For the polling tells me so.
Rick Santorum is locked in a virtual 3-way tie in Iowa in the latest PPP poll and is less than 2 points behind Bishop Romney in 538’s projections.
I just can’t believe that a deity-free universe would let Santorum win. If he does, it’s a clear message from the Almighty that he wants us to stop paying attention to Iowa, and that he’s taking his revenge on the Republican Party for fucking up his image. I may have to make a full and complete confession and begin regular communion if Rick takes the caucuses, because a Santorum win makes the fear of eternal damnation suddenly seem rational.
Southern Beale
Trying really hard to avoid the Iowa news because it doesn’t fucking matter, people.
I predict 2012 is going to be a cavalcade of crazzzzzzy. Not looking forward to it, either.
Schlemizel
Two consistent themes so far in this race:
A different bozo falls out of the car to take his or her place as clown of the month.
A post is put on the FP saying “Jebus does not love me enough to allow this clown to be the nominee”
Yevgraf
Kudos for the mock of one of the smarmiest, sappiest worship songs in the already infantile catalog of white Christian ‘Murkin Jesus loving songs.
This one ranks up there with “Away in a Manger” for childish idiocy.
Mark B.
I can’t believe someone who can’t win election to the U.S. Senate in a relatively favorable state is being considered for higher office. Are Republicans asking to be skunked in 2012? They really seem to love the worst candidates, the proven losers like Gingrich, Santorum, and yes, even Romney. The only candidate who has an unassailable electoral record is Perry, but the catch is that was in Texas, where a chimpanzee can get 60% of the vote if there’s an R next to his name on the ballot.
The Republic of Stupidity
And I can’t believe a deity-free universe would let Tim Tebow win either…
And lo… there were playoffs…
I’m sooooooooo looking forward to the Baby Jeebus’ sideline, pre-game interview this coming weekend… i wonder if the interviewer will think to ask Jeebus who HE’S endorsing in the Repub field?
dmsilev
TPM’s history graph of Iowa polling is hilarious. It would be better if Cain were included, but even as is, the lead flops around more than Mitt Romney’s position book. Still, with only ~36 hours to go, it looks like Santorum will win the lottery for “NotMitt at the right time”.
Schlemizel
I just read the rules for the Iowa caucuses – the whole process is an even bigger joke than I thought. The results of the caucus vote are non-binding! Thats right the eventual vote totals mean nothing at all. Delegates are selected for the county conventions with no rules about who they can vote for there. The topper is that Iowas State convention is one of the last in the nation, meaning they pick their national delegates long after everyone else & the deal is most likely done.
WereBear
Well, the Base has become the same people who openly long for martyrdom and regard persecution as a sign their god loves them.
When the rest of the world makes fun of their candidate, they see it as a sign they are doin’ it rite.
Since they only think unconsciously, it is entirely possible things have devolved to this point.
Anya
@Yevgraf:Smarmier than “Jesus Take the Wheel”?
Villago Delenda Est
OK, on one hand, I was sure (and events bore this out) that FSM didn’t love us to allow the bloated amphibian to take the nomination.
THEN FSM played with us with the Paul surge.
NOW this. Santorum!
FSM is cruel. Those Cthulhu like appendages? Yup, that’s what they are there for!
OvenMitt must have missed a few payments into the Divine Exchequer for things to be turning out this way. The Great Material Continuum normally provides…if you feed it.
Mark B.
@Schlemizel: Yeah, it’s really just a beauty contest. Miss America for yokels. And by that, I don’t mean that the fine residents of Iowa are yokels, just the ones that attend the Republican caucuses are.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yevgraf:
Then you’ve never heard the rousing:
The B-I-B-L-E!
Yes, that’s the Book for me!
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E!
Not simpering, like “Away in a Manger” or “Jesus Loves Me,” but pretty awful. For simpering, I refer you to “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.”
Samara Morgan
why?
Huckabee won Iowa in 2008. its meaningless.
the GOP candidate needs an impossible 65% of the white vote to beat Obama.
it cant be done.
Samara Morgan
@SiubhanDuinne: jacked up on Jesus.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
OK, the demands of the cats are getting out of hand here.
