As a New Yorker, if he moved back, Johnson could also run for President.
Either people canât see through Johnsonâs schtick, or he actually appeals to them. I think heâs a fiercely ambitious, nasty piece of work, but there you go. The comedy value vote canât have been the reason twice, surely?
The best case for Brits is that Johnson loses the leadership campaign for the Tories in a few years, but if he does, itâll be to George Osborne (or, even worse, Theresa May). And with a Labour party in full-on self destruct mode, that means one of those will be PM in/before 2020.
ya know, back in the day, these candidates used to be decided by delegates at their convention⌠technically they still are, but itâs usually a done deal before the convention with all the primaries and caucuses⌠Couldnât the republicans at the convention dump him for the betterment of the party platform?
come to think of it, isnât this exactly why Alexander Hamilton was against direct democracyâŚ
I felt a lot more confident that Trump could not possibly become president before Toronto elected Rob Ford, who, like Trump, pretty much campaigned on being an intolerant jerk.
If a significant enough percentage of the population feel they are being looked down upon by the âliberal elitesâ (mostly because they are), then they still have one measure to express their anger. And in Torontoâs case, express it they didâŚ
"Twice now, Londoners have gone to the polls and, for a laugh, voted in âa supposed politician with comedy hair and the manners of a rapey clown. It wasnât Trump, of course, it was Boris Johnson.â
I think itâs a bit libellous for you to say Boris Johnson âhas the manners of a rapey clownâ.
He has the manners of an overgrown school prefect.
Is Boris a clown? Yes.
Can you disagree with his policies? Yes.
Can suggest that there are better candidates for Mayor? Yes.
Is it wrong that David Cameronâs school chums get sinecure jobs? Yes
Does he have the manners of a ârapey clownâ? No.
The Republicans wouldnât dare to split their ticket and implode their chance at winning the election. For the Republicans to have a chance, they have to figure out a way of making Trump disappear, or somehow become a good sport. One is assassination (or a colossal bribe that probably wonât even work, seeing as appeasing someone like Trump would just make him keep coming back for more. Like a habituated forest animal), the other has the same likelihood as being attacked by a bigfoot a sasquatch and a yeti simultaneously.
Trump is already popular enough among the uneducated and the psychopathic that he certainly has a chance at slurping up that extra 3% of the vote the Republicans need in order to win if he decides to run third party.
Guppy: âHave you got his number?â
Johnson: âThere is a guy at the moment going through his files.â
Guppy: âYouâre brilliantâŚfantasticâŚâ
Guppy then describes himself as a
potential âpsychopathâ who only keeps himself in check âthrough
discipline over my feelingsâ. He also likens himself to Rommel and
Napoleon.
Guppy continues: âBut Iâm telling you something, Boris, this guy has got my blood up and there is nothing I wonât do to get my revenge. Itâs as simple as that.â
Johnson: âUh, how badly are you going to hurt this guy?â
Guppy: âNot badly at all. . .â
Johnson: âReally, because I want to knowâŚIf this guy is seriously hurt I will be f***ing furious.â
Guppy: âI guarantee you he will not be badly hurt.â
Johnson: âHow badly hurt?â
Guppy: âHe will not have a broken limb or broken arm and he will not be put into intensive care or anything like that. He will probably get a couple
of black eyes and a cracked ribâŚâ
Johnson: âA cracked rib?â
Guppy: âNothing which you didnât suffer in rugby, OK? But he will get scared and thatâs what I want him to do⌠I want him to realise heâs f***ed someone off and whoever heâs f***ed off is not the sort of person he wants to mess around with.â
Trump seems to me to be much more like Nigel Farage. Somebody with no chance of election that can pull the debate by saying the things nobody else dares to. Except that even Farage generates some actual content whereas Trump seems to be famous for being famous and nothing else.
In 2008, Boris won the Conservative ticket with 75% of the open vote. He then won both first & second rounds of the mayoral vote with an increased turnout over the previous election.
Four years later, the turnout dropped but he did the same thing.
In the general election, he then won a London constituency with twice the votes of the nearest challenger.
