Mark Cuban is thinking of running for president

[Roland99]

Source: USA Today

The billionaire owner of basketball’s Dallas Mavericks outlined a prospective presidential candidacy in an email exchange with CNBC — and the star of reality TV’s Shark Tankpredicted he would do quite well, thank you.

“If I ran as a Dem, I know I could beat Hillary Clinton,” Cuban told the financial news network. “And if it was me vs. Trump, I would crush him. No doubt about it.”

No word on whether Cuban would consider an independent candidacy, or whether he is talking about 2016 or some future election.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/14/mark-cuban-run--president/72257278/

---

I'd take him easily over Hillary but I'm still #FeelingTheBern

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Yuck. What Trump hath spawned.

Every billionaire out there is going to start wondering if they need to keep bankrolling pols now, or if they should just run directly

[Vinca]

4. Maybe they consider it a new hobby.

Yachts, polo and the Riviera must get boring after awhile.

[yeoman6987]

5. At least Mark is a Democratic supporter.

He might be a decent president.

[pnwmom]

21. Yeah, let's let every egomaniac billionaire run. The more, the merrier. n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

34. Hey, it's their money...

to loose.

[Codeine]

57. How is he a democratic supporter?

His gave money to Orrin fuckin' Hatch.

[yeoman6987]

58. He said he'd run as a democratic candidate

Can't get anymore democratic then that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

61. No, he boasted he'd be able to beat Hillary if he ran as a Democrat

As far as his political ideology goes, Cuban said that he'd like to be a libertarian but he wants to maintain more of the social safety net than libertarian stalwarts.

"Not so much libertarian as much as I'd like to be libertarian," Cuban told Hansen of his beliefs. "When I think libertarian, it's 'as small of a government as we can get, right now — you just cut right through it and you make it (smaller) right now.' That's not real. There's got to be a process. There's got to be a transition. As a country, we make decisions. We make decisions that we're going to provide healthcare, right? We don't just let people die on the street. You can go into any hospital and they have to treat you."

Last week, Cuban mused about his desire to join the Republican Party, but he thought the party was too rigid and too unwelcoming to candidates who deviate from its orthodoxy. Cruz told WFAA that, like the case with the Libertarian Party, he supports more government intervention than mainstream Republicans.

"I'm a Republican in the respect that I like smaller government and I like less intrusion in some areas. But there's sometimes where I think we have to intrude. I think there's sometimes when you have to do things," he said.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-politics-philosophy-2015-8?r=US&IR=T

He's not as bad as many Republicans or libertarians, but he's no Democrat. But mainly, he thinks the sun shines out of his ass.

[Faux pas]

2. Oh why the hell not.

Get all the jackasses up and running, maybe it'll cause an earlier end to them all. lolol Maybe peewee herman can get on the ballot too.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. Plus 1000

[TBF]

17. Right? nt

[jtuck004]

65. We have a clown car. Cuban would make a circus. We get three more attractions and immigrants won't

need a visa. They'll be buying admission tickets from booths on the borders.

Greatest Show on Earth.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Next on CNBC: Battle of the CEO Egos. n/t

[SoapBox]

6. Oh barfo!

Sheesh...they steal their billions from the little people and it's still not enough for them...then they want to rule us too.

Hell no!

[oberliner]

7. "I'd take him easily over Hillary..."

Always good to find an excuse for more snarky Hillary bashing, right?

[Roland99]

15. It's not bashing at all. Merely stating an opinion

Cuban would be less likely to vote in favor of more wars and bigger defense...one of my biggest concerns.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. Holy crap, I'd missed that - what a dumb opinion (nt)

[passiveporcupine]

33. he's in favor of the draft

really...you should read wiki on him. Sooooo many red flags.

[Roland99]

37. I have to admit I haven't read up on his political past

Just know of him from his drive to push HDTV to the forefront like 15 years ago. He's done a lot of work on that with HDTV and he hired on Dan Rather right after that CBS mess.

[passiveporcupine]

41. I think it would be prudent to know more about the candidate you promote

in this season of elections.

[Roland99]

42. Wasn't promoting him. Saw the news article and thought I'd post it.

[passiveporcupine]

46. You were promoting him as better than Hillary

At least for you.

I'm a Bernie supporter, but I'd much sooner vote for Hillary than another billionaire randian.

[Roland99]

48. I made a comment about my opinion

I wasn't trying to get anyone else to think he's better than any other candidate out there.

Additionally, I said I'm still in it for Bernie. Bernie is the best presidential candidate we've had in my lifetime!

