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Primary 2012: Romney Wins Debate By Saying Nothing, Having Nice Hair
enlightenedbum
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This thread is to talk about the upcoming 2012 (Republican) Presidential primary and things which will affect the Presidential election next November. Yes, that's 18 months away. We're obsessives.
Predictions!
Contenders:
Your leader at the moment is Mitt "Mittens" Romney. We remember him from the previous primary. He has a serious problem in the primary in that he supported an individual mandate for health care and signed such a thing into law in Massachusetts back when that was the orthodox Republican position. Sadly for him, Barack Obama now supports such a position, and is using it to "death hug" him out of the race.
Also being "death hugged" is Jon Huntsman, the former Governor of Utah and Obama's Ambassador to China until he recently resigned to pursue the Presidency. His positions have undergone a magic and radical shift to the right to accommodate the GOP. Used to be a climate change believe, not so much anymore. Thought the stimulus bill should have been something like 2/3 infrastructure when it was passed, now thinks it should be only tax cuts. Etc. Expect the Village to fall in love with him sometime in the next month.
Your probable key challenger to Romney's lead at the moment is Tim Pawlenty. He's the former Governor of Minnesota and pretty boring. He seems to think he's telling bold truths and not just spouting off the GOP party line.
Other people participating:
Michelle Bachmann! Is a fucking loon. Congresswoman from Minnesota.
Rick Santorum! Is a joke. Google his name (not at work!) to see why. Dumbest Senator of the last 20 years, from Pennsylvania.
Herman Cain! Is a black Republican. Good luck with that. Former KC Fed chair, CEO of Godfather's Pizza.
Ron Paul! RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL. Congressman from Texas.
Gary Johnson! Ron Paulier. Former Governor of New Mexico.
Newt Gingrich! Ugh. Former Speaker of the House from the DC cocktail circuit (by way of Georgia).
Not yet participating:
Sarah Palin! The elephant in the room. Former half-term Governor of Alaska, VP nominee. Dumb as a stone, has a persecution complex. Is a confusing combination of terrifying and awesome (Obama wins Texas against her, at the moment).
Paul Ryan! We'll get to him in a second.
Rick Perry! Governor of Texas, supposedly dumber than the last Governor of Texas we elected to the White House.
Not participating at all:
Mike Huckabee! Terrifyingly charismatic douche, former Governor of Arkansas.
Mitch Daniels! Bush OMB Director, current Governor of Indiana.
Donald Trump! Self-promoter.
A variety of other people, but those are the three that were most frequently talked about.
So the big issue of the day is that the Democrats won a special election in NY-26 last night. The major issue was Paul Ryan's budget, which eliminates Medicare and replaces it with a voucher program for seniors (granted, called Medicare so it's totally unfair to say he wants to destroy Medicare). Which... is not a popular idea. Especially among seniors. Who are the Republican base. NY-26 delivered 74% of the vote to the Republican in 2010, 55% to the Republican in 2008, and was won by George Bush twice and John McCain. It even voted for Carl Paladino last year. The GOP and Crossroads (GPS) poured a ton of money into the district to try to save it, but failed.
Expect to see a LOT from Democrats on this issue. If Pelosi has her way, you can expect to see it literally every day until the election. So that'll be fun.
Predictions!
Predictions:
Mitt Romney - Speaker, WWmain00, Hachface, lonelyahava, Yougottawanna, rndmhero, Jakorian, Space Coyote, ElJeffe, PantsB, Captain Carrot
Mike Huckabee - Dojango, CommunistCow, Gosling, Zython, Styrofoam Sammich, Burtletoy
Sarah Palin - Lord Yod, enlightenedbum, Thanatos, Pi-r8, DoctorArch, Octoparrot, TheBlackWind
Marc Rubio - Holyyakker
Haley Barbour - Optimus Zed, sterling3763
Chris Christie - Brian Krakow, Bacardi,
Santorum - Quid
Alan Keyes - Coinage
John Boehner - MyDcmbr
Ron Paul - gtrmp, Tastyfish
Mitch Daniels - iTunesIsEvil
Rick Perry - AngelHedgie
Donald Trump - Override367, Jokerman
Newt Gingrich - Rockrnger
Tim Pawlenty - Cervetus, Captain Ultra, Hedgethorn, Absalon
Michelle Bachman - Taramoor
Herman Cain - devCharles, SageinaRage, Tubular Luggage
Stephen Colbert - Bagginses
Contenders:
Your leader at the moment is Mitt "Mittens" Romney. We remember him from the previous primary. He has a serious problem in the primary in that he supported an individual mandate for health care and signed such a thing into law in Massachusetts back when that was the orthodox Republican position. Sadly for him, Barack Obama now supports such a position, and is using it to "death hug" him out of the race.
