IT'S OVERAs of 11:30PM-ish EST on November 6th, President Barack Obama was reelected to a second term, and by a considerably larger margin than almost anyone expected (besides Nate Silver). Former Governor, used car salesman, and all around great guy Mitt Romney will go back to being one of America's wealthiest unemployed people, Congressman Paul Ryan and his abs will go back to the House, Vice President Joe Biden will go back to his bubble bath and probably run for mayor of his hometown in 2016, and Barack Obama will stay up for about three days trying to figure out what the Hell he's going to do now.
The ResultsRepublican incumbents Wicker (MS), Heller (NV), Barrasso (WY), Bob Corker (TN), Orin Hatch (UT) reelected, joined by Flake (AZ) and Cruz (TX) retaining Republican seats. One Republican pickup in Nebraska for Deb Fischer from the seat of retiring Democrat Ben Nelson.
Democratic incumbents Feinstein (CA), Carper (DE), Ben Nelson (FL), Cardin (MD), Debbie Stabenow (MI), Anne Klobuchar (MN), Claire McCaskill (MO) in a fiery race, Jon Tester (MT), Menendez (NJ), Gillibrand (NY), Brown (OH), Casey (PE), Whitehouse (RI), Cantwell (WA), and Joe Manchin (WV) reelected, joined by Murphy (CT), Hirono (HI), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Heinrich (NM), Tim Kaine (VA) and Tammy Baldwin (WI) the first openly gay woman in Congress retaining Democratic seats. Two Democratic pickups for Joe Donnelly (IN), and Elizabeth Warren (MA) who is sure to be a very closely watched race.
Two "Independent" victories, with Bernie Sanders (VT) retaining his well-worn spot, and a surprise for Angus King (ME) who defeated two serious challenger for Olympia Snowe's vacant seat, running on the promise of breaking the filibuster rules in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives went from 242 Republican / 193 Democrat to a number so incredibly similar I'm not going to wait around to update it.
Exit polling showed that the largely Democratic arguments about income disparity, preserving the social welfare system, and your various "equality" issues largely led the day, along with average-person support for things like the auto-industry bailout and the President's response to Hurricane Sandy just a week before the election. Voter turnout was bigger than almost anyone expected, with people under 30 making a slightly larger proportion of the electorate than they even had in 2008. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives stayed exactly the same, proving the old adage that most voters might want to throw the bums out, but almost never their own bums.
Well, it was another one for the history books, and proof that all the money in the world can only do so much for a challenger. It will make and break rules and be studied for a generation. It was a wild ride, and now it's all over but the crying.
So long, and thanks for all the memories. See you next time around folks.
Please enjoy the rest of the OP, a nice little time capsule from early March when the Republican primary was still underway but pretty well locked. Stay in touch Romney, we'll miss you.
The greatest and most powerful country in the history of the human race (that's America btw) is head over heels into its contest for who will be the next Leader of the Free World. This is going to be a very old thread by the time it's closed. Likely, it will abandoned for a few months between the end of the votes and when Mitt Romney picks a Vice candidate. An informed electorate is the key to a healthy democracy and all that jazz, so Americans and the world ought to have some idea of who's in the running to next be the most powerful person on Earth. So without further ado...
Kukulkan's Revenge: The 2012 American Federal Elections
Let's Get Presidential
Obviously, this mostly concerns the Republican Presidential nomination, since the Democratic candidate is kind of a lock; not that I'll exclude any noteworthy third-party candidate either. 2012 has proven to be a bit more contentious that the 2008 Republican primary was, because the national Republican party switched from a winner-take-all delegation system to a proportional count, meaning every percentage in every state counts for a candidate, even as quite a few early states temporarily invalidated themselves by caucus systems and party rules. It's still likely that one guy will have an obvious and growing lead before too long, but we can all hope some for entertainment.
For some godforsaken reason, the first primary up is Iowa, because it's the only thing Iowa has in life to feel important. By January 3rd, campaign and political advertising spending records had been broken by an order of magnitude, mostly in the form of "unaligned" PAC money spent on Mitt Romney's behalf to discredit Newt Gingrich, whilst Ron Paul and Rick Santorum suddenly climbed in opinion polling. Further wounding any credibility the Iowa caucus system is supposed to have for picking Presidents, the votes originally totaled after election night were not the "final" count - it took over two weeks for the state party to announce the results, because eight precincts (out of 1766) lost their ballots and never returned the home office calls.
