GOP Nominee 2012 - Who Will It Be?, Pt. 2

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I understand the politics of it. It was a Democratic year if there ever was one, and they did a good job of portraying McCain as an extension of Bush. Obama was appealing on a personal and emotional level. McCain wasn't at all. I get all that. But considering the problems America was facing, I can't wrap my head around his election.

You understand that McCain was seen as an extension of Bush and still can't understand how Obama was elected?

The 'middle 20%', that decide Presidential elections, pretty much universally thought and still think that the Bush administration was nothing short of an outright disaster. The worst President of our lifetimes and maybe the worst President ever. Although history will save Bush from the latter, there's little question that he's in the running for the former. Especially for those young enough to not remember much of Jimmy Carter. I was 5 years old in Carter's last year in office (1980), so I don't pretend to compare my understanding of Carter to that of everyone that followed. But if we're talking Reagan, HWBush, Clinton, W Bush and Obama, W is the worst, without question.

I say this as someone who supported McCain in the 2000 primary and Hilary Clinton in 2008. I am certainly nothing near a 'Left-wing' apologist but something are more evident than others. Such as the disaster of G W Bush.

But something that very few people around here will admit, I will freely admit. Obama was basically given a free pass by the mass media. Many of them even cheerleading him onto victory. Naivety, I'm afraid, gave us both W Bush and Obama. That said, Obama has made some missteps but any President, Clinton, McCain or otherwise, would be saddled by this terrible economy. The biggest mistake Obama made was choosing healthcare as his first priority and the stimulus plan, rather than trying to convince job-creators to bring jobs back to America. He should have cut the corporate tax rate in his first 90 days.

My criticisms of Obama are a mile long but I also think he's done some good things. And as it appears, there isn't any real alternative to Obama. The most unprincipled man (Romney) to run for President in my lifetime*? No thanks. I'd rather have Obama again, gladly.

*-not considering assholes such as John Edwards, or the morality bullshit, but people with actual ability to become President on their own and are otherwise 'Presidential'. I hope that makes sense. I'm not saying Romney is akin to Edwards, I'm just saying he has no principles, to a drastic extent. And that is something that is very important to me. I can disagree on many issues, fair enough, that is to be expected but I just can't stomach that sort of thing.

Politics is politics and they all do that sort of thing, both sides, but Romney is a new breed of cat when it comes to speaking out of all sides of his mouth. Anyway, we had that conversation in another thread a few weeks back. As I said, I don't think Romney is winning the nomination anyway. And I might be the only one, but we shall see.
 
C-SPAN will air the Saturday evening debate between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain at 8:00 PM.

The Lincoln-Douglas type debate will run 90 minutes and allow more time for substantive answers than any, thus far.

Gingrich-Obama debate. No teleprompters allowed. :drool:
 
Considering the problems America was facing, maybe the American people didn't want a President who would choose (with little to no vetting done) a second-in-command as clearly unprepared and uninformed about the issues as Sarah Palin, and then appeared to not know how to handle his #2 for the remainder of the campaign?

Instead, the American people picked a former community organizer with alleged ties to known terrorists, who might just have the shortest resume of any previous white house occupant ever :wink:
 
what would you have done differently?

Any number of things. From repealing the job-killing legislation and regulations to opening up energy production to cutting spending and tax reform to consulting people in the business world who have created jobs instead of academics and economists.

The Republicans have passed over a dozen job-centered bills in the past few months. Obama and the Senate could take a look at those, for starters.
 
2861U2 said:
The Republicans have passed over a dozen job-centered bills in the past few months. Obama and the Senate could take a look at those, for starters.

Are you serious? Have you seen these bills?
 
Republicans are nothing if not on party-approved message.

What specifically are these so-called job-killing legislation and regulations?
Go into the filing cabinet and look behind the death panels.
 
Republicans are nothing if not on party-approved message.

What specifically are these so-called job-killing legislation and regulations?


AMI Study Says GIPSA Regulations Will Cost Jobs - Farm Futures

EPA's Proposed Ozone Regulation Could Cost $1 Trillion - Energy Intelligence (usnews.com)

Coal Ash Industry Sees Massive Job Losses If EPA Rules Proceed

A Democrat against labor? Yes, NLRB-Boeing fight hurts N.C. | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper

CKE Restaurants' Andy Puzder: Obamacare Kills Job Growth


Do you think the president truly cares about creating jobs over all else? Or does he have more invested in keeping the unions and entities like the EPA happy? Because it can't be both.

