What questions would you ask tonight, of a specific or any candidate?
Here is one for all of them:
What is the reason for the increase in gas prices at the pump? Is there anything you would be able to do to change it if you were President right now?
One for Romney;
Are you concerned about losing the Michigan vote to Santorum?
One for All of them:
What would you do right now in advance of Iran’s nuclear build up to protect both the United States and Israel?
Would you acknowledge we do not have the funding to continue to support all the entitlement programs we currently are funding at the Federal Government level? Would you also acknowledge that raising taxes will not repair the problem of running out of Federal monies for the extensive amount of entitlement programs we do support from the federal government? In acknowledging the first two parts of this question, name three entitlement programs you would cut, cancelling all funding within 90 days of ending the “program” to be cut.
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There goes Newt on education. Boy, he knows the history of this and how to reform it. I think I have to say that Mitt and Rick have done themselves some good. The other 3 have really been looking tolerantly at Paul as if he is a non-factor.
Kat and Ferd, I hope you and yours are all safe and dry.
Granted I got to the debates late, but from what little I’ve been listening to, it seems to me that Ron Paul has been going after Santorum tonigh. Do you think he may have a pack with Romney to help knock off the competition? For me, I’ve been more impressed with Newt’s answers. I’ve hated the arguing among the candidates. I hate the media’s attempt to wrote Santorum off as an Evangelical nut case. He’s not what I would rank him as envangelica at all- He’s a Christian, Christians aren’t in the minority.
Binky, I saw that exchange between Paul and Santorum and I think you may be right. It’s the part of the debate when I thought Santorum came off weak and whiny. Then Mittens started in on him, basically double-teaming Rick. I’m watching Greta and I heard Trump say, he thought Rick missed an opportunity tonite to land a punch on Mittens.
Yes–Paul went after Santorum. IMHO, Gingrich had a good debate by playing the bemused elder statesman. I was not impressed with either Santorum or Romney, who seemed to be wound too tight and stammered a lot. Rick gets into trouble when the subject turns to contraception. He seemed to be arguing that abstinence is the best way to prevent birth-out-of-wedlock, and not contraception. Nobody pursued him on this line of reasoning, which is just as well. I personally don’t think that teaching abstinence in this day and age will be as effective as contraceptives in preventing unwanted pregnancies. I’ll bet he breathed a sigh of relief when nobody brought up Satan the Devil. This was not an inspiring debate for anybody, but if anything, Gingrich might have won back some of the support that he had lost to Santorum as the main “Not Romney.”
Just read over my comment–Coconut oil, while it’s helped my cholesterol and triglycerides, it hasn’t done a darn thing for my mind/spelling. LOL
Try fish oil,
Completely OT but as the question was asked what do I want to ask of the candidates…by way of an excerpt of Joesph Farah’s G2 Report at WND.
I want to know what each of the candidates would do about the very sickning fact that this administration is sleeping with Al-Zawahiri? and!!!! wait there’s more!
and we have the dipshit in chief doing what to the US nuke arsenel? How would any of them correct this insanity?
http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/russia-resuming-nuclear-armed-missions/
one more question
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/02/22/study-each-child-born-today-will-inherit-1-5-million-worth-of-national-debt/
what will you do about this?
Warren Buffett will help pay it off, I’m sure…..
hey, y’all—-I only saw the opening remarks of the debate—-I’m really hoping something exciting and electrifying happens in the Republican camp in the next few months—and this summer, perhaps Christie and/or Sarah will pop out of a cake at the convention?! Somebody needs to shake things up!
It’ll take something like that to beat not only an incumbant, but THIS incumbant….The Chicago thugs are soooo damn slick, and Rahm will be workin’ his voodoo/doo-doo soon.
The Texas primary date is still not set! This is a wild and wacky season…anything can happen.
I spent a few hours this weekend chatting with some old Democratic friends….all of whom are what I consider Obama’s “base” voters. They ALL spout the party line…There wasn’t an original thought or sentence uttered from them. I told them that all I ask is that peoiple do their homework—-dig for facts—don’t take the networks’ words and stories as gospel…Anyway, my plea fell on deaf ears. Basically, Democrats are lazy and have no desire to engage in critical thought. The Republicans have GOT to counter that!
Thank you for the thread, kat and ferd—Hope y’all are safe and that the storms weren’t too scary!
Open thread rules: Ra Ra Ra, another debate…….as if we don’t know these guys by now……
This has to be the most talented, entertaining, and unique band around these days, I can’t get enough of them.
Funk from Beyond the Grave!
