Presidential Campaign: 2012

[D33RHUNT3R]

Originally Posted by melliedee

Well, the Bush cuts had an expiration date too; yet, everyone talks about those expiring as a tax increase. Why does it become a semantics argument when we're talking about something that impacts the middle class?

Yep and now those are the Obama and the Democrats tax cuts for the rich ... They didn't want to trash the economy then .. Now they do ???

[Robinhood]

The establishment media campaign to ignore Ron Paul despite his immense popularity received a blow this week when the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism released the results of a new study.
PEJ looked at 20 million Tweets about the race for president and found that Ron Paul “fared far better” than any other Republican candidate on Twitter.
Paul was referred to positively in 55 percent of the 1.1 million assessments studied by PEJ. “That is a differential for Paul of 40 points on the positive side,” notes Pew.
“This treatment of Paul stands in contrast to that of most of the GOP field, for whom Twitter has been a tough neighborhood,” the study concludes. “Five of Paul’s seven GOP rivals have had negative opinions on Twitter outstrip positive ones by roughly 2-1 or more.”
In addition to his favorability on Twitter, Ron Paul dominates the blogosphere according to Pew.
Paul’s popularity on the internet is due primarily to his youthful base. “Ron Paul has managed to do what no libertarian organization or electoral candidate ever has: Energize the masses of young Americans, all throughout the nation’s college campuses, including its most leftist, and get them interested in the politics of freedom and peace,” writes Anthony Gregory. “Ron Paul’s young supporters attend his campus rallies cheering for the gold standard, the Constitution, and a Jeffersonian foreign policy.”
This was apparent in Ames, Iowa, on Thursday when Paul drew a standing-room-only gathering of more than 1,000 college-age students. “Paul traditionally draws a great deal of enthusiasm from young supporters. A speech at Louisiana State University in September drew an estimated 1,200 people and a speech at Webster Hall in New York that same month pulled in an even larger crowd. Paul will hold another youth rally Friday night at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls,” writes Jason M. Volack for ABC News. RP is taking a page out of the 08 Obama campaign...Worked pretty good for BHO.

[jeffandbecky]

There's a light in the tunnel, and it's a train.

Battleground-State Voters Leaving the Democratic Party - 2012 Decoded

Among Independents, Gingrich and Romney Both Lead Obama in Florida and Ohio | The Weekly Standard

I generally don't put too much stock in a "who beats who" poll at this stage in the game. Polls dealing with long term movements in voter affiliation are very important.

[roni]

The GOP's death wish - The Washington Post

[melliedee]

David Brooks:

In the two main Republican contenders, we have one man, Romney, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1950s, and another, Gingrich, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1960s. He has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with ’60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance. He just has those traits in Republican form.

As nearly everyone who has ever worked with him knows, he would severely damage conservatism and the Republican Party if nominated. He would severely damage the Hamilton-Theodore Roosevelt strain in American life.

It’s really too bad. We could have had a great debate about the progressive-conservative tradition. President Obama is now embracing Roosevelt. Gingrich has tried to modernize this tendency.

But how you believe something is as important as what you believe. It doesn’t matter if a person shares your overall philosophy. If that person doesn’t have the right temperament and character, stay away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/op...me&ref=general

[bearcat]

I am looking forward to watching the GOP debate tonight. (I should probably have better plans for a Saturday night but I love these debates ). Will Mitt go after Newt? Will they all go after Newt? Frontrunner status has not been a good thing this cycle.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by bearcat

I am looking forward to watching the GOP debate tonight. (I should probably have better plans for a Saturday night but I love these debates ). Will Mitt go after Newt? Will they all go after Newt? Frontrunner status has not been a good thing this cycle.

Mitt would much rather have someone else go after Newt.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by melliedee

David Brooks:



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/op...me&ref=general

Yep..Brooks, like so many main-stream Republicans, does NOT like Newt...here from the NewsHour

DAVID BROOKS: Out of all the people who are in that House Republican group.
And so there are two. Bob Walker and Bob Livingston are sort of on the team. But everybody else I know, some of them quite publicly, but most privately, they will not go out and say anything, but I think most of them think he would be a disaster for the party, because they were -- when they were back there, they would organize a policy. They'd spend weeks planning it.
On the way from the office to the press conference, Newt would do a 180 and do the exact opposite. I'm very interested to see what Dick Armey says, when Dick Armey comes out and says yes or no. He hasn't -- he has been laying low, but those sorts of people will be interesting.

JUDY WOODRUFF: With friends like these...

MARK SHIELDS: The weight of the evidence is just overwhelming.
And the consensus is this, that Newt Gingrich doesn't have the emotional stability to be a presidential nominee, let alone to be president of the United States. And I think the real test, Judy, is going to be in the next week. We have two major debates on ABC and then on FOX.
And the question is whether the candidates who are raising the charges against him right now, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, whether they're going to do a Dixie, whether they're going to fade when the moderator says, will you make this charge right now on this stage to Newt Gingrich to his face?
If they do what Tim Pawlenty did in New Hampshire...

