If the Republican presidential nominating race wasn't actually intended as a serious endeavor, it could be mistaken for a comedy routine. As one more woman makes up another story about Herman Cain's sexual proclivities, Rick Perry struggles to understand who is eligible to vote in the democracy he wants to lead. Mitt Romney changes positions as often as a light-hitting utility infielder; Michele Bachmann prompts questions about what is required to become a member of the House Intelligence Committee; Ron Paul makes enough sense to scare the electorate; Newt Gingrich has reached the fifth level of hypocrisy and thinks his contradictions are invisible or meaningless, while Jon Huntsman, who has been far too rational and informed to be riding in the GOP clown car, stands off to the side and wonders how he is not even qualified to be considered for the Iowa debate on December 10.
The departure of Mr. Cain, who is apparently being besieged by lying women who are puppets of Democratic operatives afraid he will win the White House, will not make things any simpler for GOP primary voters. Cain's surge happened after Perry mentioned that he supported in-state tuition for the children of undocumented workers. As Cain has been hammered by revelations involving his personal life, Gingrich has acquired enough support to lead the race, most of which likely came from Cain. Perry's numbers did not tick back up and Romney's stayed frozen in the high teens and low twenties. All of those voters who began dating other people when Perry faltered ended up also leaving Cain but still hadn't forgiven Romney for being Romney or Perry for being a dumbass.
What do they do with Cain gone?
The Gingrich team wants everyone to believe he is now inevitable. But there are two forces in control of most of the GOP primary and they have issues with Newt. What will the values voters and evangelicals make of a man who has had mistresses and three marriages? The Tea Party certainly can't be very excited about a candidate who has made millions advising participants in the scam that fueled Wall Street's mortgage collapse, and even though he claims he's never been a lobbyist and has only sold access to his inordinately large brain, Gingrich has made millions more getting his clients in front of members of congress. The Tea Party is not likely to favor his full résumé. Gingrich's baggage fills up three boxcars on the campaign train, and one of them is for Tiffany jewelry containers.
Mitt Romney is probably one of the leading GOP candidates with an actual statistical chance of beating President Obama but he seemingly cannot win his party's nomination. Romney is moderate enough to do well in the general election but not sufficiently right wing to win the primary. His problems, already deconstructed a million times, center around convincing GOP voters that just because he approved a state health care plan in Massachusetts doesn't mean he wants one for the rest of the country, and just because he said he'd be stronger on gay rights than Teddy Kennedy when he ran against him for the U.S. Senate doesn't mean he believes in gay marriage now, and just because he refused to sign the pledge to end federal funding to hospitals that provide abortions doesn't mean he supports woman's right to choose, and just because he said he thinks global warming is real doesn't mean he thinks humans are the cause. Romney's political cravenness approaches Senator John McCain's, who pegged the needle when he called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance" in one election and then ran to seek their endorsements the next time he chased after the presidency.
Romney's other problem, of course, is his religion. He doesn't talk about it, except for a speech he gave in Texas four years ago, which he hoped had put the matter to perpetual rest. But it hasn't. Various surveys show that white, southern, Christian evangelicals will not vote for a Mormon because the overwhelming majority does not view the religion as part of Christendom. The hypocrisy in this position is both entertaining and harmful to Republican presidential aspirations; apparently Moses tablet(s) brought down from the mountain are more believable than the Angel Moroni's golden tablets delivered to Joseph Smith. Regardless, no Republican will win the White House without successfully sweeping the south in the general election in 2012 and a Mormon candidate will apparently reduce enthusiasm and turnout among white, Christian voters. Mitt will stay stuck at about twenty percent regardless of how many GOP power brokers urge the voters to rally around his flag.
Which brings us to the wretched remainders.
Bachmann and Paul have undeniable electability issues, Rick Santorum is barely worth mentioning, and Jon Huntsman is too sane, considerate, well informed, capable on the issues, rational, analytical, thoughtful, and Mormon to have a chance within his chosen political party.
That leaves only the dumb one.
When the bright lights reveal more of Newt's warts than voters want to see, there will be no place left for GOP voters to seek sanctuary. The unfaithful and undecideds will have to reconsider Rick Perry. The values voters will realize again that he is with them on gay marriage and Jesus and global warming and abortion and government health care. TP-ers will conclude he's their best chance to show they have the power to destroy government. These voters don't care that Perry is a bit of a dolt on issues; they love him because he thinks like they do and there is no one else on the GOP primary ballot who completely fits that description. Unfortunately, every time a reporter considers writing a comeback narrative for Perry, the Texas governor begins talking and prompts second thoughts about how convincing such an article might ever be for readers.
