Presidential Primaries 2012

Herman Cain, your stupid and crazy will be missed. Enjoy the rest of your post pretending to run book tour. Dear Herman Cain supporters: Gingrich is looking mighty tasty right now, isn't he? Certainly not Romney. Nope, not Romney at all.
 
That sounds like something that should no changed, no?

You can't keep fools and their money together.

In any case, I doubt very many people are going to keep giving him campaign money. But if for some unfathomable reason they want to, I don't see a compelling public interest in preventing that.
 
From what I've heard on the twitters, Perry spoke about wanting to introduce multiple constitutional amendments, then said that nothing should be added to the constitution, and knocked off his lapel microphone while getting a pocket constitution out and waving it about, while it was upside-down.

I'd be interested in seeing how much of this is accurate.

EDIT: Here we go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IbPS_hLBx4
 
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That sounds like something that should no changed, no?

You can't keep fools and their money together.

In any case, I doubt very many people are going to keep giving him campaign money. But if for some unfathomable reason they want to, I don't see a compelling public interest in preventing that.

I just read this:

CNN reported Saturday that by “suspending” his campaign rather than ending it officially, Cain can still raise money to retire his campaign debt.

As a general principle, it seems reasonable to allow this.
IIRC Hillary Clinton had a large campaign debt when she finally conceded and dropped out, but she was allowed to keep raising money to pay off that debt. I don't know how successful she was at doing that though. I imagine that she was successful, as she does hold a very high office in the Administration, so some people would presumably still want to influence her.
 
From what I've heard on the twitters, Perry spoke about wanting to introduce multiple constitutional amendments, then said that nothing should be added to the constitution, and knocked off his lapel microphone while getting a pocket constitution out and waving it about, while it was upside-down.

I'd be interested in seeing how much of this is accurate.

EDIT: Here we go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IbPS_hLBx4

He wants to amend the constitution to term limit judges AND not add to it? That's even less coherent than usual.
 
Commenting as a Brit who is only following this intermittently, but good lord, the old dog Newt is actually in the lead for the Republican nominations....!

Last time I looked in he was pretty much a last place no hoper. Who's next? Joe The Plumber?
 
That's nuts. Ideological exclusion? Oy gevalt.

I do want more details though. Is it because he wants to change the nature of the relationship with Israel? Or is it because he once wrote (or had ghost-written under his name, as he claims) anti-Semitic screeds for his own newsletter?

All Republican candidates must be totally subservient to the Jews and to Israel. Romney knows he has a "Jewish problem" and recently said in a debate that the first country he would visit as President would be Israel.
 
The Donald's trying to get back into the headlines doing his "Maybe I'll run." schtick. Okay, he's just out shilling his latest book and doing his best to drum up sales.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45551313/ns/today-books/#.Tt0HzmPtWrs

He's going to moderate a debate in Iowa. It will be interesting to see how he steers everything back to himself. Will he even let the participants get a word in?
 
The Donald's trying to get back into the headlines doing his "Maybe I'll run." schtick. Okay, he's just out shilling his latest book and doing his best to drum up sales.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45551313/ns/today-books/#.Tt0HzmPtWrs

He's going to moderate a debate in Iowa. It will be interesting to see how he steers everything back to himself. Will he even let the participants get a word in?

Here's the funny thing: Both D. Trump and S. Palin ran the to-run-or-not-to-run scam as far as they could. I bet that the former half-term governor is kicking herself that she didn't think of this host-a-debate angle before the short-fingered vulgarian from Queens did. And, yeah, of course D. Trump is making the same silly noises in regards to running as an indy, but only the most credulous fools (DOC) will fall for it.
 
Here's the funny thing: Both D. Trump and S. Palin ran the to-run-or-not-to-run scam as far as they could. I bet that the former half-term governor is kicking herself that she didn't think of this host-a-debate angle before the short-fingered vulgarian from Queens did. And, yeah, of course D. Trump is making the same silly noises in regards to running as an indy, but only the most credulous fools (DOC) will fall for it.

No way he runs as an independent, maybe some small party will nominate him as a publicity stunt, but he's not going to put his own money on the line like H. Ross did to run seriously as an independent.
 
Newtmentum picking up!
Suddenly Romney isn't looking quite so inevitable. Buy the dip I say.

Romney: 47.5% -22.8%
Gingrich: 38.4 +30.5%
Paul: 5.1% +2.6%
Huntsman: 4.9% +2.1%
Perry: 2.2% -9.9%

Sure enough, Romney's stock was cheap at the price:

Romney: 65.0% +17.5%
Gingrich: 20.6 -17.8%
Paul: 7.9% +2.8%
Huntsman: 6.0% +1.1%
Perry: 3.0% +0.8%
 
So if the fickle block of voters who are (or were) supporting Newt sour on him, as they did with Herman Cain and Rick Perry, will Santorum be the next object of their affection?

Will Social Conservative Leaders' Nod Lift Santorum in Iowa?

Two Iowa social conservative leaders endorsed Rick Santorum for president Tuesday, the end of a long saga of difficult deliberations that epitomized the religious right's inability to settle on a single 2012 candidate.
. . .
There's little question these endorsements will give Santorum a boost. The question is whether it will be enough to vault him from his current trailing position to the top.

Vander Plaats and Hurley both have very real constituencies among the religious voters who are a sizable portion of the caucus-going electorate -- or can be, if they're motivated to turn out. They've been active in the state's politics for many years, building contacts and credibility among a network of pastors, churchgoers and activists. As Hurley noted Tuesday, it was their campaign in 2010 that succeeded in ousting three Iowa Supreme Court justices who'd ruled in favor of gay marriage.

But the fact that the two men couldn't bring their organizations on board indicates the divisions that remain among this bloc. Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, and to a lesser extent Newt Gingrich, are also campaigning aggressively for these voters and have done better than Santorum in most polls. All of Iowa's religious conservatives ardently desire to coalesce behind a single candidate. They just can't decide which of the multiple social conservative candidates to back.
 
Dropout prediction contest

How about a prediction contest? I think we'll all agree that one ore more of the current Republican candidates for President will drop out of the race between Iowa and New Hampshire. Make your predictions here.

Final entries accepted midnight EST January 2. The retirement window for correct answers is a statement by the candidate or by his or her campaign in an official release between the evening of January 3 and midnight January 9.

For the winner, you'll get your reward in Heaven.
 
Oh, gosh. I guess I'll go with Rick Perry although I could see Bachmann dropping out if she has a bad showing. They might both drop out.

I think Rick Santorum might beat expectations.
 
Who Made It Onto The Virginia Ballot — And Who Didn’t?

Four Republican presidential candidates - Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Ron Paul — submitted paper work in time to qualify for Virginia’s March 6 primary ballot.

No other GOP contender will be on the Virginia ballot. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman did not submit signatures with Virginia’s State Board of Elections by today’s 5 p.m. deadline.

It should also be noted that Gingrich’s signature count, gathered in a big push over the past week, was 11,050 — a buffer of 10.5% over the 10,000 minimum, cutting it a little bit close. Keep an eye on whether these petitions will withstand any disqualifications.
 
11,050 good signatures over the course of a weekend with a campaign organization starting at zero? Not impossible by my guess, but not easy. You'd have to know your neighborhoods really well and pick them for probability and walking distance both. If you could motivate enough people to go out door to door in that first weekend, or hire that number, it is possible.
 

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