Schlemizel
@Mark B.:
Some of the in-laws will be there. The sad part (to me) is several of them are decent people, kind, reasonable people. But there is just something missing in their world view that makes talking to them about current events impossible. They agree with everything you point out to them about where we are and how we got here but then jump to Rush/Beck/wingnut solutions. Its very frustrating because I’d like to hate them but they are not bad folks.
I would love to know how much the economic impact of the clown parade is. I’m sure it falls behind corn and pigs but bet it is miles ahead of any other industry in the state.
dmsilev
For maximum hilarity, I hope the Iowa results are
1. Santorum
2. Paul
3. Gingrich
4. Romney
Mittens and his supporters would go so far around the bend that you’d see him speaking in tongues. Meanwhile, the GOP establishment would shit enough bricks to build an actual border *wall*, and comedians the world over would declare this a new Golden Age.
Sadly, it’s unlikely to happen. I could see Romney dropping to third thanks to Santorumentum and Paul’s army of fanatics, but dropping below that doesn’t seem plausible. Sigh.
Mark B.
@Schlemizel: I have relatives who are also avid Fox watchers. It’s kind of amazing to talk to them about history and current events and find out how ignorant and ill-informed they really are. It’s like a perpetual ignorance machine. Ideas flow in and ignorance flows out. While I don’t think they’re terrible people, they’re terribly ignorant.
Schlemizel
@SiubhanDuinne:
Got dragged to the BILs church a few years back if FLA. It was a Wesson smearing, speaking in tongues whack job service. The service was proceeded by 30-40 minutes of “hymn singing” the words were projected on the wall. They consisted of 7 to 10 words repeated over and over and over. It struck me that it was a lot more like meditative chanting than any hymn.
Mustang Bobby
@SiubhanDuinne: “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam”? Why would he trade in a classic British sports car? They were very cool.
Southern Beale
@Yevgraf:
No, no. By far the WORST Christian praise song is “I Can Sing Of Your Love Forever,” which after working in Christian music for 5 years I took to dubbing “I Will Sing This Song Forever,” because of its sheer ubiquitousness.
You cannot go ANYWHERE and not hear that wretched song.
RossInDetroit
It matters to the media. They haven’t got one damn other thing that they can report without doing actual work. Iowa’s easy so it leads.
The caucuses are little more than an informal man-on-the-street poll and just about as useful.
The day after, the broadcast vans are gone from the parking lots of the decent hotels and Iowa goes back to being just Iowa for another 3.8 years.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
I’d pay good money to see “Veritas”‘ head explode, ala Scanners, in that scenario.
Cacti
No matter how much money they spend, they just can’t force the base to stop worrying and love the Romneybot 2012.
I don’t think frothy has much of a chance at snagging the nom, but what a gift it would be if he did.
Unlike JFK, Santorum prides himself on the fact that he’s the candidate from the Vatican.
RossInDetroit
Seriously for a moment here, I wonder what’s really happening to the GOP. They’ve never seemed weaker or less organized in my adult life. In a recession, with a black Dem as president, they should be all fired up. But they can’t seem to:
motivate their base
field acceptable candidates
execute any kind of legislative strategy
do the vision/focus thing they used to be so good at
look even passably competent as a party
Things could change fast but right now the GOP is in panicked disarray and it’s kind of puzzling.
Speaking of late comers to the race, J. Bush was mentioned earlier. If you were him and things looked this wide open, wouldn’t you consider giving it a shot? Unless maybe he’s saving his powder for 2016.
SiubhanDuinne
@Samara Morgan:
Is that the name of a praise song? Because if it isn’t, it should be!
MBunge
No one wants to hear it but a Santorum win would actually validate Iowa’s role in the process. The whole idea of starting in a small state like Iowa is to give candidates with no money or no name recognition a chance to compete.
Mike
moonbat
@SiubhanDuinne: Which Elvis Costello used masterfully in his song “Alibi”.
Bex
@Mustang Bobby: Maybe he wanted a Morgan.
