It is interesting that the "centre right" folks on BE assume that us everyday middle of the road folk are actually leftie factionalists.

You know you can't resist coming on here and spewing your daily dose of strawmen

Biden puts his foot in his mouth every time he opens it. Acts creepy around most women too. His charisma seems to allow him to negotiate well though.
Clinton is not especially likeable, always too stiff and rehearsed.
Sanders won't scale back his opinions to make himself more electable.
No one else gets any national media coverage.
None of them have yet to come up with anything as fatally dumb as the top runners of the GOP nominees yet, even gaffe-machine Biden.

Last time, all of the Republican primary contenders spent a time at the top. Would be nice to see it rotate like that this time so we can see what some of the quieter ones say.

Hillary has had a go surely.

OK, I've got one!

Bernie Sanders stated, "I've known Hillary Clinton for twenty five years. I like her. I respect her. I disagree with her on a number of issues."

Hmm.. A bit boring and civil, sorry

Thanks for the link. I was getting confused because I was wondering if Mr Flavius was trying to ape Carson with a sort of Hitler/Cossack analogy. When in fact I was just reading far to much into it.

So then it's the first Democratic debate tomorrow. What's everyone looking out for?

Basically it seems that Bernie has to do well here to improve his chances. If he can get a bump in the polls similar to Fiorina did, then it definitely makes things more interesting going forward. I think so long as he keeps doing what he's been doing, by being honest and talking about what he sees as the problems and how he will fix it, then he stands a good chance. My worry is that he will try and pivot to income inequality on every issue, and that will make him sound like a broken record.

As for Hilary, well, I suppose she could try and be honest, but she probably doesn't remember the last time she told the truth, so she'll just stick to the focus group tested soundbites and a certain section will lap that up.

No word from Diamond Joe, so I doubt he'll be there.

As for the others, they have nothing to lose, so any exposure is good for them, maybe it might improve their poll numbers, maybe not.

Wait, did Chris Christie just say he wants to shoot down Russian planes over Syria? What could possibly go wrong there...

Obviously this thread has mainly been about slagging off the contenders.

Is there anybody standing or likely to stand that anybody would actually feel good about?

Say enough to go knock on some doors.

It's likely to be terribly boring.
Apart from Clinton/Sanders, everyone else is a no-hoper. It's a shame that Joe won't be there to shake things up.
Even if he does decide to run, it doesn't bode well for him that he was in two minds about running for so long.

I expect they will debate gun control which will pit Hillary against Bernie head to head. Email servers etc., and Benghazhi dead certs.

I wonder if CNN will put the fire to their feet and find out what presidential 'code names' they will choose if they win.

What's your opinion?

None.

Some I really dislike, maybe to the extent of being able to be persuaded to campaign against them if the opponent was not too bad.

None, and Biden has blown it for me if it takes him this long to decide to run or not. Not the sort of dithering that endears his abilities to be a president.

This whole election stuff is too drawn out. Need to make it a law no campaigning and no announcements until January 1 of the year of the election.

A few other things would need to be adjusted obviously, but this long drawn out process is just crazy.

I also think there needs to be a standard nationwide primary election date, so all states vote on the same day.

While I agree with the sentiment, it would never work. All the candidates would just not be explicit that they were running, but the implication would be there, and nothing would change.

As for having the primaries on the same day, great idea, but this is the only time Iowa and New Hampshire ever get to feel important.