Are you serious? Have you seen these bills?

Yes, and most of them are common-sense ideas that Democrats in the past have expressed approval of. But darn it, supporting any of those wouldn't create the narrative of a useless Congress that Obama plans on running with next year. Oh well. I guess that's more important. :up:

I'm guessing 2816 thinks it's good policy for the state of PA to not assess any taxes to the natural gas industry.

My evil twin 2816 might, but not me. I don't know the story, but if they're paying NO taxes, then no, I don't approve. :shrug:
 
FNC did a whole week of these, but since it's FNC it must be untrue right?
Not untrue at all, just with the faint odour of conservative talking points. Don't be a drama queen, the cable news outlets don't need defending as they are terrible enough as a whole by their own efforts.
 
2861U2 said:
Yes, and most of them are common-sense ideas that Democrats in the past have expressed approval of. But darn it, supporting any of those wouldn't create the narrative of a useless Congress that Obama plans on running with next year. Oh well. I guess that's more important. :up:
Hmm where have I heard this before?

Do you have any links to these common sense laws that republicans passed, dems supported in the past but then voted down?
 
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but it does touch upon black men "whistling" at white women.

and we know how the Republican base doesn't put up with that shit.
 
except Cain is not a 'shiftless negro'

during the 60s, when he was in college, he realize the back of the bus got to the destination just fine.
 
except Cain is not a 'shiftless negro'

during the 60s, when he was in college, he realize the back of the bus got to the destination just fine.


but with this revelation, he is no longer "one of the good ones."

too bad for Cain that this woman doesn't look like Anita Hill. it makes Cain look uppity.

i was too young to really have an opinion at the time, but in retrospect, i'd like to think i would have believed Anita.
 
Time for a little humor:

Huntsman Quietly Relieved To Be Polling Poorly Among GOP Voters | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

SALT LAKE CITY—With a recent Gallup poll indicating only 2 percent of his party supports his candidacy for president, Jon Huntsman confided to staffers Tuesday that he was secretly relieved to be faring so poorly among the die-hard GOP base. "When I saw the numbers and realized Republicans weren't embracing my message, I breathed easily for the first time in months," the former Utah governor and ambassador to China said. "They're terrifying. We're talking about people who blame the unemployed for their own predicament and literally applaud the idea of letting those who don't have health insurance die. What would it say about me if they gravitated toward me personally or approved of my political principles?" Huntsman added that it was a huge weight off his shoulders when Herman Cain surged ahead of him in the polls, noting that it could easily have been him.
 
fascinating:

Poll Finds Voters Deeply Torn - WSJ.com

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found an electorate that is convinced the country's economic structures favor an affluent elite and is still deeply torn as to whether President Barack Obama or any of his leading Republican rivals can pull the nation out of decline.

The survey has some good news for both Mr. Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is solidifying his support among Republicans who don't identify with the tea-party movement. Mr. Romney has risen back into the lead for the GOP nomination with 28% support among likely primary voters, just ahead of former restaurant executive Herman Cain's 27%.

Mr. Obama widened his lead over Messrs. Cain and Romney in the Journal poll. He tops Mr. Romney by six percentage points, up from two in October.

The survey was taken before a woman went before television cameras Monday and said Mr. Cain had made an unwanted sexual advance when she asked him for help finding a job in 1997. Mr. Cain's campaign called the accusation false.

The poll detailed a broader factor likely to color the contest: The electorate is angry and disaffected. Half of voters now identify either with the tea-party or Occupy Wall Street movements. Fifty-four percent see the economic troubles as the start of a long-term national decline, not a tough period the U.S. will get through.

Even as Mr. Obama expresses sympathy for anti-Wall Street protests, nearly three-quarters of the electorate believes the president has fallen short of his promises to improve oversight of banks and Wall Street.

At the same time, 47% of those surveyed said they wouldn't vote for Mr. Romney to be president. While white, working-class voters are ready to vote for an unnamed Republican over Mr. Obama by 48% to 36%, Mr. Romney finds himself deadlocked with Mr. Obama among that key demographic, 44% to 44%.


Overall, the restlessness of the electorate makes it likely the 2012 election will be a watershed moment, said the two co-directors of the Journal/NBC News poll, Democrat Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff. More than three-quarters of the country says the nation's economic structure is out of balance and favors a very small proportion of the rich over the rest of the country. They say America needs to reduce the power of major banks and corporations, as well as end tax breaks for the affluent and corporations. Sixty percent say they strongly agree with such sentiments.

