Re: 2012 election

21
Perry's problem is that the rest of the country is not Texas. Having lived closehand though three Perry elections, here's his MO. First, he doesn't do debates. And now we can see why. In the Texas gubernatorial races, he generally agreed to one and only one debate. And it was usually something with very little press coverage that might be carried live on the local PBS stations at best. No one paid attention to them. Second, he knows his base well - but only in Texas. When the rest of the country was rolling their eyes thinking he was nuts for talking about Texas succession, people in Texas were eating that shit up like he was the second coming. I've never lived any place that had such a big ego trip of how special they were. Perry knows how to play that mentality like a fiddle, better than any Texas politician. But on the national stage, there's too many competing interests for something like that to work. USA is #1 will only get you so far, as the national press (pathetic as it is) actually will attempt to ask you some tough questions beyond "Why do you love America?" And third, Perry controls Texas because he's sucked up enough and done enough favors for all the corproate and pac interests there, even before he was governor. He hasn't been on the national stage long enough to do that on a larger scale. So yeah, he was the flavor of the month for a while because he was knew and seemed not completely insane. But it didn't last.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

22
What, nobody wants to wax poetic about The Godfather? Nice of him to go tell those Occupy Wall Streeters to "get a job," blatantly misreading which way the wind is currently blowing. The fact that the Tea Party has, from seemingly out of nowhere, gotten bulldozed by OWS probably doesn't bode too well for our working man outsider millionaire hero. The idiotic 9-9-9 tax plan, despite the personal appeal of essentially stealing the digits of my birthday, isn't going to hold up to much scrutiny (read: reality) either.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: 2012 election

23
If he brings a Godfather's Pizza location here I might consider voting for him for that reason alone. I love their pizza and miss it.
I think he has more of a chance than you're giving him. While it's true he does have the black thing against him when it comes to the GOP faithful, he's not a Mormon, which is fast becomming an uphill battle for Romney. The GOP likes mainstream cults better than the side show ones.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

24
I'm with you on the pizza, not so much with everything else. He's a flavor-of-the-week in a highly dysfunctional party, and the more people think about and understand 9-9-9 the more they realize it's a completely untennable love letter to the rich. And that's all he has to run on. He doesn't have a clue about any other issue and was even apologizing for not understanding questions after the debate in an interview with Anderson Cooper. I suspect a month from now his candidacy will essentially be over, although Mitt may consider throwing him on as VP to court the Tea Party that hates him so much.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: 2012 election

25
The thing is, the GOP are fast running out of candidates, so there's no one else to move on to. I think you underestimate how big the whole Mormon thing is to most of the GOP faithful. If this was a general election I might agree with you. But primaries and thus candiates are determined by the core of the party. Even though they owe them a solid for the whole Prop 8 thing in CA, the mainstream GOP Christians hate the Mormons. And I don't know why you think a love letter to the rich won't play well with GOP voters? That's exactly what they want. No, I suspect it'll be neck and neck between the two for some time. I wouldn't be surprised if we see another Obama/Clinton type fight dragging out the primary.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

26
Oh yeah, I tell my wife how much the Mormon thing will hurt Romney every day...but let's not forget, the black thing isn't exactly a huge selling point for that party either. As Bill Maher likes to say, not all Republicans are racists, but most racists sure do seem to be Republicans...that and I think the wheels will come off his campaign pretty quickly once people realize how little he knows about a wide variety of issues, not the least of which is the one he claims to be an expert on, the economy.

Bill bet a guest one million dollars that Cain will not be the GOP nominee on this week's Real Time, so if you're right and Herman gets up there then watch for Bill's nervous retraction of said bet.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: 2012 election

27
I think the wheels will come off his campaign pretty quickly once people realize how little he knows about a wide variety of issues, not the least of which is the one he claims to be an expert on, the economy.
At this week's debate, Mitt dismantled the 9-9-9 plan in about 60 seconds. And Anderson Cooper — who isn't exactly Mike Wallace — managed to easily (and no doubt unintentionally) trip up Herman on what he'd said to Wolf Blitzer about negotiating with al-Qaida terrorists.

Mitt himself came across as testy and haughty at the debate, but I suspect he'll limp across the finish line first and claim the nomination. Not that the Republicans at large will be pleased with that, who correctly will perceive him to be this cycle's Bob Dole/John McCain retread.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

Re: 2012 election

28
Cain may have blown it. He said in an interview that the government shouldn't be telling people what to do when it comes to personal issues like abortion. He made the big mistake of saying something rational and sane, which is a big no-no in the ultra right tea party driven GOP. To be fair, it's easy to see how he could get confused on this one. 99.99% of the time the GOP and tea party spends their time telling us how goverment should get out of people's lives and not regulate things. He forgot that somehow abortion is the small exception to the rule. It'll be hard to back pedal from this gaff. Maher's money is probably safe.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

