She has written books and been paid for speaking so "unemployed" is perhaps an inappropriate term. I've been employed but certainly haven't made as much money! I do like interior or EPA. She has a clear love for the environment which would help inoculate her from the "hates the environment charge" if she tried to pull back on regulations.

In the most recent poll he got a big bump, probably because of Palin showing up and picking him instead of Cruz. He's already polling really well New Hampshire. If he takes both Iowa and New Hamshire he's going to be hard to stop.

Somewhat telling is the fact that he's polling better than Rubio and Bush put together -- in Florida!

Absolutely! The Democrats are socialists, and the Republicans are moving fast in that direction.

I'm starting to think that "defining the terms" may be 95% of the argument about who's conservative versus whatever other strain of right and the difference between that and the left.

To me, the fundamental difference between right and left is about the size of government. Left likes big, protectionist statism. Right likes small, localized government. That definition only works within the American system however. And I don't know how widely accepted it is. I have a degree in political science and when I said that was the chief difference between the two parties in class my professor snapped at me that was not true. Anyway, then you get into "right wing of the left" and terms like that, as you point out. And that becomes more a matter of philosophical differences, which is further complicated by individual interpretations.

No, just my variation of something presented in a class many years ago. It was offered as a marketing idea as "Burgers and Fries."

Nash has the shortest (rhyming) poem, called Fleas:
Adam
Had 'em

roger that, and 73s to ya! -- j
.

You are correct. There is no longer a party that represents what might be called the Constitutionalists The Republican elites have become Democrat light.

I'd like to see someone like Rand or even Jim Webb (who I don't agree with on a lot of things but I think is nevertheless principled) run a third-party campaign. The conventional political wisdom of course says he would get crushed and just hurt the party- political collectivism. But, I maintain, digital politics has revolutionized campaigning. Political insiders and bundlers don't control campaigns anymore. The grassroots has a much bigger potential to impact elections through social media and small donations.

I agree that only a fully fleshed out ideology applied consistently across time has value. And I'm increasingly convinced that conservatism is no longer what it was when Barry Goldwater was railroaded over his principled stance against the Civil Rights Act because people decided it was racist- it's just another form of political establishment control. An interesting question is: are organized politics and principled ideologies mutually exclusive?

I saw/heard her endorsement. It sounded like someone suffering from an amphetamine overdose—high speed rambling free association mixed with sing-song and rhymes.

Rhymes are perceived by weak thinkers as true:
Donuts and fries
Will give you thin thighs.

But a lot of that outrage was directed at specific policies and behaviors adopted by politicians on both sides of the aisle to win votes and then promptly proceeded to do exactly the opposite once they had power. And Trump behaves exactly the same way. Some of his policy switches can be obviously rationalized, and only he ultimately knows whether he's lying, so he should be given the benefit of the doubt. But during the primary he's contradicted himself on positions and people he supports within weeks, as his poll numbers have flagged. That's exactly the kind of opportunism that drove the Tea Party wave elections and other protest movement like Occupy.

Exactly. They can't accept her as female just like they can't accept Ben Carson or Walter Williams as black.

I read Sarah's book "going rogue" and understand how
she made the hard turn towards Trump. . she is damned
tired of the turncoat "conservatives" with whom she has
been consorting, and wants to win -- even if it's only a
partial conservative win. . and She Does Not Want Hillary. -- j
.

The Free State Project is now at 90% of the number to trigger their mass move to NH. I expect them to make a difference there.

richrobinson,, I think it is because she is female and because she absolutely refuses to play the dormant politically correct sham and cower before the "hurt feeling" mob. She could be a female Don Trump. I thought this race was sparky and volatile before...Sarah will only make it better. Give 'em hell Sarah, see how many libs you can send running for their shrinks and mommies.

Well said, Herb. People in the Tea Party wakened up to the fact that so many politicians are not conservative or care one wit about defeating the left....case in point, nominating McCain and Romney. Many in the Republican party just care about being in control. So supporters of Trump see him as refreshing and hope that he'll push back against the left. He is a totally backlash candidate.

That's generally going to be the case everywhere, the people that participate in primaries and caucuses are usually the fringe left & right of their party... so you tend to get these very polarized campaigns that appeal to those bases of voters. The mainstream media doesn't really get that, nor do the casual evening news spectator. Being a very vocal right wing 27% of the vote doesn't help much though.

We actually have a similar but somewhat opposite problem here. About 85% of California by land territory is very, very Republican. Unfortunately there are so many lib-tards by population in LA and San Francisco that we vote to the left every cycle. It tends to be all that rent control, gun control, minimum wage, etc... If it involves "control" those people are for it. We swing right though anytime the Republicans have a decent turnout. I'm optimistic this cycle, Bernie's communist crap isn't going to play well in Silicon Valley, and we already have the highest taxes in the country, there is no one here that will jump for that 90% crap. With a lackluster democrat nominee (either one in handcuffs or a commie), and not in our governor election cycle, I don't see a lot of interest. On the other hand, the Republicans here have been buying 1.5 million guns a year (up from about 600,000 prior to Obama), so 8 years has been pretty long... I see a huge red voter turnout coming. LA is fresh off terrorism and they have more cars registered than people (not an exaggeration), that global warming stuff is not even on the radar screen for them right now.

Can Bernie be a socialist and have any chance outside of the bluest of the blue states like Iowa & New Hampshire? No way. He's trying to move left when the country has obviously been moving to the right with Obama killing off a filibuster-proof majority into the smallest minorities that the Dems have had in 50 years.

We have the same dim-wits here, Kamala Harris is running for the Feinstein seat in the Senate... she's the attorney general that refused to uphold and defend Proposition 8 in court (voter-ban on gay marriage). However someone feels about it, her job was to defend a constitutional amendment on the books, she did not do her job. Now she wants to "take strong liberal leadership to Washington"... Really? The Dems will lose more seats this cycle, her 'leadership' would at best be a Vice chair position on the Capitol janitorial oversight committee (if there were only 2 committee members). Our knucklehead voters will vote for her though instead of say, a good Republican that would get California something close to a equal share of federal spending instead of a straight-up donor state (we only get less than 50 cents on the dollar back of fed tax revenue). We have the dumbest electorate in the nation... but its been well-programmed in our green-party controlled school systems.

I have often thought that some of the liberal hatred of her is frightening. I'm not sure if many of them even understand why they hate her.

His other problem is obvious, he pissed off everyone on both sides of the aisle that could potentially help him (the Senate for example), which translates into no judge being a fan, and I would say on a grey-area issue like that, he's on thin ice.