A few more are gone.......... but were they ever SERIOUS candidates in the first place?Are ANY of the GOP candidates REALLY serious contenders for the nomination or office?

Trump is not the cause of the GOP’s problems—he’s the symptom.ukprogressive.co.uk

A few more candidates have dropped out, Fiorina and Christie. The shelf of candidates on the right have been singularly shallow, none of them really have great depth, and all of them have serious "oppo" material that would be a detriment to their candidacies the same way the '47% are takers' and his record of exporting jobs hurt Romney (and some, worse than what properly came out about Romney).

For example, it would not surprise me to find that Trump had shafted plenty of veterans and their families, like those former casino employees who lost their health care and retirement funds in the failure of his New Jersey casinos - contrasted with Trump exploiting veterans for political advantage with his fund raising stunt while dodging the Iowa debates.  Trump has no history of supporting veterans or of acting on veterans issues, which makes his recent actions at best specious and suspicious.  While I would regard anything coming from Pete Hegseth, failed Minnesota right wing nut candidate, now on the payroll of the Koch brothers as a political activist, the criticism that Trump has no new ideas for veterans, no past advocacy for veterans, and is not serious when it comes to his policies for veterans is pretty much on target.  And that is just one example of many possible oppo issues that could sink Trump in a general election with voters - including his low information supporters who don't really know who he is, but are swayed by style over substance.

I would argue that neither one has ever been a serious contender to be the presidential nominee for the GOP - and neither have the others who dropped out (left or right).  Candidates like Jindal and Perry never had a prayer of winning the nomination, in spite of all their prayer rallies. (Does anyone even remember Perry was briefly a candidate, ....or Jindal?)

A few who still hang on, like Jim Gilmore, John Kasich, and Ben Carson have never really been serious contenders either, they just haven't left yet. Gilmore, for example, got 0% of the New Hampshire primary vote and received 0% of the Iowa caucus vote as well.

I doubt that even most of the political savvy, the most extensively and encyclopedic informed follower of the 2016 election cycle, could readily identify Jim Gilmore without a caption identifying him, and that few more could readily identify Kasich without a label (myself included) among the candidate line ups.  Even Carson's advisers and coaches find him to be a joke.  I expect that we will see Gilmore and Carson quit soon, with Kasich following their example after South Carolina.  I expect Jeb to hang on until April, maybe May. The Bush brand is so badly tarnished, and Jeb is so lacking in any ideas that were not already espoused and implemented by his brother Dubya, that regardless of how much money, or what aging family member Jeb drags out to be his proxy supporters, it is unlikely anything he could do would change the deep disaffection that the country holds for the Bush legacy.

Even though they won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, respectively, I would further argue that neither Trump nor Cruz have a serious chance at being the GOP candidate either; the establishment still holds the real power, if less so than in the past.  And the establishment doesn't like either one, and are, I expect, going to be successful, ultimately, in preventing them from running under the Grand Old Party imprimatur, with all that goes with the official party approval.

I can only surmise that the candidacies of the unlikely proceeded from some angle, some strategy, that participating as a candidate would in some way pay off afterwards, that it would add some degree of prestige or profit.  A few, like Kasich and Fiorina, appear to have been /appear to be running more for the second spot on the ticket of VP.




Steve walks warily down the street,
With the brim pulled way down low
Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet,
Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, Are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat
[Chorus] Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust see the rest of the lyrics here: https://www.bing.com/search?q=queen+youtube+channel%2C+another+one+bites+the+dust&pc=MOZI&form=MOZTSB

And then there's the progress of 'the Donald' Turnip-top Trump.... which can only remind me of another Queen classic:

lyrics here: https://www.bing.com/search?q=lyrics%2C+don%27t+stop+me+now&pc=MOZI&form=MOZTSB

Right Wing Rebranding Failure: Republican Math - the numbers never add up, the numbers are NEVER good

Conservative governance, conservative policies are epic failures.  They rely on blind, unquestioning, cultish ideology, without regard to actual outcomes, bottom lines or facts.  They deny reality, in the hopes that saying something is true will be enough to make it true.

Yesterday, one of these failed conservative governors, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, promoted his failed leadership of Wisconsin as success, something it is very definitely NOT.   Let's look at a few of the many ways in which Wisconsin is NOT thriving under Scott Walker or conservative policies.  Walker is running for the GOP presidential nomination on the basis of his success in Wisconsin.  And God; because conservatives like to invoke God when they lie, to give them legitimacy.  Or maybe the Koch brothers. Like Michele Bachmann, and other candidates, he hears voices in his head and believes that it is God and not his own over-arching personal ambition.

Infrastructure is one of the most fundamental and essential functions of state government.  Infrastructure along with the educational level of your workforce, are the two most important drivers of state-level economic development and growth.  Walker's administration and the conservative dominated Wisconsin legislature, in their efforts to govern on the cheap, so as to give every possible financial advantage to the wealthiest 1%,  is the 3rd worst nation for the condition and safety of their roads and bridges.

A press release from Wisconsin Congressman Pocan from July 10, 2015:

71% of the state’s roads are in need of repair

Washington, D.C - U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02) released a troubling Department of Transportation report detailing the urgent need to improve infrastructure in Wisconsin. A staggering 71 percent of the state’s roads are rated as being in poor or mediocre condition. This puts Wisconsin in the bottom three states for road conditions in the country. With Governor Scott Walker set to sign a budget which further reduces state investment in transportation projects, now is the time to take immediate action to ensure the current patch of Highway Trust Fund does not expire on July 31st.
“Building roads and bridges are core functions of our government,” said Rep. Mark Pocan. “Once again, Gov. Walker has failed to provide critical investment to programs that matter most to the people of Wisconsin.”
“Republicans in both Washington and Wisconsin are jeopardizing public safety and economic growth by failing to provide adequate funds for transportation needs,” continued Rep. Mark Pocan.

