U.S. presidential race 2

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NDPP
U.S. presidential race 2
NDPP

Israel Creats a Super PAC to Attack Ron Paul (and vid)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30284.htm

"Max Blumenthal exposes Israel's role in American politics.."

Gaian

Josh in previous thread:
NDPP wrote:

Liberals will again be taken in by Obama.

Josh: "No, not taken in. Fully aware not to expect much of anything from Obama, but using him to block a Republican congress from dismantling every federal social program, and every federal regulatory agency, in sight."

Certainly, again, most recently in light of the XL pipeline decision in the face of threats from a "bat crazy" Republican Congress. Desperate as it is, voting democrat there is a rational move for survival in the face of nihilism. Only those without grandkids could posture otherwise, safe in their insular mortality.

NDPP

good luck with that...

knownothing knownothing's picture

You will see Obama doing lots of things over the next year to win back the support he treacherously abandoned

Gaian

Gaian wrote:

Josh in previous thread:
NDPP wrote:

Liberals will again be taken in by Obama.

Josh: "No, not taken in. Fully aware not to expect much of anything from Obama, but using him to block a Republican congress from dismantling every federal social program, and every federal regulatory agency, in sight."

Certainly, again, most recently in light of the XL pipeline decision in the face of threats from a "bat crazy" Republican Congress. Desperate as it is, voting democrat there is a rational move for survival in the face of nihilism. Only those without grandkids could posture otherwise, safe in their insular mortality.

Tom Mulcair reminded the Toronto audience last night that the youthful voters not turning out are in fact supporting the Conservative machine in that way.

And anyone observing the Conservative rampage through social legislation for the past eight months can only wonder at the virtuous and superior tone among electoral abstainers hereabouts.

Caissa

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is abandoning his presidential bid and endorsing Newt Gingrich, according to Republican officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the Republican presidential candidate's announcement.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/19/us-rick-perry-president.html

Slumberjack

Gaian wrote:
 Tom Mulcair reminded the Toronto audience last night that the youthful voters not turning out are in fact supporting the Conservative machine in that way. And anyone observing the Conservative rampage through social legislation for the past eight months can only wonder at the virtuous and superior tone among electoral abstainers hereabouts.

The fault of the youth is it? ... and I suppose the implication extends to the non-youth who have learned the hard way to draw the same conclusions about politics?  I wouldn't describe this end of things as the superior tone, but an abject resignation from determining that if people like Mulcair and Co. represent our best shot at salvation, then it might be better to avoid the accompanying sense of martyrdom that would necessarily be a prerequisite to so many non-expectations realized in full, but which are routinely applied to the collective situation anyway.

Slumberjack

I seem to be losing count here. So Perry is out, which leaves Hand Puppet, Gangrene and Sanitarium as the contenders left standing?

Gaian

Caissa wrote:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is abandoning his presidential bid and endorsing Newt Gingrich, according to Republican officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the Republican presidential candidate's announcement.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/19/us-rick-perry-president.ht...

Let's hope Newt is supreme all the way to the GOP convention. Cause the alienated to discard their isolation in fear. That's about the only motivator left in bedlam besides the buck. :)

Slumberjack

Gaian wrote:
Let's hope Newt is supreme all the way to the GOP convention. Cause the alienated to discard their isolation in fear. That's about the only motivator left in bedlam besides the buck. :)

Doubtless they'll become well acquainted with their fears, which would only leave the task of counting the ways in which their collective isolation might be discarded.

josh

A moment of silence for Rick Perry's campaign.  Aside from being one of the biggest disasters since the Titanic, it gave us memorable comic moments such as "oops," Perry getting the date of the presidential election and the number of Supreme Court justices wrong, incorrectly telling an audience that the voting age was 21, engaging in gay bashing in a commercial while wearing a jacket out of Brokeback Mountain, and appearing to be drunk while giving a speech in New Hampshire.  And the best line of the campaign bar none:

 

"If you think I can be bought for five thousand dollars, I'm offended."

