That's about as stupid a diagram as one would expect from the cult of Paul

Pretty much. It amazes me how much shit people are willing to overlook with that guy.

Please don't take the obvious reductio ad absurdum picture on the internet seriously

I think some are underestimating the chances of the Republicans winning the election. American politics is substantially different to what we or places like Europe have.

The only way a candidate can win the republican nomination is to appeal to people who already have strong right wing beliefs, so there's little payoff in being seen to endorse left wing or even centrist policies. If you do you'll risk being labelled as 'insufficiently right wing' or a 'closet liberal' and lose a large number of votes. The same is true for democrat nominations, where candidates must appeal to a voting base which is almost entirely left wing.

If Romney secures the nomination he'll distance himself away from the far-right and appear substantially more liberal in order to appeal to a wider range of voters. He also has a proven ability to raise phenomenal amounts of money, though if he can rival Obama's $1 billion already amassed in campaign donations is yet to be seen.

Romney has much more of an ability to appeal to moderates than McCain did, and I don't think it would be possible for Romney to pick a VP worse than Sarah Palin. Disappointment with Obama and the fact his 'Hope and Change' amounted to little will have a role to play also.

Romney does have significant flaws that he will have to work on though. Mainly to do with the perception that he is 'Rich and out of touch' and is too much of a flip-flopper.

Question is how much does Romney still have. He raised 11.5 mill in Feb, but spent 18 in January. He is definitely outspending his opponents but that has the effect of also depleting his war chest. We are now 8 months out from the election and Obama has spent SFA would be my guess and has been in full on fund raising mode for a while. He is going to have a massive edge of cash, plus the White House pulpit. And the longer this draws out, the worse it gets for Romney. If the primary goes upto the caucus how much will he have left and how long to raise more?

As for US voters, Romney has the centerist appeal no doubt. My question would be whether he can galvanise enough of his base support and get them to the polling booth. There were comments around the last election that some of the more conservative base stayed home for McCain and Palin, it would have to be worse for Romney.

I definitely agree that the system is way different to that of Europe or say any other western democratic country. The electoral college and the senate are structured to favour the deep south and the smaller midland states. Not to mention Gerrymandering which both parties make use of, however the Republicans have flipped a number of statehouses in the last two years and in the process managed to redraw a ton of districts in their favour. Some of them are being challenged by the JD and redrawn by the courts but a great majority of them will stand. Then you have the voter ID fiasco which should manage to take quite a few minority voters out.

The main problem Obama has is that he came in on a top and bottom coalition. The top is made up of people with grad degrees and rich educated suburbanites, and in the bottom there are the blacks, the latinos, the gays, and the students. I still think that most of those groups will side with Obama, but it's still a weak base to come in on. He has serious problems with getting his message across to white blue-collar workers. McCain got something like 2/3rds of the blue-collar white vote last election. And from what I can tell it's a crucial demo in quite a few of the battleground swing states like Ohio.

Lego wrote: The only way a candidate can win the republican nomination is to appeal to people who already have strong right wing beliefs, so there's little payoff in being seen to endorse left wing or even centrist policies. If you do you'll risk being labelled as 'insufficiently right wing' or a 'closet liberal' and lose a large number of votes. The same is true for democrat nominations, where candidates must appeal to a voting base which is almost entirely left wing.

Not true. Yes the moderates have been squeezed out of the GOP. But there is still a substantial group of moderate Democrats. Not to mention the fact that the Democratic party is continually shifting to the right when it comes to economic policy.

Lego wrote: If Romney secures the nomination he'll distance himself away from the far-right and appear substantially more liberal in order to appeal to a wider range of voters. He also has a proven ability to raise phenomenal amounts of money, though if he can rival Obama's $1 billion already amassed in campaign donations is yet to be seen.

You can't seperate out the primary from the main election that easily. Primaries often dictate the sort of policies the candidate is able to run on. Yes he will peel back some of the rhetoric in order to appeal to the independents, but you can only flip-flop so many times. This is Romney we're talking about afterall.

Lego wrote: Romney has much more of an ability to appeal to moderates than McCain did, and I don't think it would be possible for Romney to pick a VP worse than Sarah Palin. Disappointment with Obama and the fact his 'Hope and Change' amounted to little will have a role to play also. Romney does have significant flaws that he will have to work on though. Mainly to do with the perception that he is 'Rich and out of touch' and is too much of a flip-flopper.

His wealth will be a big problem. I wouldn't downplay the VP selection either. If he picks a capable Hispanic VP like Rubio then he's in with a real chance.

Cynic wrote: that some of the more conservative base stayed home for McCain and Palin, it would have to be worse for Romney.

Yep, I really can't see Romney energising that base at the moment.

Murakami wrote: Yep, I really can't see Romney energising that base at the moment.

That was why McCain pulled in Palin, to make him more palatable to the crazy right, a more capable ultra conservative would have been a better choice. Be interesting to see who Romney goes for. Has to be someone who delivers him the South at a minimum.

Sluts.

Interesting story about Romney:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/criti..._atlarge_menand

Also:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics...son-hamm-romney
Who Said It: ‘Mad Men’ Character or GOP Candidate?

The highlight for me:

Quote: “I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”

Ron Paul

Rick Santorum quits presidential campaign. I suppose it is now over to Romney.

Certainly its Romney's now. The others will drop out soon too.

Yep the race had already shifted about a week ago when Romney and Obama had that big shitfight about the Ryan budget.

This video gave me some big lols.

Even though its still Romney's nomination atm, nice to see Paul winning some points too today - won most of the seats in Nevada and Maine.

Found this one funny: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/m...r---herman-cain

http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-wo...ncing-statement

Sometimes i just think **** America.

Imagine if Kiwis ran the world, would be such a better place.

Murakami wrote: “I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.” Ron Paul

Took me a while to find where that quote is from, but judging a candidate on something they said in 1990 seems a bit silly.

You don't need to go back to 1990 to find ridiculous things Ron Paul has said in order to judge him as unfit for presidency.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.co...ning/?hpt=hp_t3

Yay, RON PAUL is out.

Hahaha what an absolute load of bollocks.

I thought you'd like it.