Mitt Romney is running for President:
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is poised to announce his campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination in two phases early next month, a top adviser told The Associated Press on Friday.
The Massachusetts chief executive is expected to file paperwork as early as Jan. 2 with the Federal Election Commission, establishing a presidential campaign committee and permitting himself to begin raising money for his race on the first business day of the new year. Romney will leave office on Jan. 4.
As soon as the week of Jan. 8, Romney will hold a ceremony to officially declare his candidacy, said the adviser, a top aide who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official filing.
This is but a technicality. Mitt Romney declared he was running for President months ago when he began to sound like another bigoted, knuckle-dragging, fire-breathing, religious right troglodyte. Nothing to see here, really.
ThymeZone
I think the Constitution proscribes having a president named “Mitt.”
Salty Party Snax
Based on the GOP’s policies regarding the treatment of prisoners, maybe his name should be elongated to “Oven Mitt.”
David M.
I’d consider voting for him, based on his track record of moderation and tolerance. If this far-right conversion is genuine, I’d probably have some second thoughts giving him my vote, unless the Democrats nominate some total lunatic who makes Ralph Nader look like a moderate. At that point, there’s nothing left to do but flip a coin and guess which side will hurt America more.
For now, though, I guess there’s nothing to do but wait and see what happens with Romney’s campaign. I certainly think he has a better chance of getting nominated than Giuliani or McCain, but it’s still so early that you really can’t tell.
Salty Party Snax
I’m taking bets. With Giuliani, Romney and McCain splitting the non-fundie vote, Sam Brownback takes the first round of primaries with strong pluralities. And, faced with the wholesale defection of the religous right should it appear that the party is attempting to block their candidate, the GOP leadership experiences a major failure of nerve, resulting in Sammy taking the nomination. Leading to one of the most significant republican defeats since the glory days of FDR.
Giluliani – Pro- Gay Rights
McCain – Pro-Stem Cell Research
Romney – Pro-Abortion
Gonna be a slaughter in the GOP Big Tent.
ThymeZone
Not a bad analysis. And don’t forget that Romney is a Mormon, which is not something loved by the Dobsonites.
2008 is ours to lose. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t lose it.
David M.
I realize it’s not nice when an outsider rubs it in, but that’s what Democrats have traditionally been known for. Still, it’s a long way off. Maybe the strongest contenders haven’t even made their intentions known yet.
ThymeZone
Well, I think they were better known for 40 or so years of a majority in one or both houses of Congress. Not exactly a losing record.
They got complacent and fell in love with their own bullshit eventually, but the GOP has managed to do that and more in just 12 years of having the baton. The GOP has squandered its momentum for years to come.
And I see them falling even lower before they recover. Have you seen Gingrich lately? The man is a walking, talking disaster for them and there they are, at his feet again. The most divisive politician in modern times, talking about running for president. I hope he does, and I hope he manages to win the nomination. We’ll build a Dem majority in Congress that will last another 40 years.
David M.
That was a little bit before my time, politically speaking. Also, as far as Presidential elections go, they haven’t done so well since 1968.
That’s very possible. But the bottom line is, in politics nothing is static and nothing is predictable. I could really see this going either way, especially in 2008. Probably, the Democrats will win; but on the other hand, who’d be willing to bet his or her life on it?
ThymeZone
Oh you are absolutely right, there is nothing certain about 2008. We have to choose our battles and our candidates carefully. I have little faith in the primary system, I think the politicians know how to game it and I think the party-voters (on both sides) are too focussed on wedge issues. They choose substandard candidates and then anything can happen in the general election.
Zifnab
Frist and Allen were supposedly going to be their top guns. They, McCain, and Guilliani were all going to throw down for the nomination in the traditional manner. But Frist fizzled out on the Senate floor, and Allen proved he couldn’t hold his home state (which is always somewhat of a bellweather of failure). Romney and Huckabee were supposed to be the dark horse candidates. Now they’re at the top of the list.
Unless the Republicans really want to run a fossil like Newt Gingrich (which makes as much sense as the Dems running Al Gore or /sigh/ John Kerry), they’ve basically scraped the bottom of the barrel in terms of candidates. I don’t know who they’d have left.
demimondian
Nah, Snax. The Fulminating Foamers…err, I’m sorry, Religious Right..will play king-maker in 2008. The party is going to nominate a non-fundie (sorry, Jeb and Phil!), so the only question is who can get J-Dob and PatR to spoof for them.