Also being "death hugged" is Jon Huntsman, the former Governor of Utah and Obama's Ambassador to China until he recently resigned to pursue the Presidency. His positions have undergone a magic and radical shift to the right to accommodate the GOP. Used to be a climate change believe, not so much anymore. Thought the stimulus bill should have been something like 2/3 infrastructure when it was passed, now thinks it should be only tax cuts. Etc. Expect the Village to fall in love with him sometime in the next month.
Your probable key challenger to Romney's lead at the moment is Tim Pawlenty. He's the former Governor of Minnesota and pretty boring. He seems to think he's telling bold truths and not just spouting off the GOP party line.
Other people participating:
Michelle Bachmann! Is a fucking loon. Congresswoman from Minnesota.
Rick Santorum! Is a joke. Google his name (not at work!) to see why. Dumbest Senator of the last 20 years, from Pennsylvania.
Herman Cain! Is a black Republican. Good luck with that. Former KC Fed chair, CEO of Godfather's Pizza.
Ron Paul! RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL. Congressman from Texas.
Gary Johnson! Ron Paulier. Former Governor of New Mexico.
Newt Gingrich! Ugh. Former Speaker of the House from the DC cocktail circuit (by way of Georgia).
Not yet participating:
Sarah Palin! The elephant in the room. Former half-term Governor of Alaska, VP nominee. Dumb as a stone, has a persecution complex. Is a confusing combination of terrifying and awesome (Obama wins Texas against her, at the moment).
Paul Ryan! We'll get to him in a second.
Rick Perry! Governor of Texas, supposedly dumber than the last Governor of Texas we elected to the White House.
Not participating at all:
Mike Huckabee! Terrifyingly charismatic douche, former Governor of Arkansas.
Mitch Daniels! Bush OMB Director, current Governor of Indiana.
Donald Trump! Self-promoter.
A variety of other people, but those are the three that were most frequently talked about.
So the big issue of the day is that the Democrats won a special election in NY-26 last night. The major issue was Paul Ryan's budget, which eliminates Medicare and replaces it with a voucher program for seniors (granted, called Medicare so it's totally unfair to say he wants to destroy Medicare). Which... is not a popular idea. Especially among seniors. Who are the Republican base. NY-26 delivered 74% of the vote to the Republican in 2010, 55% to the Republican in 2008, and was won by George Bush twice and John McCain. It even voted for Carl Paladino last year. The GOP and Crossroads (GPS) poured a ton of money into the district to try to save it, but failed.
Expect to see a LOT from Democrats on this issue. If Pelosi has her way, you can expect to see it literally every day until the election. So that'll be fun.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
enlightenedbum on
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PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Hell, they destroyed Newt Gingrich for speaking out against the Paul Ryan plan. Bachmann just seems more plausible to me than Romney who has the whole Mormon thing going against him.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
"President Bachman, Vice President Palin, your single-payer legislation has gone through. Apparently massive cognitive dissonance works against the house and congress as well as it did against the American public."
Oh come on, it'd be funny.
!T-Paw.
Although the best thing for the country would be for a Palin/Bachmann/Paul to win the nomination and be Goldwatered/Mondaled so that the Republican party begins to return to its senses.
Because there's no way Bachmann can win, and Romney running second fiddle to Rep. Crazypants would be the font of untold unintentional hilarity.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Also, I know this was probably a quick OP, but remember The Huckster is officially out, too.
Damn you Huckabee!
pleasepaypreacher.net
But whatever the republican ticket, the main actors in the presidential election are going to be a pair of fellows called Ỹ and Okun...
Its poison either direction. Moderates and liberals hate it, as do old people even if they put in the extremely cowardly and obvious this only applies to anyone below 55 years of age.