[D33RHUNT3R]

Originally Posted by roni

The GOP's death wish - The Washington Post

That seems to be the medias montra.. They want Mitt, the Liberals want Mit,t and the (R) voters don't want Mitt... and I hope for our sake the (R) voters don't let the Media and the Leftist pick our Nominee..

But 1st and above all it's really---> ANYBODY BUT OBAMA next Nov..

[bearcat]

Personally, I enjoy listening to Newt in these debates. He has original and interesting viewpoints on things. The same with Ron Paul. They raise the interest factor. Imagine if these debates did not include them, as well as the unintentional comedy of Rick Perry? It would be brutal. Michelle Bachmann and her 3 talking points, Rick Santorum, who I continue to forget is in the race and the ever bland Romney do not bring any excitement.

I may not like them as the GOP candidate but Newt and Ron Paul are interesting.

[melliedee]

Originally Posted by bearcat

Personally, I enjoy listening to Newt in these debates. He has original and interesting viewpoints on things. The same with Ron Paul. They raise the interest factor. Imagine if these debates did not include them, as well as the unintentional comedy of Rick Perry? It would be brutal. Michelle Bachmann and her 3 talking points, Rick Santorum, who I continue to forget is in the race and the ever bland Romney do not bring any excitement.

I may not like them as the GOP candidate but Newt and Ron Paul are interesting.

From a purely political theater standpoint, I agree with you. But I'm going to disagree about Bachmann's debate performances. I expected her to be a Palin redux, but I think she really prepped and did her homework. Though I disagree with her on nearly every issue (and she does say some whacked out things, no argument there), I thought she held her own---especially in the foreign policy debate.

[melliedee]

Originally Posted by D33RHUNT3R

That seems to be the medias montra.. They want Mitt, the Liberals want Mit,t and the (R) voters don't want Mitt... and I hope for our sake the (R) voters don't let the Media and the Leftist pick our Nominee..

But 1st and above all it's really---> ANYBODY BUT OBAMA next Nov..

You might want to recheck the authorship of all of those negative op-eds about Newt: they are all from Republicans. Most stridently, those who have worked with him. The left doesn't even have to chime in at this point.

[roni]

Originally Posted by D33RHUNT3R

That seems to be the medias montra.. They want Mitt, the Liberals want Mit,t and the (R) voters don't want Mitt... and I hope for our sake the (R) voters don't let the Media and the Leftist pick our Nominee..

But 1st and above all it's really---> ANYBODY BUT OBAMA next Nov..

Originally Posted by melliedee

You might want to recheck the authorship of all of those negative op-eds about Newt: they are all from Republicans. Most stridently, those who have worked with him. The left doesn't even have to chime in at this point.

I am starting to sense some strands of a conspiracy theory in Arkie's posts.

It is all the media, it is all the leftists (whoever they are), it is all of those anti-American, pro-Kenyan Obama lovers who are derailing the One True Way politics from being ascendent.

Facts do not touch this type of thinking. Facts do not come close to penetrating this reality denying fog.

[bearcat]

Originally Posted by melliedee

From a purely political theater standpoint, I agree with you. But I'm going to disagree about Bachmann's debate performances. I expected her to be a Palin redux, but I think she really prepped and did her homework. Though I disagree with her on nearly every issue (and she does say some whacked out things, no argument there), I thought she held her own---especially in the foreign policy debate.

I will be honest, there is something so annoying and shrieking about Michelle Bachmann's voice that it is difficult to listen to her answers after awhile. I do agree with you that her performance on that debate focused on foreign policy was her strongest and she surprised me, but my expectations had been set so low.

I just realized I forgot Huntsman in my post of GOP contenders. I like him in the debates, as long as he stays away from the obscure references and lame attempt at comedy. He may actually be the strongest candidate on the stage, he is intelligent, energetic, experienced and, in my opinion, balanced on the issue. It is too bad that he has no chance.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by bearcat

I will be honest, there is something so annoying and shrieking about Michelle Bachmann's voice that it is difficult to listen to her answers after awhile. I do agree with you that her performance on that debate focused on foreign policy was her strongest and she surprised me, but my expectations had been set so low.

I just realized I forgot Huntsman in my post of GOP contenders. I like him in the debates, as long as he stays away from the obscure references and lame attempt at comedy. He may actually be the strongest candidate on the stage, he is intelligent, energetic, experienced and, in my opinion, balanced on the issue. It is too bad that he has no chance.

That is what they said about Newt until now...(and I think they were right btw)...so stand-by..after Newt blows up, Huntsman just may be up next...Anybody But Mitt, right?