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Enter Candidate #17

Who Will Make The First GOP Debate?

The Hill breaks it down:

Based on five polls used by RealClearPolitics (RCP), eight candidates look like locks to make the stage, while the race for the final two slots is headed for a controversial photo finish. For the candidates currently ranked between ninth place and 14th place, the polling differential is negligible. “It’s a roll of the dice,” said Monmouth University polling director Patrick Murray. “It’s going to come down to the vagaries of how independent pollsters round off their results — we’re talking tenths of decimal points. It could come down to the five or six people who didn’t pick up their phones for a national survey and the five or six people who did.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are separated by only 1.5 percentage points, according to the RCP national average at the end of last week. Christie looks to be in the best shape of the bunch, sitting in 9th place with 2.8 percent support. Perry and Kasich are tied for 10th with 1.8 percent support, followed by Fiorina and Santorum at 1.4 percent, and Jindal at 1.2. (By contrast, the lowest of the top eight, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has 5.4 percent support; the highest, Donald Trump, has 18.2 percent.)

According to the above-linked analysis, missing the first debate could prove fatal. Therefore in two weeks we may see the ends of Graham, Fiorina, Kasich, Perry, Santorum, or Jindal. Or not.

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Clown Car

Huffington Post Moves Donald Trump Coverage To Entertainment Section

CNN reports:

The Huffington Post will continue to cover Donald Trump, but the popular news site is done treating him like a legitimate presidential candidate. In a note to readers on Friday, two top editors for HuffPost said that coverage of the brash billionaire's campaign will be a part of the site's entertainment section. "Our reason is simple: Trump's campaign is a sideshow," wrote Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim and editorial director Danny Shea. "We won't take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you'll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette." In a separate statement, Grim said that the site had "erroneously been covering [Trump] as an actual presidential candidate."

The teabaggers are ever so pissed.

Ted Cruz Tops Breitbart "Primary"

Via Breitbart:

In June, 55,000 people voted in the Breitbart Primary, and they preferred Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to win the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination. In June’s inaugural Breitbart Primary poll, Cruz finished first nationally (33%)–and in each of the first three nominating states–with Walker (23%), who has yet to declare his candidacy, right on his heels. Sen. Rand Paul finished in third with 10%, followed by Dr. Ben Carson (7%), former Texas Governor Rick Perry (5%), businessman Donald Trump (4%), former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (4%), and Sen. Marco Rubio (4%).

Breitbart will repeat the poll every month until the GOP convention.

Obama Mocks GOP 2016 "Hunger Games"

"They’re going to be making a whole bunch of stuff up, and when I say a lot of stuff, I mean a lot of stuff. You know, we’ve got some healthy competition in the Democratic Party, but I’ve lost count on how many Republicans are running for this job. They’ll have enough for an actual Hunger Games. That is an interesting bunch." - Barack Obama, speaking today in Wisconsin. May the odd ever not be in their favor.

Bobby Jindal: I'm Runnng For President

Via the Washington Post:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a one-time rising star in the Republican Party now struggling to become one again, announced Wednesday that he is running for president in 2016. Jindal made his entry into the race on Twitter, ahead of a planned formal announcement in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner later this afternoon. There had been little doubt that the 44-year-old second-term governor would run. He has already traveled multiple times to early-primary states -- spending 45 percent of his days outside of Louisiana last year. And this year, some of Jindal's top state-government aides left to join his presidential "exploratory committee." Jindal becomes the first Indian-American to ever be a serious candidate for president. But at this point, his chances of winning the GOP nomination seem extraordinarily low.

Just posted to Jindal's campaign page are several odd videos of him discussing the decision with his family. And there's something about a turtle. Jindal is the 13th declared GOP candidate and several more are expected.

