[kenberg]

I guess there was this sort of wistful moment during one of the debates when Romney was criticizing Huntsman for being an Ambassador serving a Democratic president and Huntsman said yes he did that and moreover two of his kids were serving in the military under this same Democratic president. Apparently to be a successful candidate you have to be able to attack in ways that embarrass the rest of us.

The first campaign that I followed (1952) featured accusations that Stevenson was a Communist. Now it's that Obama was born in Kenya and is hatching a Muslim plot. These people are crazy, that's their excuse, but really how does Romney excuse going after someone for serving as an Ambassador?

[blackshoe]

I agree with Ken, but how far do we take it? If every candidate ends up attacking one or more opponents, as has happened in past elections, and if we decide we're not voting for any candidate who does this, the only logical answer is to write on the ballot "none of the above is acceptable". While I would love to see "none of the above" in the White House, the chance of that happening is somewhere south of zero.

[Winstonm]

Is this guy still running?



PS: I voted for Charlie Sheen.

[cherdano]

BunnyGo, on 2012-January-11, 04:56, said:

I still don't understand why Huntsman is running so distant. He's not liberal in *any* way except that he worked for a Democratic administration (horror...that sort of thing happens all the time!) The main problem it seems for Huntsman is that he is smart and refuses to hide it. I've constantly found him well spoken and clear of thought, but that doesn't seem to matter as he's been labeled tainted.

Huntsman Quietly Relieved To Be Polling Poorly Among GOP Voters

More seriously, Huntsman was very much unknown nationally before this campaign.

[ArtK78]

cherdano, on 2012-January-12, 14:00, said:

Huntsman Quietly Relieved To Be Polling Poorly Among GOP Voters

More seriously, Huntsman was very much unknown nationally before this campaign.

That is funny. When I read the article, it wasn't immediately clear it was from "The Onion."

Wouldn't it be refreshing if a candidate actually thought along those lines.

[BunnyGo]

ArtK78, on 2012-January-12, 15:56, said:

That is funny. When I read the article, it wasn't immediately clear it was from "The Onion."

Wouldn't it be refreshing if a candidate actually thought along those lines.

I play a game with my wife and brother where we will e-mail each other a couple sentences or paragraph from an article and ask "real" news or the onion?

[y66]

Quiz: Who said this?

Quote

In the course of the 2000s, under a tax-cutting, business-friendly Republican administration, middle class paychecks grew much more slowly than the economy as a whole, upward mobility for the poor continued to lag behind parts of Western Europe, and the combination of unfunded tax cuts and deficit spending worsened the country’s fiscal picture just as the Baby Boomers were poised to retire. Then came the financial crisis, touched off in part by gross recklessness on Wall Street. Then came the Great Recession, which threw millions of Americans out of work, hit downscale workers much harder than it did the college-educated, and sent the deficit spiraling upward to unprecedented heights.

It was a sequence of events that seemed to call into question certain commonplace Republican assumptions — that what’s good for Wall Street is good for America, that marginal tax cuts are a sufficient method of generating broadly shared prosperity, and that supply-side economics usually pays for itself. And many of the candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination have made halting, tentative attempts to respond to these developments. Jon Huntsman has his plan to break up the big banks; Rick Santorum has his mix of family-friendly tax policy and industrial policy; Mitt Romney has his rhetorical emphasis on the middle class and his careful refusal to endorse the kind of upper-bracket income tax cuts that past Republican nominees have championed; and Ron Paul, of course, has his crankish master theory of the entire crisis.

Others, however, have campaigned as though nothing that’s happened in the last decade should alter Republican priorities in the slightest. In this view of things, there’s nothing wrong with the American economy that can’t be fixed by a budget-busting supply-side tax cut, a flat tax, or the combination thereof, and anyone who says differently is just stoking class warfare. This was Tim Pawlenty’s message during his short-lived presidential campaign; it was Herman Cain’s message during his brief 9-9-9-fueled rise to prominence; and it’s been the basic economic platform that both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have campaigned on for the last few months.

But even unacknowledged or denied, the reality of our economic situation — and the challenge it poses to certain conservative shibboleths — is too powerful to be buried completely. Which is why I’m not in the least surprised that it’s Gingrich and Perry who have led the charge against Romney’s record at Bain Capital, borrowing the laziest and most demagogic language of the left in a last-ditch attempt to derail the presumptive nominee. In the absence of a policy agenda that speaks to the interests of the beleaguered middle class and the insecurities of blue-collar America, they have fallen back on the rhetoric of, yes, class warfare, pillorying Romney as a wicked capitalist greedhead who enriched himself at the expense of the people Bain laid off. For men seeking the nominee of a party that champions free market capitalism, it’s an extraordinarily cynical gambit. But it’s also a deeply telling one: It suggests that the events of the past decade inevitably exert a profound pull even on politicians whose official platforms downplay their significance, and that conservatives who fail to respond intelligently to what should be a populist moment will inevitably end up responding mindlessly instead.