RSA
It’s a really interesting race. I don’t generally follow Republican politics, but I think the differences between the candidates are pretty striking. You have the plutocrat, the religious fanatic, and the every-man-for-himself candidate. Choices, choices…
SiubhanDuinne
Hey hey hey, WP. You know what, FY.
So I just wrote an edit to my last post and when I was all done, FYWP told me I didn’t have permission to edit my own damn post. If FYWP is going to be arbitrary like that, at least tell me up front that I don’t have permission to edit my own damn post. Don’t wait until I’m done and THEN tell me I don’t have permission to edit my own damn post.
GFYWARPF,WP.
Gromitt Gunn
I have to wonder if TPaw’s first thought in the morning and last thought before bed isn’t “WTF was I thinking dropping out after the Ames Straw Poll?”
Villago Delenda Est
@RossInDetroit:
DING DING DING DING DING
That’s what all the “reasonable” GOP candidates (save Huntsman) are doing…and Huntsman’s just doing it as a tune up for 2016.
The thing is, incumbency alone, coupled with an economy provided to the incumbent by a prior GOP White House, makes 2012 a tough fight for any GOP nominee, not just the crazy ones.
The establishment has deemed that it’s Mitt’s turn. He gets to be the sacrificial lamb. Too bad for him. But 2016 is when the serious candidates figure they have a better shot, so why put the effort into at best a very tough uphill in a snowstorm hauling the carcass of the worst.preznit.ever behind you fight against a guy who may be brown, but has charisma you can’t hope to match.
SiubhanDuinne
@moonbat:
Didn’t know that, I will seek it out.
Yevgraf
@Southern Beale
I did have a spot of fun way back when.
On conservative boards whenever somebody squealedj about tyranny and the Branch Davidians, I would post my rewrite:
They lost their shit over it every time.
jon
Any three-way is statistically likely to have some Santorum, even in Iowa. And since Iowa reminds me of Lawrence Welk and big collars, of course it would remind me of this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bex:
Oh wow, I saw what you.did.there.
RossInDetroit
@Bex:
I want this one. Saw one on the street the other day coming off the dealer’s lot. So cool.
amk
If jeebus really loved america, he would make rick the nominee.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve noticed that if a post is put in moderation, to the poster it shows up, but to non posters, it does not. Once it’s removed from moderation, the numerical label of the posts is changed globally. But WP can’t figure out that post 22 by SiubhanDuinne WAS post 21 by SiubhanDuinne, and therefore post 22 doesn’t belong to SiubhanDuinne, therefore you can’t edit it, because it isn’t yours, since the numerical labels changed when that in moderation post was brought out.
SiubhanDuinne
I guess it’s obligatory for someone here to mention “Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through the Goalposts of Life.”
I guess I’m that someone.
Davis X. Machina
It’s Romney. Always was going to be Romney.
Yevgraf
@RossInDetroit:
No bench.
JWL
“..because a Santorum win makes the fear of eternal damnation suddenly seem rational”.
That’s a pretty good description of how a lot of people felt after George Wallace won Michigan primary(?) in ’68. It was a chillingly impressive performance. He went North and won that state just days before his rendezvous with an assassin.
It’s also how I felt the evening on that first Tuesday in November in 1980. That was a night that fell particularly hard on anti-Reagan Californians.
lamh32
Personally, I tired of hearing about Iowa. For all the Paul love, and the not-Mitt crazies, I still strongly believe (and I bet majority of us all) that Mittens will be the nominee.
All this BS attention being put on the not-Mitt are drawing away from the outright lies and nastiness that Mitt Romney has been spewing all over. Between the soft ball interviews and the damn near glamour shot profiles of Mittens, it just seems that everyone is so busy watching the car crash on the other side of the street, and barely no one is paying attention to the jack-knifed semi on our side (i.e. Mittens). Aside from the Obama campaign including Axelrod, his twiitter team, the campaign spokeman, no one seems to be calling out Romney’s outright lies or challenging his outrageous assertions.
Honestly, if I didn’t have a twitter account and did not read blogs or wath Maddow, I certainly wouldn’t know of the outright swarmy, dishonest and outright dogwhistling that Romney’s been doing of late.
