Talk Elections

I think there should be a book or movie made about this primary season.

Comedy or Tragedy? Maybe both?

Embarrassing (R)

So switch.

Entertaining only because it is embarrassing, so both (I)

Both(D).

Both. It's like a comedy that Trump, Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, and Santorum could all be considered viable nominees.

For that reason, it is also embarassing as a Republican.

Embarrassing (human being)

Entertaining, no more embarrassing than anything Republican normally.

Game Change 2! Can't wait!

Both (D)

Both (I).

And omg yes that movie would sell out in a heartbeat.

No worse than 2008 (D), possibly better.  Remember how bad that was and how it went on for ever and ever.  The result ended up being good.

Both (R)

Now your just being a partisan hack.

This isn't even comparable to 2008.

I'm sorry, but this is complete and utter rubbish.

Despite some bitterness, Obama and Clinton were pretty much line-ball on issues and what they were doing was hardly isolating to Independent voters... this GOP nomination race is doing nothing but airing all of this extreme right-wing policies... and unlike the Dem race when there was some very left-wing stuff floating around... the candidates didn't publicly embrace them.

In 2008 the race unarguably made Obama and Clinton better candidates (mind you it was too late for Clinton) - each week makes Romney look weaker and weaker and his campaign is not responding.

In order to appeal to this bats*** GOP base, they've pushed themselves so far to the right and scrambling back to the centre is going to be incredibly hard.

Yes, 2008 wasn't over until June.  This is March. 


Jemimah Wright?  Clinging to God and guns?  Punished for having a baby?  The three AM phone call?  Are you serious?

 

In comparison to the self-immolation of this GOP primary... I'm very serious.

Yeah, the primary was nasty and mean. I think everyone knows that, but the 2008 primary was about two candidates whom the base actually liked duking it out for the nomination. 2012 GOP primary is about a weak frontrunner who can't close the deal.

The only thing they may have in common is length when it is all said in done.

WOW, just WOW!


Most contested presidential primaries in the US look like this.  Generally, they are worse.

This isn't even to 1976 levels on R side.  

I'm not talking about the viciousness... or anything like that.

But the positions they are being forced to take are going to have serious implications.

The only real difference is that this is a three person race.  Hilary was leading until Super Tuesday.  You had Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy flexing their muscles.  2008 looked like a disaster at this point.  It didn't turn out that way.

The only good thing was the SC speech by Obama.

This is normal, so far.

Seriously, you guys need some historical perspective.  So far, this isn't even as bad as 1980, for both parties.

They are not being "forced."  These guys are like that.  Mittens hasn't really moved to the right.  "Moonbase Gingrich" was classic Newt.  Santorum actually thinks that JFK was wrong to separate church and state.

Obama's negatives never went through the roof like Romney's. Even Clinton's unfavorable spike was modest compared to Romney.

The Dem primary was civil compared to this charade.

What are Romney's negatives.

Please, this isn't any worse than 2008.

Embarassing (I).  In just one year, they've gone from newly-principled fiscal conservatives to an even more radicalized and bigoted version of the Bush era GOP.  I've never had such a negative visceral reaction to the word "conservative" in my life as I do today.  Forget the GOP brand, the entire conservative brand is in shambles with this endless culture war.

Did you feel the same way in 08 Glob?

why should any of us be embarrassed?  except perhaps for the bourgeois Republicans like Torie who fantasize they have a stake in the game.

Embarrassing.

This. Republican primary is not embarrassing, but the party is an embarrassment to US.

One word: uzbekibekibekistan.

Both is leading for all three categories of voter. This is just a sh**tty field, but what I had feared would be a coronation for Mitt was made exciting by Santorum's media-fueled surge in Iowa andthe subsequent momentum.

It isn't worse than 2008 if you're in denial, I suppose. It's on par with 1996.

Romney suffers a net -13 in his favorables.
http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contest/us-favorability-romney

Compared to Obama of around the same time:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_favorableunfavorable-643.html#polls
+7

It's been a great opportunity to become motivated as a conservative and think about what it means to be an American living in a free society. I've enjoyed listening to our candidates debate and discuss the issues facing us and look forward to exchanges to come.

