UNLIMITED GOP 2012 PRIMARY CANDIDATE THREAD

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I think they're banking on America being so fed up with Obama that they could run just anybody and win. They're just showing off how extreme they can go and still be considered a threat. The sad part is they could be right.

[Cain]

Polls don't look good for Romney though, and Ryan could easily end up another Palin, if the Democrats run even a half competent smear campaign.  Most people don't know who he is, and those who do have a slightly negative opinion of him (except in Teabagger and Beltway circles, where he's simply marvellous - see Will Saletan's wanking over Ryan in his most recent article).

I suspect this is another part of Romney's signalling to the financial services industry that he is their guy, way more than Obama will ever be.  Ryan has the largest campaign chest of any currently sitting Congressman, despite actually being one of the least well off, and it's paid for almost entirely by the financial services industry - and he has more funding from them than any other congressman either.  Ryan placates the hardliners in the party who are worried about Moderate Romney returning, as well.

That said, bringing in Ryan is a huge risk for the Republicans.  As Chairman of the House Budget Committee, he has a huge amount of say over fiscal policy, and his hardline views make it difficult to sway him to a more reasonable position.  But he has to leave that position to be part of Romney's campaign. 

He's also a career politician, with little in the way of life experience outside of DC...which rather contradicts Romney's whole platform, that success in the private sector is what will save America, and expertise like that, rather than professional politicians and community organisers, is needed in the White House.

Also, given both have extremely limited executive experience, especially when it comes to foreign policy, this mean's Romney's team of advisors will like dictate policy in those areas.  It just so happens Romney's advisors are, by and large, neoconservative nutjobs.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Cain, there's another possibility that you and Vex are overlooking.

The GOP could just be batshit insane with butthurt, as an organization.  Not just some advisors, but the whole damn thing.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

What if they're being paid to throw the election?

Part of my mind assumes that's how it works.

Cain, there's another possibility that you and Vex are overlooking.

The GOP could just be batshit insane with butthurt, as an organization.  Not just some advisors, but the whole damn thing.

The other part of my mind is going HAR HAR. THIS. 

[Luna]

Bloody hell, I go away for a couple weeks, and Romney's cheese slips even further off his cracker...

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Bloody hell, I go away for a couple weeks, and Romney's cheese slips even further off his cracker...

He picked the official class brown nose. It's in the yearbook. 
http://www.theatlantic.com/​technology/archive/2012/08/​paul-ryan-brown-noser-the-wikip​edia-edit-wars-begin-for-romne​ys-running-mate/261022/

[Luna]

Bloody hell, I go away for a couple weeks, and Romney's cheese slips even further off his cracker...

He picked the official class brown nose. It's in the yearbook. 
http://www.theatlantic.com/​technology/archive/2012/08/​paul-ryan-brown-noser-the-wikip​edia-edit-wars-begin-for-romne​ys-running-mate/261022/

      

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Serious analysis:

Romney's assumption is that there's no way to win the election by moving to the center, because that will alienate half of his base and they'll stay home, and nobody likes him very much at either end, so a move to the center isn't likely to increase his chances anyway. He picked Ryan because it will shore up and energize the GOP base, adding Tea Party cred to the ticket. His strategy is to strengthen and fill out the GOP's base and maximize the number of likely voters, and hope that too many Dems just don't feel like going outside on election day. Ultimately, choosing Ryan says nothing about Romney's actual positions or beliefs (if he has any), but it says a lot about his having given up on winning over anybody sane.

ETA: I don't actually think this needs any more serious analysis than Roger's assumption that they're all a pile of bat shit crazy window-licking asylum cases, which is a perfectly adequate observation.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

One of the young'uns, might have been Nast or Paesor, once coined my favorite phrase ever:

"Everyone's in the club car, nobody's driving the train."



It has never been more appropriate.

[Cain]

He could have chosen any number of Tea Party favoured nutters, however,  Rubio and Jindal come to mind.  Jindal, hideous political views aside, would not have been an entirely terrible choice.  Rubio would have been, but it would have pleased the Teabaggers and commentators just as much, and allowed for tons of nonsense about "winning back the Latino vote".