 

knownothing knownothing's picture

My fav is this vid where he doesn't know what a decade is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMK7La2721Y

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Now on CNN: Santorum won Iowa, not Romney. I think it's a recount. Final tally put Santorum ahead by 34 votes. Romney called Santorum to congratulate him.

I think tonight is the GOP South Carolina debate.

HumbleOne

I dont think that an average American has an idea how large the deficit is.  Late i heard the US took in 2.4 trillon a year and spent 3.8 a year.  Republican hopefuls are talking  about making cuts but no new taxes.  Actually they want reduce corporate tax and income tax.  An interesting fact came out this year that 48 % of Americans get some kind of direct benefit from the government.  To close the deficit your looking at 1.4 trillion a year plus whatever repubican tax cuts that get passed.  Republicans are selling austerity but most people think it not impact them. I think most people have no idea that cuts of 1.4 trillion are going to did in there lives. 

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Gingrich's second wife gave an interview to ABC-TV where she claims the Grinch wanted an "open" marriage. This is rocking the GOP world right now - the next 48 hours could see some things happen before the South Carolina GOP vote.

NDPP

The Best President for the United States  -  by Fidel Castro Ruz

http://www.ahewar.org/eng/show.art.asp?aid=1571

"...Is it not, perhaps, obvious that worst of all is the absence in the White House of a robot capable of governing the United States and preventing a war which would put an end to human life? I am sure that 90% of US citizens registered, especially Latinos, Blacks and growing number of those in the middle class, the impoverished, would vote for the robot..."

Resist US Imperialist War Threats on Iran

http://www.iacenter.org/iran/iran011812/

"David Broder, Washington Post political columnist for 40 years and news show pundit, described in an October 31, 2010 article how Obama could deal with his weakened situation when the Republicans swept Congress. He argued that to fix the economy and regain popularity, the solution is obvious and unavoidable: 'War with Iran.'

'Look back at FDR and the Great Depression', wrote Broder. 'What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II. A showdown with the mullahs will help Obama politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.'

Upon Broder's death in March, Obama called him 'the most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation."

knownothing knownothing's picture
NDPP

Ron Paul's Anti-Imperialism: A Snare and a Delusion  - by Andrew Levine

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/20/ron-paul's-march

"...Therefore rather than expressing contempt for Bush-Obama politics by supporting someone whose domestic policy prescriptions make Mitt Romney's look good, it would be better just to join the majority of one's fellow Americans and sit the election out...

A slightly less obvious reason not to back Ron Paul is that electoral politics is not where change happens - especially now when masses of people, energized by last fall's occupations, are poised to launch a spring offensive...The campaigns this time around are essentially irrelevant to that movement's concerns.

For anti-imperialists to support Ron Paul is therefore not just a bad idea; it's a waste of time and effort.

The moral is plain: leave anti-imperialism to anti-imperialists, and forget about Ron Paul. It's a snare and a delusion, and there are too many better ways brewing to fight back against Obama's last gasp Reaganite politics, and to resume humanity's forward march."

Maysie Maysie's picture

Um, wow.

Catholic Leaders Call Out Gingrich And Santorum For Spreading Ugly Racial Stereotypes

Quote:

As Catholic leaders who recognize that the moral scandals of racism and poverty remain a blemish on the American soul, we challenge our fellow Catholics Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail.

....

We remind Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum that Catholic bishops describe racism as an "intrinsic evil" and consistently defend vital government programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits that help struggling Americans. At a time when nearly 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty, charities and the free market alone can't address the urgent needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. And while jobseekers outnumber job openings 4-to-1, suggesting that the unemployed would rather collect benefits than work is misleading and insulting.

As the South Carolina primary approaches, we urge Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum and all presidential candidates to reject the politics of racial division, refrain from offensive rhetoric and unite behind an agenda that promotes racial and economic justice. 