Salty Party Snax
Demi – Guess we’ll see. My hunch is Dobbin, Jerry Snackwell and the rest will sit back and let the mighty power of the fundie vote be felt before any possible annointments are considered. And if their boy looks to be unbeatable, I doubt they’ll be displeased.
You have to remember, this is a bloc of voters who do not feel their loyalty and votes have been rewarded with actual deeds. This time they might insist on someone who they can be completely sure of.
One more thing – the consequences of the Foley scandal might not have all played out. Sexual purity (something the GOP is no longer suspected of rigorously enforcing) could be an important issue within the party. Have Giuliani, McCain or Romney shown a proper level of homo-hating to please the Pharisees of the Right?
jake
After Bush ignored the marriage protection amendment (or whatever the hell it was called), the candidate will need to pluck Mary Cheney & Heather Poe’s still beating hearts from their chests and eat them like plums before he gets the Christianist vote. Therefore I’d advise both ladies to keep an eye out for the McCainiac. This man seems to have no shame in regards to doing or saying whatever he thinks will get him into the White House.
David M.
So maybe he has a fighting chance, then, if he can convince the religious right that his prior moderate views were an anomaly he’s come to renounce.
Personally, I’m hoping he secretly retains those views, and wins the White House, only to laugh in the face of his erstwhile backers by introducing a socially tolerant atmosphere inside the Beltway. That’s really what I think a lot of us are hoping for from whatever President we get in 2008. If not a Democrat, might as well be a moderate like McCain- even if he’s a moderate pretending to be a maniac.
Zifnab
Honestly, my money is split between McCain and Brownback. Either Falwell and Co. buy the covert pitch McCain is selling and the Rangers all line up to fill John’s coffers, or the religo-crazy vote goes all to Brownback and swings him the nomination.
From a sanity perspective, I’m hoping McCain wins. He’ll bring the national discourse back into the realm of reasonability even if he’s already been bought and paid for by a handful of special interests. From a “I’d like to see the Dems handed a cakewalk” perspective, I’m hoping Brownback takes it. Because Brownback is NOT a media darling and after his “Eagles come from eggs that come from god so don’t vote for stem cell research” rant, he’ll pick up the “Republicans are stupid” sterotype that Bush has already advanced so far.
SeesThroughIt
That’s certainly what I’m hoping for. Plus, taking a shitload of the Christianists’ money and then, once in office, telling them to fuck off would be a fantastic turn of events.
Tsulagi
Like Salty, I also see Brownback as a serious contender for the Pub nomination. Before any of them get to the general election where McCain and Giulani would have broader appeal, they have to get through their party primaries. Once again, candidates for both parties will be decided by the time primaries get out of the Bible Belt South.
Romney…More actual flip-flops than they ever tried to tag on Kerry. While Romney has the affable quality prized by Bush voters, can you see a Rapture Ready, ID lovin’, abortion under no circumstances evangelical pulling the lever for this Mormon when in the booth?
McCain…Many in The Base say they would cut off their arm before pulling a lever for him. They see him as a Specter who tries to project a tougher image. I agree with them. Plus, right after the midterms he did a CYA calling for 20k+ more troops in Iraq thinking it would never happen. It’s going to happen, and he’s going to be associated with Bush’s performance in Iraq for the next two years. And I’m sure it’s just another masterpiece waiting to be unveiled.
Giulani…Personally, I like the guy. I’d have a Scotch with him in a bar. But in the primaries he’s got problems for the Bush Pubs. While like Romney and McCain he may flop to bend over for the fundies, he isn’t crazy on the gay and abortion. Personal family values? He’s a heart attack for the evangelicals. Wife #2 once got an injunction to keep his mistress from staying over in the NYC mayor’s residence. Classic.
Sam Brownback, the Keeper of the Talking Zygotes, is the Velvetta cheese candidate for the Pubs. No personality, but unlike Tard, he’s a conservative and really thinks Jesus should be calling the shots. Brownback would never do a Miers, and he actually has a work ethic. Given that and since he has a few more functioning brain cells, he’s the uber Bush for the base.
