2012 Poll:Who do you prefer?

[RATTdrools]

Well we know Mitt Romney is going to be the GOP nominee it certainly appears. There is a definite chance Ron Paul could run as a 3rd party candidate next November and political observers have said that would re-elect Obama by splitting the conservative vote.

Remember even if you're not thrilled with Obama you can still pick him as the lesser of all evils. Same thing with the others. You choose based on it's the best that's available not that it would necessarily the best choice in a perfect world.

You can feel free to submit comments or another candidate eventhough he/she probably won't be running as a 3rd party.

P.S. I know this belongs in the War Board section but they have no polls there for some strange reason! Admin please feel free to move this thread over there!

[RATTdrools]

BUMP

Admin: Can you please move this to the War Board?

[Pimp_From_The_Grave]

[SexxAtraxxion]

Obama, he saved America and the world.

Romney? Fuck republicans

[RATTdrools]

Obama, he saved America and the world.

Romney? Fuck republicans

They are not Republicans. They are Repukes!

[RATTdrools]

Ba-rock has a nice lead!

[Constantine]

Ron Paul,,,

you have to be fucking retarded to vote for that monster Obama...If you want to end up in deathcamps its your choice.

[RATTdrools]

Ron Paul,,,

you have to be fucking retarded to vote for that monster Obama...If you want to end up in deathcamps its your choice.

Deathcamps!

He thinks Obama is Hitler!

[wizard of the north]

... voted for obama. don't know a thing about the other two ...

... and it'll be as close as i'll ever come to voting in an american election -- i'm a canadian!

[MurrayFiend]

Also Canadian, but I went with Romney because he just looks Presidential to me.

[RATTdrools]

Also Canadian, but I went with Romney because he just looks Presidential to me.

But that's like voting for a Ken doll! Not very presidential!

[Cyber Spirit]

As a non American
i prefer Paul

[RATTdrools]

So it looks like Sludgers prefer Ba-ROCK!

[RATTdrools]

Bumpasaurus

[Scoundrel]

Bumpasaurus

On behalf of the obviously huge percentage of the sludge population who solicit the war board I would like to extend my gratitude to you RATTrules, for keeping this stimulating and thought provoking thread from flying off the front page.






Votes for Obama - 15
Votes not for Obama - 22

So it looks like Sludgers prefer Ba-ROCK!

[MurrayFiend]

Also Canadian, but I went with Romney because he just looks Presidential to me.

But that's like voting for a Ken doll! Not very presidential!

Fuck you. Prove that Romney's not Presidential.

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

Also Canadian, but I went with Romney because he just looks Presidential to me.

But that's like voting for a Ken doll! Not very presidential!

Fuck you. Prove that Romney's not Presidential.

He'll wait.

[HeavyMetalZombie666]

Shows people are clueless.

[RATTdrools]

Bumpasaurus

On behalf of the obviously huge percentage of the sludge population who solicit the war board I would like to extend my gratitude to you RATTrules, for keeping this stimulating and thought provoking thread from flying off the front page.






Votes for Obama - 15
Votes not for Obama - 22

So it looks like Sludgers prefer Ba-ROCK!

Thank you my friend! But most sludgers don't even come to this board. Maybe 20% do?

[Scoundrel]

[RATTdrools]

Wow, Obama and Ron Paul are the big winners!

Sorry Willard!

[eric]

I'm voting for the Mormon. His wife seems pretty nice, BTW.

[tin00can]

Retarded thread aside, this election will be interesting. The republicans will be out in force to get Obama out of office, even if that means Romney - or as I call him, white Obama. OK, I don't really call him that. Still, the republicans are pissed about 2008 and they're gonna do everything they can to get Obama out.

Meanwhile, some of the people who voted for Obama are pissed off with the lackluster job he's done so far, and instead of voting they'll sit this one out or vote some independent party. Put those two together and Obama certainly isn't guaranteed a second term.

However...while the republicans are fighting it out Obama is amassing a fuckton of re-election money, and advertising works. Once Romney is minted as the republican candidate, the hardcore democrats will contribute even more to his war chest.

It should be an interesting election. And by "interesting" I mean it will suck.

[bane]

I'm going to go ahead and predict that Obama will win the election and that Paul will get the largest percentage of any independent in memory. Kinda feels like 1996 all over again.