That out of all of those he chose Ryan sends a pretty clear signal - this is about giving the banks and the financial services geeks a sloppy blowjob.

All that said, Ryan doesn't seem to have learnt how to talk like a politician, given the incredible amount of truth in this 2007 statement:

"[Since Democrats took over Congress] we've heard comparisons about how much we are spending on the war as opposed to children's health insurance or education programs or what have you. But nothing has really changed. The president continues to send his war funding requests to the Hill and, in the end, he continues to get what he asks for."

You nearly gave the game away, d00d.  Remember, Democrats, peacenik, cheese-eating surrendur monkeys who hate the military, Republicans heroic, steak eating men of hard choices and going to war.  You can't just go around pointing out both sides are part of the same hyper-militarized political-economical system whose token resistance is used to divide the native population through the ever useful game of "the lesser of two evils".

[AFK]

He needed someone who wasn't going to be horrendously boring like Pawlenty, but also someone who wasn't as fat as Christie.  Plus, I gotta think Christie has written Romney off, and is himself eyeing a run for President in 2016.  He doesn't want Romney's doomed candidacy to taint his chances. 


But in the end it is still a stupid choice.  I mean, he just gave Obama something I imagine he was relishing.  A chance to run against the insanity of the House GOP, and Ryan is pretty much the figurehead for that.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Serious analysis:

Romney's assumption is that there's no way to win the election by moving to the center, because that will alienate half of his base and they'll stay home, and nobody likes him very much at either end, so a move to the center isn't likely to increase his chances anyway. He picked Ryan because it will shore up and energize the GOP base, adding Tea Party cred to the ticket. His strategy is to strengthen and fill out the GOP's base and maximize the number of likely voters, and hope that too many Dems just don't feel like going outside on election day. Ultimately, choosing Ryan says nothing about Romney's actual positions or beliefs (if he has any), but it says a lot about his having given up on winning over anybody sane.

ETA: I don't actually think this needs any more serious analysis than Roger's assumption that they're all a pile of bat shit crazy window-licking asylum cases, which is a perfectly adequate observation.

Which pretty much means that Romney's going to win this for sure.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Serious analysis:

Romney's assumption is that there's no way to win the election by moving to the center, because that will alienate half of his base and they'll stay home, and nobody likes him very much at either end, so a move to the center isn't likely to increase his chances anyway. He picked Ryan because it will shore up and energize the GOP base, adding Tea Party cred to the ticket. His strategy is to strengthen and fill out the GOP's base and maximize the number of likely voters, and hope that too many Dems just don't feel like going outside on election day. Ultimately, choosing Ryan says nothing about Romney's actual positions or beliefs (if he has any), but it says a lot about his having given up on winning over anybody sane.

ETA: I don't actually think this needs any more serious analysis than Roger's assumption that they're all a pile of bat shit crazy window-licking asylum cases, which is a perfectly adequate observation.

Which pretty much means that Romney's going to win this for sure.

Either Romney's going to win, or Obama's going to win. Either way, there's only a .5% chance that anything will change for the better - and if that happens, it'll have nothing to do with who won this election.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Serious analysis:

Romney's assumption is that there's no way to win the election by moving to the center, because that will alienate half of his base and they'll stay home, and nobody likes him very much at either end, so a move to the center isn't likely to increase his chances anyway. He picked Ryan because it will shore up and energize the GOP base, adding Tea Party cred to the ticket. His strategy is to strengthen and fill out the GOP's base and maximize the number of likely voters, and hope that too many Dems just don't feel like going outside on election day. Ultimately, choosing Ryan says nothing about Romney's actual positions or beliefs (if he has any), but it says a lot about his having given up on winning over anybody sane.

ETA: I don't actually think this needs any more serious analysis than Roger's assumption that they're all a pile of bat shit crazy window-licking asylum cases, which is a perfectly adequate observation.

Which pretty much means that Romney's going to win this for sure.

Either Romney's going to win, or Obama's going to win. Either way, there's only a .5% chance that anything will change for the better - and if that happens, it'll have nothing to do with who won this election.

I'm really counting on global warming, here.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Romney is doomed.  Trust me on this.