2012 US General Election Discussions: Start to Finish
 

A place for US politrical and campaign junkies to post, seeth, laugh, roll eyes, protest..... whatever you want to discuss as we roll along this trail.

Please feel free to post about all nationally significant elections in the 2012 general election. The US Congress and what happens in terms of party majority, etc. will be keeping us all interested, I'm certain!

Looks like the GOP possible presidential candidates are finally coming out of the gate. Ginrich in, Huckabee and Trump, out... Romney is really the front runner?

Yesterday's Meet the Press was quite interesting with Newt Ginrich as the first of the GOP candidates for the GOP nomination showing up.

Of course, much of what Ginrich said yesterday is being back peddled today... Ah, politics!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

An analyst on Chris mathews yesterday brought up something that messes with my mind... Newt Ginrich is "new" to the young, twenty-something voters out there. Yikes!!

http://www.kvia.com/politics/27921868/detail.html

Hummm... Newt Ginrich didn't have a very good first week after he announced for the GOP nomination-

GOP Blasts Gingrich Over Budget, Health CommentsGingrich Says He's Victim Of 'Gotcha' Politics

By Alexander Mooney CNN Political Producer
POSTED: 7:23 am MDT May 17, 2011
UPDATED: 8:31 am MDT May 17, 2011

(CNN) -- Newt Gingrich has been an official presidential candidate for only a week, but the former House speaker is already under siege from fellow Republicans over recent comments that disparaged a House GOP budget proposal and appeared to endorse some form of a health care mandate that conservatives have long derided.

"This is a big deal," said Charles Krauthammer, the conservative Washington Post columnist. "He's done. He didn't have a big chance from the beginning but now it's over."

"I am not going to justify this. I'm not going to explain this," talk radio host Rush Limbaugh clamored. "The attack on Paul Ryan. The support for an individual mandate in health care? Folks, don't ask me to explain this. There is no explanation."

The uproar stems from Gingrich's comments during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, when the former House Speaker called a Medicare provision in the GOP budget proposal spearheaded by Rep. Paul Ryan a "radical change" and later indicated he supports requiring every citizen to buy health insurance or instead post a bond for insurance.
The two positions appeared contradictory, with Gingrich hammering Ryan's plan to impulse a mandatory voucher system in lieu of Medicare in one breath while offering support for mandated health coverage in the other.

"What you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options, not one where you suddenly impose it," Gingrich said of the Ryan plan that has proposed replacing Medicare with vouchers to be used toward private health care plans. "I am against Obamacare imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change."

But in the same interview Gingrich said of an insurance mandate, "I agree that all of us have a responsibility to pay -- help pay for health care...And, I think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. I've said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond."

Amidst charges of inconsistency, Gingrich released a Web video Monday in which he emphatically stated he was "for the repeal for Obamacare, and ... against any effort to impose a federal mandate on anyone because it is fundamentally wrong and I believe unconstitutional."A Gingrich spokesman also insisted Monday that "there is little daylight between Ryan and Gingrich."

"Newt would fully support Ryan if it were not compulsory," spokesman Rick Tyler said. "We need to design a better system that people will voluntarily move to. That is a major difference in design but not substance."

Still, some conservatives remain befuddled when it comes to just where Gingrich stands on health care, an issue that is believed to be rival Mitt Romney's biggest vulnerability, not the former House speaker's.

"He can't help himself. Gingrich prefers extravagant lambasting when a mere distancing would do, and the over-arching theoretical construct to a mundane pander. He is drawn irresistibly to operatic overstatement -- sometimes brilliant, always interesting, and occasionally downright absurd," Rich Lowry, the editor of the National Review, wrote Monday.

Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Eric Cantor called Gingrich's statements a "tremendous misspeak."

"I think that many have said now he's finished," Cantor told Chicago radio station WLS, according to The Hill. "I haven't had a chance to really dissect what in the world he's thinking ... so I probably would reserve judgment on that."

Meanwhile, it appears Gingrich is doing damage control at an event in Mason City, Iowa, on Tuesday, signing a petition calling for the repeal of the health care law.

And, in an interview with the Des Moines Register on Monday, Gingrich said he is the victim of "gotcha" politics.