On January 4th these were the believed results:
25% each - Romney declared victor by photo finish over Santorum with 30,015 to 30,007 votes.
21% - Paul got the single best result he's ever had in a primary.
13% - Gingrich takes defeat with incredible grace, really.
10% - Perry set the record at $480 spent for each vote he got.
5% - Bachmann decided it was all said and done, and called it quits the next day.
1% - Huntsman has the patience of a mountain.
58 votes for the ghost of Herman Cain.
31 people joined the Buddy Roemer bowling league.
On January 20th, after two weeks of waffling about the answer, the Iowa Republican Party certified these results:
25% each - Santorum "actually" had about thirty votes over Romney.
Everybody else was exactly the same. Go fig.
The best part is that it doesn't even really matter – the Iowa delegation doesn't apportion itself until April, and it doesn't have to pay attention to the votes.
New Hampshire followed on January 10th, for the exact same pageantry and criticisms. Romney and Paul entered with commanding first and second places, making the state a contest for margins and a race for third between Huntsman, Santorum, and Gingrich. Most notable for Santorum's poorly-received insistence on discussing the need for greater social restrictions in law, and the introduction of Romney's career as a venture capitalist being a point of attack for his opponents, especially
"I like being able to fire people."39% - Romney continues his inevitable march to success over well-funded slings and arrows.
23% - Paul will be President when New Hampshire secedes to form The Real America.
17% - Huntsman might finally get his dad to turn lose his money on something besides orphans.
10% each - Gingrich beat out Rick Santorum by less than 200 votes, but neither placed enough to earn a delegate.
1% - Perry hustled onward to court the true Republicans in South Carolina.
0.4% - Buddy Roemer just bumped up the party by a thousand people.
Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Fred Karger, Gary Johnson, and a few dozen other people got like a hundred votes each, because New Hampshire lets anyone put their name on the ballot.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley endorsed Mitt Romney back in December, putting one more log under her 35% Approval rating fire. Senator Jim DeMint also predicted a Romney nomination without actually encouraging such. Gingrich and Romney spent more money on ads than the entire 2008 South Carolina primaries combined, in Gingrich's case thanks to all of one donor. With Romney's business history suddenly a point of contention, Fox News stepped up to defend him at all costs. And one week prior,
Jon Huntsman bowed out, pledging Romney his "support", not impressing
Rick Santorum who had himself just received the endorsement of a national coalition of evangelical pastors.
In the week of January 15 to 21, South Carolina suddenly because the House of a Thousand Daggers, as perfunctory winner Mitt Romney who was set to win an unprecedented Triple Crown of the leading primaries found the world caving in on him. Half of the Republican party named him the pariah of "vulture capitalism" while the other half said they were defending him on principle, not on substance; he gave some hilariously choked up answers about releasing his tax returns, before admitting he pays about 15% total, would not provide any more disclosure than the law demands, has a few mil stashed in the Cayman Islands just because, and considers $370k in speaker fees chump change. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum won the coordinated endorsement of 150 evangelical pastors as the Anti-Romney, and was post-facto declared the "winner" in Iowa; Newt Gingrich received multiple standing ovations in debates for attacking the media after his second ex-wife gave a scathing interview about him and introduced the term "open marriage" to Presidential politics, and started rocketing in the polls as millions were dumped into his PACs; Stephen Colbert launched a "formal" run for President under the name of Herman Cain who was totes cool with it, and polled as the most likable candidate in the race; and Rick Perry finally got bored and resigned his race, endorsing Gingrich for some reason.
40% - Gingrich earned his fourth or fifth shot at political relevance.
28% - Romney is probably thinking its time to take off the gloves.
17% - Santorum wondered where all those church guys went.
13% - Paul finds himself in familiar territory.
6300 votes went to Herman Colbert. I'm sure he's crushed.
South Carolina's delegates were in a weird position, because it's Winner-By-District and Gingrich won every district, but the state was penalized a few seats because they violated the National Republican Party's nomination calendar. Whatev.
