The 2012 Republican Primary thread, early edition

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Mitt Romney was just trying to hold serve last night. Certainly not his best performance, though I do wish that they wouldn't have these debates in front of the studio audience from an episode of Jerry Springer. Although Newt's idea of putting kids to work as janitors has some limited virtues, it's not really that plausible and simply shows that Newt is a big government conservative -- no thanks.

Santorum's "gotcha" of going after Romney on the felon voting issue is laughable. Going after Romney based on certain aspects of Massachusetts state law has been tried repeatedly and it fails. Everyone knows that MA is a liberal state and there's only so much a governor can do about peripheral and social issues. But it's not much of gotcha when Santorum has to admit to wanting felons (violent offenders included) to vote in the process.

During the pair of debates leading up to New Hampshire, we saw a really good Romney performance and then one that was just okay. I'm thinking we'll see a better Romney outing in the debate that takes place on Thursday.

[beefytee]

Let's see... Iowa and NH have 11 electoral college votes. IF Romney wins S. Carolina (Paul has been coming up fast in the polls) that will add another 8... so if my math is right that is 19.

Well, Texas has 32 electoral college votes and guess who got the highest percentage in the latest poll:

When you say poll here, you mean straw poll.

Ron Paul is know to have a fanatical base that will move mountains to have him look good, including bombing internet polls and taking over these get togethers where there are these straw polls.

As for actual polls, a new one came out today:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...mary-1598.html

[Pelado]

Bad night for Ron Paul? I don't see how. i loved his line that the only thing he regretted about his negative ads on Santorum was that he couldn't fit enough negativity in the 60 second time slot.
Paul didn't say anything we hadn't heard from him before on foreign policy. I'd guess that Hewitt has been thinking for some time that Ron Paul is hurting himself in the debates. But he hasn't.

While I agree that Paul said essentially the same things he's been saying, I felt like it was a weaker debate for Paul - more reminiscent of his 2008 performances that left me wondering "Why the hell is this old dude talking incessantly about the gold standard?" While I better understand where he's coming from this time around (and agree with him in many ways), last night was not one of his more coherent appearances.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Going after Romney based on certain aspects of Massachusetts state law has been tried repeatedly and it fails. Everyone knows that MA is a liberal state and there's only so much a governor can do about peripheral and social issues. But it's not much of gotcha when Santorum has to admit to wanting felons (violent offenders included) to vote in the process.

Any objective political junkie will look at Romney in Mass and should be entirely astounded by his body of work, considering only 17%-24% of the Assembly were from the Republican Party (depending on the year). That line of attack should actually show that Romney is a bridge builder who plays nicely with all others out on the playground.

[YOhio]

"There are high expectations for Romney to win a state which demographically he should not be winning," said Al Cardenas, who headed Hispanic outreach for Romney in the 2008 election but has stayed neutral in this race because he now heads the American Conservative Union. "I believe that for these very same reasons, it will be very difficult for Romney to win on Saturday despite polling information to the contrary."

....

"South Carolina has one of the strongest Tea Party movements in America with 60-plus active chapters and a very strong evangelical [Christian] presence as well," he said, and argued that the state "clearly represent[ed] one of Mitt's biggest challenges."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...2A_Gs0.twitter

[Goatnapper'96]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...2A_Gs0.twitter

Mitt will win. BYU will get into the Big-12 and you will still be a PUSSY!

[YOhio]

Mitt will win. BYU will get into the Big-12 and you will still be a PUSSY!

Why don't you go back to thumbsucking with Lebowski in the Davies thread. It seems like it was quite therapeutic. "Dammit! It was supposed to be our year! I even told my wife on our drive back to Idaho! It was supposed to be special! But I'm over it. So over it."

[Goatnapper'96]

Why don't you go back to thumbsucking with Lebowski in the Davies thread. It seems like it was quite therapeutic. "Dammit! It was supposed to be our year! I even told my wife on our drive back to Idaho! It was supposed to be special! But I'm over it. So over it."

What does any of that have to do with your needing more tubes of KY Jelly than the Provo Best Western in the months of December and May?

[YOhio]

What does any of that have to do with your needing more tubes of KY Jelly than the Provo Best Western in the months of December and May?

Because your need affects the supply.

[oxcoug]

A guy I know in the Des News - actually one of the more prescient political thinkers out there, the Des News is lucky to have him.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...mney.html?pg=1

Interesting read on South Carolina's changing dynamics - and Republican candidates coded signals on race, religion and confederacy.

[Shaka]

A guy a know in the Des News - actually one of the more prescient political thinkers out there, the Des News is lucky to have him.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...mney.html?pg=1

Interesting read on South Carolina's changing dynamics - and Republican candidates coded signals on race, religion and confederacy.

What a hack. He probably wasn't good enough to write for his college newspaper and had to write for the off-campus rag.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Perry is so stupid it's breathtaking. I keep waiting to learn that his entire campaign is an SNL skit.

[YOhio]

Perry is so stupid it's breathtaking. I keep waiting to learn that his entire campaign is an SNL skit.

Yeah. That's one of the things that's surprised me most in this cycle. I knew he was somewhat gaffe prone, but more along the lines of a Joe Biden or even W. I was wrong. He's a dummy.

[oxcoug]

Perry is so stupid it's breathtaking. I keep waiting to learn that his entire campaign is an SNL skit.

Yeah it's pretty mindblowing. I wld like to see a major motion picture comedy based on his campaign. Anyone wanna start the screen play?

What a hack. He probably wasn't good enough to write for his college newspaper and had to write for the off-campus rag.

Sounds about right. And then vented his resentment via an annual issue called "the Daily Unifarce."

[Color Me Badd Fan]

A few national polls were released today and Romney took a nosedive and Gingrich may be getting another surge. Romney's performance on Monday Night may have been worse than I thought.