U.S Election 2016

Tonight is the official start of the US Presidential Election with the first primary taking place tonight in Iowa.

The democratic side is looking reasonably like it will be Clinton who shall win the nomination. She is facing tough opposition from the 'American Corbyn' Bernie Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire and what happened with Obama should be remembered but it's hard to see him appealing to voters in the primaries to come and he actually behind in Iowa:



The Republican side is more interesting/terrifying. Trump actually seems to be winning and there is a chance he will be unstoppable by the time the moderate Republicans rally around one 'mainstream' candidate:



Ideally there Rubio (who is still quite right-wing, especially by European standards) will get a good enough results tonight to become the 'anyone but Trump' candidate.

Anyway it kicks off tonight.

[denphone]

God help America if Trump ever becomes president.

Trump is deeply unpopular among most Americans. If he wins the nomination the Republicans are effectively conceding the election unless, and this is where it is scary, something serious comes up against Clinton.

[MalteseFalcon]

I think there is more chance of the American population electing a British born gay male as President then there is of them electing a female President.

And to make myself unpopular, I'm stating right now that I want Trump to get the nomination and I hope he wins the election.

Can I ask why, Mark?

[Derek]

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

I think there is more chance of the American population electing a British born gay male as President then there is of them electing a female President.

Plenty of people said that about the chances of a black president being elected.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

I think there is more chance of the American population electing a British born gay male as President then there is of them electing a female President.

I thought you had to be American born to run for president? IIRC it's why Arnie can't run 'cos he's Austrian.

And to make myself unpopular, I'm stating right now that I want Trump to get the nomination and I hope he wins the election.

Could be pretty dangerous.

[MalteseFalcon]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Can I ask why, Mark?

Which part Hugh?

And yes, you have to be American born. Which is why I said there was more chance of a foreign born person being elected before a woman.

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

Which part Hugh?

And yes, you have to be American born. Which is why I said there was more chance of a foreign born person being elected before a woman.

I want Trump to get the nomination and I hope he wins the election.

[adzii_nufc]

Originally Posted by Derek

Plenty of people said that about the chances of a black president being elected.

Plenty of people went on absolutely ridiculous regarding Obama's push to the White House.

Obama will impose Sharia Law upon the US!

The amount of times I heard that statement, I still question whether people were actually stupid enough to genuinely believe this or whether they were just a bunch of asses.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

I thought you had to be American born to run for president? IIRC it's why Arnie can't run 'cos he's Austrian.

The fun part of this is that it's another case of their constitution being a mess and the Founding Fathers' failure to be specific.

The line that forbids non 'American-born' citizens from becoming President is this:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

The problem is that there is no actual definition of what is meant by natural born Citizen. Does it mean they were born as an American citizen or that they were born in America (anyone born in America has US citizenship)? Whilst logically we would say 'well, either' that isn't actually watertight.

So Ted Cruz who was born in Canada to American parents and had American citizenship at birth (via his parents) might not be eligible to run. Donald Trump keeps saying this and whilst we all suspect the Supreme Court would find he is eligible to run the Republicans are a bit concerned he could be subjected to court challenges should they nominate him from either Trump, the Democrats or some nut-job.

It's almost bound to be challenged and cause chaos all because the term has never been defined properly leaving political opponents the ambiguity they need.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Damien

Trump is deeply unpopular among most Americans. If he wins the nomination the Republicans are effectively conceding the election unless, and this is where it is scary, something serious comes up against Clinton.

There is a non-trivial chance of something serious coming up against Clinton. She has clearly acted illegal with regards to that dodgy email server of hers. She should be going to prison, not to the primaries.

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

There is a non-trivial chance of something serious coming up against Clinton. She has clearly acted illegal with regards to that dodgy email server of hers. She should be going to prison, not to the primaries.

Well exactly although I am not quite sure the extent of her legal situation there. There seems to be a lot of claims and counterclaims and the obvious political game being played by some. Still it leaves her at risk and that's how we get a nutter in the White House. It's too late for anyone else to come in now though...

[Kymmy]

Although the email chances were determined to be top secret they were not allocated that level of security when they were sent/received so did she actually do anything wrong? Yes it was stupid to do what she did but at the time I don't think she did anything illegal.

If Trump does get the Republican nomination then they can wave goodbye to the presidency... Reminds me a bit of a certain political situation over here which is all I will say on the matter as we've have enough threads about the UK situation

[Gary L]

I want Trump to win.
I think he'd make America and the rest of the world interesting.