ETA: I would love to see someone other than the Obama campaign hitting back at Romney. I see the occasional tweet from DWS and the DNC
WereBear
Fortunately for my understanding of people-physics, the panicked disarray part is what should follow 30 years of the attitude that anything can be fixed with money. At this point, the baby is full grown, has no idea how to clean themselves, and no one wants to have them around.
RalfW
Looks like Santorum (and the other morans) won’t be on VA’s primary ballot after all. Statement by VA Atty General today:
“I obviously feel very strongly that Virginia needs to change its ballot access requirements for our statewide elections,” Cuccinelli said in a statement.
“However, after working through different scenarios with Republican and Democratic leaders to attempt to make changes in time for the 2012 presidential election, my concern grows that we cannot find a way to make such changes fair to the Romney and Paul campaigns that qualified even with Virginia’s burdensome system.
“A further critical factor that I must consider is that changing the rules midstream is inconsistent with respecting and preserving the rule of law — something I am particularly sensitive to as Virginia’s attorney general.”
.
That last part is some USDA Choice grade bullshit, nice to see him eat it. VA is now irrelevant in the hunt. Not that I care.
I’d be most happy to see Obama against Santorum. I don’t imagine it will happen, but a protracted nomination fight is good for Dems.
RossInDetroit
@JWL:
MI has had open primaries for years. It’s said that Wallace’s win was due to many Dems crossing over and voting for him to R.F. the GOP. Cannot confirm this, but it happens both ways here all the time.
But I don’t discount the possibility of lots and lots of racist assholes and the ’67 Detroit riots having an effect.
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes, I finally figured that part out myself. Makes it easier when another poster refers to a post number but that number clearly has nothing to do with the response — I’ve learned to check posts within two or three numbers either side of the referenced one.
But that wasn’t the case here; my comment wasn’t in moderation, I was simply trying to provide a clarifying ETA sentence. So I stand by my FYWP :-)
FlipYrWhig
@Southern Beale: Recently ESPN put a microphone on Tim Tebow, I think it was for the game against the Bears. And while he actually seemed like a pleasant enough person, I could NOT get over that he _actually_, no joke, was singing “Our God is an Awesome God” during idle moments on the sideline.
AliceBlue
@lamh32:
THIS.
Linda Featheringill
@SiubhanDuinne:
I have always thought this song was quite appropriate for a 6-year-old child. No adults allowed.
And let me extend my apologies to anyone who wasn’t raised Protestant Christian and wonders just what the heck we are talking about. Don’t fret. It will pass. :-)
Villago Delenda Est
@RalfW:
It tells you something about the seriousness of the GOP field that Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum could not do something that in 2008 Lyndon LaRouche could.
RalfW
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you: I immediately went to Nirvana’s “Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam.” Very nice antidote.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
Whether you are in moderation isn’t the problem…if someone else is in moderation, and is taken out, all the post numbers change. And your previously owned 21 becomes 22 and you’re not the owner, because WP says shut the fuck up, that’s why!
RalfW
@Villago Delenda Est:
I guess the rules did change for this cycle, but c’mon, 10,000 friggin valid signatures is “burdensome”?
Linda Featheringill
@jon:
The math demands it!
:-)
Mustang Bobby
@RossInDetroit: My recollection of the time — I was 16 and just tuning into politics — was the riots and bussing. Plus, you get upstate to places like Gaylord, Grayling, and Grand Rapids and you run into the redneck pick-em-up truck crowd. I remember distinctly hearing Detroit being referred to as “Ghettotown” on the CB radio, and that was the polite version.
Benjamin Franklin
Y’all seem to have some anxiety about the next 11 months. I think it’s a lot like
1964. It’s a lot craaaaaaaaaazier; that much, is for sure.
But, it doesn’t look like they will get Big Mo rollin’ on the campaign until the Convention, and it’s bloody 10 rounds has concluded. That gives us a tremendous advantage in funds and organization.
jake the snake
Jesus Loves Me is so ubiquitous, than whenever I hear it, I flashback to Vacation Bible School.
Bex
@RossInDetroit: I had no idea they were making 3-wheelers again. Mr. Bex had a Morgan back in the day. He only managed to wreck it twice. He also had a Sunbeam he drove in hillclimbs.
