Perry's getting nasty.

I must say: It's very effective.

I think we should ask Mr. Qaddafi how he feels about that statement now. Anyone have the keys to the freezer?

Not to worry, Mitt has plenty of time to change his position

As soon as he consults the party base for the proper answer.*
With exception of RomneyCare which he's practically disowned subsequently, where has Romney been a leader in anything within his party in changing the narrative of any issue? Safe bet, if Fox News endorses a POV, Romney is either publicly behind it afterwards following the sanction of those opinions, or he doesn't disavow it. (Contrast this with the liberal alternative MSNBC, who at times seem to grill Obama more than the other party.)

I mean as batshit nuts as Perry is for wanting to invade Mexico, or Cain's 6-6-6 plan for that matter, at least they both were leading with something in supposed major proposed policies that define their campaigns.

Mitt should've beaten Charlie Sheen to the punch and trademarked his tagline: "Duh, winning!"

*=Not his base, since he doesn't have one.

In the first poll since CNN's Western Republican debate, Cain is ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by four percentage points, within the sampling error for the survey.

One quarter of GOP primary voters support Cain, who has surged in national polls recently due in part, perhaps, to his easy-to-understand "9-9-9" economic plan and consistent debate performances. Romney received 21% support. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich netted 10% followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul at eight percent. Texas Gov. Rick Perry received 6% support in the poll, half the amount he received in early October.

Wow this will get interesting. I don't think Cain or Gingrich or Perry have the kind of egoes to get out of the race, and with these numbers the three of them would out poll Romney.

Don't look now, but there could be a major shocker....a brokered convention that nominates by acclimation a "reluctant" Jeb Bush who can then pick a midwestern moderate as veep, and be VERY formidable. .

You heard it here first

That would be almost unique in this day and age. Of course, if the primaries don't sort things out, the Republican convention could be quite interesting.

"The Return of Bush."

Sound like porn.

Barbara always said "Jebbie" was the smart one out of the bunch. I think even she knew good old Georgie wasn't cut out for it. But i think Jeb would have a real tough time getting the nomination let alone win a national election due to the bad memories that his brother left voters with.

I was just listening to O'Reilly who's interviewing Perry. He's asking Perry about Cain's national sales tax and states that since he used to live in Texas he knows Texas doesn't have a sales tax. He said it again a little later. Madonne! We have a 6.25% sales tax and cities get to add on another 2%. Perry just sat there and never corrected him. No wonder he's at 6% in the polls and O'Reilly continues to be a moron.

Zbigniew Brzezinski called all the GOP candidates clowns yesterday.

This is just incredible:

(CNN) – GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry said if he had made any mistakes thus far in the campaign, it was "probably ever doing one of the" debates.

This GOP field is really quite amusing. I heard just this morning that Cain is STILL in the lead. Who would have thought?

Btw, DT, I don't understand your comment here. Can you elaborate and has this been done before and when can it be done?

brokered convention that nominates by acclimation a "reluctant" Jeb Bush who can then pick a midwestern moderate as veep, and be VERY formidable. .


TIS

TIS it was only in the past 50 years that the primary system took root. In the old days the political bosses would gather and agree on the nominee. There used to be all kinds of horse trading....in 1924 the Democrats had more than one hundred ballots before they selected a nobody to run against Coolidge. Basically the way it works now is the delegates are pledged to vote for whmever won their primaries or state nominations ON THE FIRST BALLOT ONLY once that is done, if no one gets a majority, then it is wide open and virtualy anyone can be nominated.

To add to that, probably the last standout convention battle we experienced was Ford v. Reagan in the mid-70s. As DT states, the primaries are so pre-selecting exeercises that the conventions have become simply one step in the nominationprocess.

The last convention of any consequence was the 1980 GOP convention when Reagan's team was trying to hash out a deal with Gerald Ford to be his running mate. Except Ford was asking for too many concessions (i.e. Power), whether it be re-appointing Kissinger as Secretary of State or nominating Greenspan for the Treasury. Thus George Bush got the gig.

I do sorta miss the conventions, because sometimes you had some unpredictable results. (Wendell Wilkie is one notable example.)

He's only stating the obvious that everybody else has already said.

He's got what, $17 million in the bank? Those damn Christianites are still looking for their candidate, why not pull out of the debates which the general population doesn't pay attention to except for the partisans, media, and politicalphiles? Why not go full-on with his attack ads and strip King Romney from his throne?