Full text of the letter here.

Gaian

There may be hope yet for revealing the racist campaign hidden under the "bat crazy" mantra of the GOP's conservative radicals and the Tea Party's dying protests.

Question: How will the MSM treat the Catholic leaders' exposure of the underlying racism and the nation turning a blind eye to poverty? How many will hear about this letter? It sure as shucks gives Newt's opponents lots to say. But then, I heard other church people saying on TV that Newt's confessed his foibles to his maker and as a good Christian his slate's clear again.

Slumberjack

The Catholic Church has demonstrated so many times in the past it's willingness to stand aside without comment, or even to assist, whenever despotism reared its head. Contradictory public relations are long overdue in that regard, when there are so many disaffected nowadays who might be susceptible to an enticing word or two. It's an old treachery on the part of this church, along with the rest of them, especially when one considers that the impoverishment of many African, South and Central American nations has never been ameliorated in the least by the social dictates of Catholicism.

Maysie Maysie's picture

Dude, I think you need to cut down on your grumpy pills.

 

NDPP

"let us strangle the last king with the guts of the last pope" - Diderot

bekayne

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/9553-focus-how-serious-is-stephen-colbert

"The pundits have asked, is this all some joke?" Colbert said. "And I say, if they are calling being allowed to form a super PAC and collecting unlimited, untraceable amounts of money from individuals, unions, and corporations, and spending that money on political ads and for personal enrichment, and then surrendering that super PAC to one of my closest friends while I explore a run for office - if that is a joke, then they are saying our entire campaign finance system is a joke!"

knownothing knownothing's picture
6079_Smith_W

Oscar Romero

 

Gaian is right. I can imagine that a lot of people won't bother to pay attention to the content of this letter because of the obligatory reflex to dump on the Catholic Church - even in instances when some of its authorities do the right thing.

 

stevebrown

Looks like the fundies have rejected poor Mitt. With Florida up next this could all slip away for Romney, which would be a good thing because I just don't see Gingrich winning against Obama.

josh

Doubt it will. South Carolina was always going to be a tough state for the northeastern Mormon Romney. While Gingrich is from the neighboring state.

Looking ahead, Gingrich is not even on the ballot is some states, like Virginia. Plus, other than Texas, I don't see him winning any of the bigger states. Not to mention that the Republican establishment will go all out to stop him.

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Bill Maher last night: "Romney vs Gingrich = Alien vs Predator" Laughing

Sven Sven's picture

Gingrich v. Obama would be an immensely entertaining campaign. Much more fun than MittRobot running. 

RevolutionPlease RevolutionPlease's picture

6079_Smith_W wrote:

Oscar Romero

 

Gaian is right. I can imagine that a lot of people won't bother to pay attention to the content of this letter because of the obligatory reflex to dump on the Catholic Church - even in instances when some of its authorities do the right thing.

 

There's content in that letter? Please explain.

6079_Smith_W

Just read the letter RP. 

Seems pretty clear. 

(edit)

Presumably this is one of the things it is refering to:

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/12/3360967/commentary-santorum-stumble...

NDPP

Obama Takes Israel Pandering to Dangerous Levels  (and vid) -  by Ali Abunimah

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/scandalous-new-campaign...

"Is Barack Obama running for re-election as President of the United States or Prime MInister of Israel. A new Obama campaign video makes it increasingly hard to tell, and even more ominously ratchets up further the Israelization of US politics..

Who can now doubt that US Iran policy is largely about appeasing Israel lobbyists when Obama is heard boasting in a campaign video that his administration has imposed 'the hardest hitting sanctions the Iranian regime has ever faced.'? Confrontation if not outright war with Iran is a key message of the Israel lobby these days.

Of course there's no word about Israel's warcrimes..."

Gaian

And of course there's no quotation from these sources about the positin of the GOP. Haven't they offered to land on the beaches of Iran lately?