Not calling it for Brownback. But if the swiftboats get particularly nasty in the South, and he can find a little personality, Brownback could slide into the Republican slot. He’d be a good fit.
demimondian
I don’t think the Pubs will nominate Brownback, but he’s an alternative I hadn’t really thought about seriously. If they do nominate him, though, it’s going to be McGovern all over again, all Schiavo, all the time.
Jess
What? In the last 30 years the official score has been 3 out of 8 elections, 2 out of 5 presidents. With the 2000 election so disputed, and with the popular vote going to Gore, I think most people would see the two teams as close to tied. That is, if one treats elections like sports, rather than something of more serious consequence. Maybe we should be asking how the majority of the American people are doing with getting representatives elected that actually represent their interests.
ThymeZone
Not me. The crap he pulled with the wife/girlfriend soap opera was bad enough, but then there was the knee-jerk defense of a police department that did this.
This is one view of the Giuliani connection.
Giuliani was not hugely popular, but the 911 events changed, as they say, everything, at least for him. This pissant became a “hero” that day. But I am not one of those who was fooled.
The Other Steve
GOP nominee will be Huckabee.
Campaign slogan will be cute buttons that say “I [heart] Huckabee”
Count on it.
Bruce Moomaw
While we’re on the Trog Circuit, note today’s statement in the NY Times: “White House officials said they were aware that some Democrats and Muslims were urging President Bush to admonish Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, and Dennis Prager, the conservative commentator, for suggesting that the first Muslim elected to the House had no place in Congress. ‘We’re aware of the situation,’ said Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bush, ‘but no judgments have been made.’ ” I’ll bet. (As Josh Marshall points out, what Goode really said in that letter — which he intended only to go to those Christian Rightists who had already written him to complain about that dreadful man, but one copy of which he accidentally sent to the Sierra Club [!] — was that even liberal and tolerant Moslems not only have no place in Congress, but have no place in the US at all.)
The GOP’s problems all stem from the fact that they’re frantically trying to paper over the fact that their coalition (which for a while was narrowly in the majority, thanks to the additional factors of 9-11 and the Dems’ long-time carelessness about national defense) consists entirely now of a coalition of wealthy thieves and religious-fanatic idiots. The thieves are willing to continue to suck up shamelessly to the religious idiots for as long as such sucking up allows them to continue to be successful thieves — although, thanks to the additional burden of their bungling of the Iraq War, it is no longer wholly adequate to maintain a majority, which (if it lasts) will now force them to also be a bit less energetically thievish.
Tsulagi
Not going to argue with you, TZ. Giuliani has some shit in his history. I expect that in all political candidates of any party, and even with those I might have a drink with.
You’re not going to get a virgin. In fact, a virgin would scare me. While undeniably there would be a certain appeal, no way I’d marry a virgin. I’m not inclined to look for or vote for one either.
Anyway, I fully expect Giuliani to find religion on the way to the primaries. Haven’t seen any real contenders in the Pub party with the spine to stand up to their loony Spongebob hatin’, PTL base. McCain did in 00, but now he’s speaking in tongues; most of them forked. So I look forward to a few good laughs as Giuliani discovers he’s born again and asks for Christian forgiveness for his past indiscretions.
Kevin
Hey, can someone inform me how you go about sounding like I am ‘fire-breathing’ or ‘knuckle-dragging’? Do I just have to mention Jesus?
Zifnab
In a sane country, I’d be with you. Unfortunately, we live in America.
David Moisan
I’m a Ma**hole, and we voted (everybody but me anyway) for Romney thinking he was an endangered Moderate Republican. Oops. Our mistake.
He hired openly gay men (Dan Grabauskas, head of the MBTA) on the one hand, and on the other hand railed against their getting married.
Abortion? Stem Cells? Flip. Flip. Flop!
I’m aware that political operatives think this is great; frame yourself by the people you want to suck up–er “make beneficial dynamic relationships” with.
But, Romney? Moderate? A “better” Republican. Sure.
The Liberal Avenger
There’s only one thing worse than a wingnut politician – and that’s a FAKE wingnut politician.
