WHO WILL IT BE FOR PRESIDENT?

ANYONE WHO HAS READ HERE AT THE TEA ROOM KNOWS BY NOW THAT I ABHOR THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM, THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE, AND JUST ABOUT ALL POLITICIANS, BUT I DO VOTE, AND IT'S ALMOST "THAT TIME" AGAIN.

WHICH OF ALL THE HOPEFUL 'CANDIDATES' WOULD YOU TRUST WITH YOUR LIFE?

WHICH WOULD YOU HAND YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN OVER TO FOR SAFEKEEPING?

WHICH ONE WOULD YOU GIVE THE KEYS TO YOUR HOUSE OR SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX TO?

ANY OF THEM?

CAN YOU SINGLE OUT ANY ONE, OR TWO OF ALL THOSE HOPEFULS AND FIND NOT ONE LIE THEY'VE TOLD, NOT ONE BROKEN CAMPAIGN PROMISE?

WE KNOW THEY HAVE ALL LIED AND MADE EMPTY CAMPAIGN PROMISES.
WE KNOW THAT NONE OF THEM UPHELD THEIR OATHS OF OFFICE.
THAT SHOULD ELIMINATE THE ENTIRE FIELD.

What a choice...again!

Seriously, folks, please take a long, hard, honest look at the lineup!

Do just a little bit of DIGGING!

Look just barely beneath the glossy party propaganda.

Look at the CHARACTER of these 'contenders'!
Look at their histories!

WHICH ONE CAN WE COMPLETELY TRUST?

DON'T GIVE ME THAT "LESSER OF TWO EVILS" BS...LESSER OF THOSE TWO IS STILL EVIL!

Look at those they've stepped on to get to the top of the heap...the American PEOPLE, all of us!

THEY ALL BETRAYED OUR TRUST!

BUT, JUST FOR THE HECK OF IT, LET'S LOOK AT WHO IS ELECTABLE, WHO ISN'T AND WHY...SORT OF.

I try to think the Democrats are serious about Hillary being a sure thing, but with those emails, the Benghazi thing, her shady past back in Arkansas, her anything BUT sparkling personality, and "Slick Willy" as a mate?
REALLY?

BE HONEST...IF HILLARY HAD A KNIFE IN HER HAND, WOULD YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON HER?

And dare anyone believe THIS country is going to elect a WOMAN, a WOMAN?
SOME men would rather rip out their own hearts than vote for a "hormonal female"!

Hillary has the chance of a snowball in a blast furnace!HER ONLY HOPE IS THAT THE DEDICATED PARTY MEMBERS, THOSE WHO WOULD VOTE FOR ANYBODY THE PARTY GAVE THE NOMINATION TO, WILL GO VOTE.

THAT ALSO DEPENDS ON HOW MANY WHO MIGHT VOTE FOR THE DEMO-CATS THE GOP WILL ALLOW TO VOTE THIS YEAR.
PROBABLY FEWER THAN LAST ELECTION.
THEY LEARNED FROM OBAMA'S WIN!

Who else do the Dems have?
Biden?
Joe Biden?
Haven't there been enough bad jokes about Joe and photos of Joe being Joe?

BIDEN IS GOING TO GET "TOUCHY-FEELY" WITH THE WRONG PERSON ONE OF THESE DAYS AND LOSE AN ARM...OR WORSE.

Joe MIGHT serve...in a sturdy enough straight jacket, maybe, on a really short leash, HEAVILY tranquilized.

NOPE, NOT ELECTABLE, BUT HE WOULD BE A LONGSHOT IF THE BOYS AT THE TOP DECIDE AGAINST A FEMALE.


Bernie Sanders?
Sure, Bernie looks like someone's lovable grandfather...and that's a problem, isn't it?
Bernie is far from young at 73, and America likes young.
Bernie does not project that sparkling vitality, that swagger and "rugged good looks" that America likes to see in the oval office.

Also, Bernie calls himself a "democratic socialist".
Socialist?
Well, maybe he has some honesty in those veins?

And Bernie is Jewish, both his parents were Jewish.
MOST of the world loves to hate Jews, let's call it like it is.

One guy , I believe it was a New Hampshire voter, said only angry old hippies love Bernie.
Are enough of us left to pull this off?
Nope...even I don't like Bernie and I'm a card-carrying, certiified, tree-hugging old hippie.

No way Bernie could win.