No, it's always the backhanded smear of Obama: "David Broder, Washington Post political columnist for 40 years and news show pundit, described in an October 31, 2010 article how Obama could deal with his weakened situation when the Republicans swept Congress. He argued that to fix the economy and regain popularity, the solution is obvious and unavoidable: 'War with Iran.'

'Look back at FDR and the Great Depression', wrote Broder. 'What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II. A showdown with the mullahs will help Obama politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.'

Upon Broder's death in March, Obama called him 'the most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation."

This black president is apparently worse than the "bat-crazy" and racist bastard who now threatens to carry the GOP flag in November. Go figure.

NDPP

maybe because it's so obviously already in the Goldman Sachs bailout banksucker bag that he is going to 'win'...But here you go

Here He Comes Again  - by Alexander Cockburn

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/20/here-he-comes-again/

'Newt Gingrich is a one-man-made-in-America melting pot. Here's a committed devotee of tooth-and-claw capitalism - vultures on both shoulders, advocate of 8-year old black children working as janitors - campaigning with a pro-worker film of which John Reed or Ken Loach would be proud, paid for by a rapidbly anti-union billionaire who thinks Israel should bomb Iran and drive the Palestinians into the sea.."

Romney Bombs and Other Thoughts on the GOP Debate -by Matt Taibbi

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/9542-romney-bombs-and...

"...The most interesting part of seeing these guys up close is seeing the way people like Rick Santorum and Gingrich respond to Romney in person. They appear to find him physically replusive, their noses even scrunching up at him when they address him, like cops opening a trunk with a body in it. And I think it's real, I don't think it's an act. Romney is so totally insincere and calculating and soulless, it physically offends OTHER POLITICIANS. It's incredible to watch...

Michelle

Gaian wrote:
Doesn't Gingrich's hate campaign and doggy morals,

Hee.  Great typo!  (This isn't a spelling or typo flame - it just made me giggle and I thought I'd share.)

Definitely not an accurate description of Gingrich's morals.  Doggies have such lovely morals - always giving, always happy, very loyal, usually friendly unless threatened. 

Much as I love the kitties, I think Gingrich probably has kitty morals more than anything.  Loyal to anyone who pets him, disdainful of everyone at all other times, demands to be treated like royalty, hissy and scratchy...

Sven Sven's picture

Michelle wrote:

Gaian wrote:
Doesn't Gingrich's hate campaign and doggy morals,

Hee.  Great typo!  (This isn't a spelling or typo flame - it just made me giggle and I thought I'd share.)

Definitely not an accurate description of Gingrich's morals.  Doggies have such lovely morals - always giving, always happy, very loyal, usually friendly unless threatened. 

Much as I love the kitties, I think Gingrich probably has kitty morals more than anything.  Loyal to anyone who pets him, disdainful of everyone at all other times, demands to be treated like royalty, hissy and scratchy...

:)

NDPP

freudian typo?

Gaian

NDPP wrote:

freudian typo?

Not really NDPP...and I apologize for comparing him to canines, my favourite in the animal world.

Neither was I thinking of dodgy, the most likely error. I always think of Dickens' Artful Dodger as one with morals, just misplaced ethics in the art of making a living. Gingrich is such a reprehensible character that the idea of being "entertained" by him left in mind only a kind of bearpit setting with which his visceral hatred and mode of attack could be associated with entertainment.

But I should have been more careful, knowing the way that meaning, however seriously displayed here, can be lost in a syntactic moment.

Gaian

Sven wrote:

Gingrich v. Obama would be an immensely entertaining campaign. Much more fun than MittRobot running. 

"Immensely entertaining."

Doesn't Gingrich's hate campaign and absence of (edit.) morals, together with his endorsement by the Christian Right represent the complete corruption of human values, not to speak of the collapse of sanity in your part of the world?