Villago Delenda Est
@RalfW:
Newt’s book signings can’t draw 10,000 rubes. Which presents a problem. Perry doesn’t even have a book to sell! Again, a problem…
RalfW
@RossInDetroit:
It’s because the GOP isn’t a party that seeks to govern. They are a cargo cult, and St. Ronnie is the piece of flotsam that they think contains the answers to life’s riddles.
But the cult aspect becomes readily apparent so easily: just look to Cantor’s circuits frying on 60 Mins last night when Leslie Stahl asked him about Reagan raising taxes several times in the depths of a recession with 11% unemployment.
Blink blink. Fail. Aide off camera derails the questioning.
All they have: an Oz-like curtain and some levers and steam.
Shalimar
@JWL:
1972. And the primary itself was actually a few days after the assassination attempt, though Wallace was no longer able to campaign at that point.
lamh32
ok, I know I said I was tired of hearing about Iowa, but what the hell is this hard-on Rick Santorum has for telling black people first, how we should feel about abortion and now this
“I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” Santorum begins. “I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.”
http://chirpstory.com/li/3682
as someone said, why single out Black people? oh right, we’re all on welfare…!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Ah! I see! They said “All will be made manifest,” and lo, it has come to pass.
Thanks for the clear explanation.
Thanks for not starting out by calling me a moronic fuck, the way some people might have done.
RalfW
Reading a few non-snarky blogs this a.m. I find myself wondering if the pact with the devil will be a Romney/Santorum ticket next November?
A frothy sheen on Mittens might just get the Mormon-fearful conservatives to go ahead and show up and vote.
It’s just too awful to really contemplate. But it could be the route to a decent fight for their side.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
That at least seems to be the case. Don’t know if the WP code monkeys/developers can fix that. There may be bizarre incantations involving virgin sacrifice needed behind the scenes to fix that particular problem as seen by us, the end lusers.
At least, that appears to me, as a long time observer of internet applications malfunctions, seems to be what is going on. It may just be plain old FYWP in the end. But I think that’s the explanation…WP can’t track “ownership” of posts by the name, only the number, and if the numbers change (due to a post in moderation being taken out), well, sorry, Charlie, only the best tasting posts get to be Starkist, or something.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Gromitt Gunn
Perry does have a book – it is called Fed Up. Of course, the local alternative press started referring to it as F’ed Up, and now I can’t see it any other way.
El Cid
A conservative colleague of mine sees Santorum as the only other sensible alternative to Romney, but feels that if Ronpaul wins Iowa, the caucuses should be gotten rid of as useless again. Interesting views these people hold.
Davis X. Machina
@RalfW: Interesting. Santorum’s a Catholic. Romney’s a Mormon. Although Santorum is the functional equivalent of a Dominionist, he is playing for Team Babylon.
El Cid
__
It’s striking how sad it would be for a “Supreme Being” to have to bother itself with meddling in these sorts of affairs and concern himself with this idiot.
“This is what I created the Universe for?”
Mike in NC
@RalfW:
That could be the Lie of the Year, and it’s only January 2nd!
amk
@RalfW: the moneybags got to ken, the moron.
Benjamin Franklin
The Zombification of the GOP is nearly complete. The death throes are often accompanied by furious spasms of uncontrolled evacuation. The blowfly larvae await the lifeless corpse of the New Whigs after the final head shot.
RossInDetroit
@Bex:
For all I know, they never stopped. The frames are still made partially from ash. Probably comes with antimacassars and a tea samovar.
The present one is technically a motorcycle because it has only 1 rear wheel. You need a CY endorsement to drive it in MI.
The engine is a 120HP S&S V Twin in what looks like an ideal configuration for cooling, exhaust and intake. The trans is a Mazda 5 speed. Lotsa fun.
amk
@dmsilev: I’ll take willard finishing third. Would that get rid of our resident troll veritas for evah ?
Svensker
@lamh32:
Oy.
scav
@amk: nevah. Because it will instantly be what he always said. (as you no doubt already knew. Oh, and for anyone looking for another thing to feel good about, not being anywhere whatsover in near physical proximity to the petri dish masquerading as my body would be a good one to add.)