Bruce Moomaw
Russell Baker in 1976: “Few public spectacles are more entertaining than Congress hitting the Hallelujah Trail. True, a writhing mass of Congressmen in the throes of uplift cannot match such superior entertainments as the Gary Gilmore execution circus; but for connoisseurs of the art of flimflamming the rustics, a Congress in the heat of piety cannot be beat.”
jake
We’ve already seen that movie and so have the Christianists. That’s why it will take some hard-core gay bashing to convince them the next Republican candidate is sincere in his desire to “Protect Marriage.” Think Fred Phelps when he’s feeling extra bitchy. I suppose fire bombing a Planned Parenthood or two might also help.
Frankly, even if that were McCain’s plan, I’d still say fuck him because I’m a leeetle weary of gay bashing as a campaign platform. It is more than a bit alarming watching the radicals work themselves up into a frenzy about what will happen if gay people are allowed to breathe the same air they do. Why can’t some brave Conservative soul step forth and say: “Listen slobs, as President, I’ll have so many things to worry about that who marries who won’t even make the list. If you can handle that, vote for me. If you can’t, who needs you?”
Zifnab
Could have fooled me. Christianists get elected on the controversy, not on the issues. Since the grand “Republican Revolution”, how many times has Roe v. Wade been directly challenged? I count zero. What happened to the Constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage/civil unions/whatever? I haven’t seen it on the ballot.
‘Pubs will argue for hours on Stem Cell Research and pass dozens of bills prohibiting human cloning. Then they’ll rally their base, saying how if you don’t drop $100 in the collection plate for Brownback, people will start marrying their box turtles. And its better that way for everyone, because then the only people who actually get screwed are in the significant minority. Any law that would affect the majority always has lots of talk but never hits the books. It just exists as a popular fundraiser day-in and day-out.
demimondian
Kevin, if you think that it’s a serious suggestion that merely mentioning Jesus will make you a knuckle-dragger, then you’re well on the way to being one already. I’ve written long treatises on the arcana of Christian theology here, but I sincerely doubt that the collective would seek to cast me out into the outer darkness.
jake
That’s what I meant. Bush said “Yeah verily, a vote for me is a vote agaist the evil pervs getting married thereby causing civilization to crumble unto dust.” And the radical religion types did vote for him (and contribute time and money to his campaign I reckon) and he may did blow them off and they did get rather pissed.
If the GOP candidate for 2008 tries to woo that particular block of The Base he’ll have to be a hard-core homophobe with a long-standing record of homophobia. Of course, the RR base isn’t large enough to put anyone in the White House so how he’ll cozy up to them without scaring off the saner Republican voters will take some Fred Astaire style footwork. Personally, I think any candidate would be well advised to avoid these folks like lepers, but I’m not a polititian.
Um…box turtles?
Zifnab
That’s what I’m saying, though. The Right gets more milage out of talking about homophobia than actually living it. No one is actually going to pass this legislation. They’re just going to rabble rouse, let the Dems block anything they put up to the hoop, then go crying back to their constituents about how they would have won it if they’d just had a few more votes, a few more dollars, a few more pork bills to their best friends.
Abstinence education is the poster child for this bullshit. $600 million that doesn’t do a damn thing to further abstinence education. People are getting kickbacks all over the place. The idea has wide support from parents who think their kids can just flip of the libido like a switch and teachers who take this as an opportunity to teach sex ed without actually mentioning sex. Religious nuts get to use this as a stump platform to convert humanity to whichever “one true religion” happens to be in vogue in their area, or just plan milk the system to fund their own organizations. None of the plans actually work. And people still keep pumping the political bellows, claiming its the only real way to save the children from anal diseased pregnant death.
Cassius Chaerea
After eight years of Bush, there’s a Republican potential nominee who is best known in his state for not even _trying_ to do his job?
This Democrat says “bring it on”.
The Other Steve
Dude. If the country were sane, they’d all fall behind easily behind Olmpia Snowe or someone like that. But they aren’t.
2008 is going to be a battle royale. As others have noted, the Christianists now feel doubly betrayed. Once for getting Reagan reelected and getting nothing, and now twice for definately getting Bush reelected and getting nothing.
1998 was a minor squabble, with Pat Robertson running.
