The 2012 Republican Primary thread, early edition

[Green Monstah]

Why is this news? Embarrassing. This is right there with Ashley Madison's endorsement.

This ranks right up there with Jeb Bush's son's endorsement of Huntsman.

Even though he doesn't have great on-camera demeanor, I think a lot of Repubs should give him a second look. He takes a fairly level-headed approach to almost every issue. Maybe that's not what the Repubs are after this go-round, however.

[YOhio]

This ranks right up there with Jeb Bush's son's endorsement of Huntsman.

Even though he doesn't have great on-camera demeanor, I think a lot of Repubs should give him a second look. He takes a fairly level-headed approach to almost every issue. Maybe that's not what the Repubs are after this go-round, however.

I'd be thrilled if Huntsman were able to take over the Romney alternative role.

[LA Ute]

Interesting. I thought that was one of the worst parts of the debate for Mitt. His face after Newt asked him to acknowledge that the PAC was run by Mitt's former people, etc. It was the same face my kids make when I bust them in a lie. Then Mitt said he hadn't seen the commercials, but went on to point out line-by-line the one commercial he had seen.

That was awkward. Still, Newt did open the door to Mitt pointing out that the "lies" Newt is whining about really aren't lies.

[oxcoug]

Per CBS polling Romney the only Republican candidate running ahead of Obama

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57355518-503544/poll-among-gop-hopefuls-romney-fares-best-against-obama/

[myboynoah]

Per CBS polling Romney the only Republican candidate running ahead of Obama

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...against-obama/

And Ron Paul does better than santorum and a fat troll.

[Uncle Ted]

Per CBS polling Romney the only Republican candidate running ahead of Obama

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...against-obama/

Wrong...

The margin of error is plus or minus three points and Ron Paul is only listed at an one point difference. Therefore, there are two Republicans that could be running ahead of Obama in this survey.

[Uncle Ted]

Lobbyists love Romney...

[Color Me Badd Fan]

The winner in Dixville Notch -- Buddy Roemer

[calicoug]

Back when Obama was elected you were advocating that we finally were going to get a President willing to have an adult conversation with us. Purposely obfuscating economic development by taking the ever consistent "heartless" approach is not exactly real adult, IMO. An adult might point out that the real world is "heartless" and it requires competition. We can get competitive or we lose jobs.

Regardless, I am not convinced this gets Obama significant traction on this issue. One, I admit I am blinded by ideology much like you, but I am not so convinced the independents will be as negatively influenced by this as you liberals think they will. I believe most have enough of an understanding of economics, free trade and market principles to understand that being competitive is a good thing. Second, Obama is going to want to stay away from economic based messages. The tired liberal argument that too heavy an emphasis on allowing companies to be more competitive in the international market lead to the financial crisis would get more traction if liberal governing principles had more tangible success.

It is what it is. The job of a VC is "heartless" no matter what you would like it to be. That doesn't make it evil or even wrong. It's just the nature of the beast. VC's don't make money by being compassionate. They make money by stripping away anything that isn't likely to make money in the short term and they discard it (usually by selling it off at a low price). Quite often, that process involves elimination of many jobs. That's just a fact.

I have never said I oppose the work of PE/VC firms. They play an important role. BUT, Mitt is the one who is trumping that work as if he was out to create jobs every single day and that is a gross distortion of what he did for a living. It is absolutely no surprise at all that it is going to be a political liability for him and he is making it worse by pretending that his VC firm did something no other VC firm in the world does- care about job creation.

Mitt has routinely said he created over 100,000 jobs. That, as I said before, is pure garbage. Mitt's spokespeople have done the helpful job of telling us how that number was calculated. Basically, they took all surviving companies that Bain funded while Mitt was there, then added up all the jobs that exist at those companies today (whether or not those jobs were created after Mitt left Bain), and didn't net out any jobs that were cut in the process. I suppose one could argue that "created" 100,000 jobs, but only if one would then also argue that every single job that was created while Clinton was president plus all the jobs created after he left office are credited to Clinton without any deduction for any job losses. That process would make Washington the single greatest job creator in the history of the world. Maybe that means something to someone, but it shouldn't. It's sham math. Using that same process for Obama would mean he has created several million jobs already (except Mitt says he hasn't- but when has consistency been Mitt's forte?).

[YOhio]

The winner in Dixville Notch -- Buddy Roemer

Interesting story. Buddy's daughter Caroline is a Utahan and has become somewhat of a GOP insider, including her work inside Mike Leavitt's 2000 gubernatorial campaign.

[byu71]

I don't know if the dems want to go after Mitt and Bain that hard. There are the quotes out there where Biden and I think Obama praise Corzine as the smartest guy on economics out there.

What happened at Corzines house and Bain are miles apart when it comes to ripping people off. You could also point to all the cronies in the dem party during the Clinton years who got sweeheart deals in the interenet sphere, made millions selling the stock, before the company went under.

[pelagius]

Just went to the polls. As usual it looks like turn out is extremely high in our little town.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Santorum refused to join in taking Romney's "like to fire people" statement out of context. I made a statement before that Santorum was joining in the Perry- Newt anti-capitalism rant, but that's clearly not the case. Santorum isn't as stupid as Perry and not as undisciplined, vengeful, and ideologically rudderless as Newt.

[Green Monstah]

Santorum refused to join in taking Romney's "like to fire people" statement out of context. I made a statement before that Santorum was joining in the Perry- Newt anti-capitalism rant, but that's clearly not the case. Santorum isn't as stupid as Perry and not as undisciplined, vengeful, and ideologically rudderless as Newt.

As a relatively young Texan, I simply don't understand how Perry has been elected here. Homeboy is a textbook definition of dumbass. It really makes me question my unabashed love for Texans.

[il Padrino Ute]

The one positive that Romney can take away from this primary should he be the nominee is that there may not be anything that the Obama campaign can say about him that hasn't already been said. All Romney will have to do is point to the dismal failure that Obama is as POTUS and ask "You sure you want more of this?"