[Danzig in the Dark]

Don't count Romney out yet. It's likely Paul won't run against Romney.

RENO, NEV. — The remaining candidates in the winnowed Republican presidential field are attacking one another with abandon, each day bringing fresh headlines of accusations and outrage.

But Mitt Romney and Ron Paul haven’t laid a hand on each other.
Compared to other candidates’ contingents, Paul supporters are often the most vocal, the most visible and the most flamboyant. And many of them used to call themselves Democrats, or still do.

Compared to other candidates’ contingents, Paul supporters are often the most vocal, the most visible and the most flamboyant. And many of them used to call themselves Democrats, or still do.

They never do.

Despite deep differences on a range of issues, Romney and Paul became friends in 2008, the last time both ran for president. So did their wives, Ann Romney and Carol Paul. The former Massachusetts governor compliments the Texas congressman during debates, praising Paul’s religious faith during the last one, in Jacksonville, Fla. Immediately afterward, as is often the case, the Pauls and the Romneys gravitated toward one another to say hello.

The Romney-Paul alliance is more than a curious connection. It is a strategic partnership: for Paul, an opportunity to gain a seat at the table if his long-shot bid for the presidency fails; for Romney, a chance to gain support from one of the most vibrant subgroups within the Republican Party.

“It would be very foolish for anybody in the Republican Party to dismiss a very real constituency,” said one senior GOP aide in Washington who is familiar with both camps. “Ron Paul plays a very valuable part in the process and brings a lot of voters toward the Republican Party and ultimately into the voting booth, and that’s something that can’t be ignored.”

To ensure that they are heard — not just now but after Election Day, too — Paul and his followers are working to gain a permanent foothold in the Republican Party nationwide. One state at a time, Paul’s supporters are seating themselves at county committee meetings, and standing for election as state officers and convention delegates, to make sure their candidate’s libertarian vision is taken into account. The goal is a lasting voice for an army of outsiders that has long felt ignored and sees the nation headed toward ruin if things don’t change.

That is just fine with the Romney campaign, which would be happy to bring Paul’s constituency — perhaps the most intense and loyal in the country — into the fold.

Romney’s aides are “quietly in touch with Ron Paul,” according to a Republican adviser who is in contact with the Romney campaign and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its internal thinking. The two campaigns have coordinated on minor things, the adviser said — even small details, such as staggering the timing of each candidate’s appearance on television the night of the New Hampshire primary for maximum effect.

One advantage for Romney is that Paul’s presence in the race helps keep the GOP electorate fractured. But there is also a growing recognition that the congressman plans to stay in the contest over the long term — and that accommodating him and his supporters could help unify Republican voters in the general election against President Obama.

“Ron Paul wants a presence at the convention,” the adviser said — and Romney, if he is the nominee, would grant it.

What Paul and his supporters would demand, and what Romney would offer, are subjects of some speculation. One Paul adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk freely, said prime-time speaking slots for Paul and his son Rand, the junior senator from Kentucky, are obvious goals. On the policy front, Ron Paul’s priorities are reforming the Federal Reserve and reducing federal spending. So promises to audit the Fed and to tackle deficit reduction seriously could appease the congressman and his supporters, the adviser said.

Less likely are concessions on foreign policy, where Paul’s non-interventionist stand is at odds with that of Romney and most other Republicans.

Infiltrating the party

Compared to other candidates’ contingents, Paul supporters are often the most vocal, the most visible and the most flamboyant. And many of them used to call themselves Democrats, or still do.

Compared to other candidates’ contingents, Paul supporters are often the most vocal, the most visible and the most flamboyant. And many of them used to call themselves Democrats, or still do.
For Paul’s campaign, playing the inside-outside game has required nudging activists into the party system, even as he and they remain wary of it.

“I’ve been involved in politics for 20 or 30 years,” Paul told an enthusiastic crowd in a Spartanburg, S.C., hotel ballroom in January. “One of the reasons I became frustrated with the whole process is that the rhetoric could be so different. Republicans would say one thing, but then, when they get into office, they haven’t done a heck of a lot.”

Paul paused, and his audience cheered loudly as he added: “Have you ever noticed that?”

The crowd that day was characteristically scrappy and diverse: a man with a ponytail and a camouflage hunting jacket, a young mother with two small children, a doctor and his wife, and a well-dressed, young professional couple.

