There are still some people that don’t like any of the Republicans that are running. Or, at least, don’t like the ones polling the best.
Currently leading the pack is Atlanta businessman Herman Cain. He’s the guy who has no chance whatsoever, despite leading the polls. Some people don’t like him because he has no experience in politics, except for losing a Senate race (2nd in a 3-man primary). He’s too conservative for moderates. He’s too black (color) for some liberals and not black (racial stereotype) enough for other liberals. And he has too much testosterone for Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann fans. He’s trending up.
Then there’s Mitt Romney, who everybody hates and the media and GOP establishment has declared the frontrunner, even though he currently polls in second place. Front-runner must not mean what I thought it meant. He’s too liberal for anyone who’s not a liberal. He’s trending neither up nor down.
Rick Perry was the great hope before he ran. Once he declared he was running, suddenly nobody liked him any more. His being a former Democrat hurts him with conservatives. Supporting some benefits for illegals hurts him too. After briefly leading the polls, he’s now third or fourth, depending on the poll. But he’s trending down.
There’s Newt Gingrich, who was written off months ago but is in 3rd or 4th place, depending on the poll, and trending up. He lead the conservative takeover of Congress back in the Clinton years, but committed the unforgivable sins of sitting on a couch with Nancy Pelosi and supporting a RINO over a TEA Party candidate in New York in 2010. Plus, he pisses people off by being smarter than them. I can relate.
Then there’s Ron Paul, who’s been nuts for years and keeps getting nuts following him. Including two children that share my DNA. Kids. What are you gonna do? Anyway, Ron Paul has really crazy followers who either take too much drugs or not enough medication. He’s got like 3 really good ideas and 800 really nutty ones. His followers focus on the 3 good ones when they argue, then slip up and tell you how evil Jews are and how the Twin Towers were blown up by George Bush. Like I said, crazy. He’s trending up.
Michele Bachmann is trending down. She’s like the hot chick you wanted to date, then while sitting in the restaurant, you realize that she talks to the silverware. She’s still hot, but you keep thinking she’s going to go all Glenn Close on you and you’ll find your rabbit in the kitchen.
Jon Huntsman is still hanging around because some libertarians — and a bunch of liberaltarians — like him. Probably because he thinks pot should be given out instead of condoms. Or something. I was never quite sure what he was saying. Philosophically, he’s what you get if you cross Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. Now, go get that image out of your head.
Sarah Palin and Chris Christie aren’t running this year, though they still have fans thinking they will.
Now, despite the things I listed about the candidates that different people don’t like, there are groups that like each of these candidates, and like them a lot. Way too much, for some.
There are some Ron Paul or Rick Perry or Sarah Palin or Michele Bachman fans that say they won’t vote for anyone but their candidate. They focus on the things about the candidates that they don’t like (can you count to 999?) and say how unqualified that makes that candidate.
“I’ll never vote for Newt Gingrich!” or “If they nominate Herman Cain, I won’t vote” or “RONPAUL!!!1!!!” or the like.
Honestly, there are things about each candidate that I don’t like. Been that way since the 1976 election, the first where I was old enough to vote.
There are some candidates I really like (though, like I said, not everything they say), some I like okay, and some that I really don’t like. But, come November 2012, I’m going to vote.
Over the last several months, and again Thursday, someone said to me that if the election came down to a certain candidate (rhymes with Sherman Payne) against Obama, he wouldn’t vote. Others have said something similar in the past.
I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t not vote.
You see, if we end up with a candidate that we don’t really like — I won’t name names, but say his name rhymes with Ritt Momney — I still can’t sit the election out.
Think about it. Who will vote for those candidates? People that really like them. What kind of people would really like Barack Obama or some polarizing Republican? You already think the people that support those candidates are nuts. Well, yeah, they might be. And they’ll vote.
I may have two crazy candidates from which to choose, but I would rather choose than let a bunch of crazies choose between the crazies. I’ll vote for the least worst, and I’m responsible if that candidate wins. Plus, I’ll know I did everything I could to prevent the most worst candidate from winning.
I can’t not vote. I may not like the final choices, but I’m not going to go off crying like a little tittie baby who got his toy took from him.
I can deal with it.
What about Rick Santorum? Can’t you play along with the rest of us and pretend hes a real candidate for a little bit longer???
Oh, yeah. Santorum. What Rob said.