If they abandon it they risk tea party third party canidates hurting them in elections like ny 26. If they embrace it democrats pound them with it over and over on top of the auto bail out stuff. They misjudged the ryan thing, even the "Wow he's such a moderate guys" Huntsman sucked the ryan dong, they are all tainted with it.
pleasepaypreacher.net
It's looking more and more like 'pick a crazy person out of a hat' time, to me. Of that set, Ryan worries me the most although his medicare voucherization plan would probably get him crucified in a general all by itself.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
People who think The Shock Doctrine was an instruction booklet. If the economy sucks enough, people might be inclined to change president and agree to neoliberal dogma out of sheer desperation and anger. That is the idea.
We should all be extremely thankful to The Village for this.
Thanks, Andrew Sullivan, David Brooks, Megan McArdle, Peggy Noonan, et al! Thanks a lot!
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Wait wait. So he had the idea FIRST, and Obama copied him. The idea was "let them file bankruptcy", and the copy was "give them a loan"
Yeah, I can see how those are the same fucking idea, Mitt.
Of course, he'll have been out of office for a damn long time come 2016.
I want Rudy to run.
Mainly because there is nothing quite like a candidate with a vindictive ex-wife who has half the NY media on speed dial to make things entertaining.
!Romney
Too bad for mittens democrats already have a campaign video hitting him on this very point with his words already out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxvURgyJ26w
Words have meaning mittens, and you put your stink all over this one.
pleasepaypreacher.net
This sequence of paragraphs is almost worthy of the Daily Show:
So according to Romney, the restructuring plan was both tragic and his idea all along.
Also, helping GM and Chrysler to be restructured rather than liquidated wasted billions of dollars, which is why Romney argued for the restructuring.
The principle of charity fails me here.
Isn't that video the entire contents of the link you are quoting?
Or does none of it load for me at work other than the video?
The government loan was in order to allow GM and Chrysler to reorganize under bankruptcy law. Without the loan, they wouldn't have had enough cash and credit to survive a reorg, and one or both would have had to be liquidated.
Didn't realize the link was just to the video, I thought it was an opinion piece about romney back sliding to take credit.
pleasepaypreacher.net
How the hell they could succesfully call it a poison pill when it was clear it had fuck all chance of passing is beyond me, but they definitely need to do something so that they can use as red meat for the base without having devour them alive in the general, and that's as good a bet as any I guess. They sure as hell can't just have it hang around as their actual budget position through the primary.
Also any compromise they make will not placate the tea party who already dislike the "establishment" canidates. I'll be surprised if there aren't three canidates for president next year.
pleasepaypreacher.net
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Someone serious about blancing the budget and cutting costs? I mean, it's not like they weren't expecting blowback from this.
I've been trying to explain this to people in the youtube comments for that commercial.
Explaining things to people in youtube comments is some kind of terrible sisyphusion struggle that only a madman would undertake. What's wrong with me.
Admit it. You're into S&M.
The Republican primaries are, quite literally, beyond parody.
So gutting medicare is "serious about balancing the budget and cutting costs", but not more than a year or two ago "the Democrats are going to gut medicare" was used as a scare tactic.
So is gutting medicare ballsy and brave and necessary, or something to keep people up at night crying and fearing for their family, because at the moment it seems the GOP feels it's both at the same time.
Hint: there's a reason the acronym IOKIYAR gets thrown around at times.
I really wish I could be surprised about Republicans trying to do things they shat on Democrats for doing when the latter weren't actually doing them.
I would accept this as a brave and serious attempt to tackle this nation's unpopular problems.. If the entire budget wasn't based around hitting 2.8% unemployment in a month, and massive revenue neutral tax cuts.
One is not serious about solving a problem if one cannot be serious about the actual expected results.
It's coming out more and more from pissy GOP members that this budget is not serious, is not liked, and was pretty much forced into being over horrible internal polling numbers. In this country? Gutting military spending down to $3.84/year is probably a more serious proposal than mauling medicare.
Fun fact: the most fiscally conservative budget proposal has been completely ignored by almost all of the mainstream media while the same media fawns all over the Ryan budget for being "brave" enough to gut Medicare while adding $6 trillion (with a T) to the national debt.
Who drafted such a radical, brave, courageous, and daring budget? The Tea Party Caucus? Ron Paul? Grover Norquist? The Ghost Of Reagan?
The House Progressive Caucus.
Seeing how the hype around the Ryan budget is tarring any and all GOP candidates with a hope of winning the primaries with the "supports the dismantling of Medicare" tag I guess there is a silver lining to that.
Those pictures of Rudy in drag and those pro-immigration quotes never get old.