I vote for Barack Obama! (This thread is bias and should be renamed.)

Fixed that for you.

Grammar nazi-ing on Null? Could you sink any lower??

I intended this to be a debate about the Republicans, so I named it "Republican Candidates." Barack Obama is the obvious choice for the Democrats, and he's my favorite Democratic candidate for president, so there's not much to debate there.

But yeah, if you want to debate how much of a chance any of the Republicans have against President Obama, this would be the place to do it.

I hope it is very low, what do opinion polls show?

I don't want to live on this planet anymore ._.

... Really? Did you click on those links? I'm guessing you didn't.

Actually, I agree here, although I'd like much to believe he's beyond recovery. Other than being an awful speaker (and seemingly political ignorance), he has everything the Republican party likes; he reminds me a little of Bush. My friend still thinks Perry will get the nomination because of this.

Yes, it's very nice that he's been highlighted as soon as the primaries started, isn't it? And remember when Herman Cain was polling at 40% of Republican supporters? I'm sure Gingrich would have had similar treatment as Santorum's if his turn in the spotlight happened a bit later. It's more the fact that people have actually seen the candidates they didn't vote for, and once they see Santorum, I have a feeling the same thing will happen to him. I guess we won't know until later, though, eh? Let's see how he does on Tuesday.

You mean his non-interventionist foreign policy, right? And yes, there is a difference. I agree that this is one of the key reasons, but allow me to elaborate:

Believe it or not, there are Republicans that don't think going to war with more countries during an economic crisis is a good idea. The other candidates also seem to have a very poor grasp on foreign policy (or perhaps they're just pandering). Whenever I hear a harsh criticism on Ron Paul, it's not usually for his foreign policy; it's for his desire to eliminate the departments of Energy, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Labor (though some of those the Republican party also would like to eliminate). It's for his want to legalize marijuana, heroine, cocaine and prostitution. It's because he wants to abolish the Federal Reserve. If we're going to go into the specifics of what they dislike about his foreign policy, it's that he is more conservative and won't put Israel before the United States.

Keep in mind the Republican Party has a history of being the party to end wars.

Really, I don't think they have a candidate that can match Obama. The one who has the most support of the moderates and democrats in the primaries is Ron Paul, but he doesn't have the backing of the Republican Party, and who knows how much of his support is decisively going to vote Obama anyway. Perry couldn't debate Obama by any means. Romney and Huntsman would lose the Bible Belt because they're Mormon (I had a chat with a friend who grew up in Tennessee who, after thinking about it, stated that the people he knew back home would pick a black Christian over a white Mormon, almost regardless of policies and all based on religion). Santorum and Gingrich both have a history of saying really awful things and taking stances that would definitely not win over the moderates.

May as well hijack this thread for discussion on the GOP race in general.


Polling results for Iowa (left) and New Hampshire (right). Source

Jon Huntsman has dropped from the race and is now endorsing Mitt Romney. This leaves Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry as the potential candidates for the GOP nomination.

On a less serious note, Stephen Colbert is "running" in South Carolina. Here is an ad produced by the Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC:


Since there are no write-ins, Colbert is asking voters to vote Herman Cain. You can find the ad for that on the Super PAC site.

Anyway, it still looks like Romney's got the nomination in the bag.

I wouldn't be so sure; from what I've heard a lot of Huntsmen's voters will vote for Ron Paul rather than Romney. I'd say this is between Paul and Romney now. And Romney being Mormon will hold him down a lot in the Bible belt, which may give Paul the edge.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 17 2012, 9:30 pm by Jack.

Paul won't win it.

Very sad truth. Especially when people are outrageous enough to think that he would be the weakest candidate to top Obama

He is. He has extreme nut-job policies like shutting down the USGS and hurricane tracking system.

Presidential Candidate Vermin Supreme Promises 'Ponies For Everyone'

He has got my vote, and I'm not even into ponies.

Nope, I thought you were being serious, and it was pretty easy to rebut even without clicking those links. Didn't realize it was a joke.

My point was that if Santorum could keep his momentum up as the not-Romney, he could possibly give Mitt a challenge. I was thinking since he was the tied with Romney, the Gingrich and Perry supporters would jump ship to him..