January 30th was supposed to be make or break time, especially after the business in South Carolina, but wound up swinging right back to early-race polling with Romney in a commanding lead. In total, Romney alone (and his "unaligned" PACs) spent 50% more money than the whole Republican field did in Florida in 2008. According to media watchers,
99.2% of campaigning airtime was given to "negative" ads, designed to discredit an opponent more than boost the title man. And most of it was aimed straight at Gingrich, who still got a solid second place, but in Florida close doesn't count. He vowed to fight on regardless. Possibly the most telling exit poll of all: Santorum was ranked far and away the most "likable" of the candidates, but Romney ranked marginally more "electable" than anyone else, and you can see where they all went. Negative campaigning at work?
46% - Romney gets a commanding lead, with less than 10% of delegates awarded.
32% - Gingrich vowed to come back swinging.
13% - Santorum doesn't want to Just Be Friends.
7% - Paul has heard this song before.
Feb 4th was the Nevada primary. This one will be a real test of organization, because after John Ensign, Jim Gibbons, and Sharron Angle, the Nevada Republican Party doesn't really exist anymore, just voters cut loose in the void. Made for a largely uneventful blowout Romney victory, possibly but probably not by him personally accepting the endorsement of Donald Trump (New Jersey casino tycoon), trouncing Gingrich's backer Adelson (Vegas casino tycoon, go fig). Also considerably lower turnout than 2008, following a trend of Romney winning states in 2012 with less votes than he got in 2008.
50% - Romney rules the desert.
21% - Gingrich swears he's going all the way to the Convention.
19% - Paul trucks along with the entire Libertarian turnout.
10% - Santorum blah blah blah.
Feb 7th was supposed to be the first of the Super Tuesday multi-primary days, with Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri. Except the Republican Party said if they held their primaries that early, they would be penalized half of their delegates. This was the same thing that happened to ever prior state, but they just went with it (which is why South Carolina has fewer delegates than Alaska). These three states still "voted", they'll just hold
real caucuses later in the year. Until then, it was purely a popularity contest which turned into a Santorum blowout, I mean a Santorum tidalwave, I mean an explosion of Santorum, I mean... You get the idea. Keeps him in the race at least, when he finally convinced some conservative billionaire to pour money into his SuperPAC.
Feb 11th was Maine's primary... then
shenanigans happened. One county postponed due to the weather and was told it wouldn't count, any county was invalidated after the precinct captain called in to report the vote and was told the vote was already counted, another was thrown out when the paper ballots and computer records showed mirror opposite totals for Romney. Ron Paul, then everyone else, cried foul and demanded a recount. The state pulled some hasty moves and got a new “fair” and transparent vote, counting up less than 1% of the registered voting populace. And Romney still won anyway.
39% - Romney is really glad nobody gives a shit about Maine.
35% - Paul is going to get all the delegates anyway, because caucuses are insane.
18% - Santorum could not have cared less about Maine.
7% - Gingrich has enough syrup in his system anyway.
Maine is another state that won't actually allocate its delegates until May. So it was meaningless, except for
Ron Paul's and his
delegate strategy.
Feb 28 was Michigan and Arizona, with actual primaries awarding actual delegates. Capping his legacy of fantastic campaign decisions, Senator John McCain endorsed Romney, and for other reasons (including Mormons) he was expected to win Arizona handily. Michigan was the real contest - it's (one of) Romney's home state(s), his father was a governor there, and look at all that money. Conversely, he's spent the last two years devising new ways to defend his opposition to the federal aid to the car companies back in 2009. A week before the election, Santorum was on top in every county except Romney's house. Then, in the way of Election 2012, Santorum started
talking...
Arizona
47% - Romney can make friends with anyone.
27% - Santorum might work on that.
16% - Gingrich, eh whatever.
8% - Paul keeps waiting for that frontiersman surge.
Michigan
41% - Romney really likes those important friends.
38% - Santorum really likes talking about sex.
12% - Paul wishes every state was a caucus.
7% - Gingrich... who?
Michigan was going to split its delegates evenly to Romney and Santorum because of the close margin, but awarded two at large seats to Romney because... just because.
Then Wyoming and Washington held completely non-binding votes. Hooray! Stay tuned for the first Super Tuesday.
Because of the way party nominations work, actual vote totals don't elect the candidates (same as they don't directly elect the President, if for different reasons). The party nominees are chose by "delegates" at the party's convention in autumn - each state has some number of delegates roughly proportional to their population, and whichever candidate can seat the most delegates is the nominee. Ordinarily this would be meaningless, since there's usually one very clear winner anyway. The important thing to remember here is that since 2008, the Republican parties in most states switched from a Winner-Take-All nomination process to a semi-proportional caucusing count. Not all, but most, meaning it is conceivable that the state by state votes could be split up enough that multiple non-winners could band together in a coalition at the end to nominate a candidate over whoever actually got the most delegates. Probably not going to happen though.
