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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I will note that my early memories of 9/11 did not involve my cartoons being pre-empted, and that at the time I remarked to my parents that I thought it was odd.

But being 7 at the time, I did not think it was odd because of the scale of the tragedy, but rather because literally almost every other channel was talking about it, and so logically it was unusual for the cartoon channels not to be.

[RedKing]

That's because you had "cartoon channels".
We just had "channels". Which sometimes had cartoons on them.
And occasionally test patterns when they turned off the TV station for the night. >_>

_{dang whippersnappers}

[misko27]

I'm not sure if you can really call it nostalgia if you hadn't even been conceived when it happened.

It does not require having been alive then to have a smoothed over, simplified or romanticized view of the past. In fact it's a lot easier to look back fondly on the past when you didn't go through it the first time around.

Seriously - other than 'Lost to Reagan' what the hell did he do wrong? Everything I've read, seen, and heard indicates he avoided screwing things up and making things worse, and did at least a bit to make things better in many ways.

I'm speaking on the principle, I do not know enough about Mr. Carter to speak of him specifically, beyond knowing he is not well-liked outside of the newer generation, largely because of his recent charity efforts in Africa.

I will note that my early memories of 9/11 did not involve my cartoons being pre-empted, and that at the time I remarked to my parents that I thought it was odd.

But being 7 at the time, I did not think it was odd because of the scale of the tragedy, but rather because literally almost every other channel was talking about it, and so logically it was unusual for the cartoon channels not to be.

I for one wasn't concerned with cartoons at all. In fact my sole memory of that day, despite having been rushedly taken out of what I think was kindergarten by my Mom as my father returned from downtown, was looking at the TV and thinking "Oh, that building is on fire. Huh, that's interesting."

[Max White]

That's because you had "cartoon channels".
We just had "channels". Which sometimes had cartoons on them.
And occasionally test patterns when they turned off the TV station for the night. >_>

_{dang whippersnappers}

We had one channel, it was called outside.
The weather report was my least favorite bit.

_{confounded peons}

[alexandertnt]

It does not require having been alive then to have a smoothed over, simplified or romanticized view of the past. In fact it's a lot easier to look back fondly on the past when you didn't go through it the first time around

I dont think statements like "I don't think he was a horrible president" give a particularly strong impression of fondness.

[tryrar]

ummmmmmm, I know this is gleen beck and all, but his just tops the crazy tree here

For context, Gleen Beck makes a Wizard of Oz analogy using dolls from the movie...for 10 minutes, topping off with putting on ruby slippers and going "there's no place like home".


Trust me, it's even more bizarre than it sounds

[FearfulJesuit]

So apparently, Cuccinelli actually won the youth vote (18-24) vote on Tuesday. What was up with that?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I wouldn't put much stock into the demographics of off-year elections. It's a weird time, as demonstrated by the Modern Whig that is now a judge of elections in Philadelphia.

[FearfulJesuit]

I wouldn't put much stock into the demographics of off-year elections. It's a weird time, as demonstrated by the Modern Whig that is now a judge of elections in Philadelphia.

Sure, but don't off-year elections mostly determine the ratios of different demographics (more crochety old white folks as opposed to everyone else), not the electoral composition of the individual blocs?

[GreatJustice]

Eh... Ron Paul endorsed him I guess? I'd say it's pretty easy to overstate how Democratic leaning 18-24 voters are compared to other demographics in general though, since Obama was pretty close to being the perfect fit in that regard. McAuliffe is basically a Clinton style Democrat from what I've heard, and Clinton isn't exactly known for bringing out those Democratic youth voters.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Indeed. I'm pretty certain it is not because there are a secret majority of Tea Party Republicans amongst the youth vote, as virtually every other analysis on the subject will give you that data. Not that it will keep the Tea Party from assuming they've finally become conservative enough for their secret youth vote and continuing on the path of madness.

[Duuvian]

Before I left the cesspool of the internet for the last few years there were a lot of libertarians spouting there to argue with. I'd imagine it's the same on other powerful communities. It would not surprise me to learn that some young people are convinced there that some of their interests are shared by libertarians, notably legalization of marijuana.

[misko27]

Infodump, including news of the frontlines of the Republican Civil War of 2013.

• Super PACs line up to aid the assault on Tea-Party Candidates.
• Reince Priebus (Chairman of the National Republican committee, which is basically exactly what it sounds like) says he believes the House will pass a Immigration Overhaul.
• More fighting over who is to blame for the Virginia Governor's race.
• 60 minutes scandal, Their report on Benghazi had a major error: Their primary source's story had discrepencies between his official report to the FBI and the things he told them. Big ones, if I may ad. This was the report that cast doubt on the Administration's report of events.
• October Jobs report more positive then expected, somehow.
• White House releases numbers on Shutdown costs and damages.

To top it off, RCP's Generic Congressional election.

[FearfulJesuit]

Attaboy, Bushie!

[mainiac]

Seriously - other than 'Lost to Reagan' what the hell did he do wrong? Everything I've read, seen, and heard indicates he avoided screwing things up and making things worse, and did at least a bit to make things better in many ways.

Carter receives such hate because he was unpopular and he was liberal.  The conservatives mindset is that they are the only legitimate rulers of the country.  That necessitates that any liberal president be an unworthy usurper.  The problem is that with so many liberal president examples (liberal being defined as "not a member of the conservative movement"), you need a punching bag to bring up or the point grows awkward.  Carter is all they have.  Anyone who knows who FDR is loves him except for the libertarian fringe.  Truman's domestic policy was too obscure and non-controversial and his foreign policy was too successful and ballsy to go after.  JFK died a martyr in the public mythos.  LBJ's policies are the exact things that liberals want people to remember and conservatives don't (domestically ramming medicare and civil rights down conservative throats, internationally, going into Vietnam with their full support).  After all this we finally get to Carter.  He comes at the end of 40 years of democratic domination of politics and liberal presidents who were fine with telling the conservatives to shove it.  So 40 years of pent up rage ends up on him and they hate him even though he didn't do that much to hate.

Then of course comes the timing of his legacy.  The previous liberal presidents all came from a time when the "real america" was seen as being democratic due to democratic dominance at the ballot box.  So when conservatives spit rage, they weren't speaking for everyone in the popular mythos and we tend not to remember their complaints.  But Jimmy retired into a country where conservatives were hitting their high water mark of the century.  For a 12 year period, conservatives could claim a popular mandate and they used that mandate to heap it on Carter.  12 years of that was plenty of time to get from "conservatives hate Carter" to "Everybody knows Carter sucks."

They tried to same thing with Clinton and failed just reinforcing the "Slick Willie" myth.  It's not hard to understand why they failed though if you aren't a Republican, the Clinton years are good and the GOP made an ass of itself over lewinsky.  It's because of this failure that Clinton is described as possessing Godlike powers in political discourse.  It's stupid, Clinton's o'shucks accent didn't give him mind control powers.  But people believe it because they need some explanation for why Clinton wasn't Carter and can't see the obvious, not even Carter was ever the Carter as we remember him.

And if you look at Obama, it's more of the same.  Fast and Furious!  Bengazi!  IRS prosecutions!  Solyndra!  Birth Certificate!  It's all pretty similar to the stuff that was heaped on Truman, LBJ and JFK.  Carter got that treatment too.  It's just that when Carter did, more people voted against him and that was seen as an endorsement of the hatred of him.