George Pataki Announces 2016 Bid

Pataki To Announce 2016 Bid On Thursday

Via Politico:

The Republican has barely registered in national polls of presidential contenders, and faces long odds to be part of the first debate on Aug. 6 in Cleveland. Fox News has said that it will only invite the top 10 candidates based on a national polling average (though it will allow for more candidates in the event of ties). The former three-term governor is putting a lot of importance on doing well in New Hampshire, the first primary state of the election cycle. “I’m a Republican following in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt who understands that conservatism isn’t just economic policy and but it’s also preserving and enhancing the outdoors,” Pataki said, adding that marriage, gun rights and education should be left up to individual states to decide.

We should start a "first to drop out" pool. I'm betting on George Pataki, followed by Carly Fiorina.

No Thank You

Details. (Tipped by JMG reader Scott)

John Bolton To Announce Tomorrow

First GOP 2016 Debate: August 6th

Via Politico:

The first Republican primary debate will take place on Aug. 6 in Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. The debate, sponsored by Fox News, will take place at the Quicken Loans Arena (or, "The Q"), home to the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. The Q is also the site of next year's Republican National Convention, which is scheduled for July 2016. Fox News is expected to formally announce the date and venue within the next few days. Spokespeople for both Fox News and the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday night. The RNC has sanctioned nine primary debates for the 2016 campaign, with the possibility of adding three more. It had previously announced that the first debate would take place in August in Ohio, though the exact day and location were unknown.

It's possible that the above field of six will have doubled by the time of the Cleveland debate. They better have a big stage. The final GOP-sanctioned debate will be held on February 26th, four days before Super Tuesday.

Wasserman-Schultz Calls 2016 GOP Clown Car Revue "Extremist Ring Kissing"

Trump Vows Border Fence If Elected

"We have to build a fence and it’s gotta be a beauty. Who can build better than Trump? I build. It’s what I do. I build. I build nice fences but I build great buildings. Fences are easy, believe me. I saw the other day on television, people are just walking across the border, they’re walking, the military is standing there, holding guns and people are just walking right in front, coming into our country. It is so terrible, it is so unfair, it is so incompetent and we don’t have the best coming in, we have people that are criminals, we have people that are crooks, you can certainly have terrorists, you can certainly have Islamic terrorists, you can have anything coming across the border. We don’t do anything about it. So I would say that if I run and if I win, I would certainly start by building a very, very powerful border." - Donald Trump, speaking today the 2016 GOP Clown Car Revue.

RELATED: In a separate interview with the Des Moines Register, Trump declared that he would have "easily" beaten President Obama in the 2012 race.

LIVE VIDEO: 2016 GOP Clown Car Revue

Rep. Steve King is holding his 2016 GOP Clown Car Revue in Iowa today and pretty much every right wing crackpot contender is there. The Des Moines Register is running a live stream and things are just now kicking off.

Romney 2016

Via Talking Points Memo:

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R) told a group of donors on Friday that he's considering running for president in 2016, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited "people present" for the former 2012 Republican presidential nominee's comments. If he did run, it would be a third presidential bid for Romney. The news comes as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been making moves that point almost directly at his own plans to run for president in 2016. Bush's early but major steps toward running for president seemed to be partially an effort to prevent other mainstream Republicans (like Romney) from taking up the same place in a Republican primary field. Romney, according to the Journal, made the remarks Friday afternoon in front of GOP donors in midtown Manhattan.

The 2012 clown car is making another lap. Come on, Crazy Eyes and Herman Cain. Jump in!

RNC Launches 2016 Straw Poll

The Republican National Committee has launched an online 2016 presidential straw poll in which one can vote for three candidates IF contact details are also provided. Among the 32 choices in the GOP clown car: Sarah Palin, Allen West, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Frothy Mix, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul.

NEW YORK STATE: Defection Of Dem Senator May Give Control To GOP

Democratic New York state Senator-elect Simcha Felder, who last week won his seat in Brooklyn's newly drawn and heavily Orthodox Jewish district, has announced that he will caucus with the Republicans. Felder's decision may upend the Democrats' coming (for now) one-seat hold on the Senate majority.

