Why the hell am I posting about politics, eh, I'm bored...
To the down to Gingrich and Romney portion of this thead: Belthus is pretty much on the money
The Republican base has been switching between various anyone-but-Romney candidates.
Exactly, because, Romney does not represent a good victory for them. He is a Mormon which alienates hardcore christian conservatives and can alienate up to 70% of the populous. The Mormon Church also scares a lot of people who know how it operates and does not want to see it gain more power through Mitt, and this bothers of a lot of those who have a Corporatism agenda. Also Mitt, a more traditionally modern liberalism view point, and so comes across as a flip-flopper which does not help him with the Tea Party portion of the Republican party. As far as getting people from the left to sign on, at first it sounds good, but then his silver spoon background quickly dissolves that thought.
So what about Bachmann?
Bachmann was put up by certain Fox executives who were looking to front a candidate. They thought she could pander to the Tea Party. Which she does, and that's about it. Which makes her fall real flat.
What about Perry?
Perry rose out of the collective ashes of Bachmann and the many other candidates who were 'Tea Party' style candidates... the problem with all of them is the problem Perry hit. They all operate on their convictions and feelings but once presented with needing to know the actual comings and goings of the government they are made fools of. Which, ultimately is what Romney did to him in the debates.
What about Cain?
Cain's pedigree was different, it was from the business centric portion of the Republican party, and so was a strong candidate. He talked simple, had simple plans, all sounds good. Except, he had a messy background as many executives have. It was not the existing scandals that brought him down, it was the future scandals we won't know about. But he said, "Their could be an infinite [I think he meant untold] number of these types of accusations coming out. Which is why he was now reconsidering." Politicians get defamed daily, they only start running scared when someone comes close to the truth and it's enough to ruin something very important to them.
So we have Gingrich?
Well not really, twice his campaign has already blown up. He's got two things, he is known as one of the key visionaries behind modern conservatism and all of his scandals are known of so nothing new there. The problem is as darkrobe pointed out, he has all the weakness of all the other candidates. Which is why is campaign has already blown up twice. I think we are just waiting on the third and final time.
So is this it, Romney the eventuality?
Not really, there is one candidate doing better than Romney that isn't Gingrich, he's won the CPAC poll every year since Obama came to office, he has consistently been one of the top 3 in every straw poll this campaign season. However, the media will not speak his name, and nearly everyone will say, he's not viable. Maybe he is not, but that person is Ron Paul. Only a couple problems with Ron Paul, he's old, he's old school conservative to the point of near anarchy, and he has true strength in his convictions where he is not very bribe-able.
Does it matter, honestly, against Obama, either of the three have about the same chance against Obama. Obama, has shown to be better at the terrorist warfare thing than the Republicans which is a bit of a shock. Has good international policies. However, locally here, lost a lot of democratic support for failing to capture the brief moment he had with Congress to really push their agenda, instead of socialized medicine we got subsidized insurance companies, and instead of legalized pot, we got a harder crack down, his hand got forced on gay marriage and gay's in the military, but he wasn't pushing that, he even backed RIAA policies. Finally, to add insult, has only strengthened the laws and policies that were put in place by Bush Jr. In other words he makes a better Republican than most Republicans. Honestly, I don't understand the Republican fight against him, and when they do it always threatens the economy in very bad ways on things that as he would put it "Why? That is part of their job, they won't even do that?"
So what's it down to, The Republican Acting Democrat versus a Mormon/Anarchist/or Drunk. The vote will come down to how much have the Democrats become disillusioned with Obama.
