GOP Nominee 2012 - who will it be?

[maycocksean]

Originally Posted by Canadiens1131

Tim Pawlenty: Courage to Stand
A Film by J.J. Abrams
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer

Can I just say I'm tired of this practice of politicians kissing the ass of the American polity. As if the "American people" are somehow better than everyone else in the world. People are people. What makes America special is our system of government, not our people.

[kramwest1]

CPAC Straw Poll Results:
(unscientific)

30% Rand Paul
23% Mitt Romney
6% Gary Johnson (NM Gov)
6% Chris Christie
5% Newt Gingrich
4% Tim Pawlenty
4% Michele Bachmann
3% Sarah Palin
2% Mike Huckabee
2% Rick Santorum

Ron Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll; Mitt Romney Comes in Second

[Canadiens1131]

Other fun nuggets from the CPAC:

CPAC Audience Cheers Wildly For Coulter Comment, "I Think There Should Be More Jailed Journalists"
CPAC Audience Cheers Wildly For Coulter Comment, "I Think There Should Be More Jailed Journalists" | Media Matters for America

What a well-read bunch they are!

[Moonlit_Angel]

Originally Posted by Canadiens1131

Other fun nuggets from the CPAC:

CPAC Audience Cheers Wildly For Coulter Comment, "I Think There Should Be More Jailed Journalists"
CPAC Audience Cheers Wildly For Coulter Comment, "I Think There Should Be More Jailed Journalists" | Media Matters for America

What a well-read bunch they are!

What. The. Hell?

Angela

[maycocksean]

Originally Posted by Canadiens1131

Other fun nuggets from the CPAC:

CPAC Audience Cheers Wildly For Coulter Comment, "I Think There Should Be More Jailed Journalists"
CPAC Audience Cheers Wildly For Coulter Comment, "I Think There Should Be More Jailed Journalists" | Media Matters for America

What a well-read bunch they are!

This is typical--the types of little one-liners that people cheer for without stopping to think about the implications of what they are cheering for.

Jailed journalists! Yah, boo-hiss to the liberal media!

Apparently, these "Constitution-lovers" forgot a little something called the 1st Amendment.

[2861U2]

So everyone truly thinks Ann and the people laughing were 100% serious in that sentiment? If so, you need to open a window or something...

And as a general rule, let's not go to Media Matters for news about what went on at CPAC.

[yolland]

Originally Posted by kramwest1

CPAC Straw Poll Results:
(unscientific)

30% Rand Paul
23% Mitt Romney
6% Gary Johnson (NM Gov)
6% Chris Christie
5% Newt Gingrich
4% Tim Pawlenty
4% Michele Bachmann
3% Sarah Palin
2% Mike Huckabee
2% Rick Santorum

That should read Ron Paul, not Rand Paul. I think he won the CPAC poll last year too eh?

[PhilsFan]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

So everyone truly thinks Ann and the people laughing were 100% serious in that sentiment? If so, you need to open a window or something...

And as a general rule, let's not go to Media Matters for news about what went on at CPAC.

I don't think Ann Coulter believes anything she says. She likes money.

[kramwest1]

Originally Posted by yolland

That should read Ron Paul, not Rand Paul. I think he won the CPAC poll last year too eh?

Wow, thank you.

I was either tired or didn't give a shit. Probably both.

[maycocksean]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

So everyone truly thinks Ann and the people laughing were 100% serious in that sentiment? If so, you need to open a window or something... .

Of course we didn't think she was 100% serious. . .it's a joke that's anti-Constitution, which I find odd given the supposed fealty this group has to the document.

Originally Posted by 2861U2

And as a general rule, let's not go to Media Matters for news about what went on at CPAC.

As a general rule I do not "go to Media Matters" period. Looking at that link was the first time I've ever visited that site. And I duly noted the slant of the source. Did she make the joke or didn't she? Look I ain't all bent out of shape about it. . .I was just commenting on the careless hypocrisy of her statement and the uncritical way in which her audience lapped it up. But trust me, I'm not losing any sleep over Ann Coulter or her audience.

[kramwest1]

Originally Posted by PhilsFan

I don't think Ann Coulter believes anything she says. She likes money.

Exactly.
My first thought was that she must have a new book coming out. Could that be its title?

She's a whore.

[Moonlit_Angel]

Oh, no doubt about that. Just the wild cheering...disturbed me.

And joking or not, Ann's still annoying as hell anyway.

Angela

[Irvine511]

i still believe that Ann is some kind of satirical performance artist, years ahead of her time -- like "Showgirls" or "Starship Troopers."

[MrsSpringsteen]

Or Lady Gaga. There is a slight physical resemblance

[Harry Vest]

Originally Posted by Harry Vest

If you had asked me a year ago I would have said Sarah Palin but as it stands right now this does not seem to be transpiring (although I wouldn't count her out in 2016) - her poll numbers keep going down and it seems like the powers that be within the Republican party do not want her to run. Given this scenerio (that Palin doesn't run) who do you think will be the nominee?

The way I see it the nominee has to be someone who can bridge the gap between the country club Republicans and the Social Conservative wing (not to mention the Tea Party wing). Remember, I did predict that Sarah Palin would be McCain's Vice-Presidential pick back in 2008 and was almost laughed off Interference because of it. My top three picks for the Republican nominee of 2012 are...