The Democrat, Simcha Felder, a former city councilman who is a deputy to the New York City comptroller, John C. Liu, defeated a Republican incumbent, David Storobin, last week. Mr. Felder had said he was open to aligning himself with the party that best served the needs of his district, and on Tuesday he announced his decision after meeting with the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican. “I have enormous respect for the senators from both parties, but I must choose to caucus with those senators who will best serve the communities I represent,” Mr. Felder said, citing economic development, education and taxation as among his concerns. Both Republicans and Democrats are predicting that they will control a 63-seat Senate in January. After Election Day, the Democrats had 31 seats in the Senate, compared with 30 for the Republicans, but two races remain too close to call and depend on absentee ballots. Democrats hold narrow leads in the two undecided races, which would give them a one-vote majority after Mr. Felder’s defection.

As noted above, Felder won his seat against NOM's hero David Storobin, who spent his few weeks in the state Senate by pursuing a repeal of same-sex marriage before his district vanished into the new one.

In one hilarious irony to this mess, of all people, anti-gay asshat Sen. Ruben Diaz (D) is denouncing Felder and alleging that GOP Senate Leader Dean Skelos has promised Felder "committees and bonuses and fabulous prizes" for his defection.  Diaz, you may recall, staged his own Senate coup in 2009 in what, for the time, was a successful bid to thwart the passage of same-sex marriage. Diaz now claims he was just trying to get Hispanics into the Senate leadership:

You should know that in 2009 when the Four Amigos – Senators Hiram Monserrate, Pedro Espada, Carl Kruger, and I – staged a coup and asked for a Hispanic to be named Secretary of the State Senate, and asked for positions of power for Hispanics so we could better serve our communities as was never possible before in the New York State Senate, we were called traitors, bandidos, extortionists, crooks, thugs and every bad name out there. All the Four Amigos wanted was for Senate Committees to enjoy the same opportunities as other ethnicities and have the chance for Committees to be led by Hispanics in the State Senate.

"You should know" that three of the "Four Amigos" have since been convicted of felonies for corruption, bribery, and tax fraud. 

RELATED: The most important aspect of this latest nonsense in the careening clown car called the New York Senate is that Felder's defection may further delay passage of the Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which has been stalled in the Senate for a decade due to GOP opposition. Some New York municipalities provide local protections for transgender citizens, but shamefully, New York state itself does not.

NEW YORK: Anti-Gay Sen. Carl Kruger To Surrender On Corruption Charges

Tomorrow morning anti-gay New York state Sen. Carl Kruger will surrender to federal authorities on charges that he accepted campaign donations in return for favors doled out to powerful businessmen. Kruger was one of the eight traitorous Senate Democrats who voted against same-sex marriage in 2009.

Mr. Kruger headed the powerful Senate Finance Committee until Democrats lost control of the chamber last year, a position from which he amassed the Senate’s largest campaign war chest. One of Mr. Kruger’s campaign donors, Michael Levitis, who is suspected of serving as an intermediary between the senator and those seeking favors, pleaded guilty this month of lying to federal investigators in the Brooklyn case. Mr. Kruger is set to join an ever-lengthening parade of New York State lawmakers from both parties who have been indicted, convicted, or pleaded guilty to criminal offenses in the last decade, many of them relating to illegally soliciting or receiving money from individuals seeking help with state business.

In 2008 Kruger was part of the infamous "Gang Of Three" Democrats that engineered a coup in the state Senate, installing Sen. Pedro Espada as Majority Leader. Espada lost his seat in the 2010 primary and is himself under investigation by federal and state authorities for ripping off over $14M from the public health clinic he founded. The last of the Gang Of Three, former Sen. Hiram "Slasher" Monserrate, was indicted last October on federal charges of mail fraud and corruption. Monserrate was expelled from the Senate in early 2010 over a scandal in which he slashed the face of his girlfriend with a broken glass. He subsequently lost a bid for the state Assembly.

Let's hope ALL of the Gang Of Three end up in prison.

RELATED: In December 2009 gay activists picketed Kruger's Brooklyn home, declaring that he was a known self-loathing closet case who only voted against same-sex marriage to shield his own homosexuality.