Mitt Romney - 118 - New Hampshire 7+2, South Carolina 2, Florida 50, Nevada 14, Arizona 29, Michigan 16
Newt Gingrich - 29 - South Carolina 23, Nevada 6
Rick Santorum - 17 - Nevada 3, Michigan 14
Ron Paul - 8 - New Hampshire 3, Nevada 5
Jon Huntsman - 2 - New Hampshire 2, Pledged to Romney
Meanwhile, there are some delegates around the country who apparently have the power to nominate whoever they want, unbound by the calendar of races. I have not included these delegates, since they could theoretically change their support at any time.
In case you're worried, yes this thread is certainly for more than just the Republican Presidential race. There's just not much to say about particular House and Senate races until around September, except high-profile cases like Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.
Hail To The Possible Chief
Feel free to profile any of these candidates at your leisure, that's why the thread's here. I'll certainly try to later on, depending on how many of them stay in the race.
Barack Obama
And that's it. There is no serious contender or even possible challenge to Obama's automatic renomination, and you can safely ignore the rumors that he'll pick a new Vice President for that matter. You can have whatever opinion you want on that, and Lord knows a lot of Democratic-leaning voters have their misgivings about Obama's stewardship, but he's the only guy running. If you want a synopsis, look absolutely anywhere.
Electoral Strengths: Has craploads of campaign money to spend, and is likely to set new records again this time.
Has a seemingly ironclad 47% approval rating, despite some of the hottest party and intramural opposition of any administration in living memory. Historically, he's in line with Gallup polling trends for a reelection. There's a significant block of the country that will not give up on him, but whether they'll turn up to vote is another question.
Electoral Weaknesses: Bad economies kill reelections, and the best his supporters give Obama credit for is keeping a sinking ship from sinking completely. His entire campaign will essentially be grounded on two posts – proving the negative, that things would have gotten worse without him; and that his opponents would do worse in the future. Not an easy sell.
– In Alphabetic Order
Newt Gingrich
The former Speaker of the House, who made his name with the 1994 Contract With America (as seen in TV Guide) and the impeachment trial against Bill Clinton (wherein he divorced his second wife for his third mistress), before being expelled by the House for monetary ethics violations. Has been pretending to run for President for the past twelve years as a job, selling books and his presence at conventions. Is definitely not a dumb guy, but seems to be obsessed with nerdy shit like neutron bombs and mega-infrastructure.
Electoral Strengths: Certainly has the campaign cash and experience at running for offices.
Has some of the highest name recognition of anyone running, at least with people over 30.
Has the single-minded bravery and dedication of a kamikaze pilot.
Has a couple millionaires (and one billionaire) who are willing to keep funding him on principle, no matter how badly he does.
Electoral Weaknesses: Most of the Republican party establishment hates his guts, and knows what a spectacle he can make of himself, so you get the unusual sight of the national party campaigning against its highest profile candidate.
Crazy rich-guy shit like the Greek cruises and millions of dollars in jewelry.
Is not actually on the ballot in Virginia, because his campaign totally spaced and didn't get enough signatures; some take this as a sign that he wasn't seriously running for President until he suddenly starting polling well.
Ron Paul
You know him, you love him, your cousin in college worships the ground he walks on, he's never come close to winning a race outside of his Congressional district. The closest thing to a genuine “Libertarian” the Republican party still has running, and a constant figure in every race. The media thinks he's joke, and the Republican party establishment hates his guts because he's always the only guy on stage who actually believes and practices all that “small government” and “non-intervention” hooplah the party is supposed to espouse. Is already in danger of rendering the Iowa primary irrelevant for ever. What a shame.
Electoral Strengths: Has an actual voting record in line with the theoretical Republican party platform.
Plenty of recognition, and a dedicated army of hotblooded supporters.
Is actually “winning” some delegates for the first time in his career, so he can at least make a nuisance of himself at the Convention, instead of hosting his own across the street like last time.
Electoral Weaknesses: Has a dedicated army, but has never cracked 20% in the many primary races he's been in (until Maine anyway).