31
Looks like Cain survived the abortion flap. And all the ones after that. He may be on to something here. Just saying you're kidding about what you said...unless you weren't. By never taking a position he may just have figured out how to appeal to the GOP establishment. I still wouldn't count him out. Money and organization are his biggest challenges. If he can get past them I wouldn't call Mitt a sure thing. I still think the Mormon thing is going to hurt him in the primary more than people are thinking it will.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

32
I'm kind of rooting for him just so Bill Maher has to honor his bet. And so we can get more groovy pro-smoking, pro Cain campaign ads like the one that spread across the web like some dumbass virus yesterday.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: 2012 election

33
Somehow the more out there he gets the more people seem to love him. I think the difference is that Perry's is an angry mean sort of crazy, whereas Cain's is a "I'm just a average smuck like you" kind of crazy. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

34
There have been some developments in the race since we last checked in here.

Cain, it seems, has problems with women — it's been interesting to watch on one hand his campaign's floundering response to the harassment allegations, and on the other hand the Clinton-hating conservatives' hypocritical defense of Cain.

If you haven't seen Perry's debate gaffe this week, get thee to YouTube. His campaign already was on life support, and this sure didn't help. Miracles can happen in politics — but he's running out of time to get people to forget he can't form complete sentences.

The media now are jumping on the narrative that Gingrich is the newest anti-Romney. But though he may be the smartest of the eight candidates — and smart people can hold plenty of stupid ideas, mind you — Gingrich also has the most baggage. For once, it would be the Democrats running the "character counts" ads.

The also-rans? Paul is still there, but unable to grow his supporters into the double digits in polls. Bachmann hasn't been a factor for months — her own party clearly wants her to shut up now. Santorum remains the creepiest, weirdest major candidate in either of the two parties in years (someone help me out if I'm forgetting someone more nausea-inducing). And Huntsman may want to try self-immolation to get attention at the next debate, since running as the most-moderate Republican has been an utter bust.

Which leaves Republicans with Mitt. Patrician, East Coast-residing, tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing Mitt. (Some of those labels may not apply.) Our hometown paper's very conservative editorial writers have been talking up Mitt for months, which is truly funny given that his Massachusetts health-care plan is basically the father of Obama's, and these same editorial writers hate Obama's plan with the heat of a thousand suns.

These same writers also love to say, in every election cycle, that the Republican in ANY race is always the constant one, the guy whose positions never change to satisfy public opinion trends: "You may agree or disagree with his views, but you at least know where he stands." And no doubt in the next year these writers are going to endorse Romney, the all-time gold medal-winning flip-flopping champ, without the slightest hint of irony.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

Re: 2012 election

35
O-dot wrote:If you haven't seen Perry's debate gaffe this week, get thee to YouTube.
Don't you mean get three to YouTube?

I'm glad the rest of the country now gets to see the laugh riot that I had the pleasure of witnessing in Texas. Of course Texans love him. Also, as I said earlier, he doesn't do debates there for a good reason.

Part of me thinks Cain might actually get the nomination. If people go for his clueless, uninformed, sexist nonsense, I think we can officially say idiocracy is here.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: 2012 election

38
Poll numbers notwithstanding, I have to imagine Newt will fuck up anytime now. There are hours and hours of videotape going back decades well demonstrating what a raving loon he is. Not to mention that all the family-values happy talk that so excites the conservative base will sound absolutely laughable coming from an admitted adulterer who's on his third marriage.

Newt's got a one-on-one debate coming up with Huntsman, who's the closest thing to a sane candidate in this group. Why the current front-runner would agree to share the spotlight with the guy whose numbers are worse than Santorum's is unclear (I guess it's hubris), but it can only help Huntsman and perhaps further expose Gingrich as a bona fide loose cannon. This could well be a fatal mistake that'll leave Huntsman laughing all the way to the bank.

People have been writing off Huntsman all year — and not totally without reason — but even at this late date there's a chance he, too, could cash in on the GOP reluctance to get behind Mitt. Look at it this way: Huntsman is correctly pegged as the most-liberal in the bunch, but when you're gauging today's extreme-right, knuckle-dragging GOP, that's splitting hairs when they could still very well nominate Mitt, who's only slightly less liberal (never mind his protestations that he's been a conservative all along). Huntsman gives the GOP exactly what they're about to have with Mitt (Mormon ex-gov, business experience, worldly, urbane, acceptable to moderates and conservative Democrats) without any of Mitt's defects (the weirdness, the mile-long list of flip-flops, the pandering and soullessness).
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

Re: 2012 election

39
They should have done a little more to support Gary Johnson, a left-leaning Republican who is not a Mormon. Because the Mormon thing is obviously a big pain in their rear when it comes to Mitt and Huntsman. For whatever reason, his campaign was instantly marginalized, probably due to Tea Party influence early on, so instead they hoisted a bunch of loonies on us who have either gradually or quickly exposed themselves as completely non-viable candidates. I'll bet there are more than a few Mormon haters in that party who would jump on Johnson's bandwagon if he wasn't basically dead in the water at this point.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."