RalfW
FYI (and, urp, via Ewik Ewickson, so no linkee):
Universal Health Services, on whose board [Santorum] sat until he left in June of this year, runs a PRIDE Institute in Minnesota. It’s the “nation’s first and leading provider of mental health service to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.”
Wow.
I know some PRIDE graduates – fine upstanding sober citizens nowdays. I bet they’de be utterly horrified to know that Rick Santorum sat on the board of their treatment facility. Ehgad, it’s a twisted world.
I think I’m more upset that Ewik son of Ewik. To think that this fvcking homophobe made money off the misery of gay and lesbian people in such a direct way is appalling.
(I guess Towleroad has it now too)
Gust Avrakotos
This is awesome. I prayed to my god (the flying spaghetti monster) and he tells me this is a good thing so who am I to judge.
The best thing about this is it lets me say “Rick Santorum surges from behind”.
RossInDetroit
My big worry about the GOP in its weakened state is that it’s vulnerable to takeover by even worse people than those currently mismanaging it. Yes, there are worse people than Rove, Gingrich, etc. The next batch may go full-on racist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT instead of just messing around the edges like they are now.
feebog
Is there really a winner if the Romneybot 2012, Cranky Old Coot and Frothy the Gnomeman all finish within a few points of each other? The delegate split may be even, and as was pointed out upthread, is so complicated no one will understand how it was reached anyway.
The only thing the Iowa Caucus may accomplish is to winnow the field, most likely Bachman. I for one want Crazy Eyes to stick around for a few more weeks. The press will eat this shit up, but in terms of real delegate numbers Tuesday looks to be a nothing burger.
Benjamin Franklin
@RossInDetroit:
That’s one reason why we ended up with Nixon after the GOP went ballistic following 1964.
But they can’t double-down on teh crazee when they’re already topping it off.
Amir Khalid
@Gust Avrakotos:
Not only that, you can also say “Santorum in three-way with Romney and Paul”.
I know: Eww!
hitchhiker
@RossInDetroit:
My theory: they were united (and therefore looked disciplined) in their hate for Clinton and in their determination to get W into office. They continued to look disciplined right up until the 2006 elections, when the electorate had suddenly had enough of W.
W exposed (embodied!) the gaping hole at the center of their governing philosophy, and the TP rushed in to fill it. The TP proved to be unmanageable, so the money guys (led by Rove) started their own shadow Republican organization.
What we’re seeing is the struggle for control between the TP, the old true believers, and the money guys.
Or, as some have said, it could just be that jeebus is truly on our side.
Mark B.
@RossInDetroit: Morgan cars have been in continuous production from the beginning (1911? or so), but it’s been a while since they produced a 3-wheeler. I’m actually surprised they can build one that satisfies US safety standards. Looks like fun. I know someone who has a classic 3 wheeler and it’s a total blast.
RossInDetroit
@Benjamin Franklin:
I’m not sure they’ve yet plumbed the depths of hate. Imagine if someone like Pat Buchanan was a major party figure, or several like him. I consider Buchanan far worse than Gingrich, and he makes Paul, Santorum and Romney look like choir boys. That could happen.
cmorenc
@RossInDetroit:
For a variety of reasons, Jeb Bush will hold his powder until 2016 (if ever) to make a run for President. First, he’s sane enough to realize that this time around, he’d have to cater to the radical tea-party fanatics far more than he’s willing to do, or else risk too much erosion of turnout and support from the non-establishment part of the base. Second, he understands that his brother George laid a huge stinky turd in the bed of the national electorate that hasn’t yet had enough time to cleanse out with the passage of time. Four more years of Obama might actually be his best friend, since there will be no incumbent running in 2016, and it’s harder for the incumbent Presidential party to hold onto the office after eight years than to re-elect even a mediocre-popular President. Jeb is sane and savvy enough to realize that although much of the electorate doesn’t give Obama gung-ho approval, a majority basically likes the guy and doesn’t see him as even remotely a disaster, that the GOP base’s derogatory view of Obama doesn’t really extend outside the hard-core 27%, except perhaps for the small percentage of radical progressives at the other end disappointed enough in Obama to be willing to stupidly pull a Nader vote for a boutique third-party candidate if they ran.
