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Author Topic: American Election Megathread - It's Over  (Read 769296 times)

Tilla

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1200 on: January 24, 2012, 03:15:05 pm »

http://www.littleredumbrella.com/2012/01/lets-be-clear-ron-paul-fucking-sucks.html

Lets not forget the most important point: Ron Paul still sucks.
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RedKing

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1201 on: January 24, 2012, 03:17:34 pm »

@Nadaka: Jan. 31.

Here's the latest aggregate poll numbers for Florida:

Gingrich: 37.7%
Romney: 30.3%
Santorum: 11.7%
Paul: 10.3%

For those of you playing at home, three days ago it was:
Romney: 40.5%
Gingrich: 22%
Santorum: 15%
Paul: 9%

That's a HUGE momentum swing in a weekend. And not surprisingly, Sheldon Adelson (the dude that single-handedly dropped $5mil into Gingrich's SuperPAC and quite possibly single-handedly revived Gingrich's campaign from the political graveyard) has dropped another $5mil. Wonder if Adelson is gunning for the Vice Presidency, or just an ambassadorial position to Israel. Cause you know dude is going to want his payback for that kind of coin.

Meanwhile, when Romney was asked what he had done "for the conservative movement", the only thing he could really think of to lead off with was, "Umm....I'm married and have kids and grandkids...". While Newt is busy revising history to make it look like he was Ronald Reagan's right-hand man. And the Tea Partiers are lapping that shit up.


EDIT: Oh gods. I just agreed...with Ann Coulter. I think I'm going to be sick.  :'(
« Last Edit: January 24, 2012, 03:38:52 pm by RedKing »
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Aqizzar

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1202 on: January 24, 2012, 03:45:09 pm »

For the record, I don't put a lot of stock in daily tracking polls, but I'll admit the swing-polling going into Saturday was pretty much perfectly reflected.

EDIT: Oh gods. I just agreed...with Ann Coulter. I think I'm going to be sick.  :'(
Quote
Coulter also defended CNN's John King for asking Gingrich about the recent allegations made by his ex-wife. Coulter said, "John King is a completely fair reporter, an honorable reporter...and Newt Gingrich goes back to the well to attacking the media, and I resent that..."

Ann Fucking Coulter criticising Gingrich for "going back to the well" of attacking the Liberal Media, and defending CNN.  I have now officially seen everything.  This race is truly driving people insane.


I don't think anyone IS damning him for doing a legal tax return. Rather that they are damning the idea that that tax return SHOULD be legal.
Just a minor point. Tax returns are the documents demonstrating what taxes were paid, income levels, exemptions, etc. The reason people are pissed is that his effective tax rate was well under the median tax rate while his income was 1% levels. Even pretending his charitable contributions were taxes (and allowing Mormon tithing as charitable) he was paying less than the top rate of income tax (35%).

I'm reminded of a time Bill O'Reilly went on the The Daily Show, and income and taxes and Obama the Communist came up.  Stewart pointed out that in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, the top marginal tax bracket was 91%.  Think about that, 91% of income over (whatever the bracket was then) paid in taxes.  O'Reilly point out that essentially no millionaire of the era actually paid that tax, thanks to loopholes.  Stewart asked whether that was principled, and rather than stopping at just saying it's principled enough to legally compliant, O'Reilly briefly argued that it is in itself patriotic to pay as little taxes as possible.

Lots of people want millionaires to pay higher taxes than themselves.  Romney pulled an interesting reversal on Gingrich in last night's debate - after talking for a bit about how Romney only paid 15% taxes because his income is mostly capital gains, Gingrich soon after described a tax plan that called for eliminating capital gains taxes altogether.  Romney quipped that under Gingrich's tax plan, he would pay effectively nothing.  It was like he was saying, "If you're ticked off that a millionaire like me is paying more taxes than you, this guy wants me to pay squat," although his kind of awkward of saying it made it sound almost like bragging.

But more than wanting rich people to pay more taxes, virtually everyone wants themselves to pay less than they currently do.  Ask absolutely anybody who qualifies for a tax break of some kind, and they'll probably boast wildly about it.  This ties back to O'Reilly, which especially plays true with capital-C Conservative people.  If your political philosophy counts as a founding principle a distrust and hatred for the federal government (especially when you don't like the President), then cheating the government out of taxes (including legally cheating) is itself a "good thing".

