If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
The Republican candidates just finished their 20th and (allegedly) final debate. For those keeping score, that's more debates than Santorum kids plus Romney sons plus Gingrich wives plus Paul eyebrows.
The Republicans sure have the right symbol with the elephant. Republican debates are nothing but elephants in the room. The biggest of which must be: to someone out there who's hurting, they spend the whole two hours yammering away about earmarks and illegal immigrants and contraception and every other peripheral, wish-I-had-the-time-to-worry-about-it issue they can think of. Then there is the elephant of how they all -- with the sometime exception of Ron Paul -- nod along to insane statements just because they don't want to ever look like they're to the left of anybody, on anything, especially the evilness of Barack Obama. So Wednesday night Newt said the president of the United States had a history of practicing infanticide... yep, yep, yessir, that's what he does alright. Clubs infants like baby seals in his spare time. Ike played golf, Kennedy liked boating...
About a month ago, I called this race for Rick Santorum (Link). I am trying to figure out how to get credit for it as my reasoning is holding water j...
Here we go again. With the economy showing faint signs of life and their positions on the social issues alienating most moderates, the leading Republican candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, have returned to the elixir of warmongering to once again sway the gullible masses.
Of the four contenders, Rick Santorum had the best night. It has taken him twenty debates, but Santorum finally ended up with the primo onstage real estate, right next to Mitt Romney at the heart of the action.
The nearly universal opinion among scholars, legislators, and even the Justices themselves is that the text of the Exceptions Clause unavoidably lets Congress take free shots at the Supreme Court.
Ron Paul, even among his detractors, enjoys a reputation as a man of clear principle. But the more I study his positions on free trade, the more the one word that comes to mind is... disingenuous.
Conventional wisdom holds that many if not most of today's 20-somethings don't care about electoral politics -- and won't be voting for president in 2012 -- because they are indifferent to the world around them.
For all his blemishes, Ron Paul has demonstrated that there is still a constituency that can be called on to hoist principle above political expediency.
Hot-button issues, such as, "A woman's right to choose" will be watered down to the more fashionable, "A woman's right to Jimmy Choos."
The most cogent and controversial debate erupted around the validity of the Democratic party as a choice for voters disenchanted with policies of the Obama administration.
With the Republican presidential race in disarray and something of a lull in the post-"inevitable Romney" phase, there is one ongoing constant: All the conceivable nominees is pushing for war with Iran and none have anything like a plan as to how an Iran war would, you know, work.
Aside from creating a false dilemma between two options when many others exists, even asking the question that way implies that the fact that we will be assassinating suspected terrorists oversees is already settled, and now the discussion is just a matter of deciding on the methods.
The Republicans are positioning themselves to be the leading party in a new century. The problem is, it isn't the twenty-first.
Imagining candidate Lin is an exercise worth doing if only because it illuminates the paucity of leadership and ideas in the Republican Party.
Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul all have reasons to not drop out. With each passing primary, there's a chance the Republican nominee will have to deal with the fallout from the first brokered convention since primaries and caucuses became the critical method of choosing nominees.