Republicans must be frustrated as hell. They are facing an incumbent president who most polls show is mortally wounded and yet the GOP cannot find an acceptable, unifying candidate with prospects of victory. The fact that Herman Cain and Rick Perry have survived this long is an indication of the desperation of Republicans. They ought not to worry, though. Sarah Palin has taken up residence in Arizona.
And word is that she is tanned, rested, and ready.
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And when RP finishes his first term, he'll be 80 years old. Do you think voters will ignore that?
Every Mormon I've ever met or know about seems like a good moral decent person, but there are core tenants in Mormonism that as a Christian, I see as basically blasphemy regarding Jesus and his life, death and resurrection.
By your tone, I take it you are not a Christian and you probably view all religions as equally wacky in it's own way, but at least put a bit more effort into understanding the reasoning behind many Christian's extreme revulsion when it comes to Mormonism.
Ordinarily, no, but this is the perfect storm, the perfect vacuum and anything could get sucked in and shoot to the top of the flag pole. I'm thinking maybe....Martha Stewart?
The central bank is part of the corrupt, wealth confiscating banking cartel that continues to systematically destroy our currency and finance a government we can't afford while all this excess debt and currency debasement is disproportionately dumped on the poor and middle class. Sound money needs to be restored eventually so that government can only finance services that is paid for by taxes or whatever credit it can secure without depending on the Fed's printing press.
We'd be foolish to ignore history. No paper based currency has ever lasted in the history of the world. Gold has been a relatively stable accepted form of money for over 5,000 years. Paul's plan to institute a regular, detailed audit of the Fed will help shed light on its real destructive and corrupt operations so that the public is more aware. Repealing legal tender laws on gold and silver allows for a transition into competiting currencies. It's not simple and many complications would have to be worked out, but we need to understand how much the Fed enables the banking elite at the expense of the poor/middle class.
The United States spends approximately $250 billion annually to maintain troops, equipment, fleets, and bases overseas.
http://www.fpif.org/reports/the_cost_of_the_global_us_military_presence
Obama isn't even addressing that. In fact, he is adding another military base in Australia.
The war on drugs is out of control and Obama ignores it.
Obama has a friendly relationship with Wall Street.
Obama holds the record for the most money ever raised from Wall Street -- $15.8 million in 2008. The $1 million Obama hauled from the executives and employees of Goldman Sachs is the largest sum a candidate has raised from one company since the McCain-Feingold campaign finance restrictions were imposed in 2002.
In the fall of 2008, Obama was the only person outside of the Bush administration who could have blocked the massive bailout of Wall Street. But he instead assured the bill's passage, and then rewarded its authors, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner, with reappointment and promotion, respectively.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/10/cozy-relationship-wall-street-hurts-romney#ixzz1fEpYfUzZ
Speaking from these issues - Ron Paul is more liberal than Obama . If Paul doesn't carry the GOP nomination, I'll check out the Green and Libertarian party candidates who are more than likely to mirror Paul's stand on the War on Drugs, the elimination of all these US military bases overseas, and end the bailouts of poorly run and corrupt financial firms.
A government out of control, unrestrained by the constitution, the rule of law or morality. Bickering over petty politics as we descend into chaos. The philosophy that destroys us is not even defined.
We have broken from reality a psychotic nation. Ignorance with a pretense of knowledge replacing wisdom Money does not grow on trees, nor does prosperity come from a government printing press or escalating deficits.
We are now in the midst of unlimited spending of the people’s money. Exorbitant taxation, deficits of trillions of dollars spent on a failed welfare-warfare system. An epidemic of cronyism. Unlimited supplies of paper money equated with wealth. A central bank that deliberately destroys the value of the currency in secrecy, without restraint, without nary a whimper, yet cheered on by the pseudo-capitalists of Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, and Detroit.
We police our world empire with troops on 700 bases and in 130 countries around the world. A dangerous war now spreads throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Thousands of innocent people being killed as we become known as the torturers of the 21st century.
We assume that by keeping the already known torture pictures from the public’s eye, we will be remembered only as a generous and good people. If our enemies want to attack us only because we are free and rich, proof of torture would be irrelevant."
( go read the whole thing)