2012 US General Election Discussions: Start to Finish

[theoddz]

One idiot speeds away in a clown car.

Michele Bachmann drops her presidential election campaign.

~Theo~

[UofMfan]

One less psycho in the race.


I stayed up way past 2:00 a.m. to see the results of the caucus.

I have not been that interested in this primary because what it mainly does is upset me, but I could not help but watch the train wreck that was last night's race.

To win a race by 8 votes is such an embarrassment to someone who poured so much money into this campaign.

A party divided, lack of enthusiasm, all good news for those of us who are not Republican.

[Soon]

"In the repellent race to the bottom (no pun intended) it should be no surprise that Santorum did so well in the Iowa caucuses. Mitt Romney is in a major stall, and in a field of class clowns Rick Santorum stands out as particularly cartoonish. [snip] Santorum's win is not a referendum on who he is as a man (inhumane and ignorant), or who he is as a candidate (pandering and mean). It is simply the gasping statement of a thankfully dying breed of Americans -- those who fear, loathe or hate anyone different from themselves, who mistrust or reject the idea that government can and should be a force for good, and who detest even the slightest exposure to information or ideas that challenge their world view."

- Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center For Lesbian Rights, via press release.

[Soon]

Rick Santorum’s surprising second-place finish in Iowa comes after months of dogged campaigning throughout the sate’s 99 counties and more than 350 town halls. ThinkProgress tracked the former Pennsylvania senator throughout this period and has compiled a list of his top 10 most outrageous claims:

1) ANNUL ALL SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: Arguing that gay relationships “destabilize” society, Santorum wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships and has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages if elected president. During his 99-country tour of Iowa, Santorum frequently compared same-sex relationships to inanimate objects like trees, basketballs, beer, and paper towels and even tried to blame the economic crisis on gay people. As Santorum explained back in August, religious people have a constitutional right to discriminate against gays: “We have a right the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that’s above a right that’s actually in the Constitution, and that’s of sexual liberty. And I think that’s a wrong, that’s a destructive element.”

2) ‘I’M FOR INCOME INEQUALITY’: “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality,” Santorum said during an event in Pella, Iowa in December. “I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.”

3) CONTRACEPTION IS ‘A LICENSE TO DO THINGS’: Santorum has pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception and allow the states to outlaw birth control, insisting that “it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

4) GAY SOLDIERS ‘CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN CLOSE QUARTERS’: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday in October, Santorum defended his support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by arguing that gay soldiers would disrupt the military because “they’re in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people.” He also suggested that “there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore.”

5) OBAMA SHOULD OPPOSE ABORTION BECAUSE HE’S BLACK: During an appearance on Christian television in January, Santorum said he was surprised that President Obama didn’t know when life began — given his skin color. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,” he explained.

6) WE DON’T NEED FOOD STAMPS BECAUSE OBESITY RATES ARE SO HIGH: Speaking in Le Mars, Iowa in December, Santorum promised to significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps, arguing that the nation’s increasing obesity rates render the program unnecessary.

7) ABORTION EXCEPTIONS TO PROTECT WOMEN’S HEALTH ARE ‘PHONY’: While discussing his track record as a champion of the partial birth abortion ban in June, Santorum dismissed exceptions other senators wanted to carve out to protect the life and health of mothers, calling such exceptions “phony.” “They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective,” he said.

8) HEALTH REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.” “Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.”

9) UNINSURED AMERICANS SHOULD SPEND LESS ON CELL-PHONE BILLS: During a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register in August, Santorum said that people who can’t afford health care should stop whining about the high costs of medical treatments and medications and spend less on non essentials. Answering a question about the uninsured, Santorum explained that health care, like a car, is a luxury resource that is rationed by society and recalled the story of a woman who said she was spending $200 a month on life-saving prescriptions. Santorum told her to stop complaining and instead lower her cable and cell phone bills.

10) INSURERS SHOULD DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Santorum sounded like a representative from the health insurance industry when he addressed a small group of high school students in Merrimack, New Hampshire in December. The former Pennsylvania senator not only defended insurers for denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, he also argued that individuals who are sick should pay higher premiums because they cost more money to insure.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/0...gn-statements/

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by HowSoonIsNow

Rick Santorum’s surprising second-place finish in Iowa comes after months of dogged campaigning throughout the sate’s 99 counties and more than 350 town halls. ThinkProgress tracked the former Pennsylvania senator throughout this period and has compiled a list of his top 10 most outrageous claims:

1) ANNUL ALL SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: Arguing that gay relationships “destabilize” society, Santorum wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships and has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages if elected president. During his 99-country tour of Iowa, Santorum frequently compared same-sex relationships to inanimate objects like trees, basketballs, beer, and paper towels and even tried to blame the economic crisis on gay people. As Santorum explained back in August, religious people have a constitutional right to discriminate against gays: “We have a right the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that’s above a right that’s actually in the Constitution, and that’s of sexual liberty. And I think that’s a wrong, that’s a destructive element.”

2) ‘I’M FOR INCOME INEQUALITY’: “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality,” Santorum said during an event in Pella, Iowa in December. “I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.”

3) CONTRACEPTION IS ‘A LICENSE TO DO THINGS’: Santorum has pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception and allow the states to outlaw birth control, insisting that “it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

4) GAY SOLDIERS ‘CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN CLOSE QUARTERS’: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday in October, Santorum defended his support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by arguing that gay soldiers would disrupt the military because “they’re in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people.” He also suggested that “there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore.”

5) OBAMA SHOULD OPPOSE ABORTION BECAUSE HE’S BLACK: During an appearance on Christian television in January, Santorum said he was surprised that President Obama didn’t know when life began — given his skin color. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,” he explained.