[passiveporcupine]

52. OK then

[Codeine]

56. An opinion based on. . . ?

Absolutely nothing whatsoever, so far as is evident.

[HERVEPA]

8. You'd take him over Hillary? He's a fucking libertarian.

I'm a Bernie guy, but would certainly prefer Hillary over a libertarian.

[former9thward]

20. Why would a libertarian run in the Democratic primary?

[pnwmom]

23. pro-pot. n/t

[HERVEPA]

35. Your political naivete is overwhelming or...

you are being disingenuous.

[former9thward]

47. Your insults and personal attacks aside Cuban is talking about running against Clinton.

Which means the Democratic primary. A libertarian might run in the Republican primary but never the Democratic. That is not being naive just real world.

[HERVEPA]

49. Jesus. read a little something about him will you.

A lover of Ayn Rand, among other things.

[muriel_volestrangler]

54. No, he's not talking about running against Clinton.

He boasted that if he ran as a Dem, he would beat her. He also said he'd beat Trump. The story also says he has no plans to run. Certainly not this time (ie against Hillary), anyway. He says it would be 'fun', though. He is just talking about how fucking brilliant he thinks he is.

Yes, he's a libertarian - from the story:

With that in mind, Cuban—who played a fictional president of the United States in "Sharknado 3"—has begun thinking through a campaign platform that skews toward the libertarian end of the political spectrum and focuses heavily on reforming the U.S. economy.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/14/mark-cuban-i-could-beat-trump-and-clinton.html

Following Wikipedia links, we find:

My First Literary Crush
The books famous people loved in college.

Mark Cuban, owner, Dallas Mavericks
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It was incredibly motivating to me. It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it. I don't know how many times I have read it, but it got to the point where I had to stop because I would get too fired up.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/college_week/2005/11/my_first_literary_crush.html

and, again from Wikipedia:

Cuban has donated $7,000 to political campaigns, $6,000 going to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. $1,000 went to Democratic California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.[111]

[former9thward]

55. Let's see...

He gives 6k to Hatch and 1k to Lofgren, both of which are about as far from being a libertarian as you can get. But you use that to condemn him as a libertarian. Your detective skills are outstanding! People who are libertarians generally are not shy about saying so. Has he ever said he was? If he has, fine, let's see it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

59. You mean, apart from the Ayn Rand worship you already know about? Why, yes

Rand’s freedom-loving philosophy apparently also encouraged Cuban to become a libertarian. In the Austin American-Statesman (May 19, 2006), Cuban said his politics are “independent, leaning to libertarian. I vote for the candidate who I think will do the least.” On his blog — www.blogmaverick.com — he described himself as “a libertarian at heart” (March 8, 2006). On C-SPAN, Cuban said he is a “less is more” kind of libertarian. “I think there’s room for government,” he said. “I’m not an abolish-all-government type guy. But I think, you know, less is more…”

http://www.theadvocates.org/libertarianism-101/libertarian-celebrities/mark-cuban/

As far as his political ideology goes, Cuban said that he'd like to be a libertarian but he wants to maintain more of the social safety net than libertarian stalwarts.

"Not so much libertarian as much as I'd like to be libertarian," Cuban told Hansen of his beliefs. "When I think libertarian, it's 'as small of a government as we can get, right now — you just cut right through it and you make it (smaller) right now.' That's not real. There's got to be a process. There's got to be a transition. As a country, we make decisions. We make decisions that we're going to provide healthcare, right? We don't just let people die on the street. You can go into any hospital and they have to treat you."

Last week, Cuban mused about his desire to join the Republican Party, but he thought the party was too rigid and too unwelcoming to candidates who deviate from its orthodoxy. Cruz told WFAA that, like the case with the Libertarian Party, he supports more government intervention than mainstream Republicans.

"I'm a Republican in the respect that I like smaller government and I like less intrusion in some areas. But there's sometimes where I think we have to intrude. I think there's sometimes when you have to do things," he said.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-politics-philosophy-2015-8?r=US&IR=T

My 'detective skills' have, of course, including spotting the bit where he says he has no plans to run, while you managed to think he's going to run against Hillary. I did that by reading the proper source article, and looking at the video, which wasn't exactly hard, but apparently beyond you. You're in no position to make sarcastic remarks.

[LeftOfWest]

69. rocking reply.

rocking.

[aceofblades]

9. It's just the logical result of our money driven political system

Why bother spending millions funding candidates and hope they'll do everything you want, when you can just do it yourself and cut out the middle man

[Liberalagogo]

10. Mark Cuban is a Rand-ite

Libertarian. Fail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cuban#Political_activity

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

13. Cuban is an admirer of author and philosopher Ayn Rand.

That is all I need to know..

