college. We felt the mistake was too much emphasis on classroom lecture, which does nothing to prepare you for the workforce.
A better approach would have been internships and apprenticeships. I think the difficulty is people want a simple solution and there is none.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Hillary made serious missteps early in Bill's Presidency. She wanted to lead the way toward a health care plan not too dissimilar from what we eventually got from Obama. Most notably she called together people from the insurance industry and the medical profession to discuss the situation without making some effort to include the public, the very people who were supposed to benefit from any changes. The insurance industry didn't want any changes and the medical community wasn't going to volunteer to make concession about anything unilaterally. So with all sides opposed the Clintons had no choice, but to bury the thing as quietly as possible, with Hillary receiving most of the blame for what Bill must have been just as responsible.

Obviously I can't be positive, but I suspect that after right George W Bush, Hillary could have won. I know, my opinion of her had changed by then. I did vote for Obama, but more reluctantly than it would have been for Hillary.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think you may be right. There was also the whole Lewinskygate mess, which tainted her in various people's eyes. (As if no other President ever did the same thing??? Hello, Kennedy and Roosevelt. Also, I'm not exactly sure how it was her fault.)

I remember the health care fiasco -- at the time, I was working for a Kansas State Senator who was attempting to get single payer health care passed on a state level. The Small Business, American Medical Association, and Insurance Lobby shut it down. Then later, when I worked, briefly, for an major insurance carrier - saw how and why they shut it down. (They had their own competing plan in place and it would cost them billions.)

Hillary in both elections was by far the most qualified and smartest candidate. In 2008, Obama just ran a savvier campaign. He did change how elections were run, in a lot of ways. Also, she had a lot of baggage from Bill that he just didn't have. I think she may have less baggage now.