Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's JournalI personally hope he keeps this up
He's got the right-leaning voters pretty well locked down now, at least insofar as he won't need to convince any of them to NOT vote for President Obama. However, while he's busy "preaching to the choir," he won't be speaking to the moderates and indies whom he will need to swing the election in his favor. Additionally, the more time he spends in front of "friendly" right-wing crowds, the more of a right-wing teabagger he will need to become in order to keep the audiences friendly. If he starts moderating (excuse me, shaking that Etch-A-Sketch), the teabaggers will revolt and if he keeps throwing red meat at them, the more his ability to capture the moderates and indies will be diminished. Meanwhile, President Obama will be out there talking to all sorts of crowds- friendly and unfriendly- and he will stand a better chance of winning more votes. Romney also won't be prepared for the decidedly "unfriendly" forum of the Presidential debates- at which point President Obama will be able to thoroughly demolish him. President Obama went into a LOT of "unfriendly" forums (Saddleback, Bill O'Reilly Show) in 2008, which I think ultimately helped make him stronger. Hell, the guy even spoke at a House GOP conference as President in 2010 and made the Republicans there look like a bunch of buffoons! I can't wait to see how he will wail on R.MONEY- he won't know what hit him!
Didn't Bain help sink Romney before
in the US Senate race against Kennedy in 1994? I guess, ultimately, it will be up to the people to decide whether or not Romney's past as a venture capitalist will help or hurt him but since he's making the case that he has the business chops (as a result of having worked for Bain) to save the US economy- despite the fact I'm not quite sure how his expertise in venture capitalism will help the national economy- I think that questioning his role with Bain is fair game. To me, thinking of Romney applying venture capitalism to our national economy, frankly, is not very reassuring though, now that I think about it, cutting federal employees and selling off public assets (via "privatization"
to corporate interests is essentially something that Republicans have been advocating (and doing) for the past 20-30 years and I can't say that results have been good for anybody but the 1%.
It's certainly a legitimate issue to debate and discuss
and I can't say that I am fully comfortable with this, however the question for me is: What's a reasonable and humane alternative strategy for getting these guys out of commission- to where they're at least not able to threaten people?
"Anybody but Obama"
seems to be the main GOP *strategy* for 2012. I don't necessarily believe, however, it's going to drive people to the polls enough to vote for somebody like Romney because most people don't have the same blinding rage and hatred towards President Obama that they do. They may not agree with all of his policies but that seems to be mainly because they think most of his policies don't go far enough, not that they go too far and I don't sense an overwhelming desire for the Republican's preferred economic policies and I think that that will become clearer as the two parties hold their conventions and, particularly, when the debates start and people can see what each side is pitching and I sincerely believe that they will prefer President Obama's policies over R.MONEY's.
Aren't the waivers already being made available as part of ACA
sort of a "lifeline" for single-payer? Frankly, I think that universal SP is going to come from the ground up, not the top-down. Once some states adopt it and if it works out, people in other states will invariably take notice and if they want it too, they'll push their own legislators to give it to them as well. Likewise for all of those Republican "free market" fans, they will have an opportunity to prove the superiority of their *ideas* as well- as long as they can demonstrate that they at least meet the standards set by ACA. All in all, ACA really wasn't that bad of a deal IMHO when you consider things like this.
Picking winners
or maintaining her existing *ability* to be able to issue fatwas for/against certain candidates to her teabagging supporters and having them continue to go along with them?
If she's "maturing", then the next logical step for her would be to run for POTUS- somehow I have the feeling she won't ever run, however.
I feel the same exact way
And my wife and I are both employed pretty much at the same level. Our biggest problem is that our bills keep going up whole our income has pretty much stagnant- to the point that we are struggling just to pay our bills/necessary expenditures (food, gas, etc). It sucks but we feel like there is no way out short of losing some expenses (which have been pretty much cut as far back as possible) or boosting our income somehow-though we don't know exactly how to do that except for working 24-7. Not a fun existence.
Its not like his "critics"
who are complaining incessantly about President Obama being "un presidential" by being more aggressive towards the GOP sure as hell didn't support him much and/or attack the GOP for being hyper partisan extremists when President Obama was trying to be more conciliatory towards the GOP when he was first inaugurated. Nobody hit the fainting couch when President Bush was running for re-election in 2004 and helped unleash the SBVT attacks against Kerry.
Wonder how much the Republicans are regretting unlimited campaign spending now
unleashed via SCOTUS?
I hope that they spend boatloads of money.........and have NOTHING to show for it after November.....except for emptier wallets.
I don't agree that it was a good idea for him to get involved in that situation either
Whenever he gets involved in something local, it tends to wind up all about him- not necessarily intentionally and not because that's what he wants- but he does tend to galvanize wingnuts and if it doesn't turn out the right way, the blame invariably gets laid at his feet for "not doing enough" and/or Fox News and the conservative media get to crow about another victory "against Obama". There's just little benefit for him or anybody else from his involvement. Plus, when he is involved, he is throwing his very (heavy) political weight into the ring, which makes it hard to lend credibility to grassroots movements. IMHO he needs to focus on national issues and leave state and local political issues alone unless they somehow impact/influence federal laws or his governance of the country.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,406