Doesn't he make you want to puke?

Knowing that he represents all of the pent-up racial hatred in the south, what would be entertaining about seeing him debate Obama knowing all that? Is hypocrisy now king down that way, bread and circuses for the masses?

Gaian

Gaian wrote:
Sven wrote:

Gingrich v. Obama would be an immensely entertaining campaign. Much more fun than MittRobot running. 

"Immensely entertaining."

Doesn't Gingrich's hate campaign and absence of (edit.) morals, together with his endorsement by the Christian Right represent the complete corruption of human values, not to speak of the collapse of sanity in your part of the world?

Doesn't he make you want to puke?

Knowing that he represents all of the pent-up racial hatred in the south, what would be entertaining about seeing him debate Obama knowing all that? Is hypocrisy now king down that way, bread and circuses for the masses?

There, that's also how I feel about a racist society so in need of FUN, of DISTRACTION from the real world it's created.

NDPP

they're all 'dodgy doggies' IMV...

Gaian

I do hope that the American voter is more discerning. Picky, in the land of "born to shop?"?

NDPP

Mitt Romney Hides Millions in Tax Havens

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/222119.html

"US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has concealed millions of dollars of personal wealth in investment funds in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.."

 

'When Mitt Romney Came To Town'  (and vid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYg_OdXNc1Q&feature=related

attack ad - newt attacks gekko

knownothing knownothing's picture

Romney is Wall Street personified, Gingrich is the Washington Insider, Santorum is the Fanatic, Paul is Batman

wage zombie

I can't speak for why Sven would find Obama-Gingrich more entertaining than Obama-Romney, but I think he could be right.

There was a diary on the DailyKos rec list in December going over this question (while Newt was first surging):

Why almost everyone, right and left, should want to see Gingrich nominated

Quote:

In a sarcastic world it is sometimes hard to signal when one is being completely forthright, but I mean this at face value: almost everyone, right and left, should want to see Newt Gingrich get the Republican nomination for President.

I don't say this because I think it conveys some greater advantage to the Democratic Party in November 2012; I'm not sure that it does.  (After this Republican nomination race, anyone who claims to be sure of anything related to 2012 should be viewed with suspicion.)  The reason is both simple and paradoxical: it would lead to the most honest election possible, between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party as they are right now.  Newt Gingrich is the best and truest representation of the Republican Party running; we might as well take a deep breath and ask the American public what it wants out of its government.

...

See, the Republican party feels towards their nominees much the same way that we Democrats feel like ours.  They long for red meat -- and, frankly, they haven't been getting it.  (Go back to the 2000 election; George Bush the Lesser's platform and language was nowhere near as far right as Romney's today, and Cheney was perceived to be a wise old establishment figure who would keep him in line.)

They don't feel that they've had the Howard Dean, the Jesse Jackson, the Jerry Brown (original version) that they've wanted since Reagan.  Well, for heaven's sake, give it to them. Let them have the flamethrower candidate who is closest to their heart, the one denied to us Democrats since George McGovern.  Let the public have, in Barry Goldwater's famous phrase, "a choice, not an echo."  They want rampant screaming id, given them rampant screaming id -- and let the voters decide.

Voter rejection of Gingrich, if it comes, will be more meaningful and consequential than voter rejection (or acceptance!) of Romney.  This is where the Republican Party is today.  They need to see what the public thinks of them -- if it can be stirred to think of them at all.  The Republicans need to have their illusions shattered -- if we can arrange it.  They need to see the Congressional blockade of progressive legislation as harmful to their future electoral prospects -- if it is.

None of this will come to happen if Mitt Romney is the nominee.  The lesson learned by Republicans will simply be that Mitt Romney is inauthentic and inarticulate when challenged -- that they nominated the wrong guy.  That's not what I want the lesson of this election to be.  I want them to have nominated the right guy, the authentic guy, the vicious and shameless liar that they have always wanted -- and then I want them to have their teeth kicked in.