Isolationism by a different name is still just as isolationist. His desire to eliminate all those departments is precisely what I find so attractive about him. While I don't really care about marijuana, legalizing hard drugs and prostitution seems extreme to me. Basically, Paul's problem is that his foreign policy is attractive to the people who are repulsed by his domestic policy, while his domestic policy fans dislike his foreign policy.

Ron Paul is the least appealing person to most democrats. How many democrats support abolishing that lengthy list of departments you listed above? Half of them were created by Democrats. And if you think Obama is dead ringer, you're sadly mistaken. With the economy in such a dismal state, he'll have a tough time convincing people that he's been doing a good job. They don't have a candidate who can match Obama '08. But it won't be hard to match Obama in '12.

And this whole Bible Belt nonsense. It's like you think everyone in the South is some sort of Southern Baptist bigot who are just a stone's throw away from Westboro Baptists, ideologically. I honestly didn't know Huntsman was a Mormon until you said that. The reason he failed to gain any support was because he had air about him that disdained the people who would be voting for him, like he would almost rather be a Democrat. That's probably why Democrats like him over any of the other candidates. And do you really think those racists down South will vote for a black Democrat over the Republican alternative?

Yeah, that's a fair point, but I felt at the time his results were purely sensationalist, and he wouldn't be the preferred candidate once people learned a little more about him. It sounds like you may be right that he's going to be the anti-Romney candidate (despite the New Hampshire turnout), from what I've heard; it should be interesting to see what happens in South Carolina. He does currently hold the second-most amount of delegates, Perry is losing momentum and will drop out soon, and I'm predicting Gingrich to do the same at some later date.

There is a difference between isolationism and non-interventionalism. I think you're viewing isolationism in a broader term than what it actually means.

And that is a beautiful point you bring up with his domestic/foreign policies.

Not many Democrats would support it, but not many really know he actually has that lengthy list. A brief look on the GOP candidates shows that Ron Paul differs greatly because of his anti-war policies (and people seem to misinterpret his anti-federalist stances to believe he is strong on separation of church and state and whatnot). I'll agree - Ron Paul is not as appealing to a Democrat that is well-informed versus Obama. But then again, none of the GOP candidates are more appealing to a Democrat than Obama. I was saying that because Ron Paul's views aren't basically a mirror of the other candidates' Republican platforms, he seems more appealing to the moderate base.

Aren't they?

No, I'm not saying everyone in the South has a Bible-thumping vote-only-for-the-true-Christian mentality, but many of them are very heavily influenced by religion. Like I mentioned earlier, my friend who has grown up in Texas/Arkansas/Tennessee and I had a lengthy discussion on the topic, and he said the people from that area would pick a Christian over a Mormon, even if the Christian is black and the Mormon is white (I know, that's a very small sample size, but it's better than pure speculation from my Washington State perspective). And when you listen to how some people regard Mormonism (calling it a "cult," for example), it's not too hard to believe that they would avoid voting for Romney for this reason (maybe they'd do a write-in).

Of course, it's more a reality that many of the uninformed vote based on the fancy capital R or D by a candidate's name.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 19 2012, 1:24 am by Roy.

Newt Gingrinch won the South Carolina primaries. This is a game-changer for Romney. What are your thoughts?

Just watched the debate in Florida tonight. It looked like mainly a debate between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrinch. Who do you think will win the Florida primary? I'm thinking Gingrinch will more likely finish 1st, if not, 2nd.

Newt Gingrich? The one who cheated on his first wife (with who would later become his second wife) and gave her divorce papers when she was sick with cancer in the hospital? Who later said "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."? Who later went on to ask his second wife for an "open marriage," and when she refused he chose to have an affair with his now third wife? And he has the audacity to say he's fighting to protect the sanctity of marriage?

The same Newt Gingrich who said "We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English... not the language of living in a ghetto."?

The one who replied to a reporter asking what to do about the homeless after the police shot a homeless man in front of the White House with: “Give the park police more ammo”?

Fine, whatever. He is a Christian, right? That makes him the good guy.



[/rage]

Santorum won CO And apparently my ex gave the speech 'nominating' him to my precinct. I'm not sure if it is good or bad I didn't attend.

I think Romney right now would be the best of the available candidates to fix our country.