Then, to round out the top 5 slots, the "front runners", we have Jim Webb, Lincoln Chafee and Martin O'Malley.

WHO?
WHO ARE THOSE 3 GUYS?

Well, Chafee was a REPUBLICAN U.S. Senator from 1999 until 2007, when he lost the election, became an Independent and supported Obama in 2008, but then declared he was a Democrat in 2013.

Chafee is the son of an ex-governor of Rhode Island, who was also once a U.S. Senator, and who was also a REPUBLICAN.

He's had several "issues" during his "service", both as governor and as Congressman.

Chafee was ranked as a LIBERAL Republican, voted the LEAST conservative Republican in Congress more than once.

He raised taxes in Rhode Island, worked to get Pell Grants for those who can't afford college, and was involved in social programs for the poor.

Being FOR those two groups of people plus raising taxes make him unelectable.
Everybody, almost, hates the poor and underprivileged in America, right?
And we all know only the middle class and "down" should be taxed .
Not the top10%.
Certainly not the top1%.
He won't be raking in war chest funds.

Pretty much a similar story on the other two that have been able to raise only a few bucks for their campaigns, so I won't bother.
They'll be dropping out shortly.

See what I mean?
The Dems are sunk.

ARE THE 'PUBLICANS ANY BETTER OFF?

DONALD TRUMP?
"THE DON"?
DOES ANYONE TAKE THAT GUY SERIOUSLY FOR U.S. PRESIDENT?
ONE THING I WILL SAY ABOUT TRUMP...HE OFFENDS EVERYONE EQUALLY.
HE HAS ENOUGH BIG $$$ THAT HE DOESN'T NEED TO SUCK-UP TO ANYONE...BUT, HE DOES.
THAT FAR, FAR RIGHT.
HE'S PLAYING THEM LIKE A PIANO.

JEB BUSH?
ANOTHER Bush?
A THIRD Bush?

His name isn't even "JEB", nor Jebediah...it's JOHN...John Ellis, actually.

Would we have to put up with DARTH DICK CHENEY again if Jeb-Boy gets elected?
Would Daddy Bush set ANOTHER overseer over a less-than-stellar son?

Can he READ, or would it be phonics on the teleprompters AGAIN?

Jeb WAS a two-term governor of Florida, land of the hanging chads.
Good thing for Brother George, "Jr" during that long Florida recount, yes?

But he's not big on abortions, which we know is BIG business in America.
We like to abort and sell fetal tissue and body parts here, don't we?
So, that's a big strike against Jeb...he wouldn't pull in enough "feminist" votes.

He believes in the right to bear arms.
Scratch the "ban all guns" crowd.

And he did say gays did NOT deserve special legal protection NOR is he on board with same-sex marriages.
Oops!
There goes the votes from however many of the 1.6% of LGBT folks in America are of voting age!
But even if ALL that 1.6% voted against Jeb, that is NOT a lot of votes, is it?
He might recoup those losses.

He is firmly against things that "cater" to the poor...like Medicaid, affordable health insurance, a FEDERAL law on minimum wage, etc.

In 1995, he co-authored a book titled "PROFILES IN CHARACTER".

HE MADE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR IN A CHAPTER CALLED "RESTORATION OF SHAME" THAT HE THOUGHT SHAMING WOULD FORCE THE LAZY, THE SHAMEFUL TO BE BETTER.

“Society needs to relearn the art of public and private disapproval and how to make those who engage in undesirable behavior feel some sense of shame.”

Bush had some specific groups that he wanted to ostracize in order to change their behavior. 
One that gets a good deal of ink from Bush was women who have children outside of marriage. 
He writes, 
 “One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame.” 
He pines for the days of the Scarlet Letter (missing the point of Hawthorne’s novel).  
BUY THE BOOK, READ ALL ABOUT IT...THE POOR SUCK IN JEB'S WORLD, so he might win back a few votes for that, but don't forget the Latinos seem to like him.
UH-OH!
He MIGHT be favorable to "illegal immigrants"!
NOOOO!

BUSH THE THIRD HAS THE NOMINATION CLINCHED.
HE LOATHES ALL THE RIGHT THINGS TO MAKE THE TOP DOGS IN THE GOP JUMP FOR JOY.

I MEAN, WHO ELSE DO THE 'PUBLICANS HAVE?