The Mummies–well at least they’re not gimmicky, like say Kiss or Devo! Just kidding. I actually have almost all of their many recordings. Good band!
Listening to the pundits this morning on how bad Santorum did; well I thought he did fine, and actually appreciated him not pretending as he made the choice to tell the truth about his change on specific issues. Does that make him weak, or honest? Is being honest now considered weak?
IMHO, I don’t think he did fine, Kat, but neither did Romney. The “took one for the team” remark is going to hurt. He’s running for CEO of America, and taking one “for the team” could be construed as a partisan willingness to go along to get along. “The team” connotes partisan politics as usual in the conniving halls of Congress. I know, “that’s the nature of politics.” The Dems and the MSM “take one for the team” every single day–and “the team” in their case is the political promotion of Barack Obama. Unfortunately.
I think you are probably right, and the fever has gone to my head a bit; and I am just worn out politically. I don’t know anymore how to “judge” the candidates-based on how the public as a whole will look at it or how I see it? In the end it is the group that will matter.
Don’t despair, Kat. I know just how you feel and, yet, I still am rooting for Gingrich and (even) Santorum. Though I honestly wonder how Santorum will be able to verbally defend himself against obama. Santorum’s message is sincere, forthright and capable but he tends to lead us into the weeds with them and I’m not sure most voters will have the patience and the attention span to follow him through the details. His message is strong and precise, but obama will clobber him with negatives and while he’s ponderously responding to all the lies, his message will get lost and people will grow disinterested. Those are my concerns about Santorum.
And, besides, I really, really, really want to see a debate between obama and Gingrich.
The big lie is X cannot beat Obama. It seems that X can be anything. Obama cannot be beaten! So says CNN, so it must be true.
This is a big fat lie.
Any of these candidates can beat Obama because Obama really sucks.
We need to push the dialog back to Obama’s record as best we can, and get behind the Team R guy.
They need to drag a babbling moron across the finish line.
Our job is actually easier. Which is why they prefer to talk about condoms and other dumb stuff all the time.
OMG! Santorum wants to ban sex! OMG! Vote Obama! OMG! Gingrich hearts Pelosi! OMG! Vote Obama! OMG! Romney is rich! OMG! Vote Obama!
Seriously, that is how they sound to me.
Mitt Romney consistently behaves in two ways that causes the alarm bells to go off and reinforces my negative perception of him:
1. Unlike the other candidates, he accepts every opportunity offered by the moderator(s) to criticize the other candidate’s records instead of turning his response to what he would do instead. He has been extremely consistent in this. To me, it demonstrates how comfortable he is letting (who we know to be prog-biased) media frame the debate. It’s a weak-kneed, sissy thing to do. When he does it, the Sesame Street song, “One of these things is not like the other. One of these things doesn’t belong” goes through my mind. It’s like he’s siding with the left against the GOP. There’s got to be a reason for that. Hmmmm? Think. Think. Think. “Whatever could it be?”
2. 9 times out of 10 his responses turn into canned rhetoric, his eyes focus on some distant object, and he runs on like a broken record stuck on campaign stump speech. Again, unlike the other candidates, I feel as though I am being talked “at” rather than “to.” It’s like he’s waited for a pause in the action to hit his mark and sing his aria. I know he’s done when he blink-blinks his eyeballs, seems to recognize where he’s at again and adjusts his tie. Please, someone hide the quarters! I can’t take another minute of “soaring rhetoric!” (One of the other candidates stated it perfectly, I think it was Santorum, when he said something along the lines, “It’s one thing to truly believe/demonstrate your conservatism versus repeating all the right conservative ideals.”
I know, I know — ABO and all that. But would Romney really be ABO? I don’t trust him. I think he’s cut from the same political cloth; not on the basis of his campaign rhetoric, but on who he is as a person. I see a political opportunist who will consistently use offensive tactics to deflect criticism, much in the same way that obama has consistently used those tactics. It’s that most important element to what we call “the teflon” man. Nothing sticks because they neutralize their opposition through arguments like oppositional equivalency and blaming the predecessor. Just like that gobbledy gook, back and forth that Romney initiated in response to one of Santorum’s criticisms, in the end Romney successfully obscured, deflected and skirted the actual point of Santorum’s statements. Romney’s dollar-per-vote costs are enormously higher than any of his opponents’ campaign costs. And despite that expenditure, he still hasn’t been able to buy the election. What does that tell us? He’s been running for president for five years. He didn’t win last time even within his own party.
Couldn’t Romney find something else to do with his time besides try to buy the presidency?