Sir I do not know where you get your logic. If Ron Paul is considerd “nuts” then this country is phucked. He was called nuts in 1998 when he said our foreign policy is causing resentment around the world which is going to cause an attack(which Americans still cannot see because they live in a closed off room watchin dancing with the stars and their monday night football) and was also called “nuts” when he said that Fannie May and Freddy Mac and Alan Greenspan had created a housing bubble that is on the verge of popping. He doesn’t have a degree in economics, but has a great deal of common sense. When he addressed the media about it they all laughed him off the air waves, but guess what…that nutty guy was right. All the well paid “top economists” never saw it comming but somehow a congressman from Texes did and he is “nuts?” Also, he has hundreds of thousands of supporters all of which donate money to his campaign(over the last day and a half they contributed $2.5 million) and I have never heard of a druggie giving away their dough for anything other than dope. Also, when you call his supporters druggies or in need of medication you spit on our fellow solders dieing for this country for they donated more money to Dr. Paul than they did Obama and all other republican wannabees put together. If you disrespect our troops you are disrespecting America and I would just like to know how you can sleep at night doing that? Also, it makes sense that the only one who has integrety and a voting record to prove it be called nuts in this country for George Carlin once said “If your born into this planet, you’re born into a freak show. If your born in the U.S. you have a FRONT ROW SEAT!” And you sir prove it. To all reading this, if you want to be a slave to debt and gov’t vote for Obama or Romney, but if you want a balenced budgit youtube Ron Paul and vote for him in the primary. RON PAUL 2012 ALL OR NOTHING
Thanks for proving my point. I owe you one.
rob is right, Basil is wrong. Please clarify which of Ron Paul’s common sense ideas are supposed to be “nutty”?
Judging a candidate by one or two supporters you have met is a pathetic move. I’d rather vote for Jesus than Hitler, even if Jesus has satanist supporters and Hitler has christian supporters.
And the nuts continue to prove my point.
I hope my children are paying attention.
Election Day 2012 should be a great celebration of our ability to correct our national mistakes, the lighting of the light at the end of the tunnel, the beginning of the end of “our long national nightmare.” I will vote, I will vote for someone, and I will vote against Obama.
And if I were a Democrat in Chicago, I would vote against Obama again, and again, and again. But I’m a law-and-order conservative in Georgia, so I will only vote once per election. But it will be against Obama.
He doesn’t have a degree in economics, but has a great deal of common sense. “top economists” never saw it comming but somehow a congressman from Texes did and he is “nuts?” It didn’t take an economist – it takes someone who can balance a checkbook.
the only one who has integrety and a voting record to prove it . . . A voting record to prove he can’t spell?
Amen, brother! A.B.O!
Basil, I couldn’t agree more with your basic premise. No matter what the choices are, I have not only a right, but a responsibility to air my voice. I need to step up what I’m doing on my side to push for the candidate I want to see win the primary (I should be blogging more, and stop letting life’s business distract me from it, and hitting the streets, talking to more people, etc), but failing that victory, I should absolutely still go to the polls, and make a choice.
The choices may not be the best come November of 2012, they may be uncomfortable, it may even make me itch in my own skin to cast the vote, but it needs to be done. My line in the sand has been drawn, now it’s time to stand my ground firmly.
GO SOMEONE WHO ISN’T SOCIALIST/MARXIST!!!!!
Even if you think you can’t vote for the GOP nominee, you need to vote for the other good guys down-ticket and in your local races.
The only thing worse than returning the W-uh-n to the Whitehouse would be to reunite him with “Speaker of the House” Nanzi Pelosi.
Personally, the fact that there are likely to be at least one and possibly two Supremes up for replacement this term makes it really really hard for me to find any rationale to abstain form voting for A.B.O. (even it were RONPAUL!1!)
Eeewww. Now I have to take a shower.
SCOTUS FTW
Let me summarize for you Basil:
“American Presidential Politics is an inherently binary proposition. ‘If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.'”
Of course, your treatise on the subject makes for a far more interesting starting point to a conversation. Sometimes the obvious must be stated.
I really should run all my posts by you. You summarize them so well.
Either that, or not write while the TV is on; I get distracted and start to … OOOOH! A penny!
Speaking of binary propositions, I voted for Bush in the 2000 election despite his “compassionate conservatism”; which I knew translated to “Big Government” conservative. No regrets on that one, either. For all of his blunders, Bush cut taxes, employed a muscular (if misguided at times) foreign policy, and appointed solid Supreme Court justices. Win. No way we would have had that with a President Gore -or subsequently a President Kerry.
By the way, I was a Florida resident in 2000. Hey America, you’re welcome.
Eh, I’m an engineer. I don’t have to be concise, but it makes it easier. I’m fond of noting that if necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is surely the father.
I have never not voted since reaching my legal majority in 1967. I don’t intend to start staying home at this late date.
As a former Marine, what some might call a “solder”, I’ve been treated to some of the vilest epitaphs imaginable. I’ve been called “baby killer”, mindless killer, tool of the imperialist masters, one who makes war on women and children, and on and on.
Only two kinds of people have ever taken it upon themselves to judge me in this manner; hippies, the real 60’s long-haired smelly version, not these pathetic plastic wannabes in Wall St, and Ron Paul supporters.
Vote for the man that has done more for the conservative movement than all other Republicans combined.
Conservatives for Obama.
Because some folks are still on the fence about liberalism.
