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[Heron TSG]

Wooo! Just got me a voter's card! Time to join the clusterfuck!

Registering soon! My opinions matter now! 

[Aqizzar]

Exit polling from Iowa, and I imagine NH, points at the fact that more Republicans think Romney has the best chance at beat Obama. Which is fairly interesting given the "purge the unclean" rhetoric and typical radical notions of party primaries. What's the big deal hardly anyone's talking about? The Tea Party really lost here. Their favourite bowed out after one state. Despite all the the money and effort sank into the fringe Tea Party, the voters have thrown anchored itself into the old battle between the "safe choice moderate party establishment" and "old school social conservatives". With Romney in the lead, most voters are throwing a resigned vote behind Romney because they think others will find him a palpable choice next to Obama, regardless of what they think.

It's also a notion that can fall apart if that Firing People line really does take off.  If Romney's theoretical "electability" versus Obama in a general election is all he really has going for him in Republican primaries, how do the bizarre and uncomfortable things he says off-script fit into that?  In Iowa, he had to memorize "America The Beautiful" and recite it like a first-grade book report in lieu of actually talking.  If he gets a Dean-Scream, and Republican primary voters in the next couple states think he'd be a real liability versus winning the Presidency, what else does he have?  Heck, people around Gingrich are starting to sound like George Will and Bill Buckley Jr. and saying they'd rather have their Obama punching-bag for four more years than see Romney as the standard bearer of the party.

I'm not sure if I want to see the future and find out the South Carolina result right now, or if I want to savor the uncertainty forever.

I'll update the OP tomorrow morning, when I get back and the AP has an official vote tally.

[Nadaka]

I was just watching the daily show and a friend of Ron Paul was on, and this guy was advocating the purer libertarian view as if it was Ron Pauls position. Even citing the 14th amendments role in preventing states from infringing on civil liberties and saying government should stay out of your bedroom.

He neglects to mention that Ron Paul does not believe in the 14th, and has attempted to bypass it in the past. And that Ron Paul is very interested in seeing states become involved in your bedroom. It is this kind of duplicitous deception that makes me think really think that Ron Paul is just as slimy, corrupt and dangerous as the rest of the field.

[Nilik]

So tell me if i've got this right as a non-American with only a passing knowledge of what the hell is going on:

Romney - Big business type, likes to fire people. Probably going to win even though no-one really wants him to.
Paul - Ayn-Rand wannabe, wants to gut the government, including cutting what little remaining welfare there is
Huntsman - Moderate, might make a good president but seen as not "Republican" enough
Gingrich - All-round horrible person (was this the guy who divorsed his wife while she was in a coma or something?)
Santorum - Religious nut-job
Perry - HAY U KNOW WUT WE NEED? MORE MILITARY SPENDING LOL!

From an outside perspective, that's what I'm getting.

[SalmonGod]

If I were a Ron Paul supporter, which I am not, but if I was, I would do so under the logic that he'd be unable to push through his more insane ideas, and that his better ones would be more plausible goals for him to pursue. Of course, that's a gamble.

That's pretty much why I support him

He's by far not the best, but he's better than all the other jokers (at least the ones that have a chance).

I've seen a lot of people saying basically this.  I only know one hardcore Ron Paul supporter (he doesn't believe all the stuff about his racist, homophobic, and religious backgrounds to be anything but propaganda).  I know several more who don't agree with the full extent of his ideology, but they think the limits on presidential power would be enough to allow him to turn American politics in a direction they see as more favorable, without being able to go too far.

[Karlito]

Perry - HAY U KNOW WUT WE NEED? MORE MILITARY SPENDING LOL!

Perry is really more similar to Santorum by your description, but with a healthy dose of Texas thrown in the mix.

[RedKing]

It's 92% reporting now, and Romney is up at 39.3%. This may actually be an outperform win, considering his polling numbers weren't even that high in the last couple of days. Paul has slipped slightly to 22.9% but still a good showing. Huntsman has settled in at 16.9%, not the #2 win I'm sure he was hoping for but certainly enough to make him relevant and hopefully open up the fundraising and media channels a bit. Gingrich is back on top of Santorum by 150 or so votes, but both are below 9.5% now. Poor showing for Gingrich, modest showing for Santorum (but again...with no ad spending it's probably a B- result).

Poor Buddy Roemer still couldn't crack 1%, but at least he managed to beat "write-in" and the other 23 "who in the hell?" candidates.

I do think the high amount of crossover votes for Huntsman is a double-edged sword for him. On the one hand, it shows he might have a serious chance to draw disenchanted Dems and independents in a general election. OTOH, it confirms the conservative view of him as a "donkey in an elephant suit". If the GOP weren't so obsessed with ideological purity in the ranks, they could have found a candidate to give Obama a run for his money.

[Heron TSG]

I signed up for the email lists of all the major candidates, just to see what they were saying to their target audiences. Not so much a fan of Huntsman anymore, what with his preaching about how he would implement the Ryan plan as soon as he could. Still better than the social conservatives, but damn. Is there anyone out there [Republand] who likes healthcare?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

-Aww, it got deleted.-

[Sirus]

Goddammit Bay 12. I've been offline for less than 24 hours. Why'd you jump 10 pages? There's no way I'm reading all of that 

[Sheb]

From the Romney speech:

"He apologizes for America; I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the Earth."

And then you're wondering why the rest of the world dislikes/hates you? :p That sound like something Bush could have said.

[Darvi]

Goddammit Bay 12. I've been offline for less than 24 hours. Why'd you jump 10 pages? There's no way I'm reading all of that 

Switch to 50 posts per page and it's only 6 pages.

"He apologizes for America; I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the Earth."

That's like a double dose of pretentiousness.

[Heron TSG]

3 pages, actually. I think the standard is 15.

I think it's strange how people think our image is being hurt by Obama apologizing when we screw up. From what I recall, pretty much no country but Israel liked us under Bush II.

[RedKing]

Goddammit Bay 12. I've been offline for less than 24 hours. Why'd you jump 10 pages? There's no way I'm reading all of that 

Primary yesterday....thread tends to grow a bit when there's actually things occurring to talk about.


My father-in-law is the same way. He's generally a moderate New England Republican (he grew up in New York and Connecticut), but he's incensed at the thought of a President apologizing to another country for some reason. Maybe they see it as a sign of weakness. The Republican notion of foreign policy seems to be that America is the giant honey badger of the world.

[Frumple]

Hell, I'd vote yes for changing the national animal to honey badger. Honey badgers don't get stuck in airplane intakes. Airplanes get stuck in honey badger intakes.

Basically they're vicious little bastid creatures, and I'd support re-imaging ourselves off of them. Give people a better idea of what to expect, anyway.