"I've for two years gone around the country making speeches about Obamacare. I've said over and over, 'We should repeal it,'" he said. "And then people to go from all of that body of evidence to say, 'Yeah, but for 25 seconds yesterday, I thought you said X,' that's beyond gotcha."

:blink:

Newly Announced Contender for GOP Presidential Nomination--Tim Pawlenty
 

Eight Things To Know About Tim Pawlenty’s Anti-LGBT Record

Today former Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) announced that he is exploring a Presidential run. In his announcement video, he presents a folksy midwest charm and extols the “brave men and women throughout this country’s history that have asked for nothing more than the freedom to work hard and get ahead without government getting in the way.” But when it comes to LGBT folks and their families, Pawlenty’s actions don’t live up to his lofty rhetoric. Below are eight things you should know about Pawlenty’s record on LGBT issues:

1. Pawlenty proudly opposes recognition of any same-sex unions: In a recent interview on FOX News, he told Greta Van Susteren that he will “never be at the point where I say all domestic relationship[s] are the same as traditional marriage. They are not.” He similarly bragged to the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer in January about helping to craft a same-sex marriage ban in Minnesota. As part of his recent tour of speeches in Iowa, he also endorsed The Family Leader, a conservative group who promotes the idea that same-sex marriage is worse for people’s health than smoking.

2. Pawlenty supports maintaining Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, rescinding funding to implement its repeal, and perhaps not allowing gays and lesbians to serve at all: In January, he stated he would support reinstating the policy and that doing so would have no impact. Then, in February, he added that he would support rescinding the funding for its repeal as “a reasonable step.” He also refused to indicate whether he thinks gay and lesbian troops should have the right to serve in the military whatsoever.

3. Pawlenty regrets his vote as a state legislator supporting nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity: Citing its protection of “cross-dressing” and how confusing it would be for third-graders if Mr. Johnson showed up the next day as Mrs. Johnson, Pawlenty lamented his 1993 vote in support of the antidiscrimination law, earning the ire of LGBT groups for his distasteful remarks.

4. Pawlenty vetoed a bill extending end-of-life rights to same-sex couples: As a result of his veto, same-sex couples in Minnesota still have to go through the process of setting up a will to be protected if one partner dies. In addition, same-sex couples continue to be limited in the ability to seek restitution for wrongful death.

5. Pawlenty vetoed an anti-bullying bill adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Minnesota’s bullying policies and training: Despite numerous concessions made to get the governor’s support, he still vetoed the bill, claiming it was redundant and ignoring the new protections it offered the state’s LGBT students.

6. In 2001, Pawlenty opposed labor unions’ efforts to offer benefits to employees’ same-sex partners: The controversy led to a union strike in the fall of 2001, and then in February of 2003, the unions were forced to accept a compromise that stripped benefits from 85 same-sex partners who had previously been receiving them. [Star Tribune, 10/4/2001 and 2/18/03]

7. Pawlenty vetoed a bill allowing local municipalities in Minnesota to offer domestic partner benefits: The bill would have allowed cities, counties, and school districts to offer domestic partner benefits in the same way more than 300 private companies already do in the state.

8. Pawlenty vetoed a bill allowing state employees to use their accrued sick leave to take care of seriously ill family members: Domestic partners were removed from the bill in hopes that it would prevent a veto, but Pawlenty vetoed it anyway, stating that it would cost too much.

Oh, yeah... T-Paw.... yikes!

this is good news.
 

Herman Cain announces GOP bid for President
 

Tea Party Favorite Herman Cain Joins 2012 GOP Race

Published May 21, 2011
| FoxNews.com


Tea Party favorite Herman Cain announced his long-shot presidential candidacy to a raucous crowd in Atlanta Saturday, yelling, "I'm running for president of the United States and I'm not running for second."

At a rally attended by thousands, the businessman, author and talk radio show host showed he knows how to wow a conservative gathering. The crowd chanted, "Herman, Herman, Herman," as Cain unleashed the same soaring rhetoric and relentless attacks on President Obama that has created buzz in recent weeks.

"Let me tell you some of the reasons why I'm running for president of the United States.We have become a nation of crises," he said, citing morals, the economy, entitlement spending, immigration and foreign affairs as among the crises facing the nation.