This time around, i would not be surprised if we don’t seem James Dobson stirring the pot over in Republican land.
And these are the people who show up to caucuses. So when it comes time to finding a nominee, it’s going to be a fire breathing Christianist who they can hide well enough to fool over the moderates.
Romney is out, so is giulliani, Mccain. Brownback has no nice guy.
But you gotta love a guy who lost a bunch of weight and published a book about how if you don’t eat McDonalds happy meals, you won’t weigh 300 lbs. Someone who can be charming, is a good speaker, and can fool enough moderates.
Thus… I [Heart] Huckabee.
Unless it turns out he’s got a gay lover hiding in the basement, he’s the next nominee.
Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe
One thing y’all are forgetting: Barring a Congressional miracle, the hot topic of the primaries will be the ongoing Iraqi quagmire. Huckabee’s a Southern governor with zilch in foreign policy experience. The last guy we voted with those credentials is the same guy who’s looking to hand over the flaming bag of Baghdad dog poop in 2009. I don’t think there’ll be enough short memories in the Republican base to get him over that hump.
Nah, the fundies may not buy McCain finding Jesus, but I can easily see them buying his
Bomb ‘Em AllGet Tough approach to foreign policy. Even with Bush doing his damnedest to undercut McCain’s campaign – “I’ve got yer surge right here, pal” – I think the Republican nomination is still Saint John’s to lose.Chuck Butcher
John Cole,
I think this is a fair question:
Is there any Republican of statewide stature that you could find reasonable? I don’t study Republicans in general, it’s an honest question.
David M.
True, but his lack of Congressional experience also makes it hard to blame the war on him. Unlike McCain and Huckabee (or Kerry/Clinton, on the Democratic side).
What about Jeb Bush in 2008? He seems to be more rational than his brother. I’d say he inherited a lot of his father’s intelligence. He could probably get my vote, anyway, depending on who the Dems ran.
lard lad
I’d say that the Deciderator has put a major kibosh on anyone named Bush getting elected president in this country for at least two decades.
Besides, why on earth would Jeb want to spend four years cleaning his dimmer brother’s shit stains from the national fabric?
Admittedly, it would be plenty fun to watch him completely trash Dubya on the campaign trail, which he would certainly have to do to get elected…
David M.
Depends on his opponent. I really think he could beat, say, Kerry.
His father’s already started laying the groundwork…
jake
That’s a good point, but again it depends on their priorities and what McCain’s get tough policy actually looks like. If halting the Homosexual Agenda and Saving the Stem Cells are the most important things to them, he’s screwed.
If his “get tough” policy involves carpet bombing, he might appeal to them. However if “get tough,” means sending more soldiers I’d say he may be equally screwed:
If the radical portion of the Republican base has a high proportion of family members in the military they might not like the idea of more family members being sent to fight or those who are already there staying even longer. But I don’t know the stats.
I’m surprised anyone wants the brass ring in 2009. And even if a Republican doesn’t win the election, I’m sure the GOP message will be “Gee, if only a Republican were in charge, the soldiers would’ve been home a week after the election.”
David M.
Well, in all fairness, if the Democrats lost in 2008 they’d be saying the same thing. No one likes this war anymore, and no one wants to be saddled with the responsibility for it.
ThymeZone
Do you think the earth is 6000 years old?
Do you think that you are morally superior to a large portion of the American population?
Do you support the Defense of Marriage amendment?
Zifnab
Yes, but that’s easy to say now that Kerry has the word “Loser” tatooed on his forehead. How would Jeb do against Hillary or Obama or Edwards? Even Vilsack? That’s the real question.
I’m still waiting for the McCain/Lieberman ticket. It would be the ultimate bi-partisan ticket. You’ve got a Republican running for the VP slot and a RINO running for the Presidency. It’s like Compassionate Conservative all over again. Billed as both. Actually neither.
They can even start their own party. America for Lieberman and McCain (because you know that jackass from Conn will want top billing).
VidaLoca
His brother’s already started burning the scaffolding…
David M.
I’d probably vote for them. At least their Cabinet would be pretty sensible, balanced, and moderate. They’d also cut the center away from both parties, running in the middle. That’s a pretty unstoppable ticket, actually. Who’s going to beat them? Brownback? Kerry? Obama? Frist? Michael Moore? Ann Coulter?
