Posted on 06/17/2015 9:45:26 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
The Republican field is crowded, which implies that primary voters have little information about where some of the candidates stand. That is particularly the case this season, with a few relatively unknown contenders who lack legislative experience or a long history of campaign contributions that would allow researchers to precisely identify where they stand on the liberal-to-conservative political dimension.
However, one characteristic all candidates share is that they have active and popular Twitter accounts. And as I showed in an article published earlier this year in the journal Political Analysis — now freely available online as an Editors’ Choice article — it is possible to analyze the candidates’ Twitter networks to compute precise ideological scores and thus identify how conservative or liberal each of them is.
The intuition behind this method is simple: Citizens prefer to follow on Twitter those political accounts that they perceive to be ideologically close to their own positions. Tea party supporters, for example, tend to follow Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, but not Chris Christie. The same occurs on the other side of the spectrum: Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders will have a more liberal set of followers than Hillary Clinton. Relying on this assumption, I developed a statistical model that estimates simultaneously the positions of political actors and voters. And since not only politicians but also media outlets, private companies, and interest groups are active on Twitter the resulting ideological scores are comparable for different sets of accounts.
The figure below displays the ideological scores of all declared and rumored major primary candidates as of June 1
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You nailed it. It’s the trust factor. It is very hard for me to see Trump in a public service role. I’m not sure he’s wired for that.
Cruz has not come out in support of TPP. That agreement is not complete yet. When it does come up for vote, likely late 2016, I don’t think he will vote for it and I think it will be defeated.
If he's for real ... he'll accomplish a LOT in six months
Show me a couple of hundred miles in six months and he's got my vote
He says he would make Mexico pay for the fence, but didn’t offer how he would do that. I hope he outlines that plan soon.
Where does Trump stand on the fruit loops?
LOL! I don’t know, he hasn’t interviewed the Fruit Loop that bathes in them yet.
I was always likung Cruz. I am not the type that commits to a candidate this far ahead.
Never have been, never will. I watch what they do and listen. I usually make my choice after the debates begin.
It's a stupid thing to say for two reasons:
1. Of course the Mexicans aren't going to pay for it.
2. It's stupid to make an issue of "who pays for it". The fence will pay for ITSELF in its first month of existence. Who cares who pays for it? The fact that he seems to care about that says to me he's not serious about building it. If he was serious about building it, he would just say "I will build it" and not make an issue of who is paying for it. It's all a ruse. He has no plans of building any fence.
Trump lies.
He said all the same things as Cruz as far as what he would do as President, with the exception of Abolishing the IRS.
The difference is, I believe Cruz.
I’m thinking about the future.
I’m thinking old lady Ginsberg is holding off retirement because she doesn’t want Hussein naming her replacement.
Her health is bad and she reportedly nods off in session.
I am assuming, dangerous I know, that she has more respect for the country than many think and knows BHO would name another Kagan or Sotomayer.
I agree. Cruz is a conservative.
Trump is a liar.
I don’t hate the guy (at least not yet) but he is undeniably a liar.
Remember all his “wait until my investigators are done in Hawaii” crap? Boatloads of crap. Seemingly forgotten by everyone.
I haven’t forgotten. I marked him down as a liar and nothing he’s done since has swayed me on that.
Methodology is baloney. What about the opinions of people that do NOT use Twitter?
Like most people over 45? And people not camped out on social media/political news forums 24/7/365?
By agreeing to Fast Track trade negotiations, the Pubbies are just giving Obie no more and no less authority than any president of the post WWII era.
Congress still has to approve the deal.
Who knows, Obama being the idiot he is, he might actually try to push something that would seriously wound the dems for decades to come.
He does think he’s the smartest moron in the room.
Give the enemy every chance to destroy himself.
Kindly add me as well.
FRegards,
Brother
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