If You Voted For McCain in '08...

You'd think, but my family thinks I'm insane. Of course, my dad/grandfather are what I call NTP, or New Tea Party. It's funny, because I thought my dad would for sure survive the Bachmann/Beck onslaught. But alas.

When they both said they liked Rick Santorum, I actually lost control and choked on my drink for a second.

Really, the Republican ticket should be a slam-dunk this year: Romney/Paul

Doesn't seem like a great combo, but think about it: The independent GOP would be fine that someone semi-sane got through the gauntlet, and Romney I still think could take the conservative vote just because no one on that side wants to smell what Barack is cookin' - sorry - for another four years.

And Paul as his VP? It seems like a token choice, but if Romney picks someone like Huntsman or Santorum, you're going to have a LOT of pissed off college kids who will just as happily go back to Barack to stick it to the GOP. Picking Ron Paul makes it look like the kids did something really important and will bring them back in come November.

Old fogey GOP? Check
College kids? Check
Libertarians? Not all, but good enough
Conservatives? By default

 

Makes some sense. Although, the conservatives might stay home with a Romney/Paul ticket-- then you're sunk.

Just looking at the latest polling data from Nate Silver's blog..........

It's all Gingrich and Romney with Paul playing the John Edwards role. There ARE some similarities to Obama/Hillary/Edwards of '08.

You know, a brokered convention is not out of the question.

 

Apparently on Leno Friday night, Paul said that Bachmann "hates Muslims" and that Santorum "hates gays and Muslims."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/17/paul-claims-bachmann-hates-muslims/

 

Truth is his best defense.

 

Honest question to the GOPers here gathered: Are these candidates the best representation of the Republican party for 2012?

 

Just watched Romney's interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

I know it doesn't necessarily correlate to governing ability, but he really spoke beautifully about his wife and their relationship. And, maybe it's naive, but it made me like and admire him more.

And, it will appeal to GOP primary voters. He ought to hope a lot of voters in Iowa watched it this morning.

 

I mean I would hardly agree with Paul on much, but yeah, he's right on there.

 

No. But no primary process is.

If we come away with Romney as the nominee, it won't really matter if the other challengers were lesser lights.

 

Az: is it the best we've got for 2012? Yes. Because everyone was hedging bets for 2016.

Mistakenly, it turns out. But they were.

And god I hate Romney, though I can't really put a finger on why. He's just ... weird.

 

I read somewhere that David Brooks mentioned the possibility of there still being a late entrant into the race on NPR the other day.

He specifically mentioned Jeb Bush coming in to stop Gingrich, if necessary.

I just don't see it happening.

Every 4 years, we get the "late entrant", "brokered convention", and "election thrown into the House of Representatives when no candidate gets a majority in the Electoral College" stories.

I guess it's always fun to think about, but it's no more likely this year than any previous cycle. On some level, these stories are lazy rehashes.

This is our field. A nominee will be selected through the primary process, and the election will be decided by the electoral college.

And, I'll give odds on that.

 

Other than Huntsman no. Clearly Romney has not intrigued the masses of GOP voters over the past 4 years or this would be over.

 

I almost put the "will a third party candidate get into the race, and play the role of spoiler" articles in the same "lazy" category.

But, should America Elect be given any real attention?

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/group-clears-path-for-a-third-party-ticket/

They're supposedly going to have ballot access in all 50 states -- no small task -- and hand it over to some undecided candidate.