[PassedOut]

y66, on 2012-January-13, 13:32, said:

Quiz: Who said this?

Conservative Ross Douthat: Return of the Repressed

[Winstonm]

Gingrich accuses Romney of excessive education.

Quote

Gingrich hits Romney for knowing how to speak French

And the hits just keep on coming...

[kenberg]

And we were just speaking of the difficulty of telling Onion News from the Real Thing!
C'est dommage.

It's all a plot to get us to fondly recall Sarah Paling as the thoughtful candidate.

[mike777]

I am not sure what is worse that he speaks and lived in France or that his father and Grandfather were born in Mexico and that Mitt has duel citizenship.


His greatgrandfather had 5 wifes so I can understand the whole antigay marriage thingy. Gay marriage must lead to legal 5 wifes.

First a guy born in Kenya now a guy who is half French and half Mexican?

---


btw I hear but did not confirm that Gingrich also speaks French and lived in France for two years.

Huntsman, chinese, and the list grows.

[gwnn]

there's a good chance newt also speaks French btw http://www.weeklysta...nch_616721.html

[kenberg]

gwnn, on 2012-January-14, 01:33, said:

there's a good chance newt also speaks French btw http://www.weeklysta...nch_616721.html

If Steve Colbert is to have any chance in this campaign he will have to Anglicize to Cole-Bert.

[Winstonm]

kenberg, on 2012-January-13, 20:15, said:

It's all a plot to get us to fondly recall Sarah Paling as the thoughtful candidate.

Quote

Sarah Palin Claims Mormon Angel Moroni Supports Joker Over Romney or Huntsman - Cites Documentary The Dark Knight As Source.

C'est la vie.

[PassedOut]

Judge rules: Perry, Gingrich lose lawsuit to get on Virginia primary ballot

Quote

“Had the plaintiffs filed a timely suit, the court would likely have granted preliminary relief,” Gibney wrote in his ruling. “In essence, they played the game, lost, and then complained that the rules were unfair.’’

Gibney said he thought a provision requiring the candidates to use only state residents was unconstitutional, but none of the candidates had managed to collect the required 10,000 signatures. Only former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) qualified for the Virginia ballot.

Virginia, an increasingly important swing state, will hold its primary on Super Tuesday, March 6.

Virginia’s ballot-access rules, in place for four decades, are considered the toughest in the nation.

The rules might be too tough, but this failure doesn't speak well of the organizational skills of the candidates other than Romney and Paul.

[PassedOut]

Now that Gingrich has disavowed his counterpunch at Romney, it's interesting to learn how Bain really operated: When Romney ran Bain Capital, his word was not his bond

Quote

I don’t know if Bain Capital still uses the bait-and-switch technique when it competes in auctions these days (I’m told that it doesn’t). But that was the way the firm’s partners competed when Romney ran the place. This win-at-any-cost approach makes me wonder how a President Romney would negotiate with Congress, or with China, or with anyone else — and what a promise, pledge or endorsement from him would actually mean.

Would a President Romney, along with a Republican Congress, cut taxes for the wealthy even more than he has pledged to do? Would he not try to balance the federal budget, even though he has said he would? Would he protect defense spending, as he has indicated he would?

I have no idea how Romney might behave in office. I do believe, however, that when he was running Bain Capital, his word was not his bond.

And I think that is his reputation as a presidential candidate as well.

[Winstonm]

Quote

Check Lincoln wrote day before being shot is found

In a related story, Gingrich warns of the dangers of check-writing.

[Winstonm]

Rejected by South Carolina Republicans Gingrich Looks To "Mission From God" To Win South

Quote

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich faced tough questions Saturday about his past statements on race and class, making a rare appearance by a Republican primary candidate before a black church — an audience unlikely to vote in South Carolina's Jan. 21 contest.

[Winstonm]

Left For Dead in Who's Nuttiest Contest, Rick Perry Tries One More Time To Outduel Gingrich

Quote

During the debate, Gov. Perry lashed Turkey, insisting that it was ruled by “Islamic terrorists” and calling for the US to withdraw all aid from them. He also added that it is “time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong to be in NATO.”

[PassedOut]

Winstonm, on 2012-January-17, 18:54, said:

Left For Dead in Who's Nuttiest Contest, Rick Perry Tries One More Time To Outduel Gingrich

And when that didn't work: Texas governor Rick Perry dropping presidential run

Quote

Perry is abandoning his run for his party's nomination to face Democratic President Barack Obama on November 6, campaign sources said, and will endorse Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

And Newt can use a boost, as he keeps getting hit by the left-wing media: Marianne Gingrich talks to ABC's Brian Ross

Quote

"He came to her and said, 'I want to stay married to you and still have an affair with Callista, his current wife," Ross told the station. "According to Marianne, he said 'You need to share me,' and she said 'I don't want to share,' and the marriage ended."

The sharing idea sounds zany to Mitt Romney, even though Mitt's grandfather had five wives.