2012 Intrade rankings

[WhyteRain]

No point tracking the presidential nomination share prices anymore.  So I'm retiring the old thread, and moving on to tracking VP nomination share prices.

GOP VP nomination

Rubio 24.7
Portman 11.9
Christie 10.5
McDonnell 8.5
Ryan 6.5
Martinez 4.5
Ron Paul 3.9
Daniels 3.7
Thune 2.8
Ayotte 2.7
Pawlenty 2.7
Santorum 2.6
Jindal 2.5

Dem. VP nomination

Biden 95.0
Clinton 4.0
Cuomo 0.2

I've been saying that Romney should pick a Western VP.  Amazingly, there's only one on the list that's even in the Mountain timezone (Martinez of New Mexico), and none from the Pacific!  Only Martinez, Thune, Pawlenty, and Paul are from states even west of the Mississippi (I'll count Jindal's Louisiana as east of the river, because the capital is).

If he'd pick a real Westerner (and I wouldn't pick Martinez after seeing what the MSM did in 2008 to the most politically-accomplished woman of her age in American history, a governor with 93% approval rating in her state) Romney could gain a lot of credibility -- with non-Mormons -- from Denver west.

Edit, because I forgot to comment on the Democrats:  Obama has to keep Biden because he's about the only one available in comparison with whom Obama looks intelligent.  Well, or Hillary, but nearly all voters feel that Bill will do her thinking for her.

[WhyteRain]

Candidate                      Timezone

Rubio 24.7                      Eastern
Portman 11.9                  Eastern
Christie 10.5                   Eastern
McDonnell 8.5                 Eastern
Ryan 6.5                         Central
Martinez 4.5                    Mountain
Ron Paul 3.9                    Central
Daniels 3.7                      Eastern
Thune 2.8                        Central
Ayotte 2.7                       Eastern
Pawlenty 2.7                    Central
Santorum 2.6                  Eastern
Jindal 2.5                        Central

Total
64.6% from Eastern Timezone
18.4% from Central
4.5% from Mountain
0.0% from Pacific

[WhyteRain]

the most politically-accomplished woman of her age in American history

Most people here are missing out on some great laughs by putting you on ignore.

First, the truth of the statement is proved by your refusal to even try to refute it.

Second, while every GOP candidate would give his left arm for her endorsement, your presidential nominee sits by the phone ... waiting ... for someone to call to ask for his.

It's a lonely vigil.  

(There are a few calls, but only from more white Democrats telling him they'll be washing their hair while he's being renominated in Charlotte.)

[WhyteRain]

Martinez is no Sarah Palin. This woman isn't a phony. She'd connect with voters without having to get gimmicky.

Are you kidding?  After the power we've seen the MSM display in recent years -- forget what they did to Palin for a minute:  Look what they did to the Clinton Machine in 2008 and to the Tea Party in 2012.  In a race of "Hillary and the Seven Dwarfs", the MSM got the Democrats to nominate the littlest dwarf, Dopey.  And now, just two years after the Tea Party, motivated by ObamaCare, gave the GOP the biggest midterm election victory in generations, the MSM foisted on the GOP the most anti-Tea Party candidate, the unapologetic architect of the prototype for ObamaCare.

Think about that kind of power for a minute before you try to say that the MSM can't do to Martinez what they did to Palin.

[WhyteRain]

Palin did it to herself when she showed up to those Katie Couric interviews unprepared. The mainstream media goes for what's most popular. Hating on Palin was most popular because she made herself look stupid.

No she didn't.  You were among the fooled.

Oh hey, I know!  Let's have some fun:  I'll name something that Obama -- who you would say "made himself look smart" -- has said that is really idiotic, and then you follow by naming something idiotic said by Palin.  Only rule:  It has to be verifiable -- not "someone said that Palin said such-and-such". 

Ready?

"Corpse-man."

Your turn.  We'll keep going till one of us runs out and we can see who got fooled by the MSM.

[WhyteRain]

Hagrid, I had a neat point-by-point reply, but the computer ate it.  :-(

Anyway, the gist was that, no, Palin did NOT "make herself look stupid" and Obama did NOT "make himself look smart".

It was the MSM that made Palin look stupid and it was the MSM that made Obama look smart.  That you, an intelligent guy who probably even sympathizes with Palin's politics, did not notice it is a real tribute to the skill employed.

(Sometime, go back and count the number of dumb things Palin said, and then multiply them by the number of times they were repeated and amplied in the MSM echo chamber.  Then do the same for Obama.  Did you know, btw, that he recently mistook the state flag of Wisconsin and thought it was a labor union flag -- "Local 1848"!  Or that he called the Miami Heat basketball team the Miami Heats.  That was just this month alone.

Heck, last Summer he (1) couldn't get right the date of his own birthday, (2) couldn't get right the age of his oldest child, and (3) couldn't get right that the year was "2011" and not "2008".

(If you think Palin or Perry or Bush -- or any of those people who didn't have a polished, elite accent -- did that it might be on continuous rewind for weeks on nearly every channel?)

