At this point, the Republican presidential race has violated all the laws of electoral physics. Candidates who would seem eminently qualified for office have poll numbers that look like a toddlerâs age, and candidates who seem eminently qualified for psychotropic medications are in the lead.
Last nightâs debate only confirmed yet again that just when you thought the party had hit bottom, the candidates take a shovel and start digging deeper.
Related: Everything You Need To Know About The Republican Debate Without Actually Having To Watch
For a debate that was supposed to be about economics, the topics ranged far afield. That provided Ben Carson the opportunity to prove yet again he was a homophobe while denying that he was.
âI believe that our Constitution protects everybody, regardless of their sexual orientation or any other aspect. I also believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. And there is no reason that you canât be perfectly fair to the gay community,â Carson said in a flight of illogic. âThey shouldnât automatically assume that because you believe that marriage is between one man and one woman that you are a homophobe.â
Of course, Carson didnât try to resolve the contradiction between being fair and denying basic rights. Thatâs because heâs the real victim. âThis is how they frighten people and get people to shut up,â Carson said. âYou know, thatâs what the PC culture is all about, and itâs destroying this nation.â
You have to be Carsonâs age to even talk about a PC culture, let alone imagine that itâs real.
The debate was disastrous for other reasons as well. The moderators were by any standard just awful. The candidates appealing to the tinfoil hat brigade (looking at you, Donald) were subdued. In fact, if anything as a group the outsiders solidified their standing.
In particularly, Ted Cruz was among the candidates who came off the best, which should be a wake up call to everyone worried about the creepiest Senator being the GOP nominee. Cruz has been running a below-the-radar campaign. But itâs also a smart one. Heâs prepared to scoop up all the voters when the kiddie candidates like Trump and Carson implode.
Meanwhile, the man who was supposed to be the frontrunner, Jeb Bush, is vanishing before our eyes. He had almost no time during the debate and he did not use the time he had to cover himself in glory. Following on the news that he was cutting back on his campaign spending, Bushâs debate performance is going to cement the perception that his presidential hopes are in a death spiral. Â
Making predictions in this campaign environment is foolhardy. Who could have predicted that anyone would take Donald Trump seriously and that someone with Jeb Bushâs credentials would be in the single digits?
The only thing thatâs clear is that the Republican party is a mess that only promises to get messier.
Â
John Malin
What’s that tearing sound? It’s getting louder and louder!!! Oh, I know, it’s the truth getting torn up! Or maybe, its the GOP splitting its pants!!
Giancarlo85
A mess? That’s putting it nicely. Why be so nice in describing it? It’s total chaos. And Carson is an idiot for saying that. Sorry dude, but the Supreme Court already decided this matter. It’s not up to you to decide.
This party is ridiculous. That debate was a joke. Anyone who thought that a republican debate would bring up actual issues like the economy or infrastructure is fooling themselves. And Carson’s flat rate tax idea is destructive and downright stupid.
The republican party is getting shellacked next year. This clown show has further damaged their already tarnished reputation even further. Hillary is just sitting back and smiling!
Alistair Wiseman
Queerty thinks the Republican party is in a “mess”. For the political geniuses that they are, please consider:
Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives.
Republicans have a majority in the Senate.
Republicans have a majority of the state legislatures.
Republicans have a majority of the state governorships.
Since Obama has been president, Democrats have lost over 1000 state and national seats to Republicans. Yes, President Obama is quite inspiring (for voters to vote for the opposing party). Obamaâs record for losses, at least through the 2014 midterms, is historically bad having overseen two horrible midterm elections for Democrats. Overall, Democrats during Obamaâs presidency lost 11 governorships, 13 U.S. Senate seats, 69 House seats, and 913 state legislative seats and 30 state legislative chambers.
Hey Queerty, rhetoric is cheap. The Republicans have the majority and the only office they currently do not have is up for grabs next year.
zooby
@Alistair Wiseman: If Donald Trump is their party’s front runner and best option, I’d say that says it all about how much of a laughable mess the party is.
Cam
@Alistair Wiseman:
You forgot the part where we have inflation at practically zero for years, unemployment lower than even Romney promised to get it, average gas prices around 2 dollars, oh yeah and Bin Lading is dead.
But you keep on ranting and rambling trying to defend a party that hates you. Maybe if you yell loud enough they’ll let you in through the side door of one of their events.
Ooops, that’s right they didn’t even let you guys have a booth this year did they.
Please, your like a battered woman who keeps going back to her husband because she just KNOWS that this time will be different.
1EqualityUSA
Alistair Wiseman, Too bad with that Majority the GOP is considered the “Do nothing” party. The party of “No” only obstruct. They need to go away now.
