The Politics Thread

[quartermainefan]

hi politics thread,

my prediction for the caucus is (based on nothing but a hunch)

Ron Paul

Santorum

Romney

Ron Paul took a lot of deserved hits about racism and white supremicism and whatnot (he is the darling of stormfront.org and that pretty much says it all) but the media loves to underestimate him and discount him. His young supporters are more devoted to him than anyone else's supporters are devoted to them. I think he will fare better than the 20-22% predicted for him and come in closer to to 25-30%. I just don't see a scenario where his supporters let him down.

Santorum might still win because all the Perry, Bachmann and Gingrich diehards are going to be forced to make a gut check and there is no sense in sticking with a dead horse and Santorum is acceptable to the backers of all these candidates (not that they have many in the first place). He might pick up a third of the rats fleeing the sinking ships.

Romney is a fake. The establishment touts him, the so-called insiders in the state are behind him, but only 25% of republicans like him, and like is not love. He will finish up there but the lack of passion for him will hurt him. Romney will finish well enough so that his friends at the networks say he did well enough to win by just finishing near the top, and they will crown him the nominee. That's fine, because I never heard of a president being elected when 75% of his own party wishes it was anyone but him.

In any case, the republican party really needs to reevaluate how they do things because this time they gathered together a group of clowns and know-nothings. They spent a decade championing anti-intellectualism and demonizing Harvard and colleges in general, and now this is what they have to show for all their hard work, the likes of Perry and Herman Cain as front running candidates worthy of the attention of Meet The Press. You reap what you sow I guess.

Nate Silver, the oracle who gets everything right has it for Romney though with a 42% chance of winning, but that doesn't account for sentiment on the last day, trends, people talking to each other and what have you. But he is usually right, which is why the NY Times gobbled him up.

[DRW50]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71014.html

[DRW50]

What a surprise. Hypocrisy in action. Mitt hates China, but only if they aren't working for him. And the people working with him say just ignore his China bashing.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/romney-supporter-says-mitts-china-bashing-is-just-hot-air.php?ref=fpblg

[Max]

Welcome back to this thread, Qfan! You were much missed.

[Soapsuds]

Santorum winning...what a joke America!

[Max]

Sadly, it was no joke when America elected a former "community organizer" and Senate back-bencher to the presidency in 2008.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Max

[Max]

Perry indicated that he may drop out of the race. Without a doubt, he ran the worst campaign of anybody this year (given his horrendous debate performances combined with the fact that he led the polls the moment he entered the race).

[Soapsuds]

As our governor I am glad he is out of the race even though we are stuck with him here....he is an awful governor.

[DRW50]

I've never understood what's bad about being a community organizer. If Sarah Palin - whose main career highlight has been rewarding herself and those around her - derides it, that just makes me even less likely to hate it.

[DRW50]

As for the caucus results - I am not surprised Romney won. I am surprised it was as close as it was. Still, Santorum will lose New Hampshire badly and he has no charisma, which means he has little chance in many of the states that also distrust Romney. I think the race is pretty much over. Now we will get months on end of how shocking it is that the GOP chose someone who is quasi-moderate, even though Romney is actually very far to the right on every single issue and will have no choice but to do the bidding of the extreme far right if he gets elected. I hope those who are expecting any focus on jobs will instead look forward to yet another debate over abortion, the evils of the poor, and banning gays from the military. I am also curious about whether he will try to change any animal cruelty laws.

Edited January 4, 2012 by CarlD2

[Roman]

Unlike electing an actor who talk to a monkey to the presidency in 1980.

[Roman]

Bachmann is suspending her campaign.

[MichaelGL]

Bachmann's speech is just packed with falsehoods and extreme rhetoric.

[alphanguy74]

Michelle Bachmann's concession speech is so ridiculous. She's of course acting like Obamacare is the most horrible thing in the world. She seems to think that if it goes completely into effect, then it would never be repealed. Well... it WON'T because people will like it. But if EVERYONE DID hate it so much and they wanted it gone... you could just repeal it at that time. So far, we have not seen ANY of these horror stories of people waiting 6 months for a CT scan or anyhting like that, and we won't because it's a supply and demand thing. If theree's more demand, we will have more facilities and such to take care of whatever needs to be done. There may be a shortage in some parts of Canada... in terms of health care practitioners and doctora and such, but people need to realize that the primary reason Doctors don't want to go to Canada, is that they don't want like a in the freaking frozen tundra!

[DRW50]

Her entire career has been hysteria. She ramped up hate when she was a Minnesota state legislator (and sadly her brand of true believers now run the state legislature - one of them was just forced out because of an alleged affair with a staffer...family values!). She did the same in Congress. This type of stuff pays big bucks, but even if it didn't, she'd probably shout it out on everywhere she went. That's just what she is.

I will always think of her as the woman who hid in the bushes. Maybe she and Rachel from Big Brother can have their own show.