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Uh Oh....
Weekly Standard ^ | September 28, 2015 | Bill Kristol

Posted on 09/18/2015 9:06:56 AM PDT by COUNTrecount

How big a problem is it that the two leading Republican candidates for president aren’t actually qualified to be president?

“Oh, come on,” you’re inclined to respond. “It’s not that much of a problem. After all, Donald Trump and Ben Carson aren’t really the leading GOP presidential candidates, are they?”

Yes, they are. Donald Trump is averaging about 30 percent in national polls and has been rising steadily since announcing his candidacy. Ben Carson started to move into double digits a month ago and is now at 20 percent. No one else is above single digits. In fact, if you take a look at the Real Clear Politics averages, you’ll find none of the others is above 7.8 percent. The ones who have briefly visited the land of double digits have since fallen back. No one has shown sustained momentum.

“Well,” you’re tempted to retort, “why should we believe that neither Trump nor Carson is qualified to be president?”

Did you watch the debate? Neither Trump nor Carson has much of a grasp of the issues. Neither has a demonstrated ability to govern. Trump is certainly the less qualified of the two, a self-regarding blowhard who’s not much of a conservative to boot, who is not now and will never be qualified to be president.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2016election; bencarson; billkristol; california; carlyfiorina; election2016; florida; icarly; jebbush; newyork; realclearpolitics; scottwalker; tedcruz; texas; trump; weeklystandard; wisconsin
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To: Fantasywriter

Amazing. You’d think that a self-styled intellectual who wants to take Trump down would have STARTED by reading and analyzing his book.


81 posted on 09/18/2015 9:45:29 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: taxcontrol

If one really scrutinizes the bar for “qualification” to ANY position, not merely that of the office of the Presidency of the United States. one would discover that those who set the “qualifications” tend to use their own PERSONAL level of attainment as the benchmark. Anybody who fails to reach this level in any respect is therefore “not qualified”, and is rejected out of hand. No recourse, no appeal, no mercy.

This does tend to eliminate much, if not all, upward mobility. And when this upward mobility is thwarted, then a permanent hierarchy is perpetuated.


82 posted on 09/18/2015 9:46:11 AM PDT by alloysteel (If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? - Will Rogers.)
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To: taxcontrol

“By who’s qualifications?”

The self-appointed gatekeepers of the establishment!


83 posted on 09/18/2015 9:46:28 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: COUNTrecount

You have to compare in context - trump & carson

-Or-

Hilliary

Biden

Sanders

(Obama)

-———Hands down either Trump or Carson are much more highly qualified.


84 posted on 09/18/2015 9:46:51 AM PDT by Triple (Socialism denies people the right to the fruits of their labor, and is as abhorrent as slavery)
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To: COUNTrecount

Why not put your writing energy into criticizing the lack of ability of our current president to be President. These kind of articles are very disingenuous.


85 posted on 09/18/2015 9:48:21 AM PDT by BRL
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To: COUNTrecount

and Kristol is qualified to do what?

Propaganda?


86 posted on 09/18/2015 9:48:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: COUNTrecount

Amazing. Bill is now an arbiter of things conservative. That in itself is hilarious. But seriously, he sounds a tad desperate, don’t you think?


87 posted on 09/18/2015 9:49:07 AM PDT by stratboy
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To: 5th MEB

John Bolton is neocon. Ted Cruz is neocon.

Paleocon are Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan.

Robert Taft is the father or grandfather of paleocon.

Neoconservative means new conservative and has referred generally to people who were raised in the intellectual, eastern seaboard liberal left environment but saw the problem with leftism, mainly due to an understanding of communism, and moved right in the face of their social group’s near universal belief in leftism.

Understandably, many neocons have been Jewish, not all. Norman Podhoritz may be the grandfather of neoconservatism.

There also is the group of neocons who did not necessarily come from a left, eastern seaboard family and environment and therefore did not convert from left to right, but have been part of the liberal left social structure, lived and operated within it yet held on to conservative values. This is a Ted Cruz neocon as an example who has been through all that the east coast liberal left establishment entails in his Ivy League career.


88 posted on 09/18/2015 9:50:14 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Fantasywriter
Trump published a book in 2011, Time to get Tough, which is styled as a policy manifesto. I have yet to meet a Trump critic who has read it.

I'm sure he hired somebody GREAT to write it for him, and it was a YUUGE bestseller! However, I have yet to hear Mr. Trump himself speak with any authenticity and depth and conservative conviction on these many issues.

89 posted on 09/18/2015 9:50:45 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Social and constitutional conservative)
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To: COUNTrecount

I clicked the link and didn’t see a comments section. He must have known what was coming.


90 posted on 09/18/2015 9:51:47 AM PDT by stratboy
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To: ifinnegan

Trump is a noncon.


91 posted on 09/18/2015 9:52:31 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Social and constitutional conservative)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Keep that thought in mind when Don sides with the Dems on every issue after he is elected ... an odd deal: Republicans putting up a Democrat and FOB for their nominee simply because he is an “outsider”, a novelty, and talks a game which sounds good to them. But then so did Barry for many Republicans in 2008 and 2012 ...

Better a devil you know than one you don’t.


92 posted on 09/18/2015 9:54:54 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Isn’t it amazing? And you should hear the excuses I get from fellow conservatives for not reading it. If I were facetious, I would boil them down to 1, if I read it, I couldn’t keep calling him a liberal, and 2, if I read an entire Trump policy manifesto, I couldn’t keep on harping that he has offered no substance or specifics.


93 posted on 09/18/2015 9:54:59 AM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: COUNTrecount

It says more about you for repeating this crap than the idiot author.


94 posted on 09/18/2015 9:56:32 AM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
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To: Charles Henrickson

‘I’m sure he hired somebody GREAT to write it for him’

Unless you have a shred of evidence, how is this not a smear?


95 posted on 09/18/2015 9:57:04 AM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: COUNTrecount

Hey Billy, “we the people” are rewriting the job description. Trump qualifies.


96 posted on 09/18/2015 9:57:05 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Don't make-up stuff. It just wastes everybody's time.)
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To: COUNTrecount
You have to be 35 years old and an American citizen to become President. That's’ it be-yotch-ay.

At least that is what I learned when schools actually taught something other than applying a condom to a banana.

Correct me please if I am wrong...memory isn't what it used to be...I inhaled! :-) SORRY MOM !

97 posted on 09/18/2015 9:57:25 AM PDT by JEDI4S (I don't mean to cause trouble...it just happens naturally through the Force!)
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To: Charles Henrickson

“Trump is a noncon.”

Funny.


98 posted on 09/18/2015 9:58:47 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: goodtomato

Nice catch.


99 posted on 09/18/2015 9:59:28 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Don't make-up stuff. It just wastes everybody's time.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Maybe I will listen to Bill Kristol when he actually supports a conservative. Here is an establishment media type who has nothing but disdain for conservatives, telling us that Trump is not conservative. No thanks, he has no business or qualifications to tell me about conservatism when he does not live or support it.


100 posted on 09/18/2015 10:00:05 AM PDT by stratboy
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