GOP Primary Megathread!

[Sheilbh]

I suppose that it is better that 2012 Mitt Romney won instead of 2008 Mitt Romney. He did not try to bend over for the evangelicals this time and stuck to his business conservative / electability platform.

I'm just disappointed the pro-gay equality 1994 Mitt Romney isn't running.  In the nicest possible way, are you working for his campaign and posting on your break or something?

The campaign could,  I think, get a bit more interesting now.  I've just watched Santorum's speech that, his history and his debate performances make me think he could actually be the most 'credible' of the conservative challengers.  He's not as mad as Bachmann, as stupid as Perry or as self-involved as Gingrich.  Though he's very Catholic (anti-contraception and all) I think he comes across less kookily extreme than Paul.  He also seems, from that speech and the debates, to be a pretty good campaigner.  At last we may have a race worth watching.

Also I've heard that Gingrich is planning to go heavily negative on Romney - even if he drops out - like a wounded elephant rampaging off the reservation.  In a weird way I wonder if he's more of a threat to Romney as a no-hoper than as the 'challenger'

[Sheilbh]

It looks like Gingrich is staying in just to try to damage Romney.

Huckabee did the same in 2008.  He got on very well with McCain but wanted to beat Romney so they carried on running until Romney dropped out.  But then, last time around, everyone hated Romney.  That's been less in evidence this year.

[Phillip V]

I suppose that it is better that 2012 Mitt Romney won instead of 2008 Mitt Romney. He did not try to bend over for the evangelicals this time and stuck to his business conservative / electability platform.

I'm just disappointed the pro-gay equality 1994 Mitt Romney isn't running.  In the nicest possible way, are you working for his campaign and posting on your break or something?

The campaign could,  I think, get a bit more interesting now.  I've just watched Santorum's speech that, his history and his debate performances make me think he could actually be the most 'credible' of the conservative challengers.  He's not as mad as Bachmann, as stupid as Perry or as self-involved as Gingrich.  Though he's very Catholic (anti-contraception and all) I think he comes across less kookily extreme than Paul.  He also seems, from that speech and the debates, to be a pretty good campaigner.  At last we may have a race worth watching.

Santorum will now get the wilting frontrunner treatment that previous line of no-Romneys received. Good campaigner? He last got voted out office by almost 20%.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm just disappointed the pro-gay equality 1994 Mitt Romney isn't running.

Oh, he's in there somewhere.

I've just watched Santorum's speech that, his history and his debate performances make me think he could actually be the most 'credible' of the conservative challengers.  He's not as mad as Bachmann, as stupid as Perry or as self-involved as Gingrich.  Though he's very Catholic (anti-contraception and all) I think he comes across less kookily extreme than Paul.

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) taped on April 7, 2003,[1] and published April 20, 2003, Santorum stated that he believed mutually consenting adults do not have a constitutional right to privacy with respect to sexual acts....Santorum described the ability to regulate consensual homosexual acts as comparable to the states' ability to regulate other consensual and non-consensual sexual behavior, such as adultery, polygamy, child molestation, incest, sodomy, and bestiality, whose decriminalization he believed would threaten society and the family, as they are not monogamous and heterosexual.

No, he's not mad, stupid or or kookily extreme at all.

[Phillip V]

It looks like Gingrich is staying in just to try to damage Romney.

Huckabee did the same in 2008.  He got on very well with McCain but wanted to beat Romney so they carried on running until Romney dropped out.  But then, last time around, everyone hated Romney.  That's been less in evidence this year.

Romney dropped out after Super Tuesday on Feb 5, 2008 when it became a mathematical impossibility to win the nomination due to winner-takes-all delegate system (now changed to proportional for pre-April contests). Huckabee stayed on into June to keep visibility and earn millions of dollars in later TV and book income. McCain tolerated Huckabee because victory was already in the bag. Despite the early withdrawal, Romney still ended up finishing second place in delegates awarded.

[Sheilbh]

Santorum will now get the wilting frontrunner treatment that previous line of no-Romneys received. Good campaigner? He last got voted out office by almost 20%.

Except there's no more no-Romneys for the rest of the field to go to.  Unless the long prayed-for Huntsman SURGE happens

That's fair on Santorum - though his record of actually winning elections is probably as good as Romney's.  But I thought Santorum's problems were more that he was the most extreme social conservative and the most gung-ho pro-war candidate going in a fundamentally moderate state rather than that he was a disastrous campaigner? 

[Phillip V]

I'm just disappointed the pro-gay equality 1994 Mitt Romney isn't running.

Oh, he's in there somewhere.

He will come out of the closet again.

[Sheilbh]

No, he's not mad, stupid or or kookily extreme at all.

I didn't say he's not mad, stupid or kookily extreme.  Just not as much as the other Republican candidates

Huckabee stayed on into June to keep visibility and earn millions of dollars in later TV and book income. McCain tolerated Huckabee because victory was already in the bag. Despite the early withdrawal, Romney still ended up finishing second place in delegates awarded.

Huckabee dropped out in March - about a fortnight after Romney - and won more delegates than him.  He'd stayed in partly to split Romney's vote, more likely because he didn't like him - he described Romney as 'pretentious and arrogant' when Romney said a vote for Huckabee at that stage was a vote for McCain.

Paul ran until June.

[CountDeMoney]

That's fair on Santorum - though his record of actually winning elections is probably as good as Romney's. 

I dunno, man.  Romney never lost a reelection, IIRC.  Rick got booted out of the Senate by a substantial fucking margin during the Great GOPtard Purge of 2006.

[Sheilbh]

That's fair on Santorum - though his record of actually winning elections is probably as good as Romney's. 

I dunno, man.  Romney never lost a reelection, IIRC.  Rick got booted out of the Senate by a substantial fucking margin during the Great GOPtard Purge of 2006.

I don't think he's ever tried for re-election.  He lost in 1994, won in 2002, didn't run in 2006 (I think it would be a good race Patrick v Romney) and then lost in 2008.

[Phillip V]

Michelle Bachmann, winner of the Ames Straw Poll in August, came in last last night. Money well spent.

[Caliga]

Supposedly she's ignoring New Hampshire (which is probably a good strategy since I can't imagine her doing well there) and focusing all of her remaining effort on South Carolina.  So unless she does really well there, she'll probably drop out after that primary.

[Razgovory]

No, he's not mad, stupid or or kookily extreme at all.

Also, he sleeps with dead babies.

[Eddie Teach]

Huh, I'm surprised.  I didn't think Santorum would do that well.

Once he started sucking the evangelical cock two weeks ago, he would.

What made the evangelical cock of two weeks ago more potent than the evangelical cock of his whole life?

[Kleves]

Supposedly she's ignoring New Hampshire...

She's going to ignore the rest of the states, too. She's out.