1. Mike Huckabee

2. John Thune

3. Mike Pence

As of this moment it looks like Huckabee has all the momentum but remember that the race hasn't even started yet. Thune and Pence may be considered unknown "Dark Horses" now but we'll see how this pans out by the end of 2011. The nominee will not be Romney or Gingritch - Romney's too middle of the road for most of the party plus he's MORMON which, let's face it people, is a no no to most of the "Christian" wing of the party. Gingritch is, well Gingritch...nuff said. Let's hear everyone else's picks...

Well, it looks like my power of prediction is way off this year with Pence and now Thune both out of the race. That leaves Huckabee and it doesn't even seem like he's that interested yet..hmm. Will a "surprise" dark horse enter the race? Someone like Chris Christie perhaps? I guess time will tell.

[MrsSpringsteen]

Actually in the past Romney did say (years back, can't remember what year) he thought it could be applied across the country-they showed a video clip on the news.


(AP)WASHINGTON — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that potential White House rival Mitt Romney should offer an apology for the health care overhaul he oversaw as Massachusetts governor.

"I think it's not a killer for him. But he has to say either 'I love it,' 'I hate it,' or, 'Hey I tried it, it didn't work and that's why I would say to you, let's not do it nationally,'" Huckabee said.

"He's got to figure out how he wants to deal with it. It's the 800-pound elephant in the room for him," said Huckabee, who is on tour to promote his latest book, "A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need from Washington (and a Trillion That We Don't)."

Romney's health plan in Massachusetts has many similarities to the national overhaul that President Barack Obama championed, including requiring coverage and fines for those who do not have insurance. Conservatives who are likely to choose the Republicans' presidential nominee loathe Obama's plan and equate it to socialism, while Romney has said that his plan worked for Massachusetts but should not be applied from coast to coast.

In the paperback edition of his book "No Apology: Believe in America," Romney calls the Democrats' plan an unconstitutional power grab that took a one-size-fits-all approach that cannot work. He blames the Massachusetts legislature for altering his plan and the current Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, for poorly implementing it

During his 2008 campaign, Romney said he would have structured the plan differently but said the Massachusetts plan worked because everyone had health coverage.

Huckabee said the only explanation Romney should consider is a complete reversal.

"The position he should take is to say: 'Look, the reason Obamacare won't work is because we've tried it at the state level and we know it won't work,'" Huckabee said, offering an unsolicited script to his fellow former governor.

"'We gave it our best shot and I'm proud we tried it because – in a world where we all agreed something needed to be done – we thought this might be a way to fix the crisis we had in health care. Our experiment did not turn out as we had hoped. It cost more, waiting times were higher, quality of care went down, people were greatly dissatisfied and it ended up having almost the polar opposite effect of what was intended.'"

Huckabee, who is mulling a second White House run, is on a book tour that takes him through Washington and then Iowa and South Carolina, early nominating states. He said he has not yet made a choice whether to run again for president and said it will be months before he reaches a decision.

Romney, too, is weighing a second presidential bid. But questions about his health care overhaul dog him and his potential rivals have not shied from pointing out the similarities to Obama's efforts. Romney is not expected to make a decision to enter the race until after March.

[yolland]

Politico, Feb. 23

Rick Santorum launched into a scathing attack on the left, charging during an appearance in South Carolina that the history of the Crusades has been corrupted by “the American left who hates Christendom.”

“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical,” Santorum said in Spartanburg on Tuesday. “And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom.” He added, “They hate Western civilization at the core. That's the problem.”

After asserting that Christianity had not shown any “aggression” to the Muslim world, the former Pennsylvania senator—who is considering a 2012 run for the White House—argued that American intervention in the Middle East helps promote “core American values. What I'm talking about is onward American soldiers,” he said. “What we're talking about are core American values. ‘All men are created equal'—that's a Christian value, but it's an American value. It's become part of our national religion, if you will,” he continued. “The point I was trying to make was that the national faith, the national ideal, is rooted in the Christian ideal—in the Judeo-Christian concept of the person.”

So, to summarize, Professor Santorum contends that the ancient Judeo-Christian teaching that all persons are endowed with equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was the true and historical foundation for the Crusades. Except, it hadn't properly become part of the American national religion yet, which perhaps explains why the 'Judeo-Christian' Crusaders routinely slaughtered Jewish communities they encountered en route--apparently not realizing Jews actually shared their friendly intention of bringing these good tidings to the Muslim world, which unlike ours has a long and sorrowful history of slavery, imperial conquest, and clerical meddling in politics.

If you're going to accuse your political opponents of hating civilization itself, it might be good to first acquire some minimal competence in articulating what that civilization consists of.

[Canadiens1131]

Is Christendom a word?

[yolland]

Yes; it's essentially a Christian counterpart to the Arabic Ummah, and carries roughly the same range of meanings (can refer to all the world's majority-Christian/majority-Muslim countries collectively; or to Western European/Arab societies specifically; or to the whole gamut of cultural and intellectual achievements historically associated with majority-Christian/majority-Muslim nations, whether those achievements were specifically religious in origin or not).

[PhilsFan]

Rick Santorum makes me hate both Christianity and Pennsylvania, which is a damn shame as an Irish Catholic from Philadelphia.