Maybe the 2008 was a"comedy" vote, but 2012 and 2015 were unlikely to be. Either the original premise is incorrect, or his first term convinced people he was better than the alternative.
Iâll leave someone else to tackle how unpleasant using ârapeyâ as an insult isâŚ
âthe parallels are terrible and frightening.â A politician who actually speaks his mind, and does not suffer from a reflexive liberal mindsetâyes, terrible and frightening indeedâat least to Mr. Doctorow, who never seems to realize the absurdity of his hyperbole.
Thatâs exactly why Trump is terrifying. You do know that heâs stated that heâd get the US embroiled in numerous economic world wars right? Totally unnecessary wars for even stupider reasons than Bush had.
Yes Trump speaks his mind. And thatâs why weâre afraid. Heâs transparently shown himself to be so thin-skinned he doesnât belong within 500 miles of the nuclear football. Because heâs said heâll punt it.
He doesnât just look like a psychotic muppet. He pretty much is one.
Hmmm how about a honeypot?
Quite the opposite the way I see it.
He gave up his US nationality. I think it was earlier this year. If heâd kept it, heâd have had to start paying US taxes, due to some change in American law.
Edit: - http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/boris-Johnson-renounces-us-citizenship-tax-bill-mayor-london/385554/
"Johnson sold a house in London for a cool ÂŁ730,000 profit, and as U.S. citizens are required to pay capital-gains tax on overseas transactions, Uncle Sam sent Mayor Boris a bill. "
Sorry Cory, you write a lot of good stuff but I think your comparison here is well wide of the mark and invoking that ârapey clownâ quote is pretty inappropriate.
Johnson is a centre-right, educated, cosmopolitan politician who yes, uses a larger-than-life media persona to his political advantage, but also if you ever watch London assembly questions has a sensitive approach and is involved with real details. Itâs a bit of an insult to the combined electorate of London to suggest we repeatedly voted him in as a joke, or to entirely dismiss the positive things that have happened to London on his watch as the work entirely of others.
Supporting a London living-wage, better access to our jobs market for foreign nationals and big infrastructure spending such as cros-srail 1, 2 and an estuary airport are hardly the marks of a hard-line, reflexive right winger in the Republican image
Trump on the other hand has always come across to me as an anti-intellectual philistine. His TV persona seems to be entirely about him being right because he is rich, not the other way around (which is more often admired). His election campaign appears to be a naked piece of ego mania, peppered with insults and deliberate antagonism. Th two men are not the same.
Each is easily skewered (although I would argue one is more deserving) on their own merits should you wish to write that way (although I would argue Trump is more deserving of attack), but the comparison is not illuminating.
There is of course another possible reason: the two things the English (not the Sottish or the Welsh) are most infatuated with are self-made ambition and the Establishment. Thanks to the strange quirks of history B Johnson embodies both these spaces. He is fuelled by fiery ambition of an upstart immigrant thus is a bit of an outsider while also being hyper Establishment (Eaton & all).
You could basically read him as a rejuvenating force to the Establishment. People can nurse the illusion that they have elected something new and different while at the same time voting for the good old, tested reliable establishment. i.e. It looks different but nothing really changesâŚ
As to Trump. He is merely a symptom of US Americanâs love affair with capitalism which by now clearly trumps your nobel and historic love affair with freedom and liberty.
Basically what you are saying is that itâs a bit harder to fool the general London voter than the US GOP electorate? Which is not saying much.
As a Londoner, interested and involved in politics I find it difficult to pin point anything B. Johnson did that was not to the advancement of his cause i.e. B Johnson, and benefited the population at large.
Two questions. How can a politician in charge of the biggest melting pot in Europe (which greatly benefits from EU immigrants) be so xenophobically anti Europe http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1320232/boris-johnson-wants-immigrants-just-not-europe/?
And how can he possibly in his hands on way be booth Mayor of London and a constituency MP. Sorry, I am just not buying it that London is having a good deal with a Mayor with a second job.
I canât speak to Johnson, but in Trumpâs case itâs not an insult:
but he is a capitalistâs dream. with no conscience and a good hand at picking yeah sayers as advisors. what more do you wantâŚcapitalism has won, fair and squareâŚand the communal is dead.
