Politics Random, Random

[Suliso]

What do you dislike him for ponchi?

[ashkor87]

I don't think anybody dislikes Bill Clinton as much as I do, but how was he a warmonger? His sole intervention was in the Balkans, and that seems pretty justified to me.
Please elaborate.

Hilary I meant

[ponchi101]

What do you dislike him for ponchi?

The man is a consummate liar. I know, he is a politician, but he takes it to extremes that I really feel are appalling.
Plus, he is a coward. When the whole Monica Lewinsky affair was playing, he was not man enough to stand up and say "Hey, this is on me.". Any real gentleman (and he is far from being one) would have at least have the decency and the courage to shield her. He did nothing of the sort.

[ponchi101]

I don't think anybody dislikes Bill Clinton as much as I do, but how was he a warmonger? His sole intervention was in the Balkans, and that seems pretty justified to me.
Please elaborate.

Hilary I meant

Which makes me even more confused, Hillary was secretary of state during Obama's administration, during which the USA entered no wars. How was she a warmonger?

[ashkor87]

Her campaign - supported the invasion of Iraq, repeatedly called for the bombing of Iran etc

[skatingfan]

Her campaign - supported the invasion of Iraq, repeatedly called for the bombing of Iran etc

She was in favour of the invasion of Iraq before she ran for President, and she only said she would attack Iran if Iran first attacked Israel.

[ashkor87]

Her campaign - supported the invasion of Iraq, repeatedly called for the bombing of Iran etc

She was in favour of the invasion of Iraq before she ran for President, and she only said she would attack Iran if Iran first attacked Israel.

anyway, I suppose it doesnt matter any more...

[Fastbackss]

And I repeat my earlier prediction..Nikki Haley is going to be President...I always believed there would be a female President but it would be a Republican ...just think how formidable a credible/viable female Republican would be : many liberals would vote for her because she is a woman, conservatives because she is a Republican!
Again, my caveat .I am not taking sides, merely enjoying the race...

Not sure if this helps or hurts her with the Republican base.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/2 ... r-00133254

[Nikki Haley declined to say that slavery was a cause of the Civil War on Wednesday evening, placing the blame, instead, on the role of government]

[ti-amie]

She knows better.

[ti-amie]

Haley seeks to clarify Civil War comments as backlash mounts
By Ebony Davis, CNN

Berlin, New Hampshire
CNN
—
Nikki Haley on Thursday sought to clarify her comments about the Civil War one day after a voter in New Hampshire called her out for not mentioning slavery as a cause of the war.

“I mean, of course the Civil War was about slavery,” Haley told radio host Jack Heath Thursday morning.

“But what’s the lesson in all of that?” she continued. “That we need to make sure that every person has freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything they want to be without anyone or government getting in the way. That was the goal of what that was at. Yes, I know it was about slavery. I’m from the South, of course I know it’s about slavery.”

Her comments come amid intense backlash inside and outside the GOP after Haley told a New Hampshire town hall crowd that the Civil War was about government interfering in people’s freedoms.

“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley had said Wednesday in a visit to Berlin — the first of five events in the Granite State as she attempts to close the gap with Republican front-runner Donald Trump ahead of next month’s primary.

The former South Carolina governor then asked the voter who had asked her about the Civil War what he thought the cause was, to which the voter responded, “I’m not running for president.”

“I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are,” Haley added. “I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people,” she added.

The voter criticized her for not mentioning slavery in her answer. “In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word slavery,” the voter said.

“What do you want me to say about slavery?” Haley asked.

“You answered my question,” he responded.

“Next question,” Haley said as attendees applauded.

Speaking to reporters after the town hall Wednesday evening, the voter, who only identified himself as Patrick, called his question “pretty fundamental and frankly pretty easy.”

He said a video of Haley being asked “essentially” the same question when she was running for governor of South Carolina had prompted him to ask it again now that she’s running for president.

“The answer that she gave was very similar to the answer that she gave tonight,” he said, adding “I was just curious if she would answer it any different.”

Democrats and President Joe Biden’s campaign quickly seized on the moment on social media. Biden posted on X, “It was about slavery,” along with a video of the exchange shared by one of his campaign accounts.

And criticism didn’t just fall along party lines. A spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign called Haley’s attempts to clarify her remarks “embarrassing.”

“If she can’t handle a question as basic as the cause of the Civil War, what does she think is going to happen to her in a general election,” DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo wrote on X Thursday. “The Democrats would eat her lunch.”