Meh! The media will soon confirm for us that Mitt is “our” Republican candidate. Unfortunately, I think that true, long-term reform would have to come from a sensible, viable 3rd Party that would eventually replace the Republican Party. The Republican and Democrat Parties are both unstoppable, entrenched political machines that have taken over and control politics in our country. When something becomes “too big to fail,” it is probably best to let it fail so we can start over.
Sgt Relic: The soldering you have done for your fellow Americans is appreciated. God Bless You!
I love how the Ron Paul nuts are so lacking in self awareness that they think they sound sane.
Pro tip: no one reads comments that have more than 3 or 4 consecutive lines of text. And if you have more than 10 consecutive lines of text, everyone assumes you’re a subliterate moron.
Paragraphs are your friend.
Best thing about the election season? Entirely self-unaware Ronulan rants in IMAO comments. Awesome-O!
My mantra (a little new age libtard lingo) for the next year is that any of our guys is better than any of their guys. Some much better than others. I am convinced that Obama’s dismantling of the Amercian economy is no mistake. In my line of work I am watching men and women who created businesses on their own from the ground up who are losing everything they have spent a lifetime working for. Any or our guys running would put a stop to that, I hope. Some more thasn others.
9which won’t take much)
You lost me at “(Cain) has too much testosterone for Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann fans.”
It was a sexist joke. They’re all three TEA Party favorites, but they’re women and he’s a guy.
I originally planed to say “penis,” but that would have been taken way out of context.
Ever since Ace of Spades went Charles Johnson over Palin and her supporters I no longer doubt the sincerity of comments like that, but I understand you were making a funny.
Sgt Relic: Bless you and thank you.
That’s the best summary of Ron Paul that I’ve heard!
“Currently leading the pack is Atlanta businessman Herman Cain.”
…although you’d never know it from listening to the ‘mainstream’ media or the Republican establishment.
I love you, Basil, but I find your continual characterizations of this issue inaccurate and unbecoming of you.
Choosing against voting for someone like Romney and Perry because they show no ability to uphold the Constitution of the United States does not constitute running away like a kid who wasn’t picked for the team. I’m very much tired of that notion.
Marko, if the characterization doesn’t apply to you, then it doesn’t apply to you. However, I do encounter the very attitude I describe, and I encounter it a lot.
You say you can’t vote for Romney, Perry, or other fax-conservatives on a matter of principle. Okay. There is nothing wrong with principles.
But weigh those principles against the principles that two new Supreme Court justices will apply for the next 204 years or more. Can you honestly say that you think Romney’s, Perry’s, or any Republican’s nominees would be as bad as Obama’s?
If you write-in “RON PAUL!!!!!”, what’s the correct number of exclamation points to make sure the vote gets properly counted?
Yosoff:
Eleventy.
I’m with Marko on this one. Too many voters vote the party line. I can’t fault anyone who looks at each candidate objectively and chooses not to cast a vote for someone who does not uphold the basic standards of their constituents. If Barak can vote “present”, why can’t we vote “no”.
Conservatarian:
Because there is no “no” on the ballot. Besides, doesn’t the SCOTUS nominee make it possible to vote for some sh*thead Republican instead of letting others give Obama the chance to pack the court?
Basil,
I don’t know that Romney/Perry’s SCOTUS candidates will be better or worse than Obama’s candidates but I do know that I don’t trust either Romney or Perry any more than I trust Obama.
Disagreed with some position of every candidate since ’76, Basil? Ronald Reagan ìncluded? You are a COMMIE!
@Sgt. Relic: Thanks for serving — in the world’s most elite fighting force, no less.
Burmashave:
Reagan campaigned on a return to the gold standard. I felt that, with the economy in the shape it was in, that would have been very stressful on the banks. I may have been wrong, since I was only 22.
Reagan didn’t follow through, which means he decided I was right after all.
So there.
They had a local election here in Memphis 2 weeks ago.
A city councilwoman named Fulloflove was re-elected to her umpteenth term even though she’s been arrested twice for DUI (her nick-name is Full-of-drugs) and driving with a suspended license and is under investigation for a variety of potential malfeasance charges.
Voter turn-out was very low.
It’s not easy to up-root an incumbent politician unless everyone pulls together.
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RP supporters – lets be honest with your idol. Nobody cares what he has to say, because everyone already knows where he stands on every issue. I bet there isn’t a single person out there that says to himself, “Gee, I wonder what Ron Paul would say about that”. And then you complain about how someone that has been doing the same thing he’s always done for the past 50 years doesn’t get enough media attention. That means you can stop posting “RON PAUL 2012!!!1!!1!!!one!!1” on every single site that has a “submit” button, because believe it or not you’re NOT going to change anyone’s mind.
@Basil: Ha! You took me seriously. I win!
You’re still a commie, though.
But you still found out that when I disagreed with Reagan, he changed his mind and came around to my way of thinking. That’s just how awesome I am.
Ha, ha, ha.
You said you “you could relate” to the fact that people get pissed of when they realize Newt is smarter than them. So you get pissed a lot?
Doootz :
I’m getting that way now, in fact.