AA, that just kind of sours the milk doesn’t, when you realize he’s been running for POTUS for 6 years and spent many millions of dollars to do so. And where he is now is : a somewhat decent candidate but, alas, very few voters’s first choice, and for many, their ABO (last) choice. The way he smiles so broadly showing every single bright white tooth, and tilts his head reminds me of the way passengers were depicted enjoying the singing stew in the movie “Airplane!”: a caricature of sincerity.
Also, BINKY AND OOWAWA were right about Paul ganging up on Santorum. Rush is talking now about how Paul NEVER goes after Mittens and that’s because he’s been promised that Rand will be VP.
Funny how one video is worth a thousand words. Perfect, especially the Leslie Neilsen smile. Romney to a “T”.
Any candidate on that stage, and I include Ron Paul, would be better than that monster in the White House. The more he yaps, the more concerned I become that those slack-jawed 69,000,000 who voted for that polished turd will turn around and vote for him again, Make no mistake, a vote for a third-party candidate or a vote for no one IS a vote for Barry.
At this point, I don’t give a rat’s ass who the nominee is, I will give that person my full and undivided support. To do anything else is to ensure this country goes down the tubes.
Furthermore, does anyone *really* believe that whoever the nominee is will not get the support of the other losing candidates? I know I don’t. Say what you will about them, they are all patriots, quite unlike Barry.
I agree! ABO is important because America must say NO to the path we are on. Even if it is a weak Romney shaped NO, or a crazy RonPaul shaped NO. We need to send the message before it is too late.
I am up with jetlag while simultaneously having both power and internet – the stars have aligned for me tonight. Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket.
Ys, yes, yes. I hear ya, Ferd and everyone else about ABO!!!! But that doesn’t mean we can’t criticize Romney for being Romney and we can’t hope for the very best candidate to win the nomination, right? Right? Does anyone here think I won’t vote or that I’ll vote for obama before I’d vote for Romney??? ‘Cause that’s what it feels like whenever I bring up the subject of just how awful Romney is. And he is.
All I’m saying is that the only monolithic Romney support that exists out there is the Romney Campaign and the pro-Romney Establishment Rinos. And they had many people thinking he was “inevitable” and guess what? He isn’t. Look what Santorum is doing to him in his own state. The left is drooling over a Romney nomination the same way they were thinking about Jon Huntsman. Remember him?
It’s still early. And I don’t give an oranatan’s orangeish-red, bare behind if it goes all the way to the convention. I hope it does go to the convention. This is the way it used to work. Voters scream “foul” when the primaries are shortened and now the media has everyone whipped-up over a “brokered” convention as if that was the vilest thing that ever happened. We’ve got 2 really good candidates, so I don’t know what everyone is griping about — wanting to draft this or that person. That’s just plainly ridiculous, when we’ve got 2 good candidates. And even Ron Paul looks better to me than Romney. At least Ron Paul has got some ideas for doing away with all the big government crap we don’t need and has limited our personal freedoms. Romney will be another back-scratching, back-slapping pol that we’ve seen take the oath in the last 60 years. We need huge, huge change and right now! Not another milquetoast pol who’s gonna flip and flop his way through the next four, critical years. Romney is a glad-handing “I play a president on tee vee” pol. Why the heck couldn’t he have been passionate about something else? I swear. And I’m telling you right now, that if we elect someone who appeals to everyone, in the end he will appeal to no one. It’s time to take a stand and go ahead and polarize the country in a way that makes sense. Send all those leftists over the cliff and vote in someone who actually stands for something — not someone who just looks “presidential” but is really just another idiot, dilletante, out of touch, asshat politician who thinks if they spend enough money and buy enough negative ads they got bragging rights to a historic legacy and a presidential library.
Romney? Really???? Until I have to punch that ballot, I’m not settling.
/Rant off.
RDS gone WILD!!!
Good on ya, AA! Well said.
I think ya’all have let irrational personal issues destroy your ability to observe the situation from a reasonably objective perspective; you’ve let your uncontrolled emotions run away with whatever brains you might have had. Quick, yell at your emotions to return your brains before they get out of earshot.
Maybe a truly intelligent Conservative could help you to round up your maverick mental facilities:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=49702&fb_source=message
Of course, I don’t expect GL and AA to actually READ Ann Coulter’s excellent article, I envision them running around with their hands over their ears while screaming “LA LA LA LA LA LA,I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”, and then dashing into their bedrooms and diving under the covers where that mean old Onofre’s arm can’t grab them and shake some sense into their errant skulls.
