The Goat Pen

Professor Tiger wrote:Mook,

My Mom's 89. She will vote for whoever Shep, Brett, Greta, and Bill think is best.

Which is what I figured. Of course, the whole point is that my mom is the classic moderate, true independent voter. She has voted for both parties and Perot. Your mom just falls in the "Fox Watcher" pile of GOPers.

My mom is of the lot that will actually decide the election and so far she thinks Bachman is a joke and has no intention of voting for a Mormon period. I think your best bet so far is Rick Perry, and that's because she has no idea who he is. Who knows what will happen when he has the light shined on him. I'm just saying your other two front-runners don't have a chance in hell of swinging Mook's Mom.

After looking at Perry's bio, he's just another life long bureaucrat.

Her is Romney's resume from Wiki:

"Romney is the son of George W. Romney (the former Governor of Michigan) and Lenore Romney. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and then served as a Mormon missionary in France. He received his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, and thereafter earned Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration joint degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. Romney entered the management consulting business which led to a position at Bain & Company, eventually serving as its CEO to lead it out of crisis. He was also co-founder and head of the spin-off company Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm which became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation, and the wealth Romney accumulated there would help fund all of his future political campaigns. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts but lost to incumbent Ted Kennedy. Romney organized and steered the 2002 Winter Olympics as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and helped turn the troubled Games into a financial success.

Romney won the election for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, but did not seek reelection in 2006. During his term, he presided over a series of spending cuts and increases in fees that eliminated a projected $3 billion deficit. He also signed into law the Massachusetts health care reform legislation, which provided near-universal health insurance access via subsidies and state-level mandates and was the first of its kind in the nation. During the course of his political career, his positions or rhetorical emphasis have shifted more towards American conservatism in several areas."

I don't see how any other candidate is even close to being better qualified during these times.

I mean, for Christ sake, I still haven't even been able to turn my mom fully against Palin. Not that I think she would vote for her (she doesn't like that she shot wolves from a plane, gave her kids stupid names, and quit being governor to make more money as a pundent-not necessarily in that order), but she still gets defensive about her when I start making too many jokes about how dumb she is. She thought Couric was just being mean for ratings.

Sorry Sardis, the Mormon thing is a real no go. Do you think he'd be willing to change religions? Oh silly me, look who I'm talking about. Never mind.

Imagine if the Democratic Party nominated a combination of Al Franken and Nancy Pelosi for the presidency, and you have a sense of the gamble Republicans would be taking with Perry. And even if that gamble worked, little in his record suggests that he's prepared to preside over a polarized country, or negotiate his way through a divided Washingston.

Maybe Perry has hidden subtleties; maybe Romney has hidden convictions. But if this is a 1970s moment for America and the world, the Republican front-runners look more like John Connally and Gerry Ford than Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher.

So whose door should Republicans be knocking on instead? Unless Mitch Daniels changes his mind or Jeb Bush changes his last name, the only compelling possibility remaining is Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/o ... cation=rss

A thoughtful article imo that poses the question - is this slate of candidates the best the GOP can do? - and makes no bones about the answer.

I don't think Christie has enough experience, and he's GOT to push away from the table - but I'd feel much better if he were to jump in the race. It could be a great moment, something akin to the premise of Thunderdome - "one man enter, three crazies leave." One could hope..

TheBigMook wrote:Sorry Sardis, the Mormon thing is a real no go. Do you think he'd be willing to change religions? Oh silly me, look who I'm talking about. Never mind.

Of course he would

the only compelling possibility remaining is Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Christie has always been my dream candidate, but that ain't happenin'. He probably believes that 2012 is a lost cause and is waiting for 2016. If he ever runs, his running mate should be a licensed liposuction surgeon/cardiologist with lots of ER experience.

Sorry Sardis, the Mormon thing is a real no go. Do you think he'd be willing to change religions? Oh silly me, look who I'm talking about. Never mind.

The Mormon thing is a huge problem for my Southern fundamentalist relatives. But if it ever came down to Romney or Obama, they'd vote for the magic underwear guy. They'd vote for Charles Manson over Obama.

Professor Tiger wrote: The Mormon thing is a huge problem for my Southern fundamentalist relatives. But if it ever came down to Romney or Obama, they'd vote for the magic underwear guy. They'd vote for Charles Manson over Obama.

Again... like your Fox News watching momma, your Southern fundamentalist relative votes were never up for grabs. They will not decide the election.

Nobody cares about the South.

The South and Southwest are Republican. The Northeast and Left Coast are Democrat. The Midwest is usually the swing region. It's surprising that more presidential candidates don't come from the Midwest (Obama is from Hawaii and Indonesia). Americans keep electing mostly Southern governors.

I guess Mormonism is crazier than muslimism. Anyway, I hate consultants.

In case you haven't heard, only Fox News watchers think that Obama is a secret muslim. Its already established that Mook's Mom doesn't watch that shit. However, if you can get Judge Judy to start making these accusations about Obama, then you might have a chance.

Rat's mom > Mook's mom.

BTW, Happy Airborne Day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Airborne_Day

All the way, baby.

Why is there a holiday celebrating that shyster airplane flu remedy? Made by a school teacher my ass.

Leg.

Professor Tiger wrote:The South and Southwest are Republican. The Northeast and Left Coast are Democrat. The Midwest is usually the swing region. It's surprising that more presidential candidates don't come from the Midwest (Obama is from Hawaii and Indonesia). Americans keep electing mostly Southern governors.

NC is a swing state that has been controlled by Democrats for the vast majority of its history, including the present day. Yes, it voted for Republican presidential candidates 80-04, but Clinton barely lost NC both times.

The rest of the South is Republican though. We just happen to be more progressive than our shithead neighbors.

Clinton "barely lost"? Did they split the electoral votes?

1992
Bush: 43.44%
Clinton: 42.65%
Perot: 13.7%

1996
Dole: 48.73%
Clinton: 44.04%
Perot: 6.8%

1996 wasn't as close as I thought it was, but it's not bad.

sardis wrote:After looking at Perry's bio, he's just another life long bureaucrat.

Her is Romney's resume from Wiki:

"Romney is the son of George W. Romney (the former Governor of Michigan) and Lenore Romney. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and then served as a Mormon missionary in France. He received his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, and thereafter earned Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration joint degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. Romney entered the management consulting business which led to a position at Bain & Company, eventually serving as its CEO to lead it out of crisis. He was also co-founder and head of the spin-off company Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm which became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation, and the wealth Romney accumulated there would help fund all of his future political campaigns. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts but lost to incumbent Ted Kennedy. Romney organized and steered the 2002 Winter Olympics as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and helped turn the troubled Games into a financial success.

Romney won the election for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, but did not seek reelection in 2006. During his term, he presided over a series of spending cuts and increases in fees that eliminated a projected $3 billion deficit. He also signed into law the Massachusetts health care reform legislation, which provided near-universal health insurance access via subsidies and state-level mandates and was the first of its kind in the nation. During the course of his political career, his positions or rhetorical emphasis have shifted more towards American conservatism in several areas."

I don't see how any other candidate is even close to being better qualified during these times.

There isn't another candidate that is even close to being better qualified, this time, or 4 years ago...