RIGay
@1EqualityUSA: Oh! They will do something that is in their own best interest! Like tax cuts for the top 1%. And how many anti-abortion laws do we really need every year?
Will Glitzern
Now their favorite idiot is Carson.
Giancarlo85
@1EqualityUSA: The republican party will lose everything. The republican controlled Congress has a 9% approval rating. The various right wing trolls will vanish when democrats win yet again next year. They haven’t won a general election since 2004. It just shows they are not capable in connecting with people anymore.
And republicans could not do squat with that majority in Congress. It is not even a veto proof majority. They get nothinh of what they want. The budget deal? Certainly not qhat they wantwd.
Republicans will get shellacked in the next election for sure. And some will be in denial about it and talk about insignificant numbers of years past. The republicans are bound to lose a lot. Theh will lose many governor races and will certainly lose the Senate. They will not win the White House.
Giancarlo85
Oops a couple of typos there. Sorry about that.
At any rate, democrats are bound to win a lot next year at every level. And anyone in denial about that should look at the facts.
1EqualityUSA
Odd the Rebiblicans have no problem spending tax dollars on a bogus witch hunts (Thanks McCarthy for telling it straight that these 8 Benghazi hearings were merely to harm Hillary’s campaign). Self-serving creepy party needs to go obsolete.
Giancarlo85, when we do get the majority, it is imperative to replace our justices on the Supreme Court at this time. Do not wait!!! Religiously bent, politically motivated justices who cannot respect all Americans, need not be on the Supreme Court. I wish I could remember the lawyer from Stanford that was being floated by Obama. If anyone can remember her…
Bernie Sanders risks a Republican win in 2016. It can happen. FeeltheBern (Independent) could be the Ralph (Green) Nader “spoiler” that allows a freaker Republican into office again. (2000) The Democrat may win the popular vote, but fail on the electoral college due to skimming votes. Then Sanders supporters will be crying in their beers and really feelingthebern for years to come. Presidents come and go, Supreme Court justices serve for life. That’s why when creepy serial ki!!ers like Martin Shkreli donate to Bern, he is merely hoping to sabotage the true contender. Weird that many in the debate mentioned Hillary by name. Thanks Kevin McCarthy, for verbalizing the real motivation for these hearings. We love you for being so stupid. Even though you lost the job, you truly are “Speaker” in every sense of the word. Speak anytime. Speak, Kevin, speak.
1EqualityUSA
RIGay, Women are not going to put up with this b.s. from Republicans much longer. Women need to step up and become more politically powerful.
Giancarlo85
@1EqualityUSA: Sanders won’t make it pass the primaries and will not run as an independent. He is not dumb in that sense. Now Donald Trump would certainly do that to the republican party if he loses in the primaries. His ego will not permit otherwise. I think Trump will really damage them further. I honestly think he is trolling them.
@1EqualityUSA: To be fair, women were key in getting Obama elected twice and will again sweep democrats to power in 2016.
Anybody who likes to talk about races Republicans won in an off general election year isn’t being relevant.
Joe
Last night’s debate was one hot mess. The witch hunt on Hillary continues. Last night has only secured to me the Republican party is in such a chaotic mess as it is disturbing. It is actually pleasant for me to see it in such a bad movie type of state. Our worse nightmare could be if a Republican became President. You know they are going to go after Gay America. It is clear it’s one of Mark Rubbio’s agendas. He’d like nothing more than gay marriage reversed.
They will continue to attack Hilary, which is on their agenda at the moment.
Guy068
People vote Republican locally so they will fight for their county/state and get it everything they can. They vote Democrat for president to stop the other Republicans from getting the same thing…
1EqualityUSA
Bernie Sanders (Ralph Nader revisited) is Independent (Vermont).
1EqualityUSA
Joe said, “Last nightâs debate was one hot mess.” Thanks for making me smile. When I read this aloud to my dogs, both their tails wagged in unison. I wish dogs could vote.
GlĂŒcklich
Debates, World Series, NFL, NBA…so many reasons to avoid television.
Stuart Senften
Enough of All of These Clowns!!!!!
1EqualityUSA
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bernie-sanders-explains-why-hell-never-run-as-third-party-candidate/
Giancarlo85, apologies, I thought he was running as Independent.
Cam
@Guy068:
Then why are nearly all of the poorest states, and states with the highest unemployment and worst standards of living run by republicans?
BJ McFrisky
That’s odd . . . I didn’t hear about any of the Republican candidates being under criminal investigation by the FBI, but as for Hillary Clinton, who had a nasty habit of trafficking in classified emails and compromising national security, well . . . let’s just hope she looks as good in orange or stripes as she does in her stunning pantsuit ensembles.