All that Gold Standard and Personal Freedom stuff starts to scare people when he goes into detail.
Aforementioned lack of respect by the media and his own party.
Mitt Romney
He looks like a 1970's gameshow host, and says so himself. He's Mormon, but don't ask him what exactly that means. He's a multimillionaire former governor and son of a governor, but don't ask him how he made his money and don't call him a “politician”. He's had a lot of different positions on a lot of different political issues, but don't bring that up either. He's kinda robotic, which is alright, but don't ask him to be spontaneous. Has so far defined the Republican contest as being the guy everyone wants to prove they're not. Which is the biggest proof itself that he'll probably win.
Electoral Strengths: Has the begrudged and exhausted support of the national party, and aligned outlets like Fox News subsidiaries.
Campaign money like you wouldn't believe, let alone anonymous outside spending.
Manages to remain the “sane person's candidate”, no matter what goofy stuff escapes his mouth.
Electoral Weaknesses: Pick a political issue, any one you care to, and there's video of him espousing diametrically opposed viewpoints on it, at least one of which is antithetical to Republican doctrine.
He looks like the Efficiency Expert who gets paid a million bucks to fire you, and that was basically his last real job. What's amazing is that his fellow Republicans have seized on this as a criticism.
Being a starchy patrician millionaire from Massachusetts worked great for John Kerry, didn't it? Now take that to other side.
Despite running for President for six years now, he has very little campaign infrastructure in most states.
Rick Santorum
A former Senator from Pennsylvania, post facto since 2006, who made a name for himself with some of the most strident anti-gay rhetoric ever to grace the halls of Congress. Doesn't have a lot else going for him except a strong core of culture warrior voters, although for whatever reason supposedly he's about to be the last guy to get the anti-Romney support bump, as the last man standing (who isn't Paul or Huntsman). He certainly has some tenacious confidence.
Electoral Strength: You want culture war, he will deliver in spades
A surprisingly effective public speaker, even if people don't always like what he has to say.
Picked up a loony throwback billionaire willing to buy him into relevancy, even if he has no idea what Santorum actually stands for.
Has an actual voting record as a member of Congress to run on.
Electoral Weaknesses: It's not that great of a record really, especially on spending.
Scares the crap out of a lot of people when he starts saying contraception should be illegal and college education is brainwashing.
Don't Google “santorum”. Seriously don't, even though I know you're going to anyway. Done? Yeah, now you get it. That was indeed a concentrated campaign by some gay-media support group, but what is is, and anybody who's curious about the guy is greeted by Internet in its finest form.
Rick PerryHis Imperious Majesty and President For Life of the Independent Christian Republic of Texas. As one of his erstwhile subjects, I am so glad the rest of the world finally got to experience his presence, and I am so so sorry. Perry rocketed to the top of the polling when he showed the nation that he is the seminal and fire-forged epitome of the “God, guns, and gays” brand of cultural Republicanism along with a “record” of economic achievement as a four-term governor. Then he started
talking and it all went downhill from there. His "oops" bit and drunken displays in New Hampshire will go down in history as some of the best acts in a President debate. After losing Iowa and New Hampshire, he said the "real" Republicans in South Carolina would rally to his cause, but as the day approached and it was obvious he was going to lose by magnitudes to Colbert/Cain protest votes, he returned to the promised land of Texas, where he shall reign for a thousand years. Endorsed Gingrich for some reason, but by definition, no one cares.
Jon HuntsmanA man of considerable government experience, most recently President Obama's appointed ambassador to China, possibly the toughest job in the State Department. Certainly a man with some punch up his sleeves, and some intriguing background like his motocross championships and his rock band “Wizard”. Also the only guy on this list who has yet to see an inexplicable rise-and-fall in national polling – his “support” doubled from 1% to 2% after appearing on
The Colbert Report. Oh yeah, and he's another Mormon. As South Carolina approached after a third-place in New Hampshire, and he started turning up in opinion polling below a write-in return for Stephen Colbert, and his billionaire dad said he wasn't going to turn lose his charity money for an election, Huntsman figured it was time to relax. Endorsed Mitt Romney on his way out, to no great surprise.