TED CRUZ?
NOT TEDDY-BEAR CRUZ, CONGRESS' FOOT-IN-MOUTH DISEASE POSTER BOY!
TEDDY IS SO OBVIOUSLY NOT PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL, I AM NOT GOING TO BOTHER WITH HIM.
NEITHER CANADA NOR TEXAS WANT HIM BACK...THEIR VILLAGES MUST ALL HAVE A RESIDENT 'IDIOT'.
His REAL name is RAFAEL EDWARD, BTW, another nicknamed candidate.

RICK PERRY?
HOW MANY OTHER PRESIDENTS HAVE WE HAD WHO WERE INDICTED BY A GRAND JURY AND IS TILL FACING CHARGES?

Rick is actually JAMES RICHARD.
What's up with nicknames among all these candidates?
Be who you were BORN!

NOW, IF HE WON AND THEN WENT TO FEDERAL PRISON, HAS HE NAMED A VICE PRESIDENT?
THAT'S WHO WE'D HAVE IN THE 'BIG CHAIR' WHILE RICKY WAS AWAY DOING TIME AT BIG SPRING OR LA TUNA IN TEJAS-LAND.

WHO ELSE IS IN THE RACE IN THE GOP?
WHO ISN'T!

WOW!
AND WE HAVE TO BE SUBJECTED TO ALL THOSE TV ADS BY OVER A DOZEN 'PUBLICAN HOPEFULS?

CHRIS CHRISTIE?
CHRISTOPHER JAMES CHRISTIE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE FAME?

CAN THE U.S. AFFORD HIM?
Christie spent $82,594 to buy concessions at football games during the NFL season in 2010-2011 on 58 separate occasions.

CAN WE TRUST HIM WITH OUR MONEY?
As the Newark Star-Ledger reported last year, nearly one-third of the federal house aid money allocated to Hurricane Sandy victims went to areas of New Jersey that weren’t particularly impacted by the storm. “Nearly a third of the money—$47.6 million, earmarked for new affordable housing projects—landed in Essex and Middlesex counties,” wrote Ted Sherman, “while many hard-hit Jersey Shore communities in Ocean saw relatively little of it.”
He has also been accused by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer of holding hurricane relief money hostage unless she approved a redevelopment plan proposed by the Rockefeller Group.

Christie used billions of Port Authority funds to bankroll transportation projects elsewhere in his state. As a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating the Christie administration’s use of roughly $1.8 billion from Port Authority in tax-exempt bond financing for bridges and roadways on the New Jersey side near the Holland Tunnel.Christie administration has moved the retirement savings of public workers like teachers, firefighters, and police officers over to private financial firms on Wall Street, as Salon reported back in May this year.
 “While Christie says the pension system cannot afford to maintain current retirement benefits, pension fees paid to financial firms have quadrupled to $600 million a year,” writes David Sirota, “or $1.5 billion in total since he took office in 2010.”

PASS ON CHRISTIE, RIGHT?
MAYBE THE MAFIA WILL PICK HIM UP...HE MIGHT FIT IN THERE?

LINDSEY GRAHAM?
NO, HONESTLY, IS ANYBODY CONSIDERING VOTING FOR LINDSEY? 
WHY WOULD ANYONE?

"Regarding U.S. Citizens accused of supporting terrorism, senator Lindsey Graham has stated before the senate, "When they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them: ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer. You are an enemy combatant, and we are going to talk to you about why you joined Al Qaeda.’"

– U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, 2011

His support for the Fifth Amendment’s right to due process is selective: 

“If I’m President of the United States and you’re thinkin’ about joining al-Qaeda or ISIL—anybody thinkin’ about that?—I’m not going to call a judge, I’m going to call a drone, and we will kill you,” he said at the Iowa Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser. He doesn’t only want to deploy the military all over the Middle East—he might use it against Congress, too. “And here’s the first thing I would do if I were president of the United States. I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this,” he said in March, referring to cuts in the defense and intelligence budgets. “I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to.”
 He thinks Guantánamo is full of “crazy bastards that want to kill us all,” but that the secret prison itself is “well run.”

GRAHAM?Not in a billion years!

MIKE HUCKABEE?
MICHAEL DALE HUCKABEE?  
He tried this before and failed.
HE WAS A BAPTIST PASTOR ONCE UPON A TIME.  
UH-OH!
He even dared say that the United States is "moving rapidly toward the criminalization of Christianity."
While that is true, who wants to hear it?
The FAR "right"?

