Republican Candidates

[Zoraptor]

Perhaps one of the reasons the US is in such a bad state is that apparently no one can tell the difference between debt 'doubling' and a 33% increase.

[Humodour]

But yeah, Bachmann is one of the last people you would ever want leading America. Thankfully she's liable to crash and burn as is most fitting for her.

[Guard Dog]

Perhaps one of the reasons the US is in such a bad state is that apparently no one can tell the difference between debt 'doubling' and a 33% increase.

Doh, typo on my part. I was in a rush when I typed all that. I actually cut & pasted from a post I made on a different forum but I did not proofread it obviously.

[Guard Dog]

So far Herman Cain is the one I have like the most. But I've got nothing against Romney. I'm not a fan of Pawlenty, don't know much about Bachman, and Ron Paul has too many bad associations. Gingrich is a buffoon, Santorum a democrat disguised as a republican, and Jon Huntsman is too vanilla. Palin will not run (thankfully) neither will Christie (too bad) or Thune. Rick Perry might, I could get behind hime if he did. Huckabee is an idiot and Guliani will never appeal to the Red States.

 

Right now I'm supporting Cain and I think a Romney/Cain ticket would be formidable. But honestly, I'd take Micky Mouse over the fool we have now.

[Oblarg]

So far Herman Cain is the one I have like the most. But I've got nothing against Romney. I'm not a fan of Pawlenty, don't know much about Bachman, and Ron Paul has too many bad associations. Gingrich is a buffoon, Santorum a democrat disguised as a republican, and Jon Huntsman is too vanilla. Palin will not run (thankfully) neither will Christie (too bad) or Thune. Rick Perry might, I could get behind hime if he did. Huckabee is an idiot and Guliani will never appeal to the Red States.

 

Right now I'm supporting Cain and I think a Romney/Cain ticket would be formidable. But honestly, I'd take Micky Mouse over the fool we have now.

 

Herman Cain? You mean the nutcase who said he wouldn't sign any bill over 3 pages long?

 

Hahahahaha.

[Humodour]

Yeah, I gotta say Cain is a rather creepy fellow. Not McCain "I walk around like I'm about to keel over and die any moment" creepy, but definitely some kind of creepy.

[Calax]

The three pages thing sounds REALLY GOOD on paper, but when you actually think about it it's kinda "Bwah?"

 

And Bachman still scares me.

[Zoraptor]

Herman Cain <---> Herve Caen.

 

Some might say coincidence, I say there are no coincidences.

 

Well, he probably couldn't do worse running the US than he's done running Interplay.

[Guard Dog]

Jon Huntsman is in. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/...eech/?hpt=hp_t2

 

Keep moving, nothing to see here.

[Guard Dog]

One, GD, in your statistics did they show how the prices had changed over time? Or just use a pair of points (one during bush and one during obama) to say "Obama is worse"? I'm pretty sure that the job market issue started after the collapse under Bush due to the initial de-regulation and even now the country is still in a bit of a tailspin because of the famously minimal amount of influence the government has over the economy at the moment.

The price increases were on food and consumables. There are several reasons why there has been a price increase. First the cost of gasoline & diesel. Everything is delivered by truck, higher transport costs means higher price. Second, ethanol demands have driven up the price of corn (something you must have heard of considering where you are these days). That drives up the price of beef, cooking oil, etc. Neither of those two could really be attributed to Obama. Well, he has (illegally) placed a moratorium on domestic oil exploration in the gulf and Dakota shale fields. This has effectively decreased the supply of oil for fuel refinements so while he did not drive up the price he has certainly not helped bring it down. Quite the opposite. His administration has also refused to permit refinery construction too so that also reduces the supply of fuel for purchase which drives up or at the very least freezes the price. For all his talk of reducing dependency on foreign oil he has done the exact opposite. He has increased it and even gone so far as to force US companies to buy refined fuel from Mexico for the first time in our history. Right now there are two bills in Congress that he favors that will introduce some 6,000 new regulations and compliance rules on all domestic food farms. Compliance with these will drive up the cost of food and quite probably drive a number of smaller private farms out of business. That will decrease the supply and drive up the cost even more. Ironically the big "Agri-Business" corporations he rails against will benefit the most. Small wonder he accepts millions of dollars in donations from them.

[Walsingham]

I'm increasingly and unutterably depressed by the total shocking and incoherent mess the democratic nations are making of everything. We are neither soberly and educatedly taking action, nor just getting drunk and getting on with things, but soberly and hysterically running in small circles and watching the X Factor. The prospect of the fulcrum of world events being controlled by a certifiable loon of either party is simply par for the course.