Michelle BachmannA Congresswoman from Minnesota, who nobody ever heard of until she appeared on
Hardball with Chris Matthews in 2008 to call for reinstating the Anti-American Activities Committee to prosecute Democrats for the crime of being Democrats. There was a brief time of contention between her and Sarah Palin, since they were competing over the exact same constituency until it was clear Palin wasn't actually running. They're definitely cast in the same mold. Also has a really creepy husband who runs a “gay curing” “clinic”. But hey, she was an actual female Republican candidate. Turned out though, she couldn't raise money to save her life, and after betting her soul on Iowa and getting a single-digit return, Backmann decided to pack it in.
Tim PawlentyFormer governor of Minnesota (what is it about Minnesota) who dropped out almost as fast as he got in, when he discovered nobody gave the slightest flip about him and probably weren't going to with so many more exciting people to watch. May have folded too early but who knows. Has since lent his “support” to a couple people, Santorum last I remember. Might be the Vice Presidential nominee.
Sarah PalinThe former nobody governor of Alaska until John McCain's campaign adviser picked her to be his Vice Presidential running-mate in 2008, and you could see the pain and fear in his eyes as it happened. It said a lot that he appeared as himself on
Saturday Night Live alongside Tina Fey doing a routine as Palin trying to sink his campaign. After that legendary debacle, she quit the governorship to spend two years selling her
autobiography, and traveled the country in a bus with the Constitution painted on the side. Then she
didn't run for President, and everybody immediately stopped paying attention to her. Supposedly, she still exists, and is still the real-life version of Peggy Hill.
The TrumpmeisterA shame the Republican party is still trying to avoid talking about, television personality and not-that-great-of investor Donald Trump was an early favorite of opinion polling, whose “campaign” was entirely founded on his TV show and insisting Barack Obama wasn't born in America. Then Obama released a birth certificate while roasting Trump's ass at a dinner and giving the order to kill Osama bin Laden, and that was the end of that. He's still threatening to run a third-party campaign, but it's not going to happen, he's in it for the money.
The Cain Train Has Left The StationHerman Cain was (in my opinion) the most delightfully crazy of the bunch. From quoting a song from a Pokemon movie during a speech to his Sim City tax plan he's provided plenty of laughs over the last couple months. Of course, his campaign was probably just a publicity stunt designed to sell his copies of his book, and never genuine to begin with. He even used money raised from campaign contributions to buy copies of his book, helping it to jump up the bestseller lists.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
– In No Particular Order
Michael Bloomberg
The multi-billionaire media mogul and current mayor of New York City has been propositioned as a non-party candidate for a few years now. Theoretically he would plant himself on the legendary “Socially-Liberal Fiscally-Conservative” middleground of American politics, squeezed between the two parties. Realistically, he's smart enough to know it'd be pointless to run if he wasn't confident in winning, and that he continues to say he won't is a pretty good indicator of his chances.
Electoral Strengths: Would be the first guy in history who could drop a billion out of pocket on a campaign, and would certainly have wealthy supporters.
Has no ideological objections from any significant quarter, a genuine moderate.
Electoral Weaknesses: Running as “I'm rich so I know what I'm talking about” didn't work for Steve Forbes either.
Running as the mayor of New York didn't work for Rudy Giuliani either.
Being a billionaire media tycoon might actually be a better job than President.
Gary JohnsonFormer governor of New Mexico and formerly of the Republican nomination until December 28th, when he finally got tired of not being invited to the debates. Now running for the Libertarian Party nomination, and he's probably going to get it, because their primaries have more candidates than voters. There's
another thread about him already if you're interested.
Vermin SupremeHe is the voice of a generation. A boot in every pot and two ponies in every garage. Fairy dust for all, whether you want it or not. Vote early, vote often, vote sideways, vote Vermin.
And there's plenty more to discuss and add, which I invite all to do, and invite the many non-Americans here to comment and question. Informational links are especially appreciated. What will be the effects of unlimited anonymous corporate campaign spending? How will world politics factor into the race? What will the nation do as Congress essentially shuts down for a year of campaign posturing, as they're threatening to do? Will Joe Biden say something hilarious in his one debate? Stay tuned.
IMPORTANT: I know this is a
politics thread, but let's try to have too many
politic arguments, okay? It's inevitable, but I'd like to keep everything civil here, and the horserace of electioneering is more than enough to keep everyone entertained without a firestorm of pointless ideological debates. I'm driving this thread, and I'll turn right around if anybody starts pulling hair or throwing things.
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Topic: American Election Megathread - It's Over (Read 766752 times)