The driving force of every capitalist economy is a large, healthy middle class; demand and consumption drives our economy, including economic growth.  Under conservatives led by Gov.  Scott Walker, Wisconsin's middle class is not thriving, it is shrinking, the worst of any state in the country, and a significant result of the war on Unions and everyday ordinary citizens, by Walker and conservatives.  THIS is one of the reasons Wisconsin is one of the worst state level economies in the nation.  Depending on which statistics you look at, Wisconsin is 38th or 44th in job creation, and the worst in the region for job and employment statistics. This represents policies which intentionally redistribute wealth and income upwards to the wealthiest and privileged few, in action.

From the Madison Capitol Times in March 2015:

Report: Wisconsin worst in nation on shrinking middle class
If you feel like you’re working harder for less money, it’s not your imagination.
Wisconsin ranks worst among the 50 states in terms of a shrinking middle class, with real median household incomes here falling 14.7 percent since 2000, according to a new report.
The Pew Charitable Trust report showed Wisconsin with the largest decline in the percentage of families considered "middle class," or those earning between 67 and 200 percent of their state’s median income.
In 2000, 54.6 percent of Wisconsin families fell into the middle class category but that has fallen to 48.9 percent in 2013, according to U.S. Census figures compiled by Pew.
All other states showed some decline but none as great as Wisconsin’s 5.7 percent figure.

If you are consistently among the worst -- and Wisconsin is among the worst by MULTIPLE metrics -- you are not a success as a governor, you are not a success as an example of conservative ideology in action.  You are a failure lying to people, misrepresenting yourself as a success.

For contrast, the Hill announced yesterday that under the Obama administration, the national deficit is down $455 Billion-with-a-b.  This is an example of a genuinely successful democratic leader, applying successful outcome based policy rather than ideology driven and schismatic policy to correct the problems created by the last Republicans when they had control at the federal level.  The contrast is profound in terms of fiscal responsibility, job creation, and steady IMPROVEMENT in economic conditions and metrics.

White House projects deficit to fall to $455B for 2015
The federal deficit is estimated to tick down to $455 billion by the end of the fiscal year in September, according to the Office of Management and Budget’s mid-session review released Tuesday.
As a share of the economy, the shortfall would equal 2.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
“Under the President’s leadership, the deficit has been cut by more than two-thirds as a share of the economy, representing the most rapid sustained deficit reduction since WorldWar II, and it continues to fall,” OMB Director Shaun Donovan wrote in a blog post.
The new projected deficit would be nearly $30 billion less than the government’s red ink in 2014 and $128 billion less than administration’s 2015 deficit prediction back in February.
OMB’s mid-session review updates the administration’s estimates for spending, revenue and the deficit over a 10-year period.

Even with the most trivial matters, Republicans are wrong, and Republicans LIE about the factual numbers, misrepresenting their success. A recent example is the clown prince of the Republican candidates, Donald Trump, the same man who paid people to show up at his announcement as a candidate while proclaiming a huge turn out of people who loved him and were excited he was running. The turnout was not large, and it was not apparently of people who in fact were actual supporters. Continuing the exaggerations (no numbers on who might have been paid to show up) in Arizona, Trump proclaimed he was drawing larger crowds than the legitimate grass roots support for lefty Bernie Sanders. The reality is that Senator Sanders has drawn crowds of 15,000 people while Trump only filled a venue that holds less than 5,000. There were no 15,000 Trump supporters; there were not even 5,000 Trump supporters.

From abc 15:

Phoenix Fire says capacity rules not broken after Trump tweets officials broke fire code

Trump tweeted Sunday morning that city officials "don't want to admit that they broke the fire code by allowing 12-15,000 people in the 4,000 code room" on Saturday.

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
Convention Center officials in Phoenix don't want to admit that they broke the fire code by allowing 12-15,000 people in 4,000 code room.
8:18 AM - 12 Jul 2015    614 Retweets

He followed the statement by another tweet stating that the convention center allowed everyone to come inside so they wouldn't be left outside in the heat.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump  

Phoenix Convention Center officials did not want to have thousands of people standing outside in the heat, so they let them in. A GREAT day!

8:21 AM - 12 Jul 2015

Phoenix Fire Department says City of Phoenix Fire Prevention Specialists set the capacity for the room at 4,200 people.
The fire department reportedly closed the doors once they reached capacity.
"No rules or codes were broken and no one was in danger at any time," Deputy Chief Shelly Jamison says.
According to Phoenix Fire, a Fire Prevention Specialist is an expert on large events and are assigned to specifically enforce large-capacity events such as Comicon, Super Bowl Fan Fest, rallies and other.

This is an example of the skeptical 'liberal' fact driven perception of Trump in the twitter verse, and of the cultish conservatives looking at the same information.  The contrast could not be sharper between liberal B. Justice and conservative  Cindy Lyn below:

B. Justice ‏@zefirotorna Jul 12

Sounds like @realDonaldTrump has a problem with numbers, just like @tedcruz.

0 retweets 0 favorites
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Cindy Lyn ‏@CindyLyn4 Jul 

@realDonaldTrump You don't need to justify anything to these---misfits. They are clueless, disrespectful, and hateful. The liberal credo.