As the former governor of South Carolina — the first state to secede during the Civil War — Haley has had a complicated public posture toward the confederacy. As CNN’s KFile has reported, she once defended states’ rights to secede from the United States, South Carolina’s Confederate History Month and the Confederate flag in a 2010 interview with a local activist group when she was running for governor.

Haley also described the Civil War as two sides fighting for different values, one for “tradition” and one for “change.”

The 2015 shooting at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, spurred Haley, as governor, to call for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds where it had been since being removed from the state’s Capitol dome in 2000.

This story has been updated with additional information.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics ... id=ios_app

[ti-amie]

Boebert switches congressional districts, avoiding a Democratic opponent who has far outraised her

BY JESSE BEDAYN AND NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Updated 10:52 PM EST, December 27, 2023
Share
DENVER (AP) — Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert announced Wednesday she is switching congressional districts, avoiding a likely rematch against a Democrat who has far outraised her and following an embarrassing moment of groping and vaping that shook even loyal supporters.

In a Facebook video Wednesday evening, Boebert announced she would enter the crowded Republican primary in retiring Rep. Ken Buck’s seat in the eastern side of the state, leaving the more competitive 3rd District seat she barely won last year — and which she was in peril of losing next year as some in her party have soured on her controversial style.

Boebert implied in the video that her departure from the district would help Republicans retain the seat, saying, “I will not allow dark money that is directed at destroying me personally to steal this seat. It’s not fair to the 3rd District and the conservatives there who have fought so hard for our victories.”

“The Aspen donors, George Soros and Hollywood actors that are trying to buy this seat, well they can go pound sand,” she said.

Boebert called it “a fresh start,” acknowledging the rough year following a divorce with her husband and video of her misbehaving with a date at a performance of the musical “Beetlejuice” in Denver. The scandal in September rocked some of her faithful supporters, who saw it as a transgression of conservative, Christian values and for which Boebert apologized at events throughout her district.

She already faced a primary challenge in her district, as well as a general election face-off with Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city council member who came within a few hundred votes of beating her in 2022. A rematch was expected, with Frisch raising at least $7.7 million to Boebert’s $2.4 million.

Instead, if Boebert wins the primary to succeed Buck she will run in the state’s most conservative district, which former President Donald Trump won by about 20 percentage points in 2020, in contrast to his margin of about 8 percentage points in her district. While it’s not required that a representative live in the congressional district they represent, only the state the district is in, Boebert said she would be moving — a shift from Colorado’s western Rocky Mountain peaks and high desert mesas to its eastern expanse of prairie grass and ranching enclaves.

In 2022, Frisch’s campaign found support in the conservative district from unaffiliated voters and Republicans who’d defected over Boebert’s brash, Trumpian style. In this election, Frisch’s campaign had revived the slogan “stop the circus” and framed Frisch as the “pro-normal” alternative to Boebert’s more partisan politics.

In a statement after Boebert’s announcement, Frisch said he’s prepared for whoever will be the Republican candidate.

“From Day 1 of this race, I have been squarely focused on defending rural Colorado’s way of life, and offering common sense solutions to the problems facing the families of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.” he said. “My focus will remain the same.”

The Republican primary candidate who has raised the second most behind Boebert in the 3rd District, Jeff Hurd, is a more traditional Republican candidate. Hurd has already garnered support from prominent Republicans in the district, first reported by VailDaily.

Boebert rocked the political world by notching a surprise primary win against the incumbent Republican congressman in the 3rd District in 2020 when she ran a gun-themed restaurant in the town of Rifle, Colorado. She then tried to enter the U.S. Capitol carrying a pistol and began to feud with prominent liberal Democrats like Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.


https://apnews.com/article/lauren-boebe ... 891620fb2b

[dryrunguy]

Maine's Secretary of State has ruled that Trump cannot be on the ballot because of his role in the insurrection. It will be appealed and increased the likelihood this issue will end up on the U.S. Supreme Court docket.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/2 ... t-00133294

[ti-amie]

They've been screaming "states rights" for how long now?

[ashkor87]

Nice to see a secretary of state doing her job, not hiding behind a court.

[ponchi101]

Her campaign - supported the invasion of Iraq, repeatedly called for the bombing of Iran etc

She was in favour of the invasion of Iraq before she ran for President, and she only said she would attack Iran if Iran first attacked Israel.

Weren't almost all members of Congress and the Senate in favor of the invasion of Iraq?