Obama and the Seven Dwarves, an electoral fairy tale

It's a bit early to start a CAMPAIGN 2012!!!!1!!!! thread, but how did everyone feel about tonight's debate? Did any of you watch the debate?

I thought Romney did very well. He looked and acted "Presidential", he didn't do anything particularly stupid. I'd say he was the winner.

Bachmann did surprisingly well, but Bachmann is batshit insane so I'm troubled by this development.

Pawlenty did OK, but it seems like all Pawlenty is capable of is "OK". I like him, but I think his presidential prospects are sorta dim. He isn't very exciting. He's too nice. It's like they went down to the local bank and found a really affable loan officer or teller and asked him if he'd like to be in a debate. "Well yeah! That'd be swell."

Herman Cain now has competition for the cultural conservative and tea party vote (Bachmann). He's not the "outsider" any more and it's going to be hard for him to set himself apart from Bachmann.

Oh, and Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul were there too.

Rick Santorum must be insane if he thinks he is in any way a viable candidate for president. Only Bachmann might be more of a wedge against moderates, and that's if she really turns of the right-wing crazy.

There are few things I actually learned from last night's snoozefest--er, "debate," among them:

1. John King is a horrible moderator, probably the worst I've seen, and the only likely reason I could even think of for hiring him was to remind Republicans that gun metaphors are bad!!
2. Michele Bachmann doesn't want to repeal all those state laws allowing gay marriage, which is nice, and Pawlenty was kind enough to wuss out when confronted about his "Obamneycare" remark -- God knows we need more cowards in the White House -- but overall, I wanted to kill all of them.
3. King's habit of muttering while the candidates tried to respond to his idiotic questions was so fucking annoying I can barely remember anything else about the evening, sorry.
4. Tyler Posey is like the worst actor ever (I don't think he was in the debate; I probably saw him while channel-surfing to get away from John King).
5. I can understand that Sarah Palin's penchant for stealing headlines from the GOP candidates is not entirely her fault, but I still felt that driving her tour bus into the auditorium and shouting "Hey everyone, look at me! look at me! look at me!" was a little much.
6. Every aspect of my being is still physically repulsed at the mere sight of Mitt Romney, so the fact that he didn't say or do anything memorable the whole night is very good for my psyche.
7. Barring any catastrophic developments in the Republican primaries (i.e., Mister Jones barging into the next debate and "accidentally" mauling all the candidates to death, forcing the RNC to nominate Marco Rubio in emergency session), I will probably be voting Libertarian next year.

So what if Rick Perry and/or Jon Huntsman jump in the race? What do you think of them?

Rick Perry maybe......however I'm right now firmly behind Herman Cain.

Herman Cain can't decide if he wants to be a Tea Party darling or the voice of conservative business; his comment about Muslims and Sharia Law just shows he's willing to say whatever it takes to get scaredy-cat social conservatives to listen to him, and not someone like Santorum, who at least has legitimacy as the voice of christian rightism and "social values."

Mitt Romney is the frontrunner at this point purely because he looks presidential and he's the least likely to go off the deep end. He might even stand a snowball's chance in hell against Obama if he can convince enough white people that he is, in fact, a Christian (really guys! We're all about Jesus! C'mon, you can trust me!), and isn't, in fact, just a white milquetoast version of Obama in an elephant suit.

I predict that Newt Gingrich will continue to show up at Party events, except people just won't want to hear him talk about when he was Speaker of the House and remember that whole Contract With America thing? That was me, guys! That was me! Please, I'm still viable! I can bring it back, please believe me!

So what if Rick Perry and/or Jon Huntsman jump in the race? What do you think of them?

I more or less decided during the last debate that I would cast a protest vote for Ron Paul this season unless something better came along, but if Rick Perry is anyone's definition of "better," then something is seriously wrong. I'm still holding out for a Mister Jones mauling rampage, frankly.

[mod note] we should probably split these posts out soon, but hold off on adding a poll until we have a clearer sense of who's in and who's out.