By all means AA, thats what a primary is about. Romney is very low on my list too – maybe right above Obama – but I am all in for whomever wins the R spot. Rest assured he or she will be better than Obama, and he or she will probably have a more conservative congress than we have had in years.
Unfortunately fundamentally changing the country will take years. not one election. In some ways this is a good thing because I think conservatives finally understand the long game.
hc — Why does anyone think that fundamentally changing the country under a true conservative will take years, when doing so under a freaking progressive has taken less than one term?
Why would a conservative settle for Romney when they can have the real deal with any one of the three remaining candidates? It’s because they have drunk from the vessel of popular media messaging and fallen for Karl Rove and Anne Coulter’s version of things. Why in the world would I listen to Anne Coulter’s opinion of Romney when exactly a year ago she vehemently warned everyone at CPAC that if Romney was the nominee, the GOP would lose in ’12?
I think bringing America back to its constitutional roots, so that it has a government that is in line with what the framers wanted, will take time. The electorate has been slowly changed starting back with FDR or a bit before. Obama didnt just “change America” overnight. The voters did, after a 60+ year long progressive propaganda campaign of New Deal Great Society Nixon EPA Carter DoEverything. I dont expect it will be easy or immediate to fix without a violent revolution. Big changes take time unless you want to shoot people. And having lived that sort of “change” I will take a pass.
We shouldnt “settle” for anything – we should select the best candidate available during the primary. Personally I love Newt. But if we get Romney then I will vote for him in the general because the senate will almost certainly be R party run, the house as well. They can send Romney bills to pass – such as repeal obamacare – and I believe he is much less likely to veto them than is Obama.
From my point of view any R is much better than more Obama. He needs to leave the Oval Office pronto.
To me the political realities of election year politics and the long term goal of repairing the damage to America caused by the creeping welfare state and bloated federal bureaucracy are two concurrent (complementary? my English sucks today LOL), but different, goals.
That said I think most conservatives agree with you and don’t much like Romney – thats why he hasnt run off with the trophy yet. And I have no idea why Coulter is so in the bag for the guy. I have actually stopped reading her column because I am sick of her pandering. Shes not even funny anymore.
I can’t wait for the primary to be in its final phases; I don’t feel I would be settling with any of the republican candidates, I am good with any of them. I don’t have a side to take, a speech to hear, a sound bite from any of them. I want to get down to actively supporting whomever it is, and just stop with the infighting; agreeing with you HC and also that I may or may not have preferences at this point in time; and I don’t want to see a blood bath in this country to get us back in the right direction. I say if some want to criticize or fight with each other in the republican Party, good for them, but just as that is their right, it is also the right of some of us to want to save our strength from a single battle to the out and out voting war the general election will bring. For me it is a waste of time to pick at any of the candidates, or seek out more information on them; I don’t care either what the pundits have to say; I will watch what we all do as voters and live with the results. What small disagreements I have regarding any of these candidates is small peanuts compared to being stuck with Obama another 4 years; and I have yet to meet anyone who can truly predict with 100% certainty who the winner of the primaries will be. To be clear I am not playing it safe, I simply cannot discern one argument from another anymore, as to avoid apathy I will promise my vote to the winner.
hc — I’m going to have a very busy next few days, and I want to carefully read your response. In the meantime, I would love anyone here to respond to some of Anne Barnhardt’s accusations, because it seems I’ve been channeling her or she’s been channeling me.
Besides being a knock-out in the looks dept., this is the woman who tells islamo-terrorists what she thinks of their murdering crap, gets death threats from them and then sends the assholes her picture, address, and idiot-proof directions of how to get to where she lives. Now that’s balls. And she’s got it right about Obomneycare. This is a huge millstone around Mitten’s neck which will sink him in the general. I will vote for the Repub candidate, 100%, but RNC: Don’t do this to us, don’t do this to our country.
Well here is a comparison that may shed some light concerning Obama/Romney-care~
http://tinyurl.com/7rwwgq8
I suppose my points have been muddled so far. I will correct that.
1. I support Newt Gingrich
2. If Newt doesn’t do well on Super Tuesday, he’s likely done.
3. The longer this goes on, given all the posturing, pandering, and pontificating by O’Blivion, the more difficult it is going to be to unite the party, although Barry may do something so monumentally stupid that it might actually get the attention of some of the morons whose support of him is only tepid.
4. In ’08, there was a general perception, right or wrong, that McCain’s support from the GOP base was not as strong as their support for previous candidates. If this is the case, they can be excused because I don’t think anyone had any idea just how dismally bad this squatter would be.
