Posted on 03/16/2011 5:49:10 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
What's up with the 2012 presidential election? It is basically a huge mess. A bunch of losers -- including actual literal losers like Rick Santorum and Haley Barbour -- are pretending they have a shot at winning anything, every single state wants to hold its primary elections on or near Jan. 1, 2012, and various candidates no one in the party likes have probably the biggest actual bases of support. And Ron Paul apparently raised $1 million last month?
Lovable old Paul -- whose probable entrance into the 2012 field will steal the thunder of all the other wacky libertarian candidates -- raised $1.1 million for his PAC. On Presidents' Day. According to the Atlantic, "Paul will use the money to travel to Iowa and New Hampshire next week." (What expensive trips! Is he traveling in a first-class sleeper on the Taggart Transcontinental?)
Paul's 501(c)4 -- the group that isn't subject to the same onerous fundraising restrictions as the PAC -- raised $6.5 million last year, which beats the PACs of Palin and Pawlenty. So it seems like Paul is serious about running again, which is good news for the blimp rental industry.
Of course, Ron Paul has always been quite good at raising money and getting attention. He does rather less well at winning primaries. But maybe an early start would help, because it looks right now like all the primary elections will happen next February.
The Republican National Committee has new rules saying only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina can hold their nominating primaries (and caucus) before March 1, 2012. Iowa is set for Feb. 6. Florida -- whoops! -- was scheduled for Jan. 31. But the RNC has apparently persuaded the Florida Senate president to introduce an amendment to existing legislation moving the date to mid-February -- which would put them after Iowa but still in violation of RNC rules. Lots and lots of other states are apparently planning their own primaries and caucuses for Feb. 5. Utah gave up on being early and decided to hold its primary in June, but it seems like everyone else is again just ignoring the rules that allow a certain special precious states to hold its little contests before everyone else.
Oh, and apparently the RNC "quietly adopted rules" saying that states holding primaries before April 2012 have to allocate their delegates proportionally instead of winner-take-all. I think they designed these rules just to make the process as lengthy and painful as possible. As Byron Tau said yesterday:
Such a rule change could mean that candidates who win the early states could nevertheless have trouble assembling the necessary delegates quickly enough, dragging on the primary process.
Exciting! It could even -- not to get everyone's hopes up -- lead to an actual convention floor fight, with some random candidate who never actually won anything outright holding a bunch of precious delegates. Former Republican Sen. Judd Gregg thinks that will be Good News for Sarah Palin!
It also seems like maybe good news for Mike Huckbaee, should he ever decide to stop being Fox News' white born-again male Oprah and make a serious run again. The party establishment largely hates Huckabee, but he came in second or third in 29 states in 2008.
Speaking of people the Republican Party establishment hates, Politico exclusively reported yesterday that the Republican "elite" all think Sarah Palin is stupid and dangerous and vain and shallow. Well, they all use other words but the basic point is that everyone is conceding that liberals were right about her all along.
Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Peter Wehner -- all of these people would be embarrassed about the monster that their years of culture-based populist class warfare against "the elites" created, if they were capable of feeling shame. Instead they are just embarrassed that Palin exists, basically.
Of course, this Politico article about how "the elites" hate her will only make Palin more powerful. She feeds on your attacks!
Palin is a probable loser if she does decide to run -- Americans find her increasingly repellent as her core supporters grow more cultish -- but it will be fun to watch the GOP apparatchiks trip over themselves trying to discredit her without upsetting the riled-up anti-modernity self-pitying masses who make up the party's activist base.
So. This could be a hilarious mess, with reviled outsiders like Palin, Huckabee and Paul running roughshod over the party insiders all the way from the beginning of the year through the August convention ... or Mitt Romney could get this it all sewed up by Memorial Day.
Where do they dig up these ‘writers’ expressing so much hate and vileness. God! can’t these people get a life other than hating conservatives and Republicans.
Amazing! People that actually believe in freedom, Constitution, and the American way, are now considered "cultish".
Wow, these characters from the non-Fly-Over part of the U.S. are so out of touch with what’s happening in the rest of the country, it staggers the imagination.....
“Palin is a probable loser if she does decide to run — Americans find her increasingly repellent as her core supporters grow more cultish...”
So what are her “core supporters”... Martians?
Why is these articles all sound like they’re written by the same 13 year old smartass, who thinks he/she/it is smarter than anyone else?
Ah, sorry.
That picture says it all...
Are the beer bottles hiding his pink triangle and rainbow flag pin?
“Ron Paul has always been quite good at raising money and getting attention”
Half-Truth. Paul has been good at raising money. He has been lousy and getting attention and lousy at communicating his message. He and his organization have the right message but package it in the most boring, unattractive package imaginable .... like they want to lose so they can wear it as a badge of honor .... And being libertarian, they didn’t want the power of telling others what to do that comes with winning.
This article reads like junior high school Slam Book.
The writers of these articles seem to simply take the criticisms of other people, like Ron Paul, and attach them to Sarah. Or the other day they tried to take the racist criticisms of Al Sharpton and attack Sarah Palin with them. They just lift the criticisms and use them point blank against Sarah even though no real human has leveled them against her, they accused Sharpton of them.
Pure and absolute lies and vicious attacks. The MSM - 0bama's jealous concubine media - is out of control.
I hope after the next presidential election all these writers will remember (when they start their New jobs) to put salt on my fries!
Plus his foreign policy dovetails quite nicely with Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, International ANSWER and Bradley Manning's...
If Barry wins again, you won’t get any salt on your fries. Heck, you probably won’t be eating fries. Gruel or tree bark would be my guess.
Oh, he looks like a Republican. /s
including actual literal losers like Rick Santorum and Haley Barbour”
Not sure what the author is getting at here. But while Barbour probably won’t become Prez., he has never lost an election. Santorum, of course, has, so I see the point there. But I think this is an author who didn’t fact check very well.....surprise surprise
I love Palin. If she runs, I support her - in a primary ro General Election.
Ron Paul is inelectable (unelectable?).
If Buddy Holly were gay, that’s what he’d have looked like. Of course, then the song would have been “Oh, Don”...
They say “a picture is worth a 1,000 words”.
Along with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and pretty much all the rest of the Founders.
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