Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal Becomes 13th GOP Candidate For 2016 Nomination

Jumping ahead of a planned announcement, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal tweeted his candidacy for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

Jindal becomes the first Indian-American to be a serious candidate for president, and the 13th Republican candidate seeking the 2016 nomination.

Several polls show Jindal garnering only 1% of support from Republican voters. In a recent Fox News poll, he trailed behind “None of the above” which received 2%.

Dr. Ben Carson Doesn’t Know If He Equates The Confederate Flag With Gay Pride Flag

GOP presidential candidate has yet another off-moment in an interview when he can’t answer a question regarding the Confederate flag being compared to the LGBT community’s rainbow flag.

His pause to think of a response is cringe-worthy.

From Mediate:

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson appeared Wednesday morning on CNN’s New Day, so that can only mean two things: Yes, host Chris Cuomo asked the retired neurosurgeon a gay rights question and, yes, Carson was uncomfortable and avoided answering.

The moment came towards the end of an interview in which Carson and Cuomo had discussed ongoing controversy over public display of the Confederate flag.

Carson spoke of the need for firm leadership following last week’s racially-motivated slaying of nine parishioners at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., which prompted Cuomo to ask him the following:

Let me hold you to your own test on a different level. Many people are equating what the Confederate flag stands for with the Gay Pride flag, and saying, ‘Hey, that flag should be taken down, too, because all it stands for is hatred toward Christians and people who don’t favor gay rights. Do you see an equation between those two symbols?

(Note: By “many people,” Cuomo was mostly referring to a certain perpetually-outraged Breitbart.com columnist who calls the rainbow flag a “fascist” symbol because words don’t mean anything anymore.)

Carson paused in his response, clearly unhappy with the pivot: “I decided that I really wanted to talk about the Confederate flag during this time.”

And Cuomo pressed further: “But you just said, doctor, that you cannot avoid these difficult situations because that’s how they fester. You must deal with what is difficult to deal with, that’s part of leadership.”

But Carson held firm: “Like I said: If you want to talk about that, let’s do that on a different segment.”

Because, as president, you can just hit ‘pause’ whenever you want and only make the decisions you want to make…?

Trump Bump

Like most newcomers to the presidential field, Donald Trump has seen a bump in standing among GOP primary voters.

A new Suffolk University poll of New Hampshire Republicans shows Trump trailing only former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The poll of 500 likely GOP presidential primary voters gave 14% support to Mr. Bush, and Trump garnering 11%.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio followed with 8% and 7%, respectively.

The poll also showed Trump has the highest unlikeable numbers in the field. Only 37% have a favorable view of him, while 49% see him as unfavorable.

The entertainment factor of seeing Trump participate in primary debates makes me giddy 🙂

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

Campaign Ad: Hillary Clinton “Fighter”

Candidate for 2016 Democratic nod for president – Hillary Clinton

New campaign video from Hillary Clinton – “Fighter.”

Clip description: Over a four-decade career in public service, Hillary Clinton has fought for children and families who needed a champion. She doesn’t give up, and she doesn’t quit. Everyday Americans need a fighter like her in the White House.

Can I also say: very nice hair here. She found the right stylist.

Donald Trump Apparently Had To Pay For Crowd Enthusiasm At Campaign Launch

According to the Hollywood Reporter, some of the folks in the “enthusiastic crowd” at Donald Trump’s presidential campaign launch were paid to wear the t-shirts and hold the “home-made” looking signs to gin up the crowd factor.

New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump’s event.

“We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement,” reads the June 12 email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “We understand this is not a traditional ‘background job,’ but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought.” (Read the full email at the bottom of the post.)

The pay was listed as $50 for less than three hours of work. According to the email, Extra Mile was reaching out to potential extras in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past. Gotham GR had no comment.

Questions as to whether the Trump campaign had hired extras were first raised Wednesday by anti-Trump activist Angelo Carusone, who came across an Instagram photo showing a man he recognized as a background actor posing at the Trump event. Carusone screengrabbed the photo of the actor, Domenico Del Giacco, and published it in a blog post. The photo shows Del Giacco with a woman, identified in the now-deleted Instagram post as actress Courtney Klotz. (Del Giacco has since deleted his entire Instagram account.)

Neil Young To Donald Trump: Don’t Rock In My Free World

Among the many miscalculations made by Donald Trump during his presidential announcement (insulting Mexican immigrants, taking “Staircase One” for his entrance, wondering when the US ever beat Japan at “anything”), his choice of entrance music was seriously off-key.

And Neil Young, who wrote the classic “Rockin’ In The Free World” is not having it.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Since “Rockin’ in the Free World” was written as a critique of the Republican George H. W. Bush administration and how it did not care about America’s poor, you can see why Young wouldn’t be very excited about the conservative multi-billionaire appropriating his tune and misrepresenting its message.

“Donald Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement,” said an official statement from Young’s camp.

“Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for president of the United States of America.” It’s far from the first time Young’s iconic song has seen appropriation. After it came out in 1989, it became an anthem for the collapse of communism.

Donald Trump Announces Run For 2016 GOP Nomination For President

And news directors, political pundits and bloggers rejoice!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This should be fun. Popcorn, feet up, go!

I will add that in a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 74% of Republicans said they could not see themselves voting for Donald Trump; that’s more than any other candidate mentioned in the poll.

The Democratic National Committee released this brilliant bit of snark:

“Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days. He adds some much-need seriousness that has been previously lacking from the GOP field and we look forward to hearing more of his ideas for the nation.”

Watch the Donald’s announcement below.

It’s Not Jeb Bush In 2016, It’s Just “Jeb!”

In advance of announcing his official candidacy for the 2016 GOP nod for president, Jeb Bush tweeted out his new campaign logo.

Do you like the built-in excitement by adding the exclamation point? It certainly got me going 🙂

You’ll notice the name “Bush” is not anywhere to be seen. Anything he can do to distance himself from his brother’s disaster of an administration.

The logo garnered some attention from journalists who noted Jeb’s lack of creativity. Note the pic below from his 1998 campaign for governor in Florida.