Presidential Primaries 2012

[Brainster]

Perhaps.

My googling indicated that more whites than blacks receive SNAP & TANF, so why Williams got in a snit is unknown.

In raw numbers, sure. But not as a percentage:

Now nearly 12 percent of Americans receive aid — 28 percent of blacks, 15 percent of Latinos and 8 percent of whites.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Anyone see the debate yesterday? I thought Romney owned Gingrich on several occasions.

 

[AlBell]

Anyone see the debate yesterday? I thought Romney owned Gingrich on several occasions.

Agreed. I rate Romney as the clear winner, Gingrich in last place after the Santorum-Paul tossup for 2nd & 3rd.

 

[Puppycow]

Funny headline of the day: Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability



The reality.

 

[jcp]

Funny headline of the day: Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability

Oh, they're so cute when they're that age... and not on my side.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Interesting trend on the JREF Forums. I expected competing threads on yesterday's primary and apparently no one was even following Florida? Is it all over but for the shouting?

 

[BenBurch]

Interesting trend on the JREF Forums. I expected competing threads on yesterday's primary and apparently no one was even following Florida? Is it all over but for the shouting?

I'd say so. Unless something bad happens to Romney.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Well, are the Koch Brothers Tea Party crazy enough to want to keep throwing money at Newt? There are a whole bunch of primaries coming up with proportional delegates assigned. Even if Newt and Li'l Ricky don't amass Mitt's numbers, they will still walk away with delegates and Mitt won't lock down the number needed to guarantee the nomination for at least ten weeks in my estimation - - unless Newt and Rick both quit.

I think the real question is what the loony right decides to do with its support and money. They're not going to be happy with Mitt. And Mitt's not going to be in the position of needing to kowtow to 'em and put a wingnut on the ticket. So do they all stay home? Try to draft a third party run for Paul? Other?

 

[Puppycow]

Interesting trend on the JREF Forums. I expected competing threads on yesterday's primary and apparently no one was even following Florida? Is it all over but for the shouting?

Well, are the Koch Brothers Tea Party crazy enough to want to keep throwing money at Newt? There are a whole bunch of primaries coming up with proportional delegates assigned. Even if Newt and Li'l Ricky don't amass Mitt's numbers, they will still walk away with delegates and Mitt won't lock down the number needed to guarantee the nomination for at least ten weeks in my estimation - - unless Newt and Rick both quit.

I think the real question is what the loony right decides to do with its support and money. They're not going to be happy with Mitt. And Mitt's not going to be in the position of needing to kowtow to 'em and put a wingnut on the ticket. So do they all stay home? Try to draft a third party run for Paul? Other?

Well, if we've learned anything from this primary race, it's that the republican voters have been very fickle and subject to large mood swings. They've never been satisfied with Mitt, but all the alternatives have their own flaws. Newt has been up and down and up again and now down again. I still think Romney is going to win in the end but we've lots of swings in the polls from week to week, and that may continue.

 

[Puppycow]

Unless something bad happens to Romney.

I'd say he had a "very poor" day yesterday.

We'll see if it makes any difference.

 

[BenBurch]

I'd say he had a "very poor" day yesterday.

We'll see if it makes any difference.

Yeah he did, but I don't think that alienates his core.

Under "very bad" I imagined something like a medical condition that would preclude serving, a family emergency, or criminal charges.

 

[IMST]

Run Ron Run!

 

[Puppycow]

Roseanne Barr is running for president as a Green Party candidate

Her platform as expressed Thursday on the microblogging site included a promise to institute "#Europeanstyle" single-payer healthcare within the first 100 days of her term, and to forgive all credit card and mortgage debt "by kicking out the FED-those to whom all this fake debt is owed."

In a campaign-announcement speech delivered in May 2010, Barr put out a more detailed three-step platform (read the speech here): First, make war illegal and legalize hemp (marijuana too). Second, change the demographics of government to include more women. Third, outlaw — how do we say this politely? — outlaw bull. Yes, that's it. Outlaw bull.