I'm curious to see which way Romney manages to play this (if he manages at all), after his Gingrich-line got so little response.  There's two ways he can run this that both count as "populism" with Conservative voters, and they don't even have to be exclusive.  I wonder if he can see that opening for what it is.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2012, 03:52:58 pm by Aqizzar »
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RedKing

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1203 on: January 25, 2012, 10:21:06 am »

Updated polling data for today shows the Florida race tightening back up a bit. Yesterday, Gingrich had about a 7-point lead on Romney, today it's down to 4. No clear reason why, but perhaps the slew of data showing that while a hypothetical Obama v. Romney matchup is still giving the president a 2-point margin, a hypothetical Obama v. Gingrich matchup is giving Obama an 11-point win. All Gingrich's talk about "electability" is bullshit. Like I said before, he's sort of the Republican Hillary Clinton -- yes, he energizes people on his side to vote for him. But he also energizes people on the opposite side to bust their ass to keep him from winning. I'm not even a Democrat, but I'd be volunteering for the local Obama campaign again this year if Gingrich gets the nom.
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1204 on: January 25, 2012, 03:29:42 pm »

EDIT: Oh gods. I just agreed...with Ann Coulter. I think I'm going to be sick.  :'(
Quote
Coulter also defended CNN's John King for asking Gingrich about the recent allegations made by his ex-wife. Coulter said, "John King is a completely fair reporter, an honorable reporter...and Newt Gingrich goes back to the well to attacking the media, and I resent that..."

Ann Fucking Coulter criticising Gingrich for "going back to the well" of attacking the Liberal Media, and defending CNN.  I have now officially seen everything.  This race is truly driving people insane.
Well, it was nice knowing you guys, but it looks like the End is really upon us now.
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Montague

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1205 on: January 25, 2012, 04:02:00 pm »

EDIT: Oh gods. I just agreed...with Ann Coulter. I think I'm going to be sick.  :'(
Quote
Coulter also defended CNN's John King for asking Gingrich about the recent allegations made by his ex-wife. Coulter said, "John King is a completely fair reporter, an honorable reporter...and Newt Gingrich goes back to the well to attacking the media, and I resent that..."

Ann Fucking Coulter criticising Gingrich for "going back to the well" of attacking the Liberal Media, and defending CNN.  I have now officially seen everything.  This race is truly driving people insane.
Well, it was nice knowing you guys, but it looks like the End is really upon us now.


I thought Ann Coulter was a misanthrope that hates absolutely everyone, irrespective of any quality they might possess or not. I don't think I've ever heard her actually say anything to suggest she likes anybody for doing anything.

Ann Coulter hating people seems like an island of stablity and normality in an otherwise unpredictable and chaotic world. When she starts loudly commending and gushing over somebody, then I know we are all truly doomed.
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Urist Imiknorris

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1206 on: January 25, 2012, 04:22:25 pm »

Quote
Coulter also defended CNN's John King for asking Gingrich about the recent allegations made by his ex-wife. Coulter said, "John King is a completely fair reporter, an honorable reporter...and Newt Gingrich goes back to the well to attacking the media, and I resent that..."
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Realmfighter

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1207 on: January 25, 2012, 05:21:54 pm »

And there you go.

2012. Right on schedule.
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nenjin

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1208 on: January 25, 2012, 07:39:41 pm »

Ann Coulter's conservatism and the Baktun cycles line up perfectly, apparently. Either it's the end of the world or her books sales are down.
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Montague

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1209 on: January 26, 2012, 06:21:45 am »

Quote
Coulter also defended CNN's John King for asking Gingrich about the recent allegations made by his ex-wife. Coulter said, "John King is a completely fair reporter, an honorable reporter...and Newt Gingrich goes back to the well to attacking the media, and I resent that..."

Well... she only said stuff about the report in the context of spewing vitriol aimed at attacking somebody else, she didn't really mean it... did she?
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GlyphGryph

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1210 on: January 26, 2012, 10:30:37 am »

I've got a confession to make - If I had any reason, any reason at all, to think that Newt was serious with and capable of his Moon Base promise, I would totally vote for him.