His camp has done two great ads, that one I linked a few days earlier and the other which by CGI combined the signing ceremonies for both Romney and Obama's HCR plans as if they're at the same table. I mean Perry might as well, because he's as useless as man teets at the podiums. Especially against Mittens.

(Worry later that if Perry did win the nomination...will he also ignore those other debates?)

Because they've got nobody to go to right at the moment. They're on autopilot, and Romney can go fuck himself. Seriously that's what they think.

Some are trying to coach recently just re-elected Bobby Jindal to jump in. And quite honestly.....why not?

Unlike Christie, Jindal has got another term in the pocket and he's got nothing to lose if he tries to run, maybe capture lighting in a bottle and excite those disgruntled party members and donors who hate the field. Or at the least somebody who isn't Mittens.

At worst if he loses, Jindal would go back to his job and maybe considered for running mate, and if not even that, he's still got '16.

(and then Perry has some Evangelical flunkie of his claim Jindal's parents weren't really from India, but from Iran.)

I don't know much about Jindal except to say that he came across as a big stiff when Obama was elected. He was the Republican party analyst or something like that. No personality at all.

Another thing to know about Jindal is that in his Louisiana reelection he garnered 66% of the vote against 9 opponents. Not too shabby.

I can't imagine that happening but the field does really suck. I wonder IF they have that in back of their minds. If I understand it correctly, it does seems too "out there" to out of the blue throw another name in the mix.

I never thought about Jindal as a possibility but yes, I heard he won by a large margin. I do remember his speech after one of the President's Sate of the Union I think.

For a while the Rs were predicting that Rubio was their golden boy and a big consideration of VP, but with his recent gaffs on his parents and when/how they came to American from Cuba, he may be a long shot.

TIS

Picky, picky, picky....;p



That shit personally pissed me off because I have Godparents who did escape Castro's Cuba. No I don't mean several years before 1959 and claim a phantom victimship for votes.

I mean a middle-class couple of an lawyer and school teacher forced to work the fields and emigrated because they didn't want their boys to be mandatory conscripted into the Army, couldn't bring anything with them except what could be crammed into suitcases.

(Forced to fight for bullshit you don't believe? What a foreign concept for the HALO generation.)

Rubio's fake story is an insult to everyone who risked their lives and gave everything up to escape from Castro.

I wasn't sure in what thread to post this, but the economy is the Nation's major determinant of presidential election outcomes.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The nation's economy regained some much-needed strength in the third quarter, as the pace of growth nearly doubled compared to the previous three months.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of U.S. economic health, grew at a 2.5% annual rate in the quarter after adjusting for inflation. That's up from the disappointing 1.3% growth in the second quarter and the anemic 0.4% pace in the first three months of the year

Maybe that explains the sour exprerssion on Mitch McConnell's face.

And don't forget the ever-loving Dow. Right now it's way up over 12K. A lot of a recession is psychological. People become paralyzed by fear when they see their investments and their 401Ks dropping. Then nobody buys cars or major appliances, etc., they cut back on dining out or put off that home improvement project. They start to see an improvement in their savings, those purse strings start to open.

The major impediment to economic recovery, however, is the housing market. People still see their homes as their single largest assets, whether they intend to sell them or not. If they feel that they have "lost" money or won't be able to unload them if they had to, then the fear persists.

For example, I could still easily double my money because I bought my house back in 1996 and have a small mortgage. However, that's nothing compared to the fact that I could have tripled my money 4 years ago. People persist in seeing a loss, even if there truly isn't one.

And until they don't, the economy, and therefore the election, is a huge unknown.

What people have to understand is that their homes are NOT investments. They are places to live....shelter. The whole housing bubble was the result of easy credit which allowed prices to rise. There are still a lot of upside down properties, and the housing market, while getting a little better, are not going to go through the roof any time soon.

They may not be investments, but they are still your largest asset. And any asset that loses value creates fear in the consumer, so if it's your largest asset, forget it!

Hang on to your seats, there is yet another person throwing his hat in the ring. Remember Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who was going to burn the Koran (although that is not listed in his platform)? Why is he running? As the article says, "because that's exactly what we need, more wackos running for President." And the clown show continues.

TIS


http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/10/koran-burning_florida_pastor_t.php

If elected, he will burn something.

Our future!

*Cue evil laugh*

Thanks TIS, you gave me a good laugh tonight.