At the same time, 53% of the country believes—and 33% believe strongly—that the national debt and the size of government must be cut significantly, that regulations on business should be pared back, and that taxes shouldn't be raised on anybody.

The coming election is "not about hope over the horizon but the grim reality of keeping your chin above water," Mr. Hart said.

The frustration among voters has created openings for both Mr. Obama and his challengers. By strong margins, the president beats Mr. Romney when voters are asked which man is better at being compassionate enough to understand average people, being knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency, being consistent and standing up for his beliefs and being a good commander-in-chief.

But on another key question, Mr. Romney has the edge: By 36% to 32%, Americans say Mr. Romney would be more likely to have good ideas for improving the economy; 14% said the two would have equally good ideas, while 14% said neither would be good.

Democrats have already been hammering Mr. Romney as an affluent elitist out of touch with struggling Americans. But past Democratic efforts to run against the rich and powerful have fallen short.

"The notion that the scales have been tipped out of balance is incredibly strong," said Mr. McInturff, who nonetheless warned that a "class warfare" argument is no slam dunk. "A lot of how well anything works is the finesse with which it is wielded," he said.

For now, Americans don't appear ready to let the president take up the standard of the disaffected voter. His job approval rating remains at 44%, where it has been since August. Two-thirds say the president has fallen short of their expectations for standing up to big business and special interests; 72% expressed disappointment in the Obama administration's handling of the economy, and 74% said the president had fallen short of their expectation on improving oversight of Wall Street.

A year before Election Day, intensity appears to be on the Republican side. Fifty-seven percent of those who voted for Republican John McCain in 2008 say they are more enthusiastic to vote in the coming election than past elections, compared with 41% of 2008 Obama voters. Forty-five percent of Obama voters say they are less enthusiastic than in past elections.

Mr. Romney hasn't made the sale. He essentially is tied with Mr. Cain—holding a one-point edge of 28% to 27%—among Republican primary voters.

Still, that marks a five- percentage-point jump for Mr. Romney from the 23% he garnered in October. And Mr. Romney had the support of a quarter of Republicans who didn't identify themselves as tea-party supporters. Now he has 42%.

But against President Obama, Mr. Romney is down 43% to 49%, compared with 44% to 46% a month ago.

Some 47% said they would not vote for Mr. Romney, compared with 44% who said they wouldn't vote for the president in 2012.


Alex Castellanos, a Romney adviser during his 2008 campaign, said Mr. Romney's dispassionate promise to look under the hood and fix the economy isn't exciting angry voters looking for a more passionate voice to challenge Washington. That explains why the race remains wide open, despite the headwind the president faces and the problems besetting Mr. Romney's challengers.

"He's all Excedrin with no Excedrin headache," Mr. Castellanos said of Mr. Romney. "If you have a choice between candidates who are going to burn down Washington or give a 59-point plan, who's your leader?"
 
Maybe Herman Cain is just another rich guy who thinks he can do whatever he wants to do and the rules just don't apply to him. Even before all this I got a certain vibe from the guy, like he's just not good with people. If he did all of this one reason he probably got away with it because he's one way in public and another way in private.
 
so this is just an op-ed on a deeply right wing website, but it is popular and very influential amongst the base of the GOP (Erick Erickson appears on CNN all the time as a stock "conservative"), and this impulse is a big issue for the GOP to sort out soon. note, in particular, the anger with the GOP "establishment" and the utter importance of being a "conservative" as a matter of identity, above all else. i don't agree with him at all, i think Romney is the only one who could win, and i think that identity politics like this is killing any sort of rational discourse. but this is one of the reasons why Romney has not sealed the deal and hasn't gone much above 25% despite far, far outclassing the rest of the field at the debates:



Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins

Mit Romney will not go on Special Report with Brett Baier to answer the tough questions as the other candidates have done. No worries. Conservatives will bitch and moan for a few days and Romney will claim it was a scheduling issue, he’d always meant to go on, and he will go on.

Should Mitt Romney win the Presidency, conservatives will find this pattern play out repeated. Romney will head in a direction conservatives do not like and they will bitch and moan repeatedly and maybe, just maybe, he’ll part his hair in their direction.

We’ve seen this play out over and over. Jon Huntsman comes up with the best economic plan of all the candidates, Herman Cain follows up with 999, Perry comes out with a flat tax, and Romney refuses to do anything. Until he does something.

Mitt Romney is not the George W. Bush of 2012 — he is the Harriet Miers of 2012, only conservative because a few conservative grand pooh-bahs tell us Mitt Romney is conservative and for no other reason.