That, I suggest, is the path to political progress in a stagnant time.

...

Imagine an Obama-Romney election race.  Sorry, I first should have told you to put down any sharp objects.

It's going to be excruciating, isn't it?  Romney will attack Obama in the ways and areas we'd suspect, Obama will have his canned answers ready; Obama will have the tempered attacks on Romney's flip-floppery and such ready, Romney will have his canned answers ready; and when the pageant is over they will both look to the pundits and people to judge.  ZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZ!

There's no chaos there.  No passion.  We know that Obama won't be able to stir the passion this year that he did in 2008 -- if you don't know this, please find someone to kick you in the ass -- and Romney won't generate much passion on his own.  Obama knows how to fight the war of attrition that a Romney campaign will bring to him and it will not be fun or illuminating for anyone other than us political junkies.

...

Now imagine an Obama-Gingrich race instead.  Did a corner of your mouth stretch ever-so-slightly into a smile?

Gingrich will call Obama a socialist, race-baiting, Muslim with his trademark combination insouicance and scorn.  He will attack the very heart of Obamacare, of Obama's judicial appointments, of Michelle's organic garden -- of every crackpot, stirring, crackpot-stirring idea out there in the right-wing blogosphere.

Obama may be told not to respond.  That won't last!  (He should ask his advisers if they would tell him that, in those circumstances, and save time by firing them now.)

An Obama under challenge by Gingrich, whose very existence seems determined to bring out Obama's stammer, will be a much better candidate -- and will set the stage for rallying a coalition that will lead him to be a much better President.  This would be an existential challenge to him -- a sledgehammer rather than Romney as a picador -- and he'd better rise to it, the way he rose, briefly, to the prospect of a challenge from Donald Trump.

It was a very long diary so I quoted liberally.  The diary also talks about a) why Gingrich could be more beatable than Romney and b) why a President Gingrich may not be worse than a President Romney.

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
The Sierra Club is running a “high-saturation" television advertising campaign in major media markets in Ohio, thanking President Barack Obama for protecting Americans from toxic pollution.

Some political observers wondered whether Obama would lose the support of Big Green groups, given his penchant for appeasing business interests at the expense of the environment. But most astute analysts understood that the mainstream enviros would always come back to Obama, no matter how bad his policies were for the environment.

Indeed, the Sierra Club’s advertising campaign indicates Obama’s reelection bid is on a fast track toward receiving the group’s endorsement. Given how Ohio is expected to be a proverbial swing state in this fall’s presidential election, one could argue that the Sierra Club is already campaigning for Obama through this advertising blitz. And once Mitt Romney or another candidate essentially clinches the Republican nomination, the other Big Green groups will follow suit with their own endorsements of Obama, followed by the launch of a campaign of scare tactics against the Republican nominee.

[b]Here we go again, getting distracted by the presidential election racket. That’s exactly what the nation’s ruling elite and Big Green groups want. The ruling elite don’t want us embracing real political power. Instead, they want us to believe that elections make a democracy.[/b]

[url=http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/littlescraps01192012...

wage zombie

I hope Roseanne Barr really is planning to run.

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
[Ron] Paul may play the role of a libertarian ideologue, but he’s no fool. He knows that the youth support he enjoys because of his anti-war and anti-war on drugs policies sports the fastest growing non-religious population in the country. His speeches about FREEDOM resonate with that crowd, and indeed he can be a compelling speaker, but is Paul being honest with the crowds about his true beliefs?

In fact, there is plenty of evidence that Ron Paul may be a closeted Christian Fundamentalist of the worst kind....

[url=http://www.rifuture.org/ron-paul-no-friend-to-the-non-religious.html]Mor...

NDPP

US Financial & Economic Collapse (and vid)

http://www.presstv.ir/Program/222261.html

Pardon my drift but vote for who? why?

 

 

 

 

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