Obama reelection 2012

[Wonderboy]

2004 was not very close. He might have cost Gore one state in 2000. Its hard to tell.

My bad -- I meant 2000.

In 2000, I think Nader cost Gore Florida at a minimum, which would have made Gore president. Gore lost Florida by just 537 votes. Nader got 97,421 votes. I feel pretty confident that more than 538 of those 97,421 would have gone to Gore. So you are correct as far as it goes when you say he only cost Gore one state -- but the full story is that that one state cost Gore the election.

The same is true of other states, NH for example. So suffice to say, I'm not too hot to vote Green Party, no matter who they run. Frankly, after 2000, I'm stunned to think any liberal at all considers this a viable alternative.

[Wonderboy]

Gore did not run in 2004. Kerry was not as close.

J

I was editing my post to correct that error while you were posting. Again, I was referring to 2000. Mia culpa.

[chancellor]

In 2000, I think Nader cost Gore Florida at a minimum, which would have made Gore president.

Gore cost Gore the presidency, and no one else. He was given a positive economy, a balanced budget, a world at relative peace and George W. Bush as an opponent. Al Gore ran the "stupidest" general presidential election campaign in modern history. While Dubya was no gift to the presidency, I'm firmly convinced an idiot of Gore's level - one handed every advantage and Dubya as a debating opponent - would have been handily worse.

[Wonderboy]

Gore cost Gore the presidency, and no one else. He was given a positive economy, a balanced budget, a world at relative peace and George W. Bush as an opponent. Al Gore ran the "stupidest" general presidential election campaign in modern history.

I won't disagree with any of this, but it's an almost certainty that he still would have won had Nader not siphoned votes from him. That's the point I was making. Nader doesn't run, Gore wins Florida, and Gore wins despite running a monumentally poor campaign.

[Lucky]

I'm still convinced that the GOP will find someone else to be their standard bearer between now and then. Calling Cain a lightweight would be an insult to lightweights everywhere. Perry is just too dumb. Bachmann isn't taken seriously even by her own party, even when she says things that make sense.

Newt is a corrupt, duplicitous slime, run out of a leadership position by his own party. Hypocrisy is his daily bread, as the latest Fannie/Freddie revelation shows. When pushed, even slightly, into the corner, Newt becomes a vicious, snarling dog. This may pump up the red-meat fans, but it is not a trait we need in a world leader.

So, if you remove Cain, Perry, Newt, and Bachmann from the picture, you have the unelectable Paul and the unimaginable Santorum. I'm not even counting Huntsman, who would do better with the Democratic voters than the GOP.

What does that mean, given the way the GOP loathes Romney? I say they still go out and get someone. No Trump or Jeb Bush, but someone who really captured their imagination for a while. I think they draft Christie. He has the appearance of being smart (although I have never seen any substance) and he meets the GOP parameters. He will willingly take the GOP position that their mission is to cut taxes, regardless of the consequences for the country and the economy. He'll sell the "job creator" canard, despite the fact that tax cuts have not historically created jobs or pumped up the economy. If he'll swallow those two central tenets, the rest is just trimmings and gravy. Lots of gravy.

[cardboardbox]

So, if you remove Cain, Perry, Newt, and Bachmann from the picture, you have the unelectable Paul and the unimaginable Santorum. I'm not even counting Huntsman, who would do better with the Democratic voters than the GOP.

Like I've said before, Huntsman wouldnt get any votes in a dem primary because he's far too fiscally conservative. They wouldnt even give him a donkey decal.

What does that mean, given the way the GOP loathes Romney? I say they still go out and get someone. No Trump or Jeb Bush, but someone who really captured their imagination for a while. I think they draft Christie.

Its too late to get on the ballots in the early primary states.

[Erik]

It will be Romney in the end, and most of the red-meaters will hold their nose and vote for him.

[Judge Jude]

As noted, primary applications have closed in most of the early states.
There is NO chance Christie was willing to run a campaign, anyway. Only way he gets involved is if it's chaos after a couple of weeks of primary voting, and even then he'd likely slow-play right toward the convention. It would have to be a backroom deal where several candidates offer to step aside for him (hard to picture).

I couldn't even tell you which group it would be. Christie is moderate in a lot of ways, really, compared to the rest of the country.
His popularity has risen of late, I think it was 56-38 in the last polling. Obama still beats him head-to-head in the state, though, iirc.

[Lucky]

As noted, primary applications have closed in most of the early states.
There is NO chance Christie was willing to run a campaign, anyway. Only way he gets involved is if it's chaos after a couple of weeks of primary voting, and even then he'd likely slow-play right toward the convention. It would have to be a backroom deal where several candidates offer to step aside for him (hard to picture).

I couldn't even tell you which group it would be. Christie is moderate in a lot of ways, really, compared to the rest of the country.
His popularity has risen of late, I think it was 56-38 in the last polling. Obama still beats him head-to-head in the state, though, iirc.

You're probably right. It just seems there are too many who will not be satisfied with Romney, and all the other choices are worse.

I read some pundit lamenting the fact that the GOP candidates are skewering each other when they ought to be pulling together. That sounds dangerous to me. Anything that doesn't come out now in the primaries will in the general election. What if it were nominee Cain who was discovered to have caused his employer to pay off women who claimed sexual harassment?

We have gotten back to one of my favorite themes, though, and that is the anti-intellectualism of the GOP. Cain says we need a leader, not a reader? He thinks it is as easy as finding the right guys to put around you? If that were the case, pretty much any one of us is qualified to be President under the Cain theory. Then we have Perry, who derides the idea of our President needing to be the smartest guy in the room? That's exactly what I want our president to be, or at least one of the smartest guys in the room. Why would Perry say something like that, unless it's because he doesn't have much experience being the smartest guy in the room, and doesn't understand the advantage.

If that's going to be their pitch...you don't have to think a lot or be very smart to be President...I wish them good luck.

[Wonderboy]

We have gotten back to one of my favorite themes, though, and that is the anti-intellectualism of the GOP. Cain says we need a leader, not a reader? He thinks it is as easy as finding the right guys to put around you? If that were the case, pretty much any one of us is qualified to be President under the Cain theory. Then we have Perry, who derides the idea of our President needing to be the smartest guy in the room? That's exactly what I want our president to be, or at least one of the smartest guys in the room. Why would Perry say something like that, unless it's because he doesn't have much experience being the smartest guy in the room, and doesn't understand the advantage.

If that's going to be their pitch...you don't have to think a lot or be very smart to be President...I wish them good luck.

Yeah, even Huntsman was commenting on the anti-science trend in the GOP. I just don't get why electing someone smart is considered a bad thing. It's almost like a badge of honor if you've never read a book, and that just baffles me.

[onejayhawk]

I'm still convinced that the GOP will find someone else to be their standard bearer between now and then. Calling Cain a lightweight would be an insult to lightweights everywhere. Perry is just too dumb. Bachmann isn't taken seriously even by her own party, even when she says things that make sense.

Why not acknowledge the frontrunner?

J

[chancellor]

Why not acknowledge the frontrunner?

Because he makes me puke, and that's bad for my keyboard.

[Wonderboy]

Because he makes me puke, and that's bad for my keyboard.

Know what you mean. I went through about a dozen keyboards when Bush was president!

[onejayhawk]

Because he makes me puke, and that's bad for my keyboard.

In that case, I dont envy you next November.

J

[cardboardbox]

In that case, I dont envy you next November.

J

at least with Romney we havent been disappointed yet... thats about the nicest thing I can say about him.