Iowa Caucuses tonight

[Reincarnate]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

Romney is pretty retarded too, just saying
Seriously, they're all bigots

[DotKritic]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

This might turn out to be what happened that got Bush Jr. re-elected: if no good competition, re-elected the already president.

[Netjet!]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

Romney and Santorum tied at 25% a piece, wow.

[UserNameGoesHere]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

In a selection of candidates, if you can't find your ideal candidate pick whoever's closest. Average it out. If they're all literally just about as bad then pick none of them.

Selecting no candidate is a perfectly valid option. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. But you should only do this if all the choices are about equally bad.

In this case I'd go with Ron Paul.

[robertsona]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

oh my god santorum is beating Romney by FIVE votes

[adlp]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

I thought being an lds politician with reasonable enough policies would be enough to solidify my vote, but it's not. He's just like the rest bro.

i like alot of different things about romney, not just because he's lds. senator reid is lds and my actual senator in nevada and i cant stand him

Let us take the last election for example. Obama stuck to a campaign that resonated "change". His popularity amongst young voters was especially notable, and he remained adamant and committed to communicate to the american people, that backroom politics would be something of the past, that things were actually going to get done the way they never have before if he were president. It was very convincing and yes, he has had his work cut out for him with a lot of slack to pick up. Even so, he was found to be just like any other president when it came to the issue of backroom politics. I pretty much right then and there saw him for what he was, someone who probably does want to make changes, but nothing close to what he tried to embody while he was running in the election. He's just another politician, and I don't necessarily have any ill view towards him, he's just, another guy doing the same old thing. If it makes him look popular, he will probably do it. That is how I feel about barack obama.

i like this, sums up how i feel about him too.

[Crashfan3]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

This might turn out to be what happened that got Bush Jr. re-elected: if no good competition, re-elected the already president.

Yup, pretty much. I don't know a whole lot about Santorum but I've been following Romney's campaign a little. He shows promise but I think he's got a lot of work to do, and political stances aside I really don't think either of the two have much of a chance against Obama.

At least Perry, Bachmann, and Gingrich have been told to GTFO in this one.

[korny]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

I just don't think any one of us are qualified enough to account for the implications that would actually come about under a Ron Paul presidency. I think we can speculate, but speculate is about all we can do. Did my bit of research, I still say we should let the man show us exactly what he means by how far this countries fallen by letting our government pry into aspects of our lives more and more each day. I mean, it does go against everything this country stands for after all. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

[DotKritic]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

But seriously...if no good republican candidate challenges Obama, might as well vote him again.

4 more years of NObama.

[DotKritic]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

1. Mitt Romney 30,015 votes
2. Rick Santorum 30,007 votes
3. Ron Paul 26,219 votes

Rick Perry (6th place) is going back to Texas to "reassess" his campaign. Bachmann (5th place) is pulling out. Gingrich finished 4th, but is still heading the NH.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

I just don't think any one of us are qualified enough to account for the implications that would actually come about under a Ron Paul presidency. I think we can speculate, but speculate is about all we can do. Did my bit of research, I still say we should let the man show us exactly what he means by how far this countries fallen by letting our government pry into aspects of our lives more and more each day. I mean, it does go against everything this country stands for after all. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Wwweeelll this isn't exactly true. Making predictions about the future is almost always a form of speculation by definition, but some predictions are easier to make than others, especially when all the facts are in.

http://www.issues2000.org/default.htm is a good site for getting acquainted with the basics of various statistics.

Ron Paul, for instance, thinks we should have bailed out the homeowners instead of the banks. This sounds good in principle until you really assess what's happening. People tend to think that "bailouts" equate to "free money to fix ****ups." Bailouts are technically loans. The TARP program, for instance, allocated 700 billion dollars to lend to banks to keep their balance sheets solvent until they got their act together. They either paid back the loan or their equity got shitcanned. The money was paid back -- fast -- with interest.

Now, there's a big difference there -- if you "bail out the homeowners" with toxic mortgages instead, you're not actually solving anything. You're just lending money to people who are already neck-deep in debt, and they're not going to be able to pay it off. Make it free and you're basically rewarding mass-levels of irresponsibility and contributing to further moral hazard while perpetuating the bubble.

It's just one example of many, but Ron Paul has all sorts of views that are quite disconnected from reality. It's easy to be swayed by his integrity and demeanor. He's obviously a stand-up guy who sticks to his guns and doesn't take shit from people, but that doesn't make him a good candidate when he's scientifically ignorant, economically outdated, and overly idealistic (you can't just eliminate several major bureaucracies at once and expect that transition to be anything other than violent, IMO). The free market can be a great thing, but it's not the panacea he makes it out to be.

That being said, he's one of the saner guys up there compared to utter freak shows like Santorum, Bachmann, Gingrich, Perry, etc.

[Cyr]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

I don't prefer any republican candidate up there. The whole republican campaign idea is just about who can say the stupidest, most batshit crazy garbage to get the most attention. It's a complete joke contest for attention whores and douchebags.

[Aldentron]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

after this year, it is morally wrong for me to take a GOP politician seriously

no, not even ron paul.

[bluguerrilla]

Re: Iowa Caucuses tonight

I feel obligated to post this.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2011/07/lube_job.html