[Calax]

GD, you cite two bills on the congress floor, and yet Obama himself can't (technically) control what gets put on the floor and voted up or down. This is one thing I think that many people forget, the executive branch can't introduce and work bills over in congress, so you can't say he personally is to blame for those two bills.

 

Also the current congress is republican controlled so *shrugs*

[Guard Dog]

GD, you cite two bills on the congress floor, and yet Obama himself can't (technically) control what gets put on the floor and voted up or down. This is one thing I think that many people forget, the executive branch can't introduce and work bills over in congress, so you can't say he personally is to blame for those two bills.

 

Also the current congress is republican controlled so *shrugs*

Yup that is true. They were introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sen. **** Durbin (D-Ill.) in 2009-2010 when the Dems held the cards. Obama mentioned his support of the Durbin Bill in his SotU address in 2010. Since the Repubs took over the House in early this year those bills are Dead On Arrival, thankfully. But Obama would have signed them had they passed before the 2010 elections. And it would have caused the cost of food to go up even more, hurting people financially even more. Obama and others in the government are not evil people. They do not sit around and dream up ways to harm the people financially or otherwise. But they often do out of sheer ignorance coupled with good intentions. They biggest part of the Libertarian political philosophy is that a smaller government will hurt you less.

 

The problem with career politicians is that they lack any real understanding of what they are governing. The biggest problem with the US political system now is not Republican or Democrats, or even the choice of one or the other. We have allowed the creation of an entire class of people who do nothing but govern. They have no concept of how an economy works because they do not participate in it. They have never had a real job, had to meet a payroll, had to manage a hosehold on a limited income. This is where I could trot out the term limits argument but that is futile, they will never pass it. The political class really has become the tail wagging the dog. Just look at the whole Jon Wiener debacle for an example of how out of control it has become.

[Nepenthe]

The problem with career politicians is that they lack any real understanding of what they are governing. The biggest problem with the US political system now is not Republican or Democrats, or even the choice of one or the other. We have allowed the creation of an entire class of people who do nothing but govern. They have no concept of how an economy works because they do not participate in it. They have never had a real job, had to meet a payroll, had to manage a hosehold on a limited income. This is where I could trot out the term limits argument but that is futile, they will never pass it. The political class really has become the tail wagging the dog. Just look at the whole Jon Wiener debacle for an example of how out of control it has become.

That problem is not limited to the U.S., (un)fortunately. It also transcends, as you sort of point out, any individual or even parties.

 

I believe that the original concept between a strong president and a parliament was that you elected both your ruler (the president) and your representatives (the parliament) who acted as a control to the ruler. The system has evolved to the point where you just pick guys for oligarchy; no matter what the negative fallout of their results is, they know that they'll never have to personally face them.

[Calax]

GD, you cite two bills on the congress floor, and yet Obama himself can't (technically) control what gets put on the floor and voted up or down. This is one thing I think that many people forget, the executive branch can't introduce and work bills over in congress, so you can't say he personally is to blame for those two bills.

 

Also the current congress is republican controlled so *shrugs*

Yup that is true. They were introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sen. **** Durbin (D-Ill.) in 2009-2010 when the Dems held the cards. Obama mentioned his support of the Durbin Bill in his SotU address in 2010. Since the Repubs took over the House in early this year those bills are Dead On Arrival, thankfully. But Obama would have signed them had they passed before the 2010 elections. And it would have caused the cost of food to go up even more, hurting people financially even more. Obama and others in the government are not evil people. They do not sit around and dream up ways to harm the people financially or otherwise. But they often do out of sheer ignorance coupled with good intentions. They biggest part of the Libertarian political philosophy is that a smaller government will hurt you less.

 

The problem with career politicians is that they lack any real understanding of what they are governing. The biggest problem with the US political system now is not Republican or Democrats, or even the choice of one or the other. We have allowed the creation of an entire class of people who do nothing but govern. They have no concept of how an economy works because they do not participate in it. They have never had a real job, had to meet a payroll, had to manage a hosehold on a limited income. This is where I could trot out the term limits argument but that is futile, they will never pass it. The political class really has become the tail wagging the dog. Just look at the whole Jon Wiener debacle for an example of how out of control it has become.

Question, which bills are you talking about? The only durbin bill I found via google search was the more recent one that's designed to crack down on privatization of government assets, and one that forces the Fed to put in rules on swipe fees for debit cards that are reasonable.

 

And on the topic of "Small Government=better" Thing is that without a larger government intervention within the financial sector (at the very least) the government can't do the job of defending their citizens from being defrauded by the companies that would end up (basically) controlling the economy.

 

I mean you look at it right now and the entire financial system acts like the smaller investors/non-investors are complete trash, and when they loose their money it's their own fault, not the fault of the person that they trusted their money to.