Yet the insurgents are executing a concerted strategy to infiltrate the Republican Party. Five Paul supporters, for instance, sit on the state GOP’s central committee in Iowa, where their candidate finished a strong third in the Jan. 3 caucuses. In Nevada, the vice president of the state GOP backs Paul. In Virginia, Paul supporters are lining up to attend county and district conventions to influence the election of national delegates.

In Reno, regional coordinator Wayne Terhune used a slide show on a recent weeknight to teach volunteers how to participate in a Republican precinct meeting to help Paul win delegates in the state’s caucuses on Saturday. He has tutored packed rooms at Denny’s as well as smaller crowds in the campaign’s Reno headquarters, located in a low-slung office building alongside the airport.

In a tiny conference room with a water cooler and two dogs on the floor, Terhune told the volunteers not to allow paper ballots out of their sight once votes take place — and to dress neatly and inconspicuously, so fellow Republicans won’t be disinclined to elect them as caucus delegates.

A common refrain is to “cover your tattoos and cut your hair,” said Paul’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, who often tells coordinators to “dress for business, because we mean business.”

“You’ll nominate yourself,” Terhune told the room. “They’ll probably have you give your speech. Have a meeting a day ahead so all the Ron Paul people know who the other Ron Paul people are, so you can vote for them. Then you give a generic speech, and the non-Ron Paul people say, ‘Oh, he’s solid, I can vote for him.’ ”

Terhune also urged the volunteers to pull out their iPhones and record the proceedings on caucus night if party officials “don’t play by the rules.”

Teaching the establishment

Paul’s infiltration strategy began in 2008, after his last presidential bid, when he saw the potential to continue building his movement by working within the Republican Party.

But the idea took off in 2010 when Paul’s son Rand ran for Senate. On an outsider, small-government message very similar to his father’s, Rand Paul won the Republican primary that year against an opponent who was handpicked by Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader and senior senator from Kentucky.

Then, quite strangely, the establishment and the Pauls came together.

At McConnell’s request, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent an adviser to Kentucky to watch over Rand Paul’s general-election campaign — “to be the grown-up in the room,” according to one Washington Republican who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly.

The adviser, Trygve Olson, developed a friendship with Rand Paul, and the two realized that they could teach each other a lot — to the benefit of both candidate and party. Olson showed Paul and his campaign establishment tactics: working with the news media, fine-tuning its message. And Paul showed Olson — and by extension, McConnell — how many people were drawn to the GOP by his message of fiscal responsibility.

One day that year, at Paul’s request, McConnell joined him for a tea party gathering in Kentucky, according to a Republican who was there. “Who are these people?” McConnell asked, bewildered by the dearth of familiar faces at a political event in his home state.

And at Rand Paul’s suggestion, Olson joined his father’s presidential campaign this year, basically to do what he did for Rand: help bring the Paul constituency into the Republican coalition without threatening the party. It’s probably no small coincidence that the partnership helps Rand’s burgeoning political career, too.

“You can dress in black and stand on the hill and smash the state and influence nobody, or you can realize the dynamics and the environment and get involved in the most pragmatic way to win minds and win votes and influence change,” said Benton, the campaign manager. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html

[bane]

I don't know why it never crossed my mind, but a Romney / Paul campaign could make this thing a lot more interesting. Paul swings a pretty big stick these days. I don't know if his supporters could be swayed to support an establishment guy like Romney, but if they could, Obama could have a real fight on his hands. The GOP will be dead in the water if they're split, but something like this is intriguing,

[Danzig in the Dark]

I wonder how may Paul supporters would actually back Romney if he asked them to? Would any of you who picked Paul in the poll get behind Romney if he asked?

[DEATH ROW JOE]

Paul swings a pretty big stick these days.

Big stick means:
1) only candidate who has not won a primary
2) polling dead last
3) dead last in delegate count

[bane]

Don't act dumb Joe. You know exactly what I meant. If Paul runs as an independent, Obama will win. He will garner enough of the conservative vote to make it a non contest. Nice shagadelic pictures though skippy.You get an A for effort.

[bane]

I wonder how may Paul supporters would actually back Romney if he asked them to? Would any of you who picked Paul in the poll get behind Romney if he asked?

Good question. I think a good number would if Paul was VP.