[KamaAina]

30. Or as we used to call them back in college, a "Randroid".

[florida08]

12. as arrogant as they come

No thanks. I prefer someone who can relate to the working class

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

14. Arrogant sneering blowhard. He even sneers when he's laughing!

[Marty McGraw]

39. Results are in

[Skittles]

51. I remember when he made fun of Dairy Queen managers

so he was invited to work as one to see how "easy" it was - so he did.....yeah he's a schmuck but he's no Donald Trump

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. No. He's not. CNBC was just massaging his ego by asking 'what would you do?'

and he was happy to give lots of hypothetical answers. The word 'would' appears throughout the CNBC article.

Non-story.

[groundloop]

29. But why let facts get in the way of our little hate-fest?

[tammywammy]

66. No kidding

They reported this last week on the radio and he's not talking about running.

[mountain grammy]

19. So billionaires no longer content to have their money do their talking for them

and rule us through the political process. Now they want to rule us hands on. What could possibly go wrong?

[Kelvin Mace]

22. Please proceed...

it will split the GOP vote even further. I am hoping JEB! will get the nomination after Trump flames out, then runs an independent campaign.

[Dawson Leery]

24. You would take this Randian Objectivist over Hillary Clinton?

Really? You would have for your President someone who admires a kook who in turn admired a serial rapist of little children?

Last month Cuban said he wanted to a Republican (because they are against Net-Neutrality and Mark is invested in a high end streaming business).

Shark Tank is crap.

[louis-t]

25. Bunch of billionaires waving their

dicks in the air.

[Capt.Rocky300]

26. I've seen him on Real Time with Bill Maher...

He never said anything to give me reason to think he is anything but a narcissistic control freak.

[bluedigger]

27. Me too.

I need better media outlets.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

28. A guy whose considered running as the Birther King's veep?

http://www.statesman.com/feed/news/state-regional/mark-cuban-for-veep-hed-consider-running-with/fCFkCh/

yeah, there's someone we want as our candidate

[sarisataka]

31. He would be the best Presidential choice

if Sharknados are going to be more common

[passiveporcupine]

32. You might want to rethink that last comment.

Cuban is an admirer of author and philosopher Ayn Rand.[106] About Rand's novel The Fountainhead, he said, "[It] was incredibly motivating to me. It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it.

from wiki

[MrScorpio]

36. Sharknado 3 must have given him an unquenchable thirst for PO-WAH!

[herding cats]

38. You beat me to it! nt

[d_legendary1]

40. As a Heat fan, I would never vote for Mark Cuban

as an informed voter I would STILL not vote for Mark Cuban.

[PSPS]

43. Another under-taxed billionaire with time on his hands wasting our time.

[ctsnowman]

50. Exactly!

[Journeyman]

44. Why not aspire to better serve your community, Mark? Become an alderman first. . .

or maybe run to be your local congress critter. Show us you have the wherewithal to be a little humbler, that you have a desire to help people and not just aggrandize your own ego.

[TBF]

45. Dear lord not another billionaire for president -

haven't they done enough damage to this country? smh.

[lunasun]

53. no I would not but thanks for letting us know you would take Mark Cuban over Senator /SOS Clinton

[shanti]

60. Oh gawd no

Cuban is and has always been an arrogant asshole.

[Eleanors38]

62. I want Kim. Kardashian. She'd tRump 'em all!

[kacekwl]

63. Great, Shark Tank vs Celebrity Apprentice

This is what has become of American government.

[silvershadow]

64. He's dreaming if he thinks he could win as a Democrat, just based on what few quotes

I've seen from him.

[LanternWaste]

67. I imagine many people would rather vote for a libertarian than a Democrat

I imagine many people would rather vote for a libertarian than a Democrat, though I doubt any of them are Democrats.

A possible side effect of getting burned, perhaps?

[vadermike]

68. cuban

He is not a Dem or repub.. he said he leans" toward liberatarianism.. but he is different in that he said the most patriotic thing you can do is pay taxes.... so i wouldnt call him a true libertarian in that sense or a repub.. FWIW he supported Pres Obama in 08 and i beleive 12.. at the end of the day he is not voting Repub He seems like he wants Biden.. maybe he will support Hillary or Bernie at the end of the day.. i don't think he supporting any of the clown car that i know of and he later said he isnt running for Pres.. he is an interesting individual