No.  The Tea Party has emboldened some of the worst elements who reside under the GOP umbrella.  I've always had a problem with GOP nastiness, but it's at a whole new level unseen in recent decades.

I would agree, if they were even remotely talking about such things.  They're not talking about what it's like to be an American living in a free society, they're talking about what it's like to be a disaffected hillbilly living in a modern, global society.

Can you please describe in depth detail which elements you're talking about and which level of unseen nastiness you refer to? What makes them so nasty? Is it because they prefer freedom over dependency on the government? Answers and not rhetoric please.

You had McCain going up when the D race was going on in 2008. Right now, you are comparing Romney to President Obama, not candidate Obama in 2008.  


I doubt that this even close to what it was in 1976.

I agree J.J. Obama's surroundings are much less favorable than in 2008. He's not a new kid running for president who has anything working in his favor due to a 25% approval rating for Bush. He's now the president and must answer for things like gas prices and unemployment.

Oops, my bad.

http://www.pollingreport.com/obama_fav.htm

Scroll down and you'll find those 2008 numbers. He was boosting +25~30 around this time; even better. :)

Obama kept his favorables up against a long and drawn out primary fight with Clinton. He wasn't positive 100% of the time, and he wasn't gaffe free either, but he was able to keep his favorables up. Romney's have tanked and have stayed down. This is not 2008. You evidently are hoping that this primary will produce a stronger candidate in Romney like the long primary did in Obama, but Romney is getting bruised.

Funny how you call Obama's approvals (which are in the MoE and are roughly tied on the whole), as pretty "grim." But Romney's bloody primary fight sinking his favorables? Obviously making him stronger. ;)

Gas prices are based on the price of a barrel of oil which is determined on the international market. Even if Obama significantly ramped up domestic production it wouldn't make a drop in the bucket. Unless you're proposing withdrawing from the international market and producing our own gasoline entirely priced on an internal market, which would make the supply shortages of 1973 seem like happy days.

UE is trending down, the job market has been producing in excess of 150k a month, and GDP growth for the last quarter was 3%, which is considered historically to be a strong average.

He'll answer for those all right.

Rest assured citizen, the free market and corporations will provide everything you need at a fair price.

Some historical perspective of favorability ratings for primary candidates after New Hampshire:

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/romney-obama-no-popularity-contest/

Romney was already strikingly unpopular then, compared to other candidates this century, and his ratings have declined since.

Obama's unfavorables went up.  The earlier increase in favorables was basically getting exposier.  And yes, for an incumbent president, Obama's numbers are starting to get grim.

Has any challenger ever defeated an incumbent when the challenger had a 32% approval rating?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/28/fav-romney_n_725770.html

Warfare on social issues.  Thinly veiled hatred of the "others" - gays, Muslims, women who use birth control, etc.  In the past, I've seen GOP positions as being adverse to certain groups of Americans, and perhaps a bit hostile to those same people.  This year, however, it's gone to a whole new level of aggrieved-white-person-centrism and hostility to anyone who isn't living in a working-class nuclear family with a cross hung over their bed and a Bible in their nightstand.

I know you're new here, but if you'd have read other of my posts, you'd know I'm one of the last people in the world to advocate against freedom or for dependency on the government.  I'm a long-time libertarian/minarchist/anarcho-capitalist.  I loathe Obama, his administration, and the acts he's taken to do what I consider to be great harm to this country.  But that doesn't mean that these GOP schlubs are the answer.  (Ron Paul probably is, and his lack of traction is just further evidence of the problem with the GOP base.)

Hilarious coming from someone who thinks people who "suck at life" should "drown".

Yeah, they went up after he had been serving in the office. Take a close look at that chart. You want to look for the dates that end in 07/08. You'll notice that despite the long campaign, they stayed relatively stable and did not plummet like Romney's.

You're the one who's using rhetoric, idiot.