The 2012 Republican Primary thread, early edition

[Color Me Badd Fan]

It's interesting that all of a sudden Giuliani is running and Perry is giving it heavy consideration. Giuliani ran such a horrendous campaign back in 2008, I just don't know if I can take him seriously. I like Giuliani and his presence reassures me that the GOP hasn't completely gone off the deep end with both Palin and Bachmann possibly running (seriously, I hope this is just a money grab from both women, hopefully they don't really think they could ever win the presidency-- the scary thing is Palin could actually get the GOP nomination--do any of her supporters realize that close to 60% of the people polled said they would never vote for Sarah Palin?). But Giuliani has such glaring deficiencies. His personal life has been a mess and being openly socially liberal is just insurmountable.

[YOhio]

It's interesting that all of a sudden Giuliani is running and Perry is giving it heavy consideration. Giuliani ran such a horrendous campaign back in 2008, I just don't know if I can take him seriously. I like Giuliani and his presence reassures me that the GOP hasn't completely gone off the deep end with both Palin and Bachmann possibly running (seriously, I hope this is just a money grab from both women, hopefully they don't really think they could ever win the presidency-- the scary thing is Palin could actually get the GOP nomination--do any of her supporters realize that close to 60% of the people polled said they would never vote for Sarah Palin?). But Giuliani has such glaring deficiencies. His personal life has been a mess and being openly socially liberal is just insurmountable.

Rudy would have to take a few months off the Get Motivated seminars that he does with Colin Powell and other successful people.

[Donuthole]

Huntsman's candidacy minimizes Romney's "Mormon Problem".

http://www.utahpolicy.com/featured_article/huntsmans-entrance-minimizes-romneys-mormon-problem

An interesting take, though I'm not sure I agree.

[RobinFinderson]

Rudy would have to take a few months off the Get Motivated seminars that he does with Colin Powell and other successful people.

Wowsers! It looks like we are missing a humdinger today.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Wowsers! It looks like we are missing a humdinger today.

$2 per person? I'm assuming this is in basketball arenas, so that's 20,000 people per event. Are they all $2 or is that just for the nosebleeds? Are they grossing $40k per event? After the cost to rent the arena (let's say that's $20k, I have no idea what it is), that's $20k left to be given to the speakers. I'm counting 10 speakers, so they're netting $2k. lol. Joel Osteen thinks these people are chumps.

[Surfah]

$2 per person? I'm assuming this is in basketball arenas, so that's 20,000 people per event. Are they all $2 or is that just for the nosebleeds? Are they grossing $40k per event? After the cost to rent the arena (let's say that's $20k, I have no idea what it is), that's $20k left to be given to the speakers. I'm counting 10 speakers, so they're netting $2k. lol. Joel Osteen thinks these people are chumps.

I went to one in '06 at the Rose Garden. Saw Zig Ziglar, Don Shula, Giuliani, Powell, the Crystal Cathedral guy, and a few others. In between the big names though they have these rags to riches guys promote products that they sell. One of the guys I have seen on MSNBC, CNN, and other channels. He was a good story teller and when he was done everyone there thought they could get rich too. Everyone rushes out of their seats to go sign up and drop cash for their programs and crap. It's pretty comical.

[oxcoug]

And Mitt continues to stick knives in me and taunt me w/ stupid statements even as I come to terms with the fact that he's also the best candidate in the field -

He gave a great interview on the Today show today. Handled several topics smoothly. Fielded a tricky groundball question about the Book of Mormon musical cleanly and turned a double play, coming off as good-humored and normal about it.

And then he was asked what he reads.... and he started wandering off (or on?) script about how he once picked up his grand daughter's copy of Twilight and thought it was pretty darn good stuff. So we have someone who either

1. just made that up or
2. wants to be president yet has so much time on his hands and is also so undiscriminating that he'll pick up a b.s. teenage vampire novella and give it a whirl as if there's nothing better to read

I can't decide which would be worse.