You could say that about any politician though, dear god look at John Kerry, hell look at Obama for that matter.

I honestly don't like any of the candidates so far, I'm more partial to Cain because of the Fair Tax. Until I hear someone that has a good solid plan for bringing the economy out of the dung heap without spending a gazillion dollars doing it, I'm probably going to end up doing a write in for Theodore Roosevelt.

I hope at least you all found the time to not listen to the President speaking in Durham yesterday.

Right, but the difference between Herman Cain and John Kerry is that one was a Senator for decades with at least a modicum of a reputable political reputation, and the other is a pizza guy who got famous for asking Bill Clinton a question in the 90's. I don't think it's going to work for Cain- he's jumping on the "no Sharia" bandwagon, which puts him in the well-protected Tea Party territory that Bachmann, and maybe Palin and Santorum, are covering pretty handily already. If he stuck with his businessman credentials, really did the Rick Snyder thing, he'd have a better chance.

It's going to be incredibly difficult to really put out a strong candidate from the current crop of people, I think, that has a decent shot of defeating Obama. He's been racking up political points for the past six months, Obamacare is in the back of most people's minds (still there, granted, but the furor has died down), and he's got the next span of months to mobilize his base and fill the war chest.

Let's be honest- who do you think has the best chance of the Republicans of winning the nom? I mean, not the person you agree with the most, the person you wish was in the White House- the one who has the best shot of taking down Obama?

Heh. He's actually more than just a "pizza guy". He was a vice president of Pillsbury before becoming CEO of Godfather's. He was also chairman of the KC Federal Reserve Bank.

But you're right, he should focus on his business credentials and leave the Sharia craziness to Santorum and Bachmann.

I'm afraid none of that will matter if the economy is still in a nosedive on election day. The economy is broken and fair or not, people are going to blame Obama for that.

The Republican with the best chance of getting the nomination is not necessarily the one with the best shot at beating Obama. They might nominate someone that can win, but they're just as likely to nominate a nut. I think Obama is actually very vulnerable, but I don't think he could be beaten by just anyone.

True, but that's all he'll ever be painted as. You know, just like how Palin said that she could see Russia from her house.

So what if Rick Perry and/or Jon Huntsman jump in the race? What do you think of them?

I more or less decided during the last debate that I would cast a protest vote for Ron Paul this season unless something better came along, but if Rick Perry is anyone's definition of "better," then something is seriously wrong. I'm still holding out for a Mister Jones mauling rampage, frankly.

[mod note] we should probably split these posts out soon, but hold off on adding a poll until we have a clearer sense of who's in and who's out.

As a long-suffering Texan, I have to agree with this. If the phrase "all hat, no cattle" ever described someone, it's Rick Perry. The man exudes uselessness like a swampy miasma. I can't comprehend why people keep electing him (until I visit certain parts of Texas and find myself reminded, anyway).

There are only two reasons I'd want to see Perry run:

1) Obama would wipe the floor with him.
2) It would get Perry out of Texas politics, to the joy of sane Texans everywhere. (Yes, some of us are sane.)

That being said, I'd actually vote for Huntsman over Obama if Huntsman stood a chance in hell of getting the GOP nomination. I suspect, however, that the GOP will hold true to form and nominate a nut that I will have no choice but to run screaming from. I'd like to stop voting Democrat. I really would. But the GOP's perennial crop of insane asylum escapees with presidential aspirations (not to mention their usual "we hate the gays" and "we hate the brown peoples" platforms) make that somewhat difficult.

Yeah, same here. I'm sick of the Dems but the Republicans keep coming up with clever strategies to drive me away from the GOP.

Just out of curiosity, if any of you could run up to any Republican in the land, grab him or her by the scruff of the neck and yell "you're running for Prez dammit", who would it be?


Also, will the thread title be edited as more dwarves enter the race?

Is Colin Powell still considered a Republican, or has the self-declared "RINO-hunting" crowd driven him off for good? I'd draft Powell if I could. I still have a lot of respect for him, even after the Iraq debacle.