Well, if he does that as well as he ran the Iraq war, his brother should win the White House with 85% of the vote.
ThymeZone
Uh, David? Lieberman is a guy who suggested in rather strong terms that his party should refrain from criticising a president who is registering the lowest approval ratings in history.
I’m sorry, did you mean Letterman?
demimondian
Aww, c’mon. Give Jeb a chance. How would he do against Kucinich? He *might* be able to take Dennis the Menace down in ’08.
Or, well…maybe not. Nader, anyone?
jake
ALMs (for the rich).
demimondian
I hear that Holy Joe wants the party’s name is going to be “The Senator from Connecticut and McCain”. I think that calling it “The SCAM” would be a great idea.
Newport 9
Mitt Romney has managed the near-impossible feat of leaving the MA GOP worse off than he found it. Last month they only ran candidates for 3 out of 6 statewide offices, and lost all of them. They only ran candidates for 3 out of 10 House seats, and lost all of them. They lost 1 of their state senators (they now have 5 out of 40) and 2 of their state reps (they now have 19 out of 160).
As noted in today’s Boston Globe, Mitt accomplished this by spending over 200 days traveling out of state, and spending a bunch of PAC money on his presidential campaign that he was supposed to be spending on downticket races in MA.
Tulkinghorn
They should have stuck with Swift. She might have lost to O’Brien (who turned out to be unable to attract undecideds, anyway) but there would be a Massachusetts GOP still.
Maybe Mitt can do that to the rest of the GOP, by becoming president and spending most of his time angling for another job… what else is there.. Pope?
Bombadil
It gets worse. His first name is “Willard”.
demimondian
Willard? Oh, Lord, the poor man.
Wait…isn’t Willard the guy who could, like…talk to rats, like, you know, in that *film*?
jake
So he shouldn’t have any trouble communicating with the Christianists. I’m keeping my baseball bat handy in case he orders them to attack.
Newport 9
A Mormon pope, huh? Well, I guess if he thinks he can becomes president, he must think anything’s possible.
TenguPhule
Shorter David M.: Sure McCain has been saying and sponsering batshit insane stuff for the last 6 years, butI think he really doesn’t mean it.
TenguPhule
McCain/Lieberman, sensible, balanced, moderate?
*AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!*
Seriously, what the hell are you smoking David M.?
Both of them are fucking idiots with all the moral fiber of a boiled noodle. Their idea of ‘centrism’ is ‘What’s best for me goes, so fuck you’
If you want to compound Bush’s fuckup in Iraq, McCain/Lieberman is the way to go.
David M.
Yes, TenguPhule, you’ve already established that NO Republican or moderate will ever, ever be acceptable to you. But those of us without foam in our mouths are willing to give sensible leadership a shot before handing the reins of the nation over to some unrepentant Bolshevist like Kucinich.
That’s just the way I feel about it, anyway. Merry Christmas!
David M.
Off-topic, but I just read a Kossack make a compelling case for invading Canada. Christmas truly is a time of miracles, I suppose.
steve davis
Not a chance in hell that Romney survives as a candidate until the Republican convention. You think Republicans are racist asswipes when it comes to Muslims? Just wait. Romney belongs to a religion that believes they are following special revelation provided to a guy who is either the first Prophet to come along in roughly 3,000 years, or a brilliant con-artist, or a headcase. No way Romney survives a tour of Red America. No one will say it’s about religion. It will be rationalized as being a statement about his apparent ambivalence on same-sex marriage and abortion.
Punchy
Let’s play some word association:
The Ravens’ treatment of Pitty…..rented mule
Worthlessberger’s performance….worthless
New NFL champs….not Pittsburgh
Randel El, Bettis, and Burress…..SORELY missed
New NFL champs…..THE CHICAGO BEARS, BITCHES!!!
Zifnab
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
mrmobi
Punchy, I’m right there hoping with you, but I think we’ll need to win that first playoff game first. After that, we will have really improved from last year. Yesterday was a not very dominating win over one of the worst teams in the league. Not very inspiring.
Merry Christmas to all! I have really enjoyed coming here for the past year and a half.
