Objective review of Republican candidates for President

[Karl Henning]

Heck, just the thought of Paul having his feet held to the fire about that Jon Huntsman tweet is a guilty pleasure.  He wasn't a debater there, just a denier in the Herman Cain mold.

[Karl Henning]

Huntsman picks up Boston Globe endorsement over Romney, state's former governor

[Karl Henning]

Krauthammer on Santorum

[Lethevich]

Rick Santorum's Anti-Abortion Politics Would Have Killed His Own Wife

[Todd]

inform yourself

Silly James, I know about Paul's positions, and I have since he first popped up in the 90s.  I know he's a fruitcake, and I've known for a long time.

Tell you what, let's make it really simple for you.  Explain how Paul's support for competing currencies makes for good policy and would help improve the economic siutation in the country.  Hopefully you will have the time and energy for that.  Again, I want to see how you explain, to see how much you understand.  Any other Paul supporter can jump right in, too. 

[Karl Henning]

Silly James, I know about Paul's positions, and I have since he first popped up in the 90s.  I know he's a fruitcake, and I've known for a long time.

Silly, and typical: rings true with all the times he has told people with subtler ears than his own, that they should just listen to the music.

[Todd]

Silly, and typical: rings true with all the times he has told people with subtler ears than his own, that they should just listen to the music.

Apparently, James thinks that since he has discovered Paul, Dr Paul is the fountain of wisdom.  All others are wrong.  Those who disagree need to learn, need to educate themselves.  It's the kind of thing believers in UFOs might say.

[jowcol]

Krauthammer on Santorum

My favorite part of that article was:

Gingrich speaks of aligning himself with Santorum against Romney. For Newt's campaign, this makes absolutely no strategic sense. Except that Gingrich is after vengeance, not victory. Ahab is loose in New Hampshire, stalking his great white Mitt.

Krauthammer is entertaining-- I love him on "Inside Washington" as he is the only conservative I(more in a fiscal/foregin policy sense)  on a panel of liberals, and he definitely has the best zingers.

[Christo]

Paul would absolutely DESTROY Obama in a debate. 

[drogulus]

     Remember those cultists who killed themselves to join the flying saucers? Ron Paul is a bit like that.

     

     Ron Paul wants to eliminate most of government. What would happen if he got his way? We will never know, and don't have much reason to find out. There are experiments that are not run because it would be destructive to do so.

     Of course it might be true that if we reduced government to 5% of GDP or so the flying saucers would swoop down and give everyone a social safety net or make young people save for their retirement or restore savings wiped out by a depression or give health care to the nonrich. But would you bet your life on it? I wouldn't. But maybe we could get people on another planet to run the test, people we don't like much. That way nothing would be lost if the likely result occurred.

[ibanezmonster]

Santorum: No One Has Ever Died Because They Didn't Have Health Care

Guess who isn't getting my vote?

If current trends continue - which is somewhat dependent on the dimwits of Europe getting their collective act together - the economy should be in better shape around election time.  Unemployment will be lower, though still not at anywhere near 5%-6%, and growth should pick up a bit.  Obama will not have the type of conditions that prevailed in 1984, but they will be moving in a positive direction. 

The unemployment rate just dropped down to 8.5%, and they are saying that next year it should be continuing to get better.
Makes me wonder what the reason for this is... is the stimulus package kicking in and just taking forever, is it policy changes?, etc.

[drogulus]

The unemployment rate just dropped down to 8.5%, and they are saying that next year it should be continuing to get better.
Makes me wonder what the reason for this is... is the stimulus package kicking in and just taking forever, is it policy changes?, etc.

      No, the stimulus produced about 3 million jobs, then it stalled. State and local governments contracted, a form of counterstimulus. What we're experiencing is the slow recovery that was predicted. In 2012 we're supposed to have about 2.5% growth, enough to boost employment a little more. We'll probably still be at 8% by election time.

[Josquin des Prez]

Destroying Obama in a debate wouldn't be all that difficult. All the man has to offer is after all nothing more then empty rhetoric. He is no different in that respect from the other candidates, he just has a bit more charm, which is enough to win the hearts of the democrats, who are by and large just as superficial as the average republican, despite their delusion to the contrary.

Ron Paul may not be perfect but you know he must be doing something right if he's catching the ire of the corrupt establishment.

[Josquin des Prez]

Ron Paul wants to eliminate most of government. What would happen if he got his way? We will never know

Ever heard of a little country called Iceland?

The vitriol, lies and absurd accusations thrown against Ron Paul in this thread really demonstrates how infantile and irrational democrats really are. And this is supposed to be the party of reason and logic. Laughable.

[Lethevich]

http://www.youtube.com/v/meFjza6BpEA

Aside from the Afghanistan government failing (with the implication that it completely collapses, which it hasn't), I don't see much wrong with what he details here. For somebody who wants to avoid foreign intervention, he seems to understand the web of foreign interest quite well. More so than most of the people in the same room as him during that speech, who were voting on things they had no inkling about.

While I don't like cultists (and the background music to this clip reveals that agenda), the speech itself is interesting. I made a point not to look at the overlayed headlines so that they didn't influence me, and still found this politician persuasive. Compare what he was saying then to what other politicians were, and who has had to retract their opinions most substantially - or who were unwilling to even think about  "what if"s like that, let alone stick their necks out about them.

[Wendell_E]

     Ron Paul wants to eliminate most of government. What would happen if he got his way? We will never know

Ever heard of a little country called Iceland?

I was thinking more along the lines of Somalia, but with nuclear weapons.   

[Lethevich]

Ever heard of a little country called Iceland?

Iceland benefits from a unique amount of natural resources. Little American city states could never reach that level of success.

[Henk]

Iceland benefits from a unique amount of natural resources. Little American city states could never reach that level of success.

Don't go mad, Lethe . He means it ok.

Henk

[Karl Henning]

The vitriol, lies and absurd accusations thrown against Ron Paul in this thread really demonstrates how infantile and irrational democrats really are. And this is supposed to be the party of reason and logic. Laughable.

That comment really demonstrates the kneejerk, unthinking, two-dimensional world you really live (or think) in.  Not a month ago, I heard a former Republican Senator dismiss Paul as "goofy," so this discussion is not at all the occasion to sneer at Democrats which you are fond to think.

And you are supposed to be the chap who will teach us all sense about "genius." Laughable.

[jowcol]

Guess who isn't getting my vote?

The unemployment rate just dropped down to 8.5%, and they are saying that next year it should be continuing to get better.
Makes me wonder what the reason for this is... is the stimulus package kicking in and just taking forever, is it policy changes?, etc.

My personal belief is that neither party has the cojones to go after the structural elements of the current unemployment problems, and address actual specifics like skill shortages, geographic issues,  and globalization/outsourcing.  Neither more unfocused  govt spending nor giving private enterprise a free hand are going to fix these.  One of the reasons we've been slow to recover from the meltdown is that companies have gotten more efficient, and have outsourced more.   But the discussion on both sides have been nothing but empty rhetoric.