"And we've got a deficiency of leadership crisis in the White House," he said to roaring cheers.

Now the 65-year-old Republican will see if he can use that grass-roots enthusiasm to turn a long-shot presidential campaign into a credible bid.

Cain supports a strong national defense, opposes abortion, backs replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax and favors a return to the gold standard.

He's never held elected office, losing a three-way Republican U.S. Senate primary bid in Georgia in 2004 with one-quarter of the vote. His "Hermanator" political action committee has taken in just over $16,000 this year.

Cain says he's running "a bottoms-up, outside-the-box campaign." Supporters say he taps into the tea party-fueled desire for plain-speaking citizen candidates.

"I just love him," gushed Laura Miller, a self-described "Cainiac" from Jessup, Ga. "What he says makes so much sense."

Born in Memphis, Tenn., and raised in Atlanta, Cain is the son of a chauffeur and a maid. He attended historically black Morehouse College, earned a master's degree from Purdue University and worked as a mathematician for the Navy before beginning to scale the corporate ladder.

He worked at Coca-Cola, Pillsbury and Burger King before taking the helm of the failing Godfather's Pizza franchise, which he rescued by shuttering hundreds of restaurants.

He burst onto the political stage when he sparred with President Bill Clinton over the Democrat's health care plan at a 1994 town hall meeting.

"On behalf of all of those business owners that are in a situation similar to mine," asked Cain, "my question is, quite simply, if I'm forced to do this, what will I tell those people whose jobs I will have to eliminate?"

The late Jack Kemp, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996, once described Cain as having "the voice of Othello, the looks of a football player, the English of Oxfordian quality and the courage of a lion."

In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with liver and colon cancer. He says he's been cancer-free since 2007 and credits the nation's health care system with keeping him alive. He says it's one reason he's so opposed to the health overhaul championed by President Barack Obama.

At a speech last week in Macon, Ga., Cain gave a glimpse of the rationale for his candidacy. He said the American dream is under attack from runaway debt, a stagnant economy and a Democratic administration forcing a legislative agenda citizens don't want.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

So, the madness begins.

I hear Palin has a "fire in her belly" to run....

Step right up! Step right up! Come and see the best show in town, the 2012 elections!! Let the circus begin!

It would be great to hear from members in state's that had Tea Party candidates elected in the national mid-terms- and what it looks like for their re-election in 2012.

I really like to hear election and campaign news via all the states from member's perspectives. There are so many state's outside of CA dealing with such serious economic stresses. I think that in 2012, "We the People" will vote primarily due to what is going on with our economy. Which does not mean Republican, at all.

Right now, the whole Ryan Plan debate seems to be kicking up a lot of debate no matter what party a person belongs to.

You know, you almost have to feel sorry for the GOP--almost. They did this to themselves, of course, so my sympathy for my former party only goes so far but I do kind of feel sorry for some of the candidates.

The three with the only *real* hope in the general election are Romney, Huntsman and Pawlenty. They also have the worst chances of making it through the primaries. None of them are *real and true* right-wing ideologues acceptable to the Tea Party. Two of them--and there's no delicate way to put this--are Mormons and while that wouldn't be a hindrance in the Democratic Party that WILL be a problem in the GOP. Evangelical Christians do not consider Mormonism a genuine Christian sect but a cult. Pawlenty is, well, Pawlenty and generates all the excitement of, say, dryer lint.

On the other side, the candidates most likely to excite the base aren't viable in the general election. Palin can win the GOP primary but she can't win the general election. She would have to pivot too much, repudiate too many of her positions and doing so would damage her brand. Bachmann is in the similar position to Palin. She is on record saying way too many wacky things to make it through the general although she could win the primary. Then there's Herman Cain who, I think, is running a vanity campaign. He has two problems--one is that he's black and while his presence at Tea Party rallies means he gives some air cover to the more racist elements, at the end of the day I don't think he can win the GOP primary.

The problem facing the GOP is that any candidate capable of passing muster with the Tea Party, the nativists and the Christian Coalition will be too far-right to make it in the general election. Anyone capable of winning the general election will have a hell of a time making it through the primary. Like I said, you almost feel sorry for the Republican Party.

Cheers
Aj

Could Weiner's twitter issue blow it for Dems picking up House seats in 2012?
 

