[Winstonm]

And in the "Now that nobody cares we can let the cat out of the bag" department, the GOP announced today that Santorum had actually won Iowa, not Romney, but the GOP decided to call it a draw because they couldn't find enough lost votes to make Romney win.

Perhaps they could check with Florida.

[Winstonm]

It's hard to stay ahead of "Scoop" Onion.
Perry Withdraws

[Winstonm]

Damn! Now I have to vote for him.

Quote

One day before the South Carolina primary, actor and martial arts extraordinaire Chuck Norris endorsed Newt Gingrich for president

[kenberg]

I have carefully analyzed the strengths of the Republican field. Here are their best points:

Romney: He is not Gingrich
Gingrich: He is not Romney
Paul: He is not going to be nominated
Santorum: Even the conservatives think he is nuts
Perry: He quit.

[Winstonm]

 kenberg, on 2012-January-21, 17:49, said:

I have carefully analyzed the strengths of the Republican field. Here are their best points:

Romney: He is not Gingrich
Gingrich: He is not Romney
Paul: He is not going to be nominated
Santorum: Even the conservatives think he is nuts
Perry: He quit.

I guess that makes Huntsman the nominee by default - de fault of de party and de voters.

[hrothgar]

 kenberg, on 2012-January-21, 17:49, said:

I have carefully analyzed the strengths of the Republican field. Here are their best points:

Romney: He is not Gingrich
Gingrich: He is not Romney
Paul: He is not going to be nominated
Santorum: Even the conservatives think he is nuts
Perry: He quit.

Reagan... He's dead.

[Winstonm]

Breaking news....

Quote

COLUMBIA, S.C.-- Newt Gingrich has won South Carolina's Republican presidential primary....

At least,so says Chuck, and who is gonna argue?

[Bbradley62]

I'm still hoping to see a brokered convention. Ideally, the candidates would win something like these portions of the delegates: Romney-40%, Gingrich-30%, Paul-20%, Santorum-10%.

[Winstonm]

Question of the day: What is the plural of Santorum? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the family Santora?

[Winstonm]

Mitt Romney picks up Jon Voight’s endorsement - asks advisors if he has to keep it.

[y66]

Republican Debate Veers Toward the Absurd -- Commentary by Marc Pitzke in Spiegel International Online

Quote

The US Republican candidates' debate in Florida quickly devolved into a horror show of absurdities on Thursday night as candidates argued about immigration and moon colonies. Mitt Romney was branded the winner, but the real losers were the viewers, the truth and politics in general.

... For 120 minutes they "debated" the "hot topics," producing sound bites but offering no insight into how these men would cope with the enormous challenges facing the US. The most important topic for voters, the economy, wasn't addressed at all.

At the end, the commentators declared Romney the winner (because he bit the hardest) and Gingrich the loser (because he didn't bite back hard enough). Santorum was termed the "new" challenger (because he attacked everyone), and Paul became the funny uncle. But the real loser was the political system.

No mention of the economy? Wow.

[y66]

Deleted duplicate post.

[Winstonm]

 y66, on 2012-January-29, 22:11, said:

Republican Debate Veers Toward the Absurd -- Commentary by Marc Pitzke in Spiegel International Online



No mention of the economy? Wow.

Don't you know - all you have to do is cut taxes and the economy fixes itself. It's in all the Republican handbooks.

[awm]

Funny thing --if you eliminate all federal spending except defense, Medicare, social security, and interest on the debt... the US budget barely balances. This is not realistic; in particular it includes eliminating Republican priorites like the department of homeland security and some political non-starters like eliminating veterans benefits.

Yet Republicans claim they want a balanced budget amendment. That would presumably mean balanced budgets now (not 10-20 years down the road under optimistic projections). And they want this while cutting taxes dramatically and increasing defense spending. Oh, and without any Medicare changes for folks currently 55 or older.

What gives? Are they all bad at math? Or just hoping we are?

[Winstonm]

No sooner had the Florida primary ended that Romney snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - at least against anyone human running against him - with this comment...

Quote

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, confident after his Florida primary victory, ended up inviting criticism Wednesday when he said he's "not concerned about the very poor" because they have an "ample safety net."

Or, to paraphrase,

Advisor: The peasants have no bread.
Romney: If they're not rich, screw 'em.

[mikeh]

 Winstonm, on 2012-February-01, 17:58, said:

No sooner had the Florida primary ended that Romney snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - at least against anyone human running against him - with this comment...



Or, to paraphrase,

Advisor: The peasants have no bread.
Romney: If they're not rich, screw 'em.

You really think that's going to hurt him? As in you think that anyone considering voting republican sees this as a negative? Really?

[BunnyGo]

 mikeh, on 2012-February-01, 18:36, said:

You really think that's going to hurt him? As in you think that anyone considering voting republican sees this as a negative? Really?

He also said, "I don't care about the very rich."

[Winstonm]

 mikeh, on 2012-February-01, 18:36, said:

You really think that's going to hurt him? As in you think that anyone considering voting republican sees this as a negative? Really?

Something like 50 million people voted to put Sarah Palin within a heartbeat of the oval office - how can anyone underestimate the ignorance of the American voting public?

[mikeh]

 BunnyGo, on 2012-February-01, 20:02, said:

He also said, "I don't care about the very rich."

I heard the full quote, and the characterization placed on it by those attacking him is a distortion....just as was the quote attributed to Marie Antoinette...let them eat cake wasn't as dismissive as it sounds....the word 'cake' has a significantly different connotation to us than it did to her audience.

I think one of the reasons politicans sound so false and inane to literate observers is that they have to constantly worry about deceitful critics quote-mining......if they ever say what they really mean, in a nuanced statement, all of the context will be omitted when the sound-bite is played or the attack ad run.

Politics is the race to the gutter and it demeans everyone who participates whenever the money speaks....your campaign finance laws are an abomination to anyone who wants to see an informed democracy rather than election by sheeple. It's (regrettably) not that there are many better examples to look at....perhaps the scandanavian countries might have a legitimate claim....maybe even germany....it's more that the world would like to look to the US as an example of the possible. As it is, the platitudes of your presidents about US values and liberty and democracy come across as hypocritical as well as platitudinous.

I am NOT claiming moral superiority...far from it....the bones of your system are good....it's the impact of money plus a woeful adherence to 'exceptionalism' that seems to create the quagmire. The money means that the rich control (most) elections (hence the phenonomen of much of the middle class consistently supporting politicians whose every action is designed to transfer ever increasing wealth from the middle class to the rich), and the exceptionalism operates to blind its believers to the possibility that other nations can set examples to be followed...despite its many strengths, the US lags way behind many countries in such basic matters as life expectancy, infant mortality, religious tolerance, gender issues and so on.

I know...it's easy to be a critic from afar and I surely don't claim that canadians wouldn't be as bad if we were americans. And as a kid growing up in the rubble of the British Empire, similar traits were apparent, at least historically, in the attitudes of the ruling elite in the UK.

[blackshoe]

Regarding life expectancies and other data, this site is pretty cool.