A John McCain shortcoming

[DiscoMan]

Don't be Markey. I spent three years in the Anti-War movement and then worked for George McGovern in '72 in Massachusetts. After that eye opening experience I threw my hat in the Republican ring when I saw what became of the democRats...

[markydefad]

And after the past 8 years of outrageous lies, corruption and unbelievable incompetence, you want more???? More wars, more taxbreaks for the corporations, more spying on the citizens, more lying about who our "enemies" are? The enemy lies within and it's sole purpose is to keep the American people terrified and take away their rights--so that the priviledged class can run everything...say goodbye to the America we thought we were living in....Corporatist Fascism is coming back. Right here in the USA...unless these creeps are voted out of office!!!

[DiscoMan]

And after the past 8 years of outrageous lies, corruption and unbelievable incompetence, you want more???? More wars, more taxbreaks for the corporations, more spying on the citizens, more lying about who are "enemies" are? The enemy lies within and it's sole purpose is to keep the American people terrified and take away their rights--so that the priviledged class can run everything...say goodbye to the America we thought we were living in....

God man... lighten up. This has nothing to do with my remarks...Jeesh.
I voted for W twice and I have not been happy at all with his second term. One of the few positive things I can think of is that the jihadists haven't been able to murder more Americans here, and the "spying" has undoubtedly helped. So some part of the war against the jihad is working.

America hasn't been a free country for a long time...

I unequivically oppose free trade. It is ruining this country. The corpoarations are getting rich from it while our society and the rest of the economy go right down the $*****r (gotta abide by the double standard here). We must put in power politicians who end NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO.

I don't know who I'm gonna vote for if I vote at all. Romney did a good job in the commiewealth of Massholechusetts with a Great and General Court that was 88% democRat, but he's a "free trader" and I won't vote for a "free trader". The corporations own both parties and the citizenry must break that hold or this government is lost.

[remicks]

******

Originally Posted by markydefad

oh remicks....what a revelation. I. AM. IN. SHOCK.

Marky all is not as bad as it it may seem !! Registering as a republican and actually being one are two different things !! Party affiliation means nothing to me. They are all equally corrupt. When I go through the voting booth and they check off my name in the Republican column I think to myself "what a joke".


I spent most of my years being registered Independent or Green ... haven't been Democrat since the glory days of Jimmy Carter. I decided to go Republican because they then send you all their phony literature and you can better keep track of them. (Same reason I used to encourage Jerry Falwell to send me all his crap !! ) Being registered republican , they waste a lot of expensive glossy campaign material mailing it to me and when I go into the booth I simply take with me their voter's guide and pretty much vote opposite all the way down . Also they send out surveys and opinion polls which I get to mail back to them blessed with my brutally honest comments.

I haven't voted Democrat since Jimmy Carter either ... well until the last election I caved in and voted for John Kerry because I hate Bush that much. Or rather what I hate is having an idiot for a president. My stomach still turns from the memory of doing so though . Don't think I've ever voted Republican because the candidates are always even worse than the Democrats...although maybe so in some of the Senate races against Feinstein and Boxer ..... I can't stand either of those worthless hags ....


Then as for voting now for Romney ....if McCain ties up the nomination too soon ..then the Republicans have their man and can sit back and organize for the big one ... while the Democrats continue to spend their time and money against each other....between Hillary and Obama. Therefore iin the interest of fairness it would be a good thing for Romney and McCain to also continue to battle it out on the Republican side.

Videoskooter :
Can you explain this to me? So you have to vote already for the candidate of your choice? That is voting for the candidate that you think will represent you the best, your pick for the real presidential election, right?

And are those votes (you and others) counted and the one that gets the most votes is then the Californian candidate for your party? Or does it work differently and is it even more complicated? (I really don't know that much about the American voting system).

And who's picking the running mate (candidate for vice-president)? The chosen candidate or the voters? And when will the teams be announced? Super Tuesday?

VS ..... this is the California primary and each person running in each party is getting a number of electoral votes from our state depending on what per cent of the vote they get. As you can see its already whittled down considerably who's left for us to choose from . The Democrats distribution is proportional .... so if its a tie between Hillary and Obama ... both get half of the state's demo delegates. Not sure about the republican side ..it might be winner take all. (??) Each state is so different ! Of course California is a big prize state. All this is heading for the partys' conventions where they will tally all these delegate votes up and see who has the required minimum to be nominated . Each candidate gets to choose his own vice presidential co-runner .... although I'm sure other powers chose Cheney for Bush.

If you really want to follow it all go to :

Election 2008: Presidential, Senate and House Races Updated Daily


Here is some of today's juice from that site :

Many prominent conservatives, including Ann Coulter, James Dobson, Rush Limbaugh, and Pat Toomey, have a visceral hatred of John McCain, which is going to be a big problem if he is the nominee (see also here and here). All of them hate Hillary Clinton, too, and probably could learn to hate Barack Obama if he is their opponent. One of the arguments that Republicans have been making about why they will win this year is how Hillary Clinton will unite their party like never before. Unless John McCain divides it like never before. Which hate is stronger? In any event, there is likely to be a lot of hate this year.