That is precisely why Mitt Romney will not win in 2012. But no worry, once he loses, Republican establishment types will blame conservatives for not doing enough for Mitt Romney, never mind that Mitt Romney has never been able to sell himself to more than 25% of the GOP voters. It’s not his fault though, it is the 75%’s fault.

Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican nominee. And his general election campaign will be an utter disaster for conservatives as he takes the GOP down with him and burns up what it means to be a conservative in the process.

Why Romney Will Be The Nominee

Mitt Romney will be the nominee because the other candidates, right now, are a pretty pathetic lot.

The base will not forgive Rick Perry his immigration sins. In fact, that has hurt him far more than his debate performances, but his debate performances have hurt him badly. Perry, who came out principled and fiery with a record others could only envy, has left others with the impression that he’s a poor man’s version of the village idiot, which in the SEC we call “Aggies”. Maybe he can turn it around.

Newt Gingrich will not be the nominee because, despite his daughter’s rebuttals to the horror stories of how Gingrich divorced his first of three wives, Jackie Gingrich told the Washington Post on January 3, 1985, “He walked out in the spring of 1980 and I returned to Georgia. By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said Daddy is downstairs and could he come up? When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery.”

Gingrich went on to cheat on the second wife with the third. Regardless of the actual facts or even the spin, he won’t win women.

Herman Cain won’t be the nominee because he can’t win women either. Regardless of what you think of the Politico story, Cain’s handling of the story has been an epic disaster. He’s down at least 10 points with women in Iowa. He’s falling even further and doesn’t even realize it. He’s largely been emboldened by a conservative media that is so used to standing by its men that too few are telling Herman that he is now at the point where he must actually sit and answer questions whether he wants to or not and whether he feels maligned or not and whether I think he should have to or not. If he loses women by as big as he is starting to lose the women, he cannot win.

So Mitt Romney will be the nominee. Conservatives will not rally together with the least of the bad alternatives and Romney, like John McCain before him, will run up the middle to the nomination. But, just like McCain, Romney will not beat Barack Obama.

Why Mitt Romney Will Not Beat Barack Obama

You’d think that given the economy, jobs, and the present angst about the direction of the country that the GOP would have an easy path to victory. You would be wrong.

You forget the electoral college. The vote is coming down to a handful of states and Barack Obama still maintains the advantage of incumbency and not terribly terrible polling in those swing states.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man devoid of any principles other than getting himself elected. As much as the American public does not like Barack Obama, they loath a man so fueled with ambition that he will say or do anything to get himself elected. Mitt Romney is that man.

I’ve been reading the 200 pages of single spaced opposition research from the John McCain campaign on Mitt Romney. There is no issue I can find on which Mitt Romney has not taken both sides. He is neither liberal nor conservative. He is simply unprincipled. The man has no core beliefs other than in himself. You want him to be tough? He’ll be tough. You want him to be sensitive? He’ll be sensitive. You want him to be for killing the unborn? He’ll go all in on abortion rights until he wants to run for an office where it is not in his advantage.

Along the way, he’ll drop lots of coin to grease the skids for himself. Mitt Romney is the silly putty of politicians — press on him real hard and he’ll take on whatever image you press into him until the next group starts pressing.

Republican billionaires have a fantastic track record of getting Republican opinion leaders to support them and an even better track record at losing elections. Mitt Romney will be no different.

To beat Barack Obama, a candidate must paint a bold contrast with the Democrats on their policies. When Mitt Romney tries, Barack Obama will be able to show that just the other day Mitt Romney held exactly the opposite position as the one he holds today.

Voters may not like Barack Obama, but by the time Obama is done with Romney they will not trust Mitt Romney. And voters would rather the guy they don’t like than they guy they don’t trust.

Why Conservatism Will Die

Conservatism is already dying. Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to raise taxes on the American people with this Super Committee, but they’ll say they are just “raising revenue,” not taxes. Conservatives will give them a pass as they have on virtually every other major issue. Conservatives keep giving passes to people who shouldn’t be given passes because conservative in Washington have been there so long, they’d much rather get invited to the cocktail parties and avoid awkward encounters.

Washington, D.C. conservatives will also rally around Mitt Romney, just as they kept doing over and over and over with George W. Bush even after steel tariffs in Pennsylvania, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, the GM Bailout, and TARP. At some point the public will cease taking conservatives seriously when the most prominent conservatives — those in Washington who pose as the faces, voices, and writers of the conservative movement at large, keep throwing their lot in with a guy who keeps selling out the very principles conservatives claim to hold dear.