[RobinFinderson]

I went to one in '06 at the Rose Garden. Saw Zig Ziglar, Don Shula, Giuliani, Powell, the Crystal Cathedral guy, and a few others. In between the big names though they have these rags to riches guys promote products that they sell. One of the guys I have seen on MSNBC, CNN, and other channels. He was a good story teller and when he was done everyone there thought they could get rich too. Everyone rushes out of their seats to go sign up and drop cash for their programs and crap. It's pretty comical.

I've always wondered who goes to these things... I guess the answer is 'Surfah.'

[Jacob]

And Mitt continues to stick knives in me and taunt me w/ stupid statements even as I come to terms with the fact that he's also the best candidate in the field -

He gave a great interview on the Today show today. Handled several topics smoothly. Fielded a tricky groundball question about the Book of Mormon musical cleanly and turned a double play, coming off as good-humored and normal about it.

And then he was asked what he reads.... and he started wandering off (or on?) script about how he once picked up his grand daughter's copy of Twilight and thought it was pretty darn good stuff. So we have someone who either

1. just made that up or
2. wants to be president yet has so much time on his hands and is also so undiscriminating that he'll pick up a b.s. teenage vampire novella and give it a whirl as if there's nothing better to read

I can't decide which would be worse.

All I get from that is that he's a geek. Last time around he was mocked for saying that BattleField Earth was the best book he'd read recently. At least he threw in a non-fiction book this time, even though I'd have preferred something other than Bush's memoir.

Still. If he read one Twighlight book, I'll give him a pass and say he was just bored one night and it happened to be laying around. If he read another...well, he's just not presidential material.

[LA Ute]

And Mitt continues to stick knives in me and taunt me w/ stupid statements even as I come to terms with the fact that he's also the best candidate in the field -

He gave a great interview on the Today show today. Handled several topics smoothly. Fielded a tricky groundball question about the Book of Mormon musical cleanly and turned a double play, coming off as good-humored and normal about it.

And then he was asked what he reads.... and he started wandering off (or on?) script about how he once picked up his grand daughter's copy of Twilight and thought it was pretty darn good stuff. So we have someone who either

1. just made that up or
2. wants to be president yet has so much time on his hands and is also so undiscriminating that he'll pick up a b.s. teenage vampire novella and give it a whirl as if there's nothing better to read

I can't decide which would be worse.

When my teen daughter got into Twilight I read one of the books just to see what was absorbing her so much. Maybe Mitt was just checking into what his granddaughter was reading.

Seriously, ox, there are plenty of reasons to find Mitt unappealing as a candidate. Surely you can do better than that!

[happyone]

Looks like Newt is imploding - all his senior staff have resigned - over "differences in the direction of the campaign"

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/06/09/breaking-gingrichs-senior-aides-resign-en-masse/

[myboynoah]

Even with the involvement of Bachmann in the race, Romney needs to avoid Iowa altogether. I could perhaps understand someone wanting to roll around in the muck 30 years ago with Michelle Bachmann (rowrrr!), but not in 2012. You don't want to be grouped with Bachmann at all or engage in any kind of crazy-ass dialog with her.

Of course, Iowa also pisses me off because I think the timing of the Iowa caucuses plays a huge role in the whole ethanol boondoggle this country is engaging in. Ethanol needs to either be abandoned or bought from Brazil.

Romney will skip Iowa straw poll in August

[beefytee]

Romney will skip Iowa straw poll in August

Even if he wants to compete in Iowa, I this is a good move. Participating would only have the results of eliminating more candidates and as a front runner you want as many people behind you wrestling for votes as possible.

He obviously needed to compete in the straw poll last time because he didn't have the name recognition. It can be argued that his dominance last time kill the Brownback campaign. If Brownback would have lasted until the caucus, there might not have been the coalescing of support behind Huckabee.

[byu71]

For all those hoping for a Gov. Cristi (sp) to get in the race, the right wing will chew him up too unless he kiss's their butts.

Look at his stands on everyting. He isn't in line with all of their litmus tests. Sure they love him now because he isn't running. Wait until he announces.

[LA Ute]

Pretty hard-hitting Romney ad:

[YOUTUBE]EP2GsRzROF8[/YOUTUBE]

I think the pres may wish he hadn't used the "bump in the road" metaphor.