RON PAUL: I'm winning the binding primary stuff, taking the delegates.

or so they say.

Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.

You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do?


Aarontology: RON PAUL: I'm winning the binding primary stuff, taking the delegates.

RON PAUL is focusing his strategy to exploit the rules.
You'd think a party with so many people who keep saying "This isn't a democracy, it's a republic" would understand that.

Aarontology: RON PAUL: I'm winning the binding primary stuff, taking the delegates.

If he were to win the nomination on a technicality at the convention, there would be such a hue and cry over this that it would likely eliminate the influence of the Republican party as a force in the United States for a decade or more.

They would be the party nobody could trust or take seriously, because they couldn't even handle nominating the person the majority of their base wanted as the candidate.

Code_Archeologist: If he were to win the nomination on a technicality at the convention, there would be such a hue and cry over this that it would likely eliminate the influence of the Republican party as a force in the United States for a decade or more.

They would be the party nobody could trust or take seriously, because they couldn't even handle nominating the person the majority of their base wanted as the candidate.


I dunno, I actually think Ron Paul has the best chance of winning in November. I don't think he would actually beat Obama, but he has a chance. Romney has 50 faces and his pandering will cost him when the race isn't state-by-state anymore, Newt is a scumbag and everyone in the country knows it, and Santorum is a jesus freak who has no appeal outside of the evangelical crowd. If Ron Paul can get the non-insane parts of his message out, then it might resonate with independents.

ignatius_crumbcake: If Ron Paul can get the non-insane parts of his message out, then it might resonate with independents.

Which non-insane parts? His entire platform is made of military grade crazy.

At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

If Santorum wins Michigan, I think he's odds-on favorite to win. If Romney can't win Michigan, he's doomed.

GAT_00: DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

If Santorum wins Michigan, I think he's odds-on favorite to win. If Romney can't win Michigan, he's doomed.

I just can't imagine Santorum being the nominee. I mean...what? Are you kidding me? Santorum is like a cartoon version of a PTA councilmember, not a national presidential figure.

Sarah Palin makes more sense than Rick Santorum.

DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

In the last 50 years, the only time the winner of the Republican Primaries picked his next runner up in the primaries for VP was 1980, when Reagan picked GHW Bush. I'm sure the trend goes back even further, but I don't feel like looking that up.

Usually, the candidates coming out of the primaries hating each other, it seems.

RexTalionis: DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

In the last 50 years, the only time the winner of the Republican Primaries picked his next runner up in the primaries for VP was 1980, when Reagan picked GHW Bush. I'm sure the trend goes back even further, but I don't feel like looking that up.

Usually, the candidates coming out of the primaries hating each other, it seems.

Well, who else would be on the list. Thinking about what might match with Romney...

Hailey Barbour
Bobby Jindal
Mitch Daniels
Marco Rubio
Sarah Palin...?

DamnYankees: RexTalionis: DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

In the last 50 years, the only time the winner of the Republican Primaries picked his next runner up in the primaries for VP was 1980, when Reagan picked GHW Bush. I'm sure the trend goes back even further, but I don't feel like looking that up.

Usually, the candidates coming out of the primaries hating each other, it seems.

Well, who else would be on the list. Thinking about what might match with Romney...

Hailey Barbour
Bobby Jindal
Mitch Daniels
Marco Rubio
Sarah Palin...?

Halley Barbour is out, I think. He really killed his political career, at least in the short term, with the pardon scandal.

Bobby Jindal is a possibility, but his moment in the sun was 2008, not 2012. Same with Mitch Daniels.

I seriously doubt Sarah Palin - she realized she can bilk more money as a private citizen than as perma-candidate.

Marco Rubio would be my bet - he appeals to Cubans in Florida and he's basically going through all the motions of putting himself on the short list right now.

If Romney wins, Chris Christie is also a possibility. I think Jan Brewer's also trying to position herself onto a short list. Possibly also Bob McDonnell (who is termlocked in Va).

DamnYankees: GAT_00: DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

If Santorum wins Michigan, I think he's odds-on favorite to win. If Romney can't win Michigan, he's doomed.

