2012 GOP, who's it going to be?

Scuzz · 2012-01-20T14:31:55.000Z

Lorini:

That didn’t work for Meg Whitman when she ran in California. Her efforts to prove more right wing than her GOP primary opponent backfired big time in the general election. And Obama’s campaign is certainly filing all of the bullshit away for the main campaign.

For a republican to win in California you would have to woo over a lot of democrats. Having that scum attorney to the stars (damn I can’t remember her name) suddenly come up with a housekeeper who claimed she was mistreated at the last minute didn’t help either.

Black_Isis · 2012-01-20T14:56:31.000Z

Scuzz:

For a republican to win in California you would have to woo over a lot of democrats. Having that scum attorney to the stars (damn I can’t remember her name) suddenly come up with a housekeeper who claimed she was mistreated at the last minute didn’t help either.

Gloria Allred, I assume?

Scuzz · 2012-01-20T15:07:45.000Z

Black Isis:

Gloria Allred, I assume?

We have a winner!

strategy · 2012-01-20T16:35:27.000Z

Does anyone think that Colberts somewhat amusing stunt (at least to those of us watching from outside) will have any impact?

Daagar · 2012-01-20T18:03:38.000Z

It would be hilarious if so, and the final nail in the coffin to just how broken our process is. I don’t think word will get out far enough in SC to really be a major impact though. If it was national? Maybe.

Dejin · 2012-01-20T18:35:12.000Z

Black Isis:

Regardless of who wins, they will both lose. At this rate, they are bloodying each other so badly that there’s going to be almost no way for them to beat Obama in the fall. Romney just comes off looking more and more shifty and disingenuous every time Gingrich presses him, and Gingrich is getting double-teamed by Romney and Santorum while he destroys any appeal he might have outside of the hardcore Republican base with shit like “black kids should work as janitors.”

Gingrich’s own daughter worked as a janitor when she was 13. While I don’t particularly like Gingrich (although I do hope he’ll with the nomination, since I think Obama would easily clean the floor with him), the fact that his own daughter worked as a janitor does change how I view Gingrich’s “poor kids should work as janitor” comments.

Tin_Wisdom · 2012-01-20T20:08:26.000Z

He’s at 13% right now…

JeffL · 2012-01-20T20:12:19.000Z

All I know is I just heard Obama sing Al Greene, and DAMN! He’s got my vote again.

Jason_McCullough · 2012-01-20T20:32:21.000Z

Today’s twitter highlights:

PublicPolicyPolling
Only about 30% of SC Republicans saying they believe Marianne Gingrich’s accusations…likely folks who already weren’t for Newt

davidfrum
Suppose it were Gingrich v O, and we restricted franchise to Republicans who served in Congress 1978-98. It’d be a close vote

Jason_McCullough · 2012-01-20T20:33:13.000Z

Dejin:

Gingrich’s own daughter worked as a janitor when she was 13. While I don’t particularly like Gingrich (although I do hope he’ll with the nomination, since I think Obama would easily clean the floor with him), the fact that his own daughter worked as a janitor does change how I view Gingrich’s “poor kids should work as janitor” comments.

Yeah, I guess all the race-baiting was an accident that got slapped on there.

Papageno · 2012-01-21T01:06:41.000Z

JeffL:

All I know is I just heard Obama sing Al Greene, and DAMN! He’s got my vote again.

Insert “Not sure if serious” image here. Where was this?

Woolen_Horde · 2012-01-21T01:12:44.000Z

HumanTon · 2012-01-21T08:45:34.000Z

Black Isis:

… I really can’t think of anything that has been this bloody during the last 20 years or so. I certainly don’t think either primary in 2000 was this vicious …

Vicious? Bloody? This primary? I hadn’t really thought of it that way … in fact, considering the raw material available, I think the candidates have been treating each other with kid gloves, and the press the same.

This is particularly true of Romney. He could be running ads right now saying, "Newt Gingrich is a serial adulterer who was run out of Congress after being fined $300,000 for ethics violations" and no one would be able to say anything than it was an accurate summary of the facts.

The primary has been long and drawn out not due to any especially high level of infighting, but due to the fact that it’s a really, really, really, really weak field. It’s been made up of lightweights, has-beens, wanna-bes, adulterers, sleazebags, lunatics and morons, so it’s not really surprising nobody is in a rush to pick the best of a bad lot.

This isn’t some Machiavellian bloodbath of backstabbing. It’s a twit race.

Tin_Wisdom · 2012-01-21T09:16:08.000Z

HumanTon:

The primary has been long and drawn out not due to any especially high level of infighting, but due to the fact that it’s a really, really, really, really weak field. It’s been made up of lightweights, has-beens, wanna-bes, adulterers, sleazebags, lunatics and morons, so it’s not really surprising nobody is in a rush to pick the best of a bad lot.

This.

But additionally, people tend to have very short memories about these things. The 2008 GOP nomination process got fairly nasty in places. Giuliani (as the presumed front-running) was sniped at fairly regularly. Romney and McCain were often in each others’ grills – Romney compared McCain to Nixon, and McCain accused Romney of lots of stuff. Besides the “Black Love Child” thing, there was a “Swift Boat” campaign against McCain where a group accused him of giving information to the North Vietnamese in return for better treatment during his time as a POW.

While they may never have sunk quite as low as their GOP contemporaries, the 2008 Democratic primaries were harsh as well. You may remember the whole Michigan thing where the state was disqualified from sending delegates, but Clinton campaigned and “won” there anyway, then tried to get the delegates seated at the convention so she could win. And of course the 3AM phone call ad campaign, the attention placed on whether or not Clinton cried or didn’t cry, some claims of race-baiting… it wasn’t very pretty.

Hugin · 2012-01-21T09:26:10.000Z

Papageno:

Insert “Not sure if serious” image here. Where was this?

Cough

billt721 · 2012-01-21T10:31:20.000Z

HumanTon:

This is particularly true of Romney. He could be running ads right now saying, "Newt Gingrich is a serial adulterer who was run out of Congress after being fined $300,000 for ethics violations" and no one would be able to say anything than it was an accurate summary of the facts.

Perhaps the problem is that politicians don’t have any idea of what to do with actual facts. They’re much more comfortable making things up. So instead we’re treated to stuff like the commercial where Mitt Romney states that President Obama caused our credit rating to fall.

Jason_McCullough · 2012-01-21T11:23:50.000Z

Ron Paul has no racial problems.

Andrew · 2012-01-21T11:37:30.000Z

I think part of the reason that people have been relatively gentle to each other is that in the bottom of their hearts they think Romney is probably going to win. No use spitting on your party’s eventual nominee, and if you think you are going to win, no need to be nasty.

Mark_Asher · 2012-01-23T09:11:29.000Z

Romney may win, but he’s getting scared now. Polls now have Gingrich leading in Florida, and this is after Romney has already spent $5M there.

A Rasmussen Reports poll has Gingrich up 41 percent to Romney’s 32 percent in Florida, while another poll conducted by Georgia’s Insider Advantage shows Gingrich at 34 percent to Romney’s 26 percent. They reflect a huge change from Romney’s former 23-point lead in the Sunshine State.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1398164&srvc=rss

Edit: And another thing, and I don’t have the article in front of me, is that in exit polling in SC the voters thought Gingrich much more electable than Romney. If that sentiment catches on, Romney is in serious trouble, at least with the voters. Perhaps the Republican establishment can engineer a win for Romney regardless, but it will be harder.

Lorini · 2012-01-23T09:34:09.000Z

Romney is in some deep shit if Gringrich is more electable than he is. Wow.