The U.S. economy lost 17,000 jobs in January. While the formal definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP, something economists understand, for most people, having to worry about losing your job is a better indicator and tends to push people towards the Democrats. A recession in an election year will focus everyone's attention on which party can be better trusted to fix the economy. John McCain has (perhaps foolishly) said he doesn't know much about the economy. He may come to regret that. His great strength is national security and to the extent that gets put on the back burner while people are worrying about their jobs, it hurts him. If there is another terrorist attack, people will look to him for strength.

-- The Votemaster

I didn't send in my absentee ballot yet. Couldn't quite force myself to vote for Romney. Now I'll have to hand deliver my ballot to the polls on Tuesday.

I wonder , it seems possible .....that the right candidate could come along .... and for some of the same reasons mixed with different ones ....that both you Discoman and I would vote for .............??



*****

[Videoskooter]

Just in: the results for the GOP in West-Virginia:

Huckabee: 52%
Romney: 47%
McCain: 1 (one) %

[DiscoMan]

Huckabee winning in West Virginia is not surprising - the bible belt right in the middle of Appalachian coal country. Those are remote southern "hill folk". McCain is perceived there as being a liberal and perception is reality.

[remicks]

*****


This time I voted for ......
.......................................... Ron Paul




Next time ???? ------









....................................God willing


*****

[remicks]

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

Just in: the results for the GOP in West-Virginia:

Huckabee: 52%
Romney: 47%
McCain: 1 (one) %

Here 's how the Votemaster explains it:

West Virginia is an interesting case. McCain got only 1% of the vote there. Did he take a stand against moonshine and outhouses? No. West Virginia had a convention, which is like a caucus except that only party leaders get to go. On the first round, Romney came in first so the McCain and Huckabee people got together and decide to all vote for Huckabee on round 2 to deny Romney a victory.
Why would the McCain and Huckabee people cooperate? After all, their candidates are competing for the same prize. Most likely, Huckabee realizes that while he won five states yesterday, he is not going to get the nomination. But his presence in the race hurts Romney badly and helps McCain. McCain is a smart guy and fully understands that he needs Huckabee to split the conservative vote (see above about McCain not getting 50% except in northeastern states with few conservatives). So what's going on? Huckabee wants to be McCain's Veep and by working with him to defeat Romney, he improves his chances. On the campaign trail he attacks Romney all the time as a Johnny-come-lately to conservatism, but Huckabee never has a bad word about McCain.
But a McCain/Huckabee ticket is not without its problems. It will unify the Republican party to a large extent. Huckabee is a young guy (52) and his supporters are only months away from working on their "Huckabee in '16" signs. But Huckabee is not popular at all with independents and Democrats. When the mud begins to fly, and it will, expect the following. "McCain is an old guy who has had malignant melanoma repeatedly. He's going to die in office and then you get President Huckabee? You want President Huckabee?" Of course the candidate would never say anything like that, but outside (527) groups will have no hesitation at all in saying that. So McCain has to think carefully about a Veep more popular than himself within his own party but not at all popular outside it.
--- electoral-vote.com

This particular shenanigan really has the Limbaugh crowd's (who are Romney supporters) feathers ruffled .


******

[Videoskooter]

Originally Posted by remicks

This time I voted for ......
.......................................... Ron Paul

Is he still in the race? It's very weird as our press almost never mentions him, they concentrate on Obama/Clinton and Huckabee/Romney/McCain. Romney gets the best reviews for his economical programs.

Remmy, BTW, you mention the fact that your next vote could go to Obama? You are a registered Republican. Can you vote for a Democrat? Maybe a stupid question but your voting system is so weird to us Euros.

[paul]

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

Remmy, BTW, you mention the fact that your next vote could go to Obama? You are a registered Republican. Can you vote for a Democrat? Maybe a stupid question but your voting system is so weird to us Euros.

It's wierd to us Americans too
In the general election, regardless of party affiliation you can vote for whomever.

[eddie]

Hey Video:

The party's are allowed to have whatever kind of primary they want in each state. Some are open to members of both parties; while others are not. Some are open to independant voters; while others are not. Now, caucuses are a bit different like the Democrat caucus in Iowa where the citizens actually vote at people's houses. If a candidate gets under 15%, then they are allowed to vote for another candidate in a second round. That's I presume what happened in the Republican primary in West Virginia. McCain's supporters were a distant third and in a second round switched to Huckabee to knock out Romney.

What ethical concerns were there regarding Huckabee as I hold him in high esteem? I was registered in a third party and couldn't vote even though I switched last October back to Republican. The party rules in NY state said the deadline for "change of party" was October 12 but to register from independant to Republican, the deadline was January 11. It's complicated.

[Videoskooter]

Originally Posted by eddie

What ethical concerns were there regarding Huckabee as I hold him in high esteem?

Thx Eddie for explaining all this. It all seems very weird and complicated.

In Belgium we don't have primaries. We vote for a city council or government and everybody that has the Belgian nationality and has become 18 years old can vote here. You can only vote for 1 party but on that listing you can pick multiple candidates. You don't have to be a member of a political party at all and even if you are so, you can still vote for another party.

Now, your question on Huckabee. I like the man very much, he seems very sincere and IMHO he would be a good president. But I read some articles on him where they point out that in the past he has made some very hard statements on gay people and people that are HIV-positive.

Maybe he has toned down a little bit on those issues? But apart from that, the guy is cool.

BTW, Obama is still going very strong! I think Mrs. Clinton doesn't sleep very well!