Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Isn't it kind of curious that Bachmann, Trump, Perry, Christie, Cain...has there been one I have forgotten or overlooked (?) but yet there has been no boom for RP?

I realize that Einstein, being a scientist, is not in high repute among our rightist brethern, but he famously said something about repeating the same behavior and expecting different outcomes being pretty much the definition of neurotic behavior. This is at least the 3rd time RP has run for the presidency. At the same time, there have been various and sundry other libertarian types who have run for the presidency. And yet.

Any objective observer of the American political scene has to admit that the GOP, the voice of the right, is in major trouble. Even whatishisname on the 700 Club stomped on them today for being too extreme. If that isn't the the depths of dispondency...

All the right has to offer is more of the policies...on steroids...that created the mess. Cut taxes and deregulate.

The country is edging toward a major overhaul...and it ain't in the right-hand direction.

[Ineverlie&I'malwaysri]

No boom for RP?

Ron Paul raises $2.75 million in five days!

Yes, it is the third time he's run, and each time he does better and better. He does not peak and retreat like all the others. His support just steadily increases.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Silly boy. I meant support from people, not Ronbots.

Anyway, we're a year away from the election...53 weeks. I'm going to go out on a limb and make my prediction now. Obama will win in a landslide, something similar to Reagan over Dukakis in '84.

Why? State by state, the general voting public will start paying attention as their state has its primary/caucus. As they do, they are going to be horrified by the selection the GOP is putting up for them as an alternative to Obama.

As John Podhoretz wrote this week: Memo to the Republican field: You�re running for president. Of the United States. Of America. Start acting like it.

Stop proposing nonsense tax plans that won�t work. Stop making ridiculous attention-getting ads that might be minimally acceptable if you were running for county supervisor in Oklahoma. Stop saying you�re going to build a US-Mexico border fence you know perfectly well you�re not going to build.

Give the GOP electorate and the American people some credit. This country is in terrible shape. They know it. You know it. They want solutions. You�re providing comedy.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/pack_of_nonsense_eKQaBolCs3rTAEIWKzppiN#ixzz1c0job6f7

Even worse news for conservatives: the economic news is better despite their hopes and efforts. The predictions for a second dip are fading. The public has a whole year to adjust to the idea that things are improving, albeit slowly.

If current conditions hold, Obama will have something around 400 electoral votes.

PS: (To reinforce my point)
David Frum wrote: Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza describe a new CBS/NYT poll:

The poll also asked which class voters thought the Obama Administration and Republicans in Congress favored. While people were pretty evenly split on whether the administration favors the middle class, the rich or the poor, they were all but unanimous about which class the Republicans favor; 69 percent said Republicans in Congress favor the rich, while just 9 percent said the middle class and 2 percent said the poor.

Voters say the darndest things!

The identification of the GOP as mouthpiece for the selfish interests of the wealthy is a stubborn image, difficult to overcome at the best of times. For three years, however, Republican leaders have been doing their utmost to confirm the stereotype � and to quash and quell any attempt to counter that stereotype. Did we really spend months and months arguing that one of the things most wrong with the US tax code is that the poor and unemployed pay too little tax? Yes we did. Head shake. Face slap.

[Ya-ta Boy]

There is an 'interesting' video clip of a Perry speech in Manchester, NH on Friday. Granted the clip is edited, and maybe the whole speech--not just the clip, would give a different impression, but those who saw the speech live said it was 'different'.

Perry is trying like the dickens to make a comeback. When you are down to 6%, you don't have a lot of options left. Maybe he's just trying to come across as likeable. Or, as some think, he's drunk and got caught on tape.

We report. You decide.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/perrys-passionate-speech-raises-eyebrows.php?ref=fpb

[bucheon bum]

The election is a year away, but I really don't see how a Republican candidate will beat Obama. They're clearly out of touch with the electorate. Romney has the best shot simply because he doesn't have a clear position on anything. And if Obama does lose next year, it will be due to him making even more blunders and the economy getting even worse than it is now (both of which are quite possible I concede).

[comm]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Ya-ta Boy]

So who dropped the dime on Herman Cain? : The timing and nature of a sexual harassment story leaves no shortage of suspects

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/31/so_who_dropped_the_dime_on_herman_cain/

My guess is Karl Rove.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Amid all the noise about Cain's possible sex scandal, there is a more serious scandal brewing: campaign finance.

But perhaps just as damaging to Cain is a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also published Sunday, which asserts that two of his top campaign aides ran a private nonprofit group that may have improperly helped get Cain�s campaign started.

One of the aides at the heart of this inquiry is Mark Block, a Wisconsinite now famous for a Cain campaign Web ad in which he smokes a cigarette. Mr. Block and the campaign�s deputy chief of staff, Linda Hansen, founded the Wisconsin-based group Prosperity USA, now at the center of questions over whether it improperly paid for some early Cain campaign expenses.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained internal financial documents showing that the Cain campaign owed Prosperity USA $37,372, mostly for travel expenses but also for the purchase of iPads. It wasn�t clear if the money had been reimbursed; such expenditures might be a violation of federal law, the paper said.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2011/1031/Herman-Cain-To-sexual-harassment-allegations-add-financial-ones

When the time comes to write the history of this campaign season, Halloween weekend will be the weekend that Romney sealed his nomination.

