What/How Will THE DONALD Do at "Debate2"?

You don't think Clinton is the Democrat front runner? As for the rest Jeb Bush is the only one anyone's heard of other than Trump.

There's no point arguing over what's not happened yet. Let's wait and see, we can dish out plaudits/admonitions then.

Considering all the names of all the people able to serve as president, a poll with just Bush and Clinton as the serious names on the ballot sounds more like hereditary privilege than democracy.

What on Earth is giving you the idea that the only serious names on the ballot are Bush and Clinton?

The most immediate problem Walker faces may be cash flow. He's built one of the largest staffs of any 2016 operation – employing at least seven aides for press alone – and a fundraising deadline coming at the end of the month will reveal if he has the resources to plow forward without paring back. He has said he is putting "all our eggs" in the basket of Iowa, where he once led the field decisively and now has dropped to fifth place. But he won't have much time to show progress before donors are prone to defect.

About two and a half hours into Wednesday night’s marathon three-hour GOP presidential debate, I hit my breaking point.

I’d sat through the repeated fear-mongering, inflation threats, and hand-wringing on Iran, capped by Mike Huckabee declaring Tehran an actual threat to the survival of Western civilization. I sat dumbstruck as Carly Fiorina — who as CEO of Hewlett-Packard almost single-handedly destroyed the company, and who has never held elected office — complained that Hillary Clinton hasn’t accomplished anything. I heard Jeb Bush, to raucous applause, say that his brother George kept America safe . . . and then, not more than 10 seconds later, refer to his brother standing on a rubble pile in lower Manhattan in which nearly 3,000 Americans had been killed.

I watched Donald Trump criticize Rand Paul’s physical appearance as if he’s not wearing a dead sea gull on his head. I seethed as one candidate after another offered more heartless and uncompassionate plans for how to treat illegal immigrants. I even listened to Ben Carson try to one-up Trump by saying that we don’t need just a wall on the US-Mexico border . . . we need a double fence. I became slack-jawed as Chris Christie suggested that Hillary Clinton supports mass murder. I stewed as every presidential candidate for one of two political parties in the most powerful country in the world fell over themselves to deny the basic science of climate change or downplay the urgent need to do anything about it.

I put up with all of it. But then Jake Tapper directed a question to Carson about the connection between vaccines and autism — and it was on.

This isn’t a complicated issue. There is no link between vaccines and autism. None. That should have been the answer when the question was posed to an actual medical doctor such as Carson. But Carson demurred. Instead of answering, he pivoted to a bizarre complaint about big government and the size of the federal workforce.

And when Trump, who has for years trumpeted the autism/vaccine link, claimed that he wasn’t opposed to vaccines but that they should be spread out (which actually increases the risks of spreading deadly diseases), Carson went along with him. While he noted that there is no known connection between vaccines and autism, Carson also said, “We’re probably giving way too many.” Rand Paul, another medical professional, didn’t point out that this was wrong. No one on stage did. Instead Paul said, “I’m all for vaccines. But I’m also for freedom” — just not the freedom that prevents other children from getting sick, because Paul thinks “freedom” is more important than public health.

It’s one thing to marvel at the unprecedented and stupefying levels of GOP know-nothingness on display this election season — the misstatements, the untruths, the exaggerations, the falsehoods, and the straight-up lies. But these vaccine comments represent a legitimate public health menace. And it’s indicative of the allergy to facts, data, and evidence that is the real story of the GOP debate, and indeed of the Republican nominating contest — and we need to be talking more about it.

From other pundits you’re going to hear about how Fiorina showed verve, even though pretty much everything she said was either platitudinous nonsense or untrue. You’ll read about Bush’s lackluster debate performance, rather than his proposed tax plan that gives almost all of its benefits to the top 1 percent. You’ll see the clips of Trump childishly hitting his opponents, rather than hearing more about his cruel plan to deport several million undocumented immigrants if elected.

You’re going to hear about how Marco Rubio sounds substantive and serious on foreign policy, even though his views on America’s role in the world are basically unhinged from reality. During the debate, Rubio actually suggested that US allies, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, will soon look to Russia for help and that Putin is “trying to replace us as the single most important power broker in the Middle East.” That’s right, diplomatically isolated Russia, which has a negative economic growth rate, is supplying material support to Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and whose single economic resource competes with that of the Gulf states.

Carly Fiorina went further into crazy land than Rubio by calling for “aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states” and no dialogue at all with Russia. She also said that Iran has “talked Vladimir Putin into aligning themselves with Iran and Syria to prop up Bashar al-Assad” — as if Russian support for Assad doesn’t go back decades. These are minor points that few nonwonks noticed, but it’s indicative of how ill-informed so many of the comments were during the debate; and how reluctant (or too ill-informed) debate moderators are to point out these statements are wrong.

We joke about this stuff, but after a while it’s no longer funny. The Republican Party is dominated by candidates who are proudly, even boastfully ignorant. Rejecting the clear science on vaccines or climate change is practically the price of admission even to be considered a legitimate presidential candidate. Playing on xenophobic fears of immigrants by lying about the economic costs and threats to American workers — pro forma. It reached a point Wednesday night when a candidate actually saying something true was an event worthy of note.

But make no mistake, the descent of the Republican Party into dishonesty, lies, and cravenness is no joke. It’s a national crisis.

After all, one of these 15 candidates might actually get elected president.

I'm talking about the eventual ballot, once all the also rans have gone. The only serious names are those on the D or R ticket, and there could very well be a choice between Bush and Clinton.

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough.

Walker spent the labor day weekend riding his Harley all around New Hampshire, which is supposed to be his best thing. Last poll I saw a couple of days ago had him at 1% in the state. That says it all, people dont want him.

EDIT: New Hampshire people are pissed that he does not show up much and when he does he does not engage with the people, these people want to see you and they want to ask you a lot of questions and see how you do. Demand it actually. Walker will not do it. People seeing Walker glide through town on his Harley is no substitute.

People have heard of Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, and now a famous union buster. However, he's been running one of the most stumble bum campaigns i've ever seen/

It's called speculating. You do it all the time. I've pointed out something that is quite likely, I never said it was certain. I clarified my position, you're just too anal to accept it.

Considering all the names of all the people able to serve as president, a poll with just Bush and Clinton as the serious names on the ballot sounds more like hereditary privilege than democracy.

You really are anal. I said a poll, I didn't say that meant what was going on right now.

I'm not digging, I've explained my stance, unfortunately I explained it to an anally retentive idiot obsessed with minutiae and incapable of seeing the big picture.