GOP Primary Megathread!

[Neil]

...or push Santorum who, if nothing else, is safe and predictable.

Isn't that the same as conceding the general election though?  Nobody of any consequence is going to vote for Santorum.

[Scipio]

Extraordinarily Gingrich won a majority of married women

That vote was a vote of thanks that they were not married to him

[Ideologue]

I just sent my absentee ballot in the mail 

Since I'm indifferent as to Romney and Gingrich(as a probable Obama voter), I ended up voting for Newt Gingrich, on the theory that I would prefer a prolonged nomination fight

Ideologue: trendsetter.

[DGuller]

http://news.yahoo.com/low-iq-conservative-beliefs-linked-prejudice-180403506.html 

[Sheilbh]

...or push Santorum who, if nothing else, is safe and predictable.

Isn't that the same as conceding the general election though?  Nobody of any consequence is going to vote for Santorum.

I'm not sure any of them can, short of an enormous economic catastrophe like, say, an Italian default.  I'd rather Santorum who can possibly engage the base (like Gingrich) but won't go mad (unlike Gingrich).

My fear with Mitt is that he'll be seen as the 'electable', 'moderate' candidate forced on the party by the party establishment (in my view he's neither).  If he loses then I worry we'll have Rand Paul as candidate in 2016. 

[Ideologue]

Haha, good, good.

[Razgovory]

...or push Santorum who, if nothing else, is safe and predictable.

Isn't that the same as conceding the general election though?  Nobody of any consequence is going to vote for Santorum.

I'm not sure any of them can, short of an enormous economic catastrophe like, say, an Italian default.  I'd rather Santorum who can possibly engage the base (like Gingrich) but won't go mad (unlike Gingrich).

My fear with Mitt is that he'll be seen as the 'electable', 'moderate' candidate forced on the party by the party establishment (in my view he's neither).  If he loses then I worry we'll have Rand Paul as candidate in 2016.

Rand Paul could be a serious problem.

[dps]

My fear with Mitt is that he'll be seen as the 'electable', 'moderate' candidate forced on the party by the party establishment

So Romney 2012 = Dole 1996?

[derspiess]

My fear with Mitt is that he'll be seen as the 'electable', 'moderate' candidate forced on the party by the party establishment (in my view he's neither).

I think he's both.  Of the rest of the candidates I would say only Huntsman (and perhaps Newt if it were possible to pin him down) were more moderate, but none more electable than Mitt.

If he loses then I worry we'll have Rand Paul as candidate in 2016. 

But seriously, what are you basing that upon?  The GOP has a track history of putting up more moderate candidates, regardless of how well that worked in previous elections.

[derspiess]

http://news.yahoo.com/low-iq-conservative-beliefs-linked-prejudice-180403506.html 

Interesting that they only focused on social conservatism.

[Valmy]

Interesting that they only focused on social conservatism.

Because if they went for fiscal conservatism they would have found the opposite conclusion.

[Phillip V]

Cain endorses Gingrich: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72113.html

Romney has a high single-digit lead in Florida after reversing previous Newtmentum: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/fl/florida_republican_presidential_primary-1597.html

[jimmy olsen]

At least if Gingrich got the nomination, it would make it a really easy decision come voting time. What a fucking asshole.

Yup, he's the candidate Languish has been waiting for. An intellectual who can't admit he's wrong and whose main emotional drives are spite, vengeance and lust.

[Caliga]

Yeah, honestly... Newt is probably the primary candidate I've disliked the most since Pat Buchanan.  I even disliked John Edwards less than this guy.

[Phillip V]

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html#1