You know, I worked as a newspaper reporter for eight years -- including 1.5 in D.C.  If you never believe anything else I say, then believe this one thing:  You will come nearer the truth by believing the opposite of everything the MSM tells you.  Or to quote Thomas Jefferson, "The truest things in the newspapers are the advertisements."

[WhyteRain]

I have not been fooled--I like Palin. She still made herself look stupid by giving the MSM a big blunder to chew on. Obama does not give run-on, unintelligible responses to new reporters. Sure, he rarely gives anything of substance and sometimes says the odd dumb thing, but even you should be able to see that Palin's Couric interviews were huge bombs (and they were fair interviews, too).

Big mess-ups and small mess-ups are not on par. Big blunders can sink a candidate. Many, many, many small ones cannot.

Oh, so now it's not the NUMBER of blunders but the SIZE?

We could have the same contest and I'd be still here, typing Obama's BIG blunders long after you finished with Palin's.

Dependent as you are on the cultural elite to tell you what to think about Palin, you probably think that she "made a BIG blunder" when she answered "all of them" to Couric's "Do you read newspapers?" set-up question, right?  That was a set-up for a "gotcha question".  It would have trapped a lesser politician.  Apparently, only journalism grads like Palin (and me) could see what Couric was doing and what her next question would have been if, as she demanded, Palin named a "specific" publication.

Go review the tape of that question.  Watch Couric's body language.  As she forms the question, she's not making eye-contact, she's looking at the ground, but she's speaking very carefully, making sure to ask the set-up question exactly the right way.  She was furious when Palin side-stepped the trap by saying "all of them"!  You can see as she keeps demanding that Palin for the NAME of a SPECIFIC newspaper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9go38MgZ4w8

(Actually, I notice that she didn't say "all of them".  She said, "Most of them" and then when Couric demanded specificity, Palin said "all of them -- any of them that have been placed in front of me".)

Palin's mistake was that she was too polite.  She knew what Couric was doing and she should've called her on it:  "Why would you ask me that question, Katie?  Have you ever asked any other politician that question in your whole life?"

[modify]  Of course, the MSM gave Katie a big award for that botched "gotcha" moment -- but not for her interview of Biden in which he said, insanely, that FDR gave a televised address to the nation in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jf17Yo7hBM  

LOL-- did you even see that?  Or did you just hear the "all of them" answer repeated 500 times in the media with claims that it proved Palin was "stupid"?

[WhyteRain]

I have not been fooled--I like Palin. She still made herself look stupid by giving the MSM a big blunder to chew on. Obama does not give run-on, unintelligible responses to new reporters. Sure, he rarely gives anything of substance and sometimes says the odd dumb thing, but even you should be able to see that Palin's Couric interviews were huge bombs (and they were fair interviews, too).

Big mess-ups and small mess-ups are not on par. Big blunders can sink a candidate. Many, many, many small ones cannot.

Oh, so now it's not the NUMBER of blunders but the SIZE?

We could have the same contest and I'd be still here, typing Obama's BIG blunders long after you finished with Palin's.

Dependent as you are on the cultural elite to tell you what to think about Palin, you probably think that she "made a BIG blunder" when she answered "all of them" to Couric's "Do you read newspapers?" set-up question, right?  That was a set-up for a "gotcha question".  It would have trapped a lesser politician.  Apparently, only journalism grads like Palin (and me) could see what Couric was doing and what her next question would have been if, as she demanded, Palin named a "specific" publication.

Go review the tape of that question.  Watch Couric's body language.  As she forms the question, she's not making eye-contact, she's looking at the ground, but she's speaking very carefully, making sure to ask the set-up question exactly the right way.  She was furious when Palin side-stepped the trap by saying "all of them"!  You can see as she keeps demanding that Palin for the NAME of a SPECIFIC newspaper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9go38MgZ4w8

(Actually, I notice that she didn't say "all of them".  She said, "Most of them" and then when Couric demanded specificity, Palin said "all of them -- any of them that have been placed in front of me".)

Palin's mistake was that she was too polite.  She knew what Couric was doing and she should've called her on it:  "Why would you ask me that question, Katie?  Have you ever asked any other politician that question in your whole life?"

[modify]  Of course, the MSM gave Katie a big award for that botched "gotcha" moment -- but not for her interview of Biden in which he said, insanely, that FDR gave a televised address to the nation in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jf17Yo7hBM 

LOL-- did you even see that?  Or did you just hear the "all of them" answer repeated 500 times in the media with claims that it proved Palin was "stupid"?

WhyteRain, how is it you can alienate conservatives as well as liberals?

I don't toe the "conservative" or the "liberal" lines because both zigzag too much for me. 

LOL -- you made me recall a friend in college telling me that I was "more conservative than the conservatives and more liberal than the liberals".

Basically, I'm just a history buff who sees echos of the past in the present (and the future).

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Heck, that "gaffe" was covered.  Look at the ones that weren't.  How often was this tape played? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of61E1FesPU&feature=related

It's no accident that while former U.S. presidents used teleprompters for speeches to the nation -- where every word was crucial -- the White House handlers don't trust Obama to make even routine announcements without TOTUS.