6) WE DON’T NEED FOOD STAMPS BECAUSE OBESITY RATES ARE SO HIGH: Speaking in Le Mars, Iowa in December, Santorum promised to significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps, arguing that the nation’s increasing obesity rates render the program unnecessary.

7) ABORTION EXCEPTIONS TO PROTECT WOMEN’S HEALTH ARE ‘PHONY’: While discussing his track record as a champion of the partial birth abortion ban in June, Santorum dismissed exceptions other senators wanted to carve out to protect the life and health of mothers, calling such exceptions “phony.” “They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective,” he said.

8) HEALTH REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.” “Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.”

9) UNINSURED AMERICANS SHOULD SPEND LESS ON CELL-PHONE BILLS: During a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register in August, Santorum said that people who can’t afford health care should stop whining about the high costs of medical treatments and medications and spend less on non essentials. Answering a question about the uninsured, Santorum explained that health care, like a car, is a luxury resource that is rationed by society and recalled the story of a woman who said she was spending $200 a month on life-saving prescriptions. Santorum told her to stop complaining and instead lower her cable and cell phone bills.

10) INSURERS SHOULD DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Santorum sounded like a representative from the health insurance industry when he addressed a small group of high school students in Merrimack, New Hampshire in December. The former Pennsylvania senator not only defended insurers for denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, he also argued that individuals who are sick should pay higher premiums because they cost more money to insure.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/0...gn-statements/

Addressing his record- As his voting record in Congress is more scrutinized, the Tea Party will be seething! The guy supported every Bush 43 "bigger government" plan. Plus, the many actions Bush proposed that had no source of funding- just put it on the gov credit cards!

On Bachmann- she has an uphill battle to keep her seat in MN. Love it! Getting the Tea Party out of our Congress is at least a plus in a better direction.

[MsDemeanor]

If you combine 8 and 10, the logical conclusion is that he believes his daughter should be denied health insurance coverage for life due to a pre-existing condition from birth. I doubt that he is capable of connecting the dots....

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

If you combine 8 and 10, the logical conclusion is that he believes his daughter should be denied health insurance coverage for life due to a pre-existing condition from birth. I doubt that he is capable of connecting the dots....

That's for sure! I was thinking this very thing. Then, there is Paul's "just let them die" stance due to not having insurance. Both of these stances just don't ring as respect for the sanctity of life these yahoos "appear" to believe so deeply in.

Between these two and Newt's total grandiosity about the whole damn election being about him is just nuts. I might have to tune into the debate Saturday to see if he goes postal on air versus Romney. Gingrich is something else- playing the "no going negative" sing song. He invented negative politics. After reading more about his mother's mental illness and the first marriage at age 19 to his HS teacher (Jackie) to which his mother said "raised him the rest of the way," I think his mental instability is quite clear.

And these people are running for president!

[Toughy]

So I am driving home from the VA listening to progressive radio....randi rhodes...and I hear 2 stories about Romney and Santorium and I had heard the Santorium one on Rachel last night.

Romney: He is taking his family on the 'great american road trip vacation' and they are going to take Seamus the Irish Setter family dog with them. Romney STRAPS Seamus to the roof of the vehicle....no not in a crate, actually just strapped down to the roof.........and drives off for vacation. Randi was not sure if the dog lived or not. But this kind of stupidity makes sense to me since Mitt (as an adult male Mormon) wears magic underwear.

Santorium: His wife had a stillborn 26 week old baby...that's 6.5 months...a sad thing for his family. Well, Santorium and wife leave the hospital by loading their other children (one as young as 2 yrs old) AND THE DEAD BABY, in mom's arms in the car and drive across Pennsylvania to grandma's house so grandma can hold and commune with the dead baby. Apparently all the kids got to hold and commune with the dead baby during the car trip. They have the dead baby with the family for about 24 hours before they take it to the mortuary.

I really wish the mainstream Republicans would take back their party. Not one of the Republicans in the race should be President. Even Jon Huntsman has been forced to take far right wing stances on things like abortion. And Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul are the ONLY Republicans in the race (past and present) who understand and believe evolution is the basis for life on this planet. The rest of them think their God created the world in 7 days and believe that is science.

I am getting tired of all of them. Let Nov come very very quickly.

[Gráinne]

I find it ironic that Michelle Bachman calls Obama a "socialist" and herself a strong Christian, when Jesus's sayings and actions were radically socialist for his time. Somehow, I don't think Bachmann and Santorum would even be in his constituency-and I'm a non-Christian.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by HowSoonIsNow

"In the repellent race to the bottom (no pun intended) it should be no surprise that Santorum did so well in the Iowa caucuses. Mitt Romney is in a major stall, and in a field of class clowns Rick Santorum stands out as particularly cartoonish. [snip] Santorum's win is not a referendum on who he is as a man (inhumane and ignorant), or who he is as a candidate (pandering and mean). It is simply the gasping statement of a thankfully dying breed of Americans -- those who fear, loathe or hate anyone different from themselves, who mistrust or reject the idea that government can and should be a force for good, and who detest even the slightest exposure to information or ideas that challenge their world view."

- Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center For Lesbian Rights, via press release.

Ah, from her mouth to god's ear. Especially the part about the gasping statement of a thankfully dying breed.

But are they really dying? According to mainstream news, which I was coerced into watching for a few minutes last night, the Republicans and the Democrats are neck and neck and it's anyone's election. Whatever. This past 4 years has shown me that there really is little difference between them anyway. Our elected officials are bought and paid for by corporations and the financial sector. But then I think of how much worse it might actually be if a republican got in. Then I remember Obama, a democrat, our great hope, signed National Defense Authorization Act.