Shorter Jeb Bush: His chances in 2012 are not good enough to be worth gambling away his far better chances in 2016.
RossInDetroit
@Mark B.:
Because the 3 wheeler is classed as a motorcycle in the US it doesn’t have to meet safety standards. You need a cycle endorsement to operate one, and in CA they make you take the certification test on a 2-wheeler.
Benjamin Franklin
Off/on topic…
A lot of the acrimony here, can be traced to this……..
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/failure-to-prosecute-bankers-leads-to.html
Part of the decision not to prosecute them has undoubtedly been (apart from pure corruption and the difficulty and expense involved in the prosecutions) the desire not to do anything too divisive. But the fact is that not prosecuting them has led to increasing political division in this country, as groups on both the left and the right believe the system incapable of dispensing justice. That in turn leads to a revolutionary theory of change, which (each in their own characteristic way) is what binds Tea Partiers with guns at congressional rallies promising “second Amendment remedies,” and Occupiers illegally shutting down ports, declaring basic city zoning laws unconstitutional, and demanding the right to pitch tents on public property for years on end if need be to accomplish undefined goals.”
mikeyes
Assuming that the results of the caucuses are within the margin of error predicted, how do you really tell who won? The precinct votes are “non-binding” according to Wikipedia, the real vote is after the secret ballot when the delegates to the county convention are chosen and even then the actual delegates to the GOP convention are not chosen until the county convention. (These are separate from the caucus vote.)
Once the final delegates are chosen, they are not bound by any previous vote as to who they want as the nominee.
So if Romney comes in first with 21%, Paul second with 19% and Santorum third with 16% of the vote, what is to prevent the Paul campaign (or any other organized group) from politicing at the precinct and county levels (after a lot of the caucus voters go home) to get their people in the final convention?
It seems that a very close race does not produce an obvious winner.
Benjamin Franklin
@RossInDetroit:
Buchanan has way more baggage than Newton, maybe even more than Paul or Santorum. He would spike for a time, then flame out. The ‘muddle’ likes
plain vanilla. No spices, please :>)
RossInDetroit
@Benjamin Franklin:
I’m not saying Pat himself because he has more baggage than a heiress on holiday but someone with his hates and instincts. They’re out there but at the moment they’re busy driving the homosexual agenda and evolution out of school books. Those are the Republicans who really scare me. making trouble on the state and local level, but get some PAC money behind them and they could muster the worst kind of reactionary, racist movement.
Benjamin Franklin
@RossInDetroit:
Someone with ‘charisma’? :>)
RossInDetroit
@Benjamin Franklin:
Yeah. Let’s just call a Godwin and leave it at that.
Catsy
@SiubhanDuinne: It is my standard practice now to author all of my blog comments in Notepad, then copypasta them over when I’m ready to post (or edit). It has saved me from losing a considerable amount of writing, especially with the appallingly shitty software in use here.
Mnemosyne
@Linda Featheringill:
This is definitely one of those times that makes me wonder why people try to claim the US is some kind of generic “Christian nation,” because I was raised Roman Catholic and I have no frickin’ idea what you people are talking about.
Of course, I was raised in a parish that wholeheartedly threw themelves into Vatican II, so we used to sing Beatles songs and numbers from “Godspell” in church.
ETA: I hadn’t realized that Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for “Godspell.” I love America, where Jewish musicians write better Christian music than Christians do.
grandpa john
@mikeyes:
You’re absolutely right but the media demands a winner who is then, by the same media, designated as the front runner who has to be over come, regardless of what people in the other 49 states think. This whole extravaganza is driven by the MSM and means nothing except to the ill informed public who lives and breathes for the media to tell them who to vote for. When this country finally reaches third world status, blame the media not the Gop..
mclaren
You guys just don’t grasp the basic fact that a Mormon is completely unacceptable to the fanatical evangelical Dominionist fundamentalist Christians who make up between half and two-thirds of all Republican primary voters, depending on the state.
JR in WVa
How much do those new 3-whee Morgans cost, anyhoo?