I doubt the sex stuff will damage Cain much, unless there is a series of reports--which it sounds like there may be; more damaging will be the felony charges in the financial sphere if that is what happens. (He wasn't going to win anyway.)

Rick Perry is probably glad for Cain's existence since his two kerfuffels are detracting from that horrendous NH performance. Even so, who in their right mind would vote for any candidate who looks/acts soooo unpresidential? One report says there was a similar 'performance' last February. Someone will be posting that one on You Tube any time now.

Interesting is how everyone I've seen on TV has hemmed and hawed trying to avoid saying Perry looked drunk. Tina Fey skewered Sarah Palin by not changing a word. Someone on SNL will do the same with that Perry performance since there is no need to exaggerate for comic effect. The gov can go back to Texas and save his investors' money--he can't win now.

[Ineverlie&I'malwaysri]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Now that we've had our weekly RP-is-our-savior fix, can we get back to serious politics?

It seems that Mark Block, the smoker in last week's smoker ad, is up to his eye balls in the campaign finance scandal--and he was banned for life (yes, banned!) from Wisconsin politics about 10 years ago for some kind of campaign finance scandal.

The Cain response so far has been: We'll investigate it and let you know if we did anything wrong. [This brings to mind Glenn Greenwald's book 'Equal Justice for Some'; it's about how the elite have one set of laws and the rest of us live under a different set.]

[comm]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Here are the poll numbers for a bit more than the last week: (first: GOP primary; second: head-to-head with Obama)

PRIMARY:
SOUTH CAROLINA:
(Rasmussen�Wed. Nov. 2, '11) Cain 33, Romney 23, Perry 9, Gingrich 15, Paul 5, Bachmann 2, Santorum 1, Huntsman 1

FLORIDA
(Suffolk/7News�Wed. Nov. 2, '11) Romney 25, Cain 24, Gingrich 11, Perry 9, Paul 5, Bachmann 1, Huntsman 2, Santorum 1

MAINE
(PPP�Tues. Nov. 1, '11) Cain 29, Romney 24, Gingrich 18, Paul 5, Bachmann 5, Perry 4, Santorum 2, Huntsman 1

NORTH CAROLINA
(PPP�Tuesday, Nov. 1, '11) Cain 30, Gingrich 22, Romney 19, Perry 10, Paul 4, Bachmann 4, Huntsman 2, Santorum 2

IOWA (DM Register�Sunday, Oct. 30, '11) Cain 23, Romney 22, Paul 12, Gingrich 7, Bachmann 8, Perry 7, Santorum 5, Huntsman 1

NEW HAMPSHIRE
(Rasmussen Reports�Thursday, Oct. 27, '11) Romney 41, Cain 17, Paul 11, Gingrich 8, Huntsman 7, Perry 4, Bachmann 3, Santorum 1

HEAD-to-HEAD
FLORIDA (Suffolk/7News�Wed. Nov. 2, '11) Romney 42 v. Obama 42; Obama 42 v. Cain 39; Obama 46 v. Perry 34; Obama 45 v. Gingrich 38; Obama 44 v. Paul 32

NORTH CAROLINA: (PPP�Tuesday, Nov. 1, '11) Romney 46 v. Obama 45; Obama 47 v. Cain 44; Obama 50 v. Perry 42; Obama 50 v. Gingrich 43; Obama 48 v. Paul 40

WISCONSIN
(Rasmussen�Mon. Oct. 31, '11) Obama 44 v. Paul 35; Obama 45 v. Romney 41; Obama 47 v. Cain 42; Perry 46 v. Obama 42

(WPRI�Sunday, Oct. 30, '11) Obama 46 v. Romney 35; Obama 50 v. Cain 31; Obama 48 v. Perry 30

(PPP�Friday, Oct. 28, '11) Obama 46 v. Romney 43; Obama 49 v. Cain 42; Obama 50 v. Perry 39

WASHINGTON
(The Washington Poll�Mon. Oct. 31, '11) Obama 50 v. Romney 41; Obama 54 v. Perry 41

NEVADA (PPP�Thursday, Oct. 27, '11) Obama 46 v. Romney 46; Obama 49 v. Cain 46; Obama 51 v. Perry 41

**
None of these numbers reflect the results of Cain's bad week--maybe it wasn't very bad for him in terms of voter support. I doubt it, but anything is possible in the GOP these days.

It still looks like Romney has a lock on the nomination, with the outside chance of a terminal tantrum by ultra-conservatives pushing Cain to the front. If Cain takes the nomination, I can see about 47 states seceding from the Union in mortal embarrassment at the humiliation. If Romney takes the nomination, I can see a Tea Party revolt with a 3rd party nomination of their own...or just a massive stay-at-home-in-a-sulk next November. Either way: Obama in a runaway with about 400 electoral votes.

[Kuros]

Steve Beshear, Kentucky Governor, Could Show President Obama The Reelection Ropes