I just can't imagine Santorum being the nominee. I mean...what? Are you kidding me? Santorum is like a cartoon version of a PTA councilmember, not a national presidential figure.

Sarah Palin makes more sense than Rick Santorum.

Well, nobody actually likes Romney, Santorum peaked at the right time, he's winning the Midwest, which defines who wins the Presidency, and he won Colorado, which actually might be the new big swing state. Santorum is up in Michigan right now, and if Romney can't win the state where his father was governor, then he can't possibly win.

abb3w: RON PAUL is focusing his strategy to exploit the rules.
You'd think a party with so many people who keep saying "This isn't a democracy, it's a republic" would understand that.

Yep, while shady, it's incredibly smart. He's using the limited resources at his disposal for the biggest possible gain.

Code_Archeologist: If he were to win the nomination on a technicality at the convention, there would be such a hue and cry over this that it would likely eliminate the influence of the Republican party as a force in the United States for a decade or more.

They would be the party nobody could trust or take seriously, because they couldn't even handle nominating the person the majority of their base wanted as the candidate.

It would be intensely interesting to watch. We've not seen a brokered convention in recent memory, let alone where someone won on a technicality and the party tried to undo it

GAT_00: DamnYankees: GAT_00: DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

If Santorum wins Michigan, I think he's odds-on favorite to win. If Romney can't win Michigan, he's doomed.

I just can't imagine Santorum being the nominee. I mean...what? Are you kidding me? Santorum is like a cartoon version of a PTA councilmember, not a national presidential figure.

Sarah Palin makes more sense than Rick Santorum.

Well, nobody actually likes Romney, Santorum peaked at the right time, he's winning the Midwest, which defines who wins the Presidency, and he won Colorado, which actually might be the new big swing state. Santorum is up in Michigan right now, and if Romney can't win the state where his father was governor, then he can't possibly win.

I agree that Romney will be in big trouble if he loses Michigan, and then Ohio and probably most of the southern states on Super Tuesday.

The thing that helps Romney though is that the "Super New England Tuesday" is in mid-April, and then CA & NJ hold their primary in early June as the last major test (with only Utah the week after left, which even if he is totally out of the race, Romney might win).

My guess is Santorum, even if he is really racking up delegates from the midwest and deep south over the next month or so, will still be a few hundred short of winning. But, Santorum's antics don't play well at all in the coastal states, and even if he is seen as "ahead", Romney I would guess is seen as the most "centrist" GOP candidate by the CA, NY, NJ, etc of the world.

There is a decent chance at a brokered convention in my mind, where Gingrich and Paul hold the cards as to who they decide they want to endorse and suggest their delegates pledget their support to put over the top.

My guesses for a Romney running mate are Tim Pawlenty if he wants to go safe and Susana Martinez if he wants to take some chances.

Santorum would have to pick a Tea Bagger. Rand Paul maybe.

RexTalionis: DamnYankees: RexTalionis: DamnYankees: At this point, Santorum is the odds-on favorite for VP, right?

In the last 50 years, the only time the winner of the Republican Primaries picked his next runner up in the primaries for VP was 1980, when Reagan picked GHW Bush. I'm sure the trend goes back even further, but I don't feel like looking that up.

Usually, the candidates coming out of the primaries hating each other, it seems.

Well, who else would be on the list. Thinking about what might match with Romney...

Hailey Barbour
Bobby Jindal
Mitch Daniels
Marco Rubio
Sarah Palin...?

Halley Barbour is out, I think. He really killed his political career, at least in the short term, with the pardon scandal.

Bobby Jindal is a possibility, but his moment in the sun was 2008, not 2012. Same with Mitch Daniels.

I seriously doubt Sarah Palin - she realized she can bilk more money as a private citizen than as perma-candidate.

Marco Rubio would be my bet - he appeals to Cubans in Florida and he's basically going through all the motions of putting himself on the short list right now.

If Romney wins, Chris Christie is also a possibility. I think Jan Brewer's also trying to position herself onto a short list. Possibly also Bob McDonnell (who is termlocked in Va).