Mitt Romney – not one chance in hell that he gets the nomination. St. McCain is the heir apparent, all money and donor lists now his in return for his selling out to Chimpy McFlightsuit. He’d be a formidable opponent, too. Personally, I pray for a Guiliani candidacy, he being the potential candidate with the most baggage in Republican history.
Punchy
St. Louis Cards backed themselves in the playoffs in such disasterous fashion that they almost backed themselves outtie. Now, they’re (holding back the vomit and curse words) MLB “champs” (vomit forthcoming)…
The Bears shall do the same. Find God in the second round, or something like that. Channel the not-yet-dead spirit of Young Ditka.
Merry Hanna-istmas to all.
TenguPhule
Shorter David M.: I am peeing in the gene pool.
Embracing Bigoted Rightwing Fundies is Sensible? Racheting up the people being sent into the Iraq meatgrinder in the face of overwhelming opposition and common sense is moderate?
Those words do not mean what you think they mean.
The Other Steve
I don’t think you give enough credit to the insanity of those who support Republicans.
You get Karl Rove in there, and in no time Huckabee will look like a regular war hero. He’ll build himself a small military base outside of Little Rock, start marching troops up and down the streets. He’ll be the second coming of Douglas MacArthur.
And the GOP will be fawning all over him, claiming that Wesley Clark, who was shot in ‘nam, served as SACEUR overseeing the Kosovo mission doesn’t understand military strategy, and/or foreign relations like Huckabee.
Look. I’ve spent six years just listening to pure flat out unadulterated Bullshit. Whatever you think might be reasonable, might be sensisible, might be rational. That is not how the Republicans will choose their candidate in 2008.
They’ll choose Huckabee because he’s a Baptist minister, he’s a golden speaker, he will save the stemcells and bash teh gays… but quitely in a mild mannered way so as not to scare the moderates.
The Other Steve
Oh yeah, the most important part.
The GOP will choose Huckabee.
And they’ll lose the election in a landslide. It truly doesn’t matter who the Democrats pick. They could pick Kucinich, and at this point he appears more reasonable and sane and less likely to fuck over the country than the Republicans.
The Other Steve
You seem to forget.
We handed the country over to an unrepentant Bolshevist in 2001. Look how well that’s worked.
If 2006 showed us anything, people are ready for a good rational moderate who embodies the principles of America. i.e. anybody the Democrats nominate.
The party of John Birch is dead.
ThymeZone
You mean, the Non-Americans?
“We can work things out with the King.”
Those are the people who really gave us America, right?
CaseyL
NPR ran an interesting story today on whether the GOP had become “the Party of religion.”
The fellow defending the GOP said the majority of Americans are regular church-goers, how the majority of those who are regular church-goers vote GOP, and also how those church-going GOPs are breeding more than typical Democratic voters.
But I don’t think the question was whether the GOP was the party of people who go to church. I think the question was whether the GOP is composed of people who demand that their religion be enacted into public law.
The GOP guy kept referring to 2004 election statistics. Nobody brought up 2006. From what I can tell about the 2006 election, even a lot of “church-going GOP” voters voted for Democrats – not because they suddenly stopped going to church, but because they don’t want a theocracy, or even a quasi-theocracy.
There’s a difference between being a regular church-goer and being a regular church-goer who wants politics to enforce their particular religious doctrine.
The GOP now consists of church-goers who do want that. That’s what makes it the Party of Religion, not how many of its members are simply religious.
Unfortunately, no one on the show brought up that distinction.
demimondian
Merry Christmas, you un-American slackers!
Jimmy Jazz
To put it simply: McCain is nuts. If he wins in ’08, the entire Middle East, and several major US cities, will be fused glass by ’10. He makes Bush look like a restrained pacifist.
Zifnab
I wouldn’t even go that far. Even Dobson and Falwell haven’t been rabid proponents of the Iraq War. War fevor hasn’t really engulfed the Evangelical Movement like it has the Minuteman crowd. And if this election was a referendum on anything, it was a referendum on the war.
I think alot of Republicans switched parties or stayed home simply because they didn’t want to give Iraq another up vote. This wasn’t an election on the War on Christmas.
ThymeZone
That’s why NPR now means “Not particularly relevant.”