I'm not even going to ask if this makes me a bad person. I know it does. But I totally would. I have this wonderful list of priorities a candidate can appeal to, and "Space Colonies" is pretty much at the top of the list, above even "End the Drug War" and "Implement Negative Income Tax" and "Change system to Approval Voting".
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RedKing

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1211 on: January 26, 2012, 12:04:24 pm »

I've got a confession to make - If I had any reason, any reason at all, to think that Newt was serious with and capable of his Moon Base promise, I would totally vote for him.

I'm not even going to ask if this makes me a bad person. I know it does. But I totally would. I have this wonderful list of priorities a candidate can appeal to, and "Space Colonies" is pretty much at the top of the list, above even "End the Drug War" and "Implement Negative Income Tax" and "Change system to Approval Voting".
I'm pretty sure that if you asked him, Vermin Supreme would make space colonies a part of his platform. He might even promise to move the White House to a base on the moon.



EDIT: In some tangentially related news, North Carolina's governor Democrat Beverly Perdue has stated that she will not seek re-election in the fall. Perdue is a first-term governor, and frankly she's been about as effective and as inspiring as lukewarm dishwater. I actually voted for the Libertarian candidate in the governor's race in '08 because I was so dismayed with the two major party candidates. Early analysis says this may be a positive for Obama's chances in the Tarheel State, because Democrats will be more energized to come out and vote for a new candidate than they would to re-elect Perdue.

In a lot of ways, Perdue's tenure has mirrored Obama's. Except she didn't have the benefit of coming into office with high ratings. Her approval rating was only 41% within her first three months in office, and it just tanked from there. She had too main problems: an incredibly hostile Republican legislature (sound familiar?) and the fact that she tried to take all possible positions on an issue because she was afraid to alienate any particular demographic.

It'll be interesting to see how the primary races shake out, and how that affects Obama's polling here. Our primary isn't until May, so it's doubtful we'll have any effect at all on the GOP national race, but you never know...
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 01:11:57 pm by RedKing »
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RedKing

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1212 on: January 26, 2012, 03:11:31 pm »

Sorry for the double-post, but I didn't want to have my last post become some page-stretching monster of multiple postscripts.

New polling data for Florida shows Gingrich's momentum reversing, with Romney now back in the lead by 7-8 points. Part of it has to be the media blitz that Romney is putting on, but I have to think part of it is also a lot of people going, "Oh wait....Newt Gingrich still has that little problem of being...Newt Gingrich." The initial bandwagon effect from South Carolina (everyone wants to be on the side of the winner) only had a few days' carryover. Newt probably wishes the primaries had been a lot closer together.

All of this sets the stage for some possible fireworks at the 469,125,716th Republican debate of the season tonight in Jacksonville, Florida. Gingrich has to be a bit pissed and desperate after seeing those numbers. Indeed, this morning at a campaign stop he pretty much just ripped on Romney the entire time. Meanwhile, Romney has urged Newt to release the full records of the House ethics investigation that saw his censure and removal, especially after Nancy Pelosi made a cryptic remark that she "knew something" that meant Newt Gingrich would never be President. Romney has also publicly urged his supporters to "just storm in" to the debates if they don't have tickets. In case you weren't aware, the Florida GOP has decided that the audience will be allowed to boo, cheer, yell, etc. at the debates. After the big applause at the SC debates when Gingrich went all mock-outrage on John King, apparently the GOP thinks that turning the debates into even MORE of a mockery of civilized politics is a good thing.

Hmm...two deeply antagonistic camps, in the Florida panhandle and allowed to make as much noise as they want, and one side urging supporters to crash the event. There is no way this can possibly go wrong not be entertaining.
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Zrk2

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1213 on: January 26, 2012, 03:41:41 pm »

Wait, the GOP encourages riots? WHY DO WE HATE THEM?
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mainiac

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Re: American Election Megathread
« Reply #1214 on: January 26, 2012, 03:52:03 pm »

Neutral debates where the audience is explicitly forbidden to make noise are loud and angry enough...
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