Jindal would pose a problem for rallying the racists in the base, it's hard for a man named Piyush Jindal to chant "Barack HUSSIEN Obama" with any conviction

Palin won't even get a sniff of the nomination. McCain made that mistake and the evenutal nominee won't repeat it. McCain's staff has been a little too brutally honest about what it was like to work for her.

Rubio would enrage the "birthers" whose current theory as to why Obama isn't "natural born" (his dad was a citizen of another country) would also make Rubio ineligible

Christie's out because Romeny needs a "Red meat" conservative to balance his percieved RINO-ness and Christie's record is a little to reasonable

McDonnell might work, especially as the VA legislature sets itself to "Max Derp" passing Drug testing for Welfare recipients and the same "personhood" law rejected by MS. voters as too radical. But some of his baggage from the VA campaign could haunt him on the national stage too. His academic writings arguing that women shouldn't be allowed to work outside the home could prove very messy for a campaign that needs female undecideds to win.

I'm thinking Nikki Haley maybe, though she does have some potential "Clinton problems" though I'd be that since she's female the national media would be too chicken to bring them up

trotsky: I can imagine many moderate Republicans just sitting it out or holding their noses for Obama rather than vote for this nutter. He lost loost his seat in PA. That's all you really need to know.

/sorry
//pet peeve

PonceAlyosha: dletter: The thing that helps Romney though is that the "Super New England Tuesday" is in mid-April,

None of these candidates will make it to mid-April. The GOP really farked themselves over on this one. It's hilarious.

Just wondering what you mean here.... you think someone is going to jump in from the outside, and all 4 of the existing candidates are somehow going to be out by then?

I don't see that.... as hilarious as it is in their ineptness as a party... these are their candidates to the end.... you can't even get on the ballot at this point in most of the states (Gingrich isn't even on some states coming up, like Virginia I think ?)

ignatius_crumbcake: Code_Archeologist: If he were to win the nomination on a technicality at the convention, there would be such a hue and cry over this that it would likely eliminate the influence of the Republican party as a force in the United States for a decade or more.

They would be the party nobody could trust or take seriously, because they couldn't even handle nominating the person the majority of their base wanted as the candidate.


I dunno, I actually think Ron Paul has the best chance of winning in November. I don't think he would actually beat Obama, but he has a chance. Romney has 50 faces and his pandering will cost him when the race isn't state-by-state anymore, Newt is a scumbag and everyone in the country knows it, and Santorum is a jesus freak who has no appeal outside of the evangelical crowd. If Ron Paul can get the non-insane parts of his message out, then it might resonate with independents.

No, it won't. The problem with Ron Paul can be summed up in two words - deal breakers. Somewhere in his odd pastiche of publicly expressed views there is at least one thing that is an absolute deal-breaker for about 80% of the populace. It's different things for different people, but there's at least one in there for practically everybody.
There is no world with any color sky where he could be President.

trotsky: I think a Santorum nomination might just cave the party in. He only represents the fundie-right-social conservatives and there simply are not enough of them to pull out an election.

See: Delaware, Nevada, Alaska and several House elections in 2010. They can win on the local level, see: Bachman, but not on the national level.

I can imagine many moderate Republicans just sitting it out or holding their noses for Obama rather than vote for this nutter. He lost his seat in PA. That's all you really need to know.

IF Rick Santorum managed to "Christine O'Donnell" the GOP presidential nomination, it would be an utterly glorious thing for the country. Finally, finally, we would be able to silence those idiots in the party who always say "We didn't lose the lection because our candidate was too conservative, but because they weren't conservative ENOUGH!"

because you ask yourself, "How much conservative could Rick Santorum be?" and the Answer is "None. None more conservative."

Magorn: IF Rick Santorum managed to "Christine O'Donnell" the GOP presidential nomination, it would be an utterly glorious thing for the country. Finally, finally, we would be able to silence those idiots in the party who always say "We didn't lose the lection because our candidate was too conservative, but because they weren't conservative ENOUGH!"

They wouldn't be silenced. Santorum is a big government conservative. They'll just say he was way too liberal on economic issues.