OP here, not to toot my own horn, but it looks like I was right about southern republicans and Romney.
Now the GOP is turning on Newt as quickly as they can, they don't want him as their candidate, Hunstman is out. I really thought he was going to move ahead in the polls.
Now what? Is Romney the man? Is he electable?
What are the actual poor republicans thinking? do they think someone like Romney is really going to look out for them?

Anonymous wrote:Romney's just going to pick someone appealing to the insane-American community, so I don't think Romney's going to have much of a problem getting the base out to vote.

I'm not sure the base is as dumb as you think. Or, I should say, as easily manipulat... Hrm... How should I put this.. Sarah Palin didn't help McCain.

Romney's just going to pick someone appealing to the insane-American community, so I don't think Romney's going to have much of a problem getting the base out to vote.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No southern Republicans that I know have a problem with Romney being a Mormon. In fact, he gets high marks for being a person of faith and a "good family man." I'll add that I think Obama is a person of faith and a "good family man" as well.

Fair enough, but you are probably not part of the Nutjob-American community. Unfortunately, they exist. The evangelicals are having a really hard time with Romney. I think it's the worst reason to dislike the guy, but there it is in the polls.

NP here (and personally a liberal Dem). I'm actually happy to see the Republican party begin to divorce itself from the allegiance/dependence/addiction it's had to rural religious voters and their beliefs. That relationship has pushed Republican policies into strange and scary territory. If Romney is the candidate and the trend of divorce from the evangelical wing continues, then the downside for Dems like me is that (I think) the Republicans will become more competitive for independent voters, and thus will win more elections in the future. But the upside is that they will be less like GWB and Rick Perry, who scare the heck out of me as a US citizen.

Sure, but for better or worse, that's a *huge* component of their base. And if the right-wing evangelical doesn't turn out, they lose. I would absolutely agree that a non-Christianist, non-nativist GOP with a non-insane economic policy would be a huge boon to the American political ecosystem. Of course, with Obama as the current Dem standard-bearer, it looks like the Dems are closer to that point than the GOP is.

In any case, there's been some interesting work done on the "independent voter" in recent years. More and more we're finding out that people who self-identify as "independent" usually have a strong partisan affiliation and rarely "switch". The comparatively few exceptions tend to either not vote, or have no clue what's going on.

There's increasing evidence that strong partisanship is a function of increased information...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No southern Republicans that I know have a problem with Romney being a Mormon. In fact, he gets high marks for being a person of faith and a "good family man." I'll add that I think Obama is a person of faith and a "good family man" as well.

Fair enough, but you are probably not part of the Nutjob-American community. Unfortunately, they exist. The evangelicals are having a really hard time with Romney. I think it's the worst reason to dislike the guy, but there it is in the polls.

NP here (and personally a liberal Dem). I'm actually happy to see the Republican party begin to divorce itself from the allegiance/dependence/addiction it's had to rural religious voters and their beliefs. That relationship has pushed Republican policies into strange and scary territory. If Romney is the candidate and the trend of divorce from the evangelical wing continues, then the downside for Dems like me is that (I think) the Republicans will become more competitive for independent voters, and thus will win more elections in the future. But the upside is that they will be less like GWB and Rick Perry, who scare the heck out of me as a US citizen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And seeing the republican party implode;
1. Newt of all people played dirty politics and loved to try to ruin the careers of other politicians.
2. I don't think republicans saw this one coming that the legislation regarding campaign funding would come back to bite them into ass so
quickly
3. Hopefully, southern republicans will not be able to get over the fact that Romney is Mormon
4. I am a little worried about Huntsman coming from behind, after the southerners shoot down Romney
5. The crazy tea party has done more for the dems they will ever know!

No southern Republicans that I know have a problem with Romney being a Mormon. In fact, he gets high marks for being a person of faith and a "good family man." I'll add that I think Obama is a person of faith and a "good family man" as well.

Fair enough, but you are probably not part of the Nutjob-American community. Unfortunately, they exist. The evangelicals are having a really hard time with Romney. I think it's the worst reason to dislike the guy, but there it is in the polls.

Anonymous wrote:And seeing the republican party implode;
1. Newt of all people played dirty politics and loved to try to ruin the careers of other politicians.
2. I don't think republicans saw this one coming that the legislation regarding campaign funding would come back to bite them into ass so
quickly
3. Hopefully, southern republicans will not be able to get over the fact that Romney is Mormon
4. I am a little worried about Huntsman coming from behind, after the southerners shoot down Romney
5. The crazy tea party has done more for the dems they will ever know!

No southern Republicans that I know have a problem with Romney being a Mormon. In fact, he gets high marks for being a person of faith and a "good family man." I'll add that I think Obama is a person of faith and a "good family man" as well.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the PP, but I am an independent who voted for Obama who really wishes there was another option besides whatever loser the GOP lands on and the status quo.

I think there's a lot of that; I just don't believe that there are many (any?) who voted for Obama and are now passionately for the Reps.

BTW, you needn't feel lonely if you vote for neither party. I bet 2012 will have the highest portion of non-major-party votes since 2000 or earlier, not that that's saying much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:once there is a single repub candidate the generic ballot will beat obama, this is without a single person campaigning against obama and the repubs are winning. I am afraid that once they start targetting obama's last 3 years it will cause obama to really loose support because obama hasn't done anything positive for the economy and has made things worse or prolonged the suffering. It's a sad time to be a democrat. Obama is not only Carter 2.0 he is Carter X 2 times worse

You are dreaming. These candidates have been firing at Obama for months. What has he done in response? Is be spending millions of dollars to counter the message? Hell no, he's amassing a huge war chest and building his ground organization. Meanwhile the economic news is getting better each month. He's doing some speeches, but he has not begun to fight.

This is as bad as it gets for Obama. This is him with 8.7% unemployment and zero campaign advertising. Meanwhile your candidates are beating each other up so bad, the survivor (probably Romney) won't know who is is or what he stands for by the time this is done.

He could have more money than China has rice but money alone doesn't get him elected, e.g., John McCain, John Kerry, George H.W, Bush (2nd term). Obama is a terrible president and you can't keep blaming Bush. I'm an Independent, one of those who helped put him in office, and I will not vote for him again. Four more years of Obama and all hope is lost for the next 10 years for the economy.

So you're going to vote for Romney?