5. This time around there is no excuse for not rallying around the only issue that matters in this election cycle. That issue isn’t the economy; it isn’t the state of world affairs; and it isn’t how much money Mitt has, how much Newt got from Fannie or Freddie, Santorum’s views on contraception, or Paul’s views on a border fence.
6. This election cycle is about Obama because he is the architect of the mess we’re in; he’s the man behind the squandering of billions on crappy green environmental projects that failed before they even got off the ground; he’s the idiot who runs around apologizing to the Moslem friends he stands with; he’s the abject fool who thinks the answer to everything is more government to ride herd on the people and more of other’s money to support it.
Is this clear enough? No?
7. We don’t have time to start our own cults of personality based upon Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, or Paul. We can’t fight a cult like the one O’Bummer leads by running our own cult leader.
8. If only Mitt, Newt, Rick, or Ron can beat Barry, then there is something wrong with those who want to see him removed from office. One cannot say, to the exclusion of all other candidates, that only theirs can beat Barry because that then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
9. This isn’t about Mitt, Newt, Rick, or Ron.
10 It is about removing That One from office for the good of our country.
Perhaps Sarah might run and tell the GOP to stop the squabbling.
With all the respect and affection for you “Ferd” — I think you’re wrong. We’ve got at least until they gavel out the convention to squabble. And tough nuggies to the left who want to make a deal out of it. You can bet your last dollar that we will oust obama, the usurper, from the WH. The only way he’s going to “win” is if he steals the election through fraud. And if that happens, it doesn’t matter who the GOP candidate is.
You’ve always been very, very clear about the point you make, above, about ABO. I have always been just as clear in my agreement of that. But the media (and the people who run most of it) have tried, and it looks like they’re succeeding, in stampeding the right into making a decision NOW!! Now! Now!! Just like they tried to make everyone decide on obama in ’08 — as early as the first primaries. (!) Then those of us who tried to fight back were called every vile thing under the sun for questioning the wisdom of their choice. I don’t want that to happen again, It’s not right, and I’m sick and tired of being called an emotional, stupid person for questioning Romney. It’s not a “cult of personality” phenomenon to just want the best candidate that can be had for the position. It’s just not. And we’ve got so much more time than people really think. Heavens! At this rate, we might as well just have the parities select the candidate in January and save the hassle and expense of primaries.
My post was not directed at you Abigail or to anyone in particular but to everyone, in general. I have been watching news, reading blogs from both sides and am doing what I do best–follow the information down whatever rathole it leads and the information leads to my conclusion from the evidence that there is a decided effort by those who do not have this country’s interest at heart to ensure that a wedge is driven between conservatives (much like in ’08 but with more venom) by those who would like to finish their work by keeping their bobbing head in the Oval Office. Given the actions of this administration, the confluence of events supported or ignored by this administration, and the danger both present, IMO we don’t have time and the outcome is November may well determine whether this country goes down the road to a socialist dystopia or applies the brakes. Gentle or firm application of said brakes is preferable to allowing us to go off the cliff on the far left.
I know you weren’t directing it at me, personally, although I think I’m only one of maybe two or three people here who have brought up Romney repeatedly.
The way I see it, if Romney ends up being the nominee every single one of us has got our work cut out for us. And guess who’s going to be doing ALL the heavy lifting? That’s right. ALL of US. Because good ‘ol Mitt will be too busy looking “presidential” and trying to blink-blink and “soaring oratory” his way past all the accusations of being the Godfather of obamacare, in support of crap-n-tax, pro-choice (oh, and then pro-life), for gay marriage (oh, and then against gay marriage). Okay? Is everyone ready to get out the vote, to spend their weekends and evenings knocking on doors, talking to strangers who don’t know the first thing about Socialsim, let along Marxism? Because if Romney is the nominee, then you better start getting more sleep and exercise in preparation for the final push. And that may not even be enough.
Nope. I want a candidate who’s going to take the fight to obama; someone who is going to go on offense from day one — someone who is already taking the fight to him and won’t let the hell up! I want someone who knows what the hell they’re talking about in a loud, mouthy voice. Someone who stands foursquare for conservative values and isn’t trying to be all things to all people.
This is a right-of-center country. All we need is someone who knows that and doesn’t make any apologies for it. It makes me sick to think that after everything we’ve been through since ’09, all the work that went into the mid-terms, all the yardage conservatives picked up, that we’re going to let it all slide right back into the hands of the RINOS and the D.C. operatives who we were warned would fight every single day to make sure that a real conservative would never get the nomination. I thought we were made of sterner stuff than to let someone like Mitt Romney simply write big checks to buy votes.