BJ McFrisky
@Alistair Wiseman: Careful citing all those facts, Al, the natives in these parts don’t much cotton to them (as you can clearly see from the responses to your comment).
Kenneth Julian
Obviously the person that wrote this didn’t see the democrat debate. Three out of five of the candidates running couldn’t even sting together a simple declarative sentence. The republican debates do have a few clowns but they also have a quite a few qualified persons to do the job.
Cam
@BJ McFrisky:
Hey look! Once again, BJ, in desperation cannot talk about the GOP and will do anything to change the topic. You and your other screenames are very consistent.
darian
I refuse to watch that circus and lose IQ. I already know who I’m voting for and it’s no one on that stage.
Desert Boy
I do think, and I believe, we’re witnessing the end of the Republican party. I mean, come on, Cons, the U.S. Supreme Court, which is 5/4 with a conservative majority, took the bold step to legalize marriage equality in all fifty states. Meanwhile, the 2015 Republican party plank still OPPOSES same-sex marriage. They’re the party of Archie Bunker — a dying, shrinking generation of bigots and homophobes. One likely scenario I see is a split in the GOP, with one party very socially RWNJ, and they other one, populated by younger, more evolved conservatives. Time will tell. But, this much I do know: if they don’t evolve, the Republican party will drift away into irrelevance.
Beachman
@Alistair Wiseman: LOL…you people have your heads so far up your @$$e$, you cannot see the forest through the trees! You just listed several of the many reasons why the REPUBLICAN PARTY IS A COMPLETE DISASTER! Given are the perfect example of why the Republican Party is a TOTAL MESS! Why is it that a party that has won so many elections, and controls both houses of Congress has to force ‘one of their own’ into a job a few heartbeats away from the Presidency?
All your stats show is that the Republicans know how to win in the fly over states, and are good at gerrymandering. End of story…but are not ready or able to govern. And governing, is what government is supposed to be about.
Corey Walker
1EqualityUSA
You can’t see the colon through the polyps….
1EqualityUSA
darian, If I can justify sitting through season after season of Walking Dead, I can watch Republicans belt out their thoughts for a couple of hours. Bug in a jar fodder.
AtticusBennett
@Kenneth Julian: it;s hilarious that you want Rubio to be the president. you gay republicans are such broken braindead wimps.
Dino Diamantakos
Correction: A HOT mess. :/
Randy Judd
Alistair Wiseman
@AtticusBennett:
I’m sure his father thinks he is a “broken braindead wimp” and he comes from a shitty family.
Alistair Wiseman
@BJ McFrisky:
Yes, those liberals don’t care much for facts. They only get in the way of their narrative and “socially progressive” agenda.
Giancarlo85
@Cam: Hillary isn’t under investigation unlike what some want to claim. She isn’t under threat of arrest or anything of the sort as she broke no rule. The rules weren’t changed until she left a full year later.
Even the direct Bernie Sanders blew the top off the manufactured email scandal. Like Benghazi, it’s nothing more than hot air and nothing more than republican bullshit who is trying to exaggerate it out of proportion.
Republicans and conservatives are literally incapable of posting factual and logical arguments. The congent ability of republicans is grossly inadequate and that of a child.
Hillary has committed no wrong doing and these republicans couldn’t pin shit on her for over 11 hours. They tried and tried but failed miserably. An 11 hour bullshit fest as I call it. Imagine watching the republican debate on repeat for 11 hours… I think after 11 hours of republicans you would have to be institutionalized. Hillary has a strong will to put up with that. Look at what we have to put up with on here from the usual sources and trolls.
Facts? Facts you say? Maybe one day the republican party will remember what those are! They haven’t had a clue about facts since Teddy Roosevelt.
Luis H. Lopez
The KOCH Brothers puppet .
Giancarlo85
@Beachman: And it doesn’t change the fact that republicans haven’t won a general election since 2004, and won’t win it in 2016. They are fucked in the worst way possible. They won those off-general election races when turn-out was the lowest. Their core constituents are dying off… it wouldn’t surprise me if republicans only manage to get 42-44% of the popular vote in 2016… or even less.
They lost an entire generation of voters. They lost Latinos. They lost women. They hugely lost LGBT voters forever. They lost other minority groups. And they continue to alienate. In fact the only group republicans stil have a slight majority in is amongst white men and maybe Cuban-Americans (but even that isn’t true anymore).
Donald Trump is hugely trolling the republican party.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trump-is-the-worlds-greatest-troll/
This article was from a while back, but we have seen it all come to fruition. I think he’s doing an incredible job further damaging the republican party’s image.