"After the passage of this one law," she said in the speech, "the Patriarchy will inevitably begin to crumble, as will the concept of War itself, which is largely a large load of," well, bull.

 

[Puppycow]

Desperation:
Gingrich to challenge Florida delegates

(CNN) - Newt Gingrich's campaign said Thursday they were requesting the Republican National Committee award delegates from Florida based on a proportion of the vote rather than allocating all of the state's delegates to Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday's primary.

Newt Gingrich's campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed the campaign's request Thursday.

Under RNC rules, Florida was stripped of half its delegates when it moved up its primary date to January 31, early in the nominating calendar. The RNC also stipulates any state holding a primary before April 1 must allocate delegates proportionally, rather than a winner-take-all scenario.

That rule states: "Any presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting held for the purpose of selecting delegates to the national convention which occurs prior to the first day of April in the year in which the national convention is held, shall provide for the allocation of delegates on a proportional basis."

On Wednesday evening, the RNC issued a memo to members explaining they had already imposed the maximum penalty on Florida by stripping them of delegates for moving their primary date. The memo stated the RNC "does not have the authority to intervene in a state's primary plans beyond the imposition of the Rule 16 penalties." Rule 16 is the provision that stripped Florida of their delegates when they moved up the calendar.

 

[Puppycow]

Is Romney the Republican Gore or Kerry?

Republicans are doing something quite strange at the moment. They are in the process of choosing a candidate whom hardly any of them actually likes. Though Mitt Romney won the Florida primary handily yesterday, rumbles of dissatisfaction with him continue.* Romney isn’t so much winning the Republican nomination as having it default to him for lack of any compelling alternative.

The case for voting for Romney goes as follows: Of the Republican presidential candidates, he is the only one with any real chance of defeating President Obama in November. In support of this electability hypothesis, Romney’s advocates elaborate such qualities as the candidate’s lack of any obvious mental defect, the nonextremity of his views, and his vastly superior financial and organizational resources. Seldom, however, do his half-hearted supporters evince any affection or enthusiasm for the man himself. They generally acknowledge Romney to be an insipid, somewhat blank personality, who is almost absurdly variable in his positions and core beliefs.

In this respect, Romney strongly resembles two similarly unloved Democratic nominees from the recent past, Al Gore and John Kerry. Gore and Kerry both suffered from the same characterizations that get applied to Romney—too wooden in person while too flexible in their views. Their supporters often argued that qualifications were what mattered. But ominously for Romney, both Gore and Kerry lost winnable races because of their flawed personalities. George W. Bush, on the other hand, got elected and re-elected, despite his enormous, substantive shortcomings, because ordinary people found it easy to relate to him at a personal level. They felt he wasn’t trying to be someone different from who he was.

 

[Puppycow]

Mitt is delighted to be endorsed by Birther Boy.

“There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life,” Romney told the crowd gathered for the occasion Thursday at Trump’s eponymous casino here. “This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. I’m so honored and pleased to have his endorsement.

 

[SezMe]

Roseanne Barr is running for president as a Green Party candidate

hgc, I beg of you not to add this twit to your list of candidates.

 

[hgc]

hgc, I beg of you not to add this twit to your list of candidates.

You have tempted fate just by making me aware. Now, let's see if I can resist...

 

[hgc]

"There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life," Romney told the crowd gathered for the occasion Thursday at Trump’s eponymous casino here. "This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. I’m so honored and pleased to have his endorsement."

This is amazing. W. "M." Romney is the biggest sucker ever born. Is there any doubt that D. Trump cooked up this endorsement, timed with the launch of the campaign for the Nevada caucus, just to grab a bit of free media for this Las Vegas hotel?

For crying out loud! D. Trump didn't even pick his endorsee until the last minute. Who it was going to be was secondary to the hoopla of the event itself.

 

[Spindrift]

hgc, I beg of you not to add this twit to your list of candidates.

Should that be an 'a' instead of an 'i'?