UGH!! I have no idea what is really going on with this mess- but his not knowing if the damn pic is of himself is weird. I honestly don't understand why Weiner has not/did not call the police to deal with this and instead hires an attorney.

I am so tired of this kind of BS by our political leaders no matter what party they represent. You would think with all the dumbest stuff that has gone on with things like this- they would just not even do anything that remotely close to any kind of sex scrutiny! Some of these guys add to the stereotype of men being driven by their cocks to the point of stupidity- and I hate this power & penis mentality. It hurts all men.

Politically, as it is beginning to look like the Dems could take back the House in 2012 or at least make good gains, I think back to how many of these kinds of idiotic actions have caused the actions of a few end up with others losing elections. Which also makes me think about the US voter.... and also what sometimes feels like disrespect for voters as well.

I don't know if Weiner is hiding anything- but the idiot ought to know that if he is, that will most likely cause more problems than what he might have done in reality. With the close relationship with the Clinton’s of Weiner’s wife, this could end up being quite a fiasco. I don’t even want to go into how I feel about the marriages of some politicians. Sometimes I think I liked it better when we didn’t get all the scoops on their private lives. Although, this is a public issue since the damn pic could be viewed publically.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/06/anthony-weiner-cannot-say-with-certitude-hes-not-subject-of-twitter-photo.html

OMG..The crazy madness begains.I often wonder as a country how the heck we get somany nut or Newt cases as it were running for the highest office in the country..I often think I may just find an island somewhere I can lease for some obscure gov move on it to get away from the dam polotics that is comeing up.We got very lucky this time when Obama got elected,please let a sane human being be in office when the dust settles.

And here comes Michelle Bachman..... Will she really?
 

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/07/rollins-bachmann-will-be-strong-candidate-in-iowa/

Rollins: Bachmann will be strong candidate in Iowa By: CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser


(CNN) – The campaign veteran who has signed up to run Rep. Michele Bachmann's expected bid for the Republican presidential nomination says the congresswoman from Minnesota would be a formidable candidate in the Iowa caucuses.

One day after longtime GOP strategist Ed Rollins confirmed to CNN that he would steer Bachmann's campaign if she announces her candidacy, which is expected later this month, Rollins said Bachmann "has a tremendous opportunity to follow the pattern of Mike Huckabee, whose campaign I was involved in four years ago. She'll be a very strong candidate in Iowa. She was born in Iowa. She was the first Republican woman to ever represent the neighboring state of Minnesota. She's got a tremendous opportunity to go into the religious right, which is a strong constituency."

Iowa's caucuses traditionally kick off the presidential primary and caucus calendar.

Rollins, who made his comments on CNN's "American Morning," was the campaign manager for President Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election landslide over former Vice President Walter Mondale. Rollins, a guest on numerous CNN programs over the years, is also more recently known for running former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's bid for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Huckabee went from being a long shot candidate to winning the Iowa caucuses before ultimately losing the nomination to Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Rollins told CNN on Monday that "we'll try and duplicate what Huckabee did in Iowa. It's a good act to follow."

Rollins also says that Bachmann won't have a problem when it comes to fundraising, adding that "she's got a gigantic list" of supporters and contributors.

Asked about Bachmann's past controversial comments, Rollins said the congresswoman would "have a good team around her and we'll basically make sure that everything is 100 percent fact checked."

Bachmann has all-but-declared her candidacy. She recently told reporters and supporters in Iowa that "when we make that all-important announcement – which will happen in the month of June – that announcement. I am pleased to tell you tonight, will be made in Iowa. And I will also tell you that announcement will be made in the city where I was born, in Waterloo."

Bachmann is also taking part in next Monday's CNN/WMUR/New Hampshire Union Leader GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire.

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http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/r...ann-quotes.htm

Dumb Michele Bachmann Quotes
Top 10 Craziest Michele Bachmann Quotes of All Time

Rats leaving a sinking campaign
 

So there has been a mass exodus from Newt "Legend in his own mind" Gingrich's campaign. I think we can now officially take his campaign off the bbq, it's done.

I'm waiting for him to jump up and claim that with this mass exodus of staff, he has the rest of the GOP field right where he wants them.