2016 Election: Too Soon to Tell

November 3 marked Election Day this year, which means there is still a little less than a year left until the 2016 Presidential Election. There has already been three Republican debates and two Democratic debates. The poll numbers are coming in, and there are candidates at the top. But is all of that indicative of how the real numbers will play out? Can we predict who will be the chosen candidate for each party now? It seems the answer is, probably not.

According to this (excellent) article, the poll numbers right now don’t show the opinions of the vast majority of Republicans. So even though Donald Trump is leading the polls, it’s actually not showing what many Republicans are thinking. Good news!

There are still a lot of candidates (14) vying for the Republican nomination, and the Democrats are still down to only two choices, Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders (although Martin O’Malley still has a seat at the table, and many people are speculating he will run as Vice President). Let’s see who has dropped out. On the Republican side Bobby Jindal recently suspended his campaign on November 17, and Scott Walker also dropped. Good riddance! On the Democrat side, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee left, most likely due to their poor performance at the first Democratic debate.

The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses are scheduled to take place between February and June of 2016. Until then, it’s too soon to tell.

2016 Presidential Election: Who’s In, Who’s Out?

The run for president wages on and there have been some changes, minor though they are. For the original list of candidates, scroll down a bit. So, who’s in and who’s out? The biggest news is that Republican candidate Rick Perry, former governor of Texas, has dropped out of the race. Why did he drop? Those glasses aren’t fooling anyone Perry! After he received poor performance ratings in the polls after the first GOP debate on Fox News, he suspended his campaign and then ultimately dropped out on September 11. He is the first to exit.

Well, hmm, I guess that’s pretty much it. But! What’s interesting is those Democrats who have showed interest in running. They are: Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, and Al Gore. And, maybe, Michael Bloomberg. Biden and Gore are/were Vice Presidents. And Cuomo and Bloomberg have ties to New York. Verrrry interesting. For more on this: look here.

Hey, what’s a primary?

The race for president is like Shoots and Ladders: they climb, they slide, and then they are out. How do we arrive with two candidates, one Republican and one Democrat? The process is lengthy and complicated. The ultimate decision is made at the party’s National Convention. To help the party decide on their candidate, they look at the results of the primary elections or the caucus from each state. Am I getting this right? Who knows!

Primary elections and caucuses happen at different times, and take place from February to June. To find out when to vote Democrat in your state, click here (and scroll down). Now, to add more confusion, each state has open or closed primaries which means you can or cannot vote according to your registered party. This is listed on the right-hand column.This means if you want to vote for a different party, you only have a certain amount of time to change your registration (or to register!) To make it easier, if you plan on voting for Bernie Sanders, find out here.

Let’s check in on the 2016 Presidential Election

Well, well, what’s going on here? I follow the news but am admittedly not an avid news reader, so it’s time for a check in. What I’ve been hearing so far is there are a butt-load of Republican candidates, Donald Trump is running (again?), and the major Democratic candidates are Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. I said earlier that Hilary seems to be the favored politician, with people talking as if she has already won the Democratic line, however Bernie is pulling ahead and gaining traction and followers, thanks in large part, I think, to social media. This grandpa (or his millennial interns) knows how to create a good Facebook post!

Checking in:

A few more Democrats have joined the race. They are: Lincoln Chafee (former governor of Rhode Island), Martin O’Malley (former governor of Maryland), and Jim Webb (former senator of Virginia). Lots of formers! Not much diversity! It appears that Hilary and Bernie are still the forerunners here. Let’s take a look at their biggest political issues they are running on.

Hilary

Champion for human rights, internet freedom, and rights and opportunities for women and girls, LGBT people and young people all around the globe. So basically she’s like the Oprah of rights; you get a right! you get a right! Everybody gets rights!

Bernie

The big thing for Bernie is the economy. From creating jobs, to exposing income inequality, to getting big money out of politics, he’s all about that $$.

Summary

Okay, so not much has been changing. Indeed, it is still early in the race.