Some conservatives, of course, will not go all in for Romney. These conservatives will be blamed by major Republican and “conservative” mouth pieces for not doing enough to help Mitt Romney. They will be alienated, blamed, and made the scapegoat for the failures of the establishment GOP.

But there is something else too — Mitt Romney is winning the nomination without conservative help. The only time he pays conservatives any attention is when they cry loud enough that the media takes notice and Romney decides the story needs to go away. Once he is the nominee, it will be all about wooing the independents.

Hell, he can give the base Marco Rubio as the veep nominee, just like McCain did with Palin — a token for the base. But don’t delude yourself into thinking he will seriously take conservatives seriously. He got the nomination without them and he’ll only use them when it is opportunistically convenient for him.

Conservatism itself will not really die. But it might as well be dead as even conservatives in the heartland of the country stop taking Washington conservatives seriously.

The Contrast To Be Drawn

It is striking to me that in 2012 there is broad based popular angst against Wall Street and Washington and the Republican Party is on the verge of nominating a multi-millionaire scion of the Rockefeller Wing of the Republican Party whose closest encounters with the common man are accidentally touching one of the many hired hands in one of the many rooms of one of his many mansions. But then many of the DC-NYC Republican “conservatives” who support Romney are the same, only coming into contact with regular people when they are served their breakfast by a steward in the first class car on the Acela Express.

Neither Romney nor the Washington GOP crowd who loves him have very much at all in common with fly over country conservatives who see the GOP and Democrats both as out to lunch tools of K-Street and Wall Street. The party that could lead a conservative, populist campaign against Wall Street and Barack Obama, the former getting fat off the latter, will instead nominate a guy more at home on Wall Street than Main Street.

And enough conservatives will be cheerleaders and rally around him that by November of 2012 the ideological underpinnings of the modern American conservative movement will be coming apart.

I’m starting to think I need to walk it back on my rejection of Jon Huntsman. Because I’m starting to think even he would be more faithful in his conservative convictions than Mitt Romney.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/...inee-conservatism-dies-and-barack-obama-wins/
 
Charming :up: He's such a babe too :slurp:

Rush Limbaugh discussed Sharon Bialek, the fourth woman to come forth with sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, during his show Monday.

Bialek, who Limbaugh referred to as "a blonde bombshell," addressed press on Monday afternoon about the sexual harassment allegations. Her lawyer Gloria Allred stood at her side.

Limbaugh reported that Bialek, who he also called a "babe," said that Cain "put his hands up her dress" and "tried to pull her hair..." Limbaugh pronounced Bialek's last name as "bee-ah-lek," which he later told listeners was incorrect.

Instead, he said, Bialek is pronouced "buy-ah-lik." Limbaugh belabored the point to stress that Bialek's last name was, according to him, pronounced like "buy-a-lick." He even made crude slurping noises to drive his point home.
 
Gingrich: Obama Is As Accurate As Bernie Madoff In What He Says To American People | Mediaite

"We have today a President and….compare him to Ronald Reagan who told the truth — great book called “The Education of Ronald Reagan” on lessons he learned at General Electric — compare Reagan’s ability to talk directly to the American people, make sense and have the American people move the Congress with the current president. This president is about as candid and accurate as Bernie Madoff in what he tells the American people."
 
so this is just an op-ed

Eh, I've never been a big fan of Erickson. Every time I see him on tv or check out redstate, he just seems to be saying what/who he's against and never what/who he's for. He's just being overly-dramatic because he's not getting his way.

On the other end of that argument, I read an article the other day (Daily Beast, I think, and written by someone on the left) who essentially said the opposite. Romney would govern as a conservative because that's the only choice he has. The Republican House and the Republican Senate will leave him with little choice, and if he wants to win re-election, the only way to do that is to fix the economy by implementing conservative policies and following through on his promises, like signing the repeal of Obamacare.

I've said from the beginning, if Romney's the nominee he will do just fine in the general. He's a better candidate than McCain was. He'll pick a running mate that's better than Palin was. Obama is much weaker, less popular and more divisive than ever. And if Republicans want to take back the dozen Democratic Senate seats in play and try to maintain/increase the House majority in the event of an Obama victory, they'll turn out on election day.

And for what it's worth, same goes for the Dems. I've never bought the "Depressed Democrats will stay home" argument. At least not in any significant numbers.
 
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