 

Decreasing government in this capacity would allow those companies who ripped us off and sent the global economy into a tailspin that (under Obama) is finally starting to level out, to keep right on ripping us off and supporting the upper 3% of the population of the US in terms of income.

 

Understand, I'm not saying that the government needs to intervene in every situation, but there needs to be an understanding that the government is supposed to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic who don't always shoot at us as much as steal from us.

[Calax]

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/michele-bachman...-204700074.html

 

Crap

[Humodour]

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/michele-bachman...-204700074.html

 

Crap

 

Can't see her winning the overall popular vote against Obama.

[Tale]

I kind of would like to see Bachmann as president. In the way that I like to push big red buttons that say "DO NOT PUSH." You know something bad is going to happen. You just don't know what. And there's only one way to find out.

[Hurlshort]

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/michele-bachman...-204700074.html

 

Crap

 

Can't see her winning the overall popular vote against Obama.

 

Something crazy will have to happen for her to get that far, these types of candidates have trouble sustaining the campaign. They more flash than substance.

[Calax]

So you're thinking she'll end up like Rudi?

[Hurlshort]

I've been watching the Republican primaries play out a bit more, and it is looking like the crazies have faded a bit. The top candidate is clearly Mitt Romney, right now it's hard to imagine anyone getting over him. I know folks were clamoring for Chris Christie, but he has made it clear he has no intention of running. I don't know a ton on Christie, but I like that he is committed to the original job he was elected to (boo Sarah Palin) and I've always thought the best choice for president is the one who doesn't want the job. No reasonable person would. Anyways, no reason to talk about him further until he actually runs.

 

So on to Mitt Romney. I've learned a bit more about him. Apparently the big knock is that he is too willing to compromise with democrats. Given that our country is in dire need of some bipartisanship, I think that's an absolutely crazy criticism.

 

Herman Cain is an intriguing candidate that has picked up steam lately. Word is he doesn't have the funds to make a real push, but his fiscal conservative policies have some promise and he's got a fantastic background story. I think if he could end up as the VP candidate, that would be a pretty strong ticket.

[Tigranes]

So on to Mitt Romney. I've learned a bit more about him. Apparently the big knock is that he is too willing to compromise with democrats. Given that our country is in dire need of some bipartisanship, I think that's an absolutely crazy criticism.

 

Perhaps the bad thing for him is that a large portion of people who share that opinion are just not inclined to vote Republican. :/ (that doesn't mean they're all committed Dems, btw.)

[Guard Dog]

I've been watching the Republican primaries play out a bit more, and it is looking like the crazies have faded a bit. The top candidate is clearly Mitt Romney, right now it's hard to imagine anyone getting over him. I know folks were clamoring for Chris Christie, but he has made it clear he has no intention of running. I don't know a ton on Christie, but I like that he is committed to the original job he was elected to (boo Sarah Palin) and I've always thought the best choice for president is the one who doesn't want the job. No reasonable person would. Anyways, no reason to talk about him further until he actually runs.

 

So on to Mitt Romney. I've learned a bit more about him. Apparently the big knock is that he is too willing to compromise with democrats. Given that our country is in dire need of some bipartisanship, I think that's an absolutely crazy criticism.

 

Herman Cain is an intriguing candidate that has picked up steam lately. Word is he doesn't have the funds to make a real push, but his fiscal conservative policies have some promise and he's got a fantastic background story. I think if he could end up as the VP candidate, that would be a pretty strong ticket.

Romney/Cain huh? I can certainly live with that. I'm very impressed with Herman Cain, but his lack of political experience makes him a dubious choice for the most political job in the country. Romney is not an ideal candidate in my opinion, but he is the best of poor choices. Either way he's 1000s times better than Obama. I'd be happy with Romney/Cain in 2012 & 2016 and Cain/? in 2020.

 

Bachman has become the Republican version of Joe Biden and can not get out of her own way.

Gingrich, c'mon, seriously?

Perry I've gone from sort of liking when I knew little about him to despising when I knew a lot about him.

Ron Paul, not going to happen. Sorry, wish it were otherwise but, not gonna happen.

The rest have no shot.

[Calax]

Well... Hurlie, you have to realize that most of the critics of Romney are also the guys who whoop and holler at Perry's executions and who also scream to let the poverty stricken folk die in the streets.

[Guard Dog]

Looks like Romney is pulling ahead again. BTW have you all heard the absolutely vile and slightly racisist attacks on Herman Cain coming from left wing pundits such as Oberman, Matthews & Shaprton. If they hate him that much he must be good!

 

And a big THANK YOU to Sarah Palin for doing the right thing and not imposing her presence on this election.

 

Edit: Sorry, here is the link: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/la...olls/elections/

Edited October 10, 2011 by Guard Dog