He wanted to quarantine AIDS patients!
There goes that 1.6% of our population who say they are LGB or T.

And he's from Arkansas...like William Jefferson Clinton was.
NOPE.
NO PREZ HUCKABEE.

BOBBY JINDAL?
ANOTHER NICKNAMED CANDIDATE.
HE IS PIYUSH JINDAL.June 2013, Politico published an op-ed penned by Jindal.
Here are some excerpts from what some have called "BOBBY'S MANIFESTO:

"Because the left wants: The government to explode; to pay everyone; to hire everyone; they believe that money grows on trees; the earth is flat; the industrial age, factory-style government is a cool new thing; debts don’t have to be repaid; people of faith are ignorant and uneducated; unborn babies don’t matter; pornography is fine; traditional marriage is discriminatory; 32 oz. sodas are evil; red meat should be rationed; rich people are evil unless they are from Hollywood or are liberal Democrats; the Israelis are unreasonable; trans-fat must be stopped; kids trapped in failing schools should be patient; wild weather is a new thing; moral standards are passé; government run health care is high quality; the IRS should violate our constitutional rights; reporters should be spied on; Benghazi was handled well; the Second Amendment is outdated; and the First one has some problems too."

NOPE...FOR A MULTITUDE OF REASONS... MOVE ALONG..

BUT WHEN WE MOVE ALONG, IT'S MORE OF THE SAME!
ALL MADE OUT OF TICKY-TACKY, ALL LOOK JUST THE SAME!

WHETHER DEMO-CATS OR 'PUBLICANS, THEY'RE ALL JUST FLAWED, AND IF YOU FACT-CHECK THE LOT OF THEM, FACTS LOSE... "PANTS-ON-FIRE" LIES FOR SEVERAL.
THEN, WHEN WE "FOLLOW THE MONEY", WE SEE WHO WILL PULL THEIR STRINGS ONCE THEY'RE IN OFFICE, WHO THEY WILL OWE THEIR MISERABLE SOULS TO.

WE'LL LOOK AT A COUPLE MORE, THEN JUST GO HAVE A LONG CRY OR SCREAM OR WHATEVER.

MARCO RUBIO?
THE MONEY ISN'T THERE FOR THE LAD.
THAT MIGHT SIGNAL HE'S AT LEAST NOT A SELLOUT?
HE DOESN'T HAVE MUCH EXPERIENCE, DOES HE?
BUT HOW MANY DO?
AND, UNLIKE MANY, HE'S RUNNING UNDER HIS REAL, GIVEN NAME!
HE'S A YOUNG GUY, FAIRLY ATTRACTIVE, SEEMS WELL EDUCATED...BUT...

YEAH, WHETHER ANYONE COMES RIGHT OUT AND SAYS IT OR NOT, TOO MANY HAVE POINTED TO HIS ETHNIC BACKGROUND IN OTHER WAYS.

JUST AS NONE OF THE REALLY BIG BOYS IN THE GOP ARE COMING RIGHT OUT AND SAYING RAND PAUL IS A NO-GO BECAUSE OF WHO HIS FATHER IS, DITTO FOR RUBIO.

OF ALL THE LINEUP, DEMS AND PUBS, TO ME, RUBIO WOULD SEEM THE SANEST CHOICE, THE "LEAST TAINTED", BUT NO WAY WILL THAT HAPPEN.

SANTORUM, WALKER,  PATAKI?
ALREADY BASICALLY NIXED BY THE TOP BRASS IN THE GOP.

BAD SHOWING IN THE POLLS.
NOT ENOUGH CASH COWS. 

I REALLY DON'T WANT TO WRITE-IN MICKEY MOUSE AGAIN, BUT I MAY HAVE TO.  
MICKEY WAS A WIZARD ONCE, REMEMBER?

THINK, AMERICA!
IT'S NOT ILLEGAL YET!
VOTE FOR THE MAN, OR WOMAN, WHO HAS SERVED WITH HONOR, WHO HASN'T LIED TO US, PLAYED FOOTSIE WITH THE MEGA-MACHINES OF POLITICS, ITS "FINANCIERS", WHO WON'T GO INTO THAT WHITE HOUSE OWING ANYONE BUT WE, THE PEOPLE, SOMEONE WHO HAS DILIGENTLY UPHELD THAT OATH OF OFFICE IN WHATEVER PUBLIC OFFICE THEY HELD.

YEAH...
VOTE FOR ......... NOBODY?