Doughosier
@Alistair Wiseman: because of gerrymandering. The Democrats got more votes but Tepublicans got more seats. But don’t make it sound like it’s because they are popular. They are a minority of old, white men but they get out and vote.
darian
@1EqualityUSA: Hahaha to true. I’ll just have to tell myself it’s no different than junk t.v. And not take it seriously.
Giancarlo85
@Doughosier: Except in general elections, younger people and women get out in far greater numbers… so that’s why republicans will lose yet again.
Alistair Wiseman
@Giancarlo85:
Hillary Clinton is under criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice.
This is not a civil investigation, nor a fact-finding venture, it is a criminal investigation.
It is all over the news and the internet. I’ve explained to you in the past about search engines and not hiding your head in the sand.
Giancarlo85
Again there are more lies and distortions. There is no investigation of Hillary Clitnon and she did no wrong doing. Some right wing blog won’t help a certain poster’s case.
Alistair Wiseman
@Giancarlo85:
Do you have any integrity?
You have already proven you cannot keep your word. Why are you addressing the content of my posts? It doesn’t matter whether you hit “reply”, you are still replying to the content of my posts. Why are you doing this when you said you would not?
When you refer to “troll” or the classic above “a certain poster’s”, you are not fooling anyone. Especially when your whole post is in response to what I wrote. My name is not “troll” or “a certain poster”, just like your name is not Piece of Shit.
You stated, “I am no longer responding to certain trolls because they cannot handle criticism and flag posts if they are challenged. The trolls in question are a waste of time to engage as they are not willing to discuss anything.”
Practice what you preach, show a little integrity and stick to your word. After all, “right wingers are not are not capable of reasoned and supported discussion” and that applies to ANY type of response to what I have posted.
grayshade69
And have did absofuckinglutely NOTHING!!!
Saint Law
@Alistair Wiseman: Your investment is inappropriate. It’s an internet bitchboard.
“Yeah those liberals don’t much care about facts.”
As opposed to the debatees? Srsly?
Cam
@Alistair Wiseman:
Oh look, the Log Cabiners with battered spouse syndrome is back trying to convince people that in spite 9f his missing teeth, bruises, and black eye, that the GOP is really a nice guy.
1EqualityUSA
Deprive it of oxygen. He’s a bored houseplant.
Giancarlo85
@Cam: Careful he will start to call you names because of his egoism. He will demand you call him by his me.
I call that thing. Or that weird troll.
You cannot expect any form of logixal argument from this half wit bot.
Giancarlo85
@Giancarlo85: *his name. Stupid autocorrect.
onthemark
@Alistair Wiseman:
@BJ McFrisky:
Now that you guys have seen three debates, I’m wondering WHICH of these clowns appeals to you the most?
Just curious!
Giancarlo85
@onthemark: Since Krusty the Clown was not part of the debate, I wouldn’t be able to answer that.
Stop insulting clowns please. They have actual jobs lol… they entertain kids (or scare the shit out of them). Republican politicans don’t actually work.
GayEGO
@John Malin: as to the word – splitting, replace the letters pl with h! :>)
GayEGO
I initially thought that these GOP candidates were going to be controversial in a meaningless, ridiculous way and so far, they have proven my instincts as correct. It is obvious they are digging in their heels and hanging on to the past, refusing to learn and evolve with the rest of us.
onthemark
@Giancarlo85: Oh, I’m sure all the Republican candidates are pretty good at scaring kids! But especially Ted Cruz.
ait10101
@Alistair Wiseman: Then it seems that the whole country is a mess.
Alistair Wiseman
@onthemark:
I have not made a decision on any of our “clowns”. It is still early. I’m watching all of them.
One thing I do know, that none of our “clowns” is under criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice like your leading candidate.
Not a civil investigation, nor a fact-finding venture, but a criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice. đ
Giancarlo85
He is now trying to go after Hillary once again with his stupid attacks. There is no criminal investigation and even Bernie Sanders said the whole email thing is a “non-issue”.
What a bullshit artist. Not even a good one. Oh and if they really had anything on Hillary, Joe Biden would have decided to run but he didn’t. So there is nothing. Not a criminal investigation, idiot.
Alistair Wiseman
@Giancarlo85:
Why are you responding to my post when you said you would not?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article41972739.html
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/us/politics/fbi-hillary-clinton-emails.html?referer=&_r=0
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/us/politics/hillary-clinton-email-inquiry-weighs-if-aides-erred-at-send.html?referer=
Giancarlo85
*yawwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn*
Nothing new… just the wind… perhaps more of the same farts of a right winger… nope… just the wind.