Place your bets here. Who will win the Iowa Caucus? What happens to the losers? I am not sure how this all factors in to the final product. Steve, how does this work?
How much do good looks have to do with elections now? I know that no one wants to be thought of as that superficial, but how do you turn off that impulse to not pull the lever for the person who is most pleasing to the eye. And speaking of eye candy, which candidate is the best looking? Michele Bachmann shouldn’t count because she is the only female and she is an attractive woman. Her husband is a lucky man. (MEOW)
What topic will be considered the most important to voters? Immigration, employment, war, economy, values, abortion?
Is anyone offended by the amount of money spent just on this mini campaign or any campaign in general?
Who will drop out after Iowa?
@Cato, I never figured it out but my parents really liked him.
Santorum was just on O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly was asking him if he could stand being demonized as an extremist. Santorum immediately started arguing with O’Reilly that he wasn’t. O”Reilly gave the example that Santorum would back the states banning certain types of birth control. Santorum deflected. I haven’t seen that much dodging of questions since playing dodgeball on the playground as a kid.
Santorum is defensive, evasive, and refuses to take responsibility for much of anything. He is very unpresidential. Bachmann is 500 times more presidential as Santorum.
Now that the conservative Supremes have removed limits on monetary donations to campaigns, it is good to see a hated moderate republican be the primary beneficiary of such a decision. Conservative repugs just got hoisted on their own petard.
So, I’m assuming, Starry, that you are all in favor of Obama and other Democrats turning down any of those hated and corrupting corporate donations, right?
If we ban corporations, can we ban union money too?
@Cato the Elder
You call yourself “Cato the Elder”, but I wonder how “elder” you are if you don’t know about Adlai Stevenson. He ran against Eisenhower in l952 and ’56: dhallanged JFKennedy and lost. Kennedy later sent him as our Ambassador to the United Nations, where he served1961-65. His statement: “… until hell freezes over…” became very welknown.
Well, Stevenson was an intellctual. And he lost. To a war hero, maybe two, because I think JFK also was considered a war hero, even if not on an an equally grand scale as DDE.
I believe this is Huntsman’s problem too. He’s an intellectual, and the average Joes don’t know wajt to think of intellectuals.
@punchak
Or…it could be that he has the campaign skills of a monkey. He did insult the entire state of Iowa.
@Cargo, only if they are as thin-skinned as a grape.
Even if I was insulted I doubt if i would admit it.
I would have to see the whole statement in context. It could be that Huntsman made a stupid statement. I bet lots of stupid statements have been made in Iowa during the past month or so.
@Cargosquid I am only appreciating the irony. Gingrich’s Citizens’ United organization’s victory before the Supreme Court allowed super PACs like Romney’s to destroy Gingrich in Iowa.
@Starry, I guess you might be laughing at the old adage about beware of unintended consequences.
@punchak
I kid, I kid..
@Starryflights
Actually I agree with that.
Level playing fields and all that.
Moon,
I would suspect McDonnel would remain as governor, considering he would only campaign for the 90 days between being named and nominated at the convention, and election day, much the same as Sarah Palin did. Tim Kaine was absent for far longer (1 year) as DNC Chair, which if you ask me, is a full-time job. The reason he didn’t resign was the party ID of the LG: GOP. A Kaine resignation would have meant Bill Bolling serving out the rest of Kaine’s term, and essentially becoming an incumbent in the 2009 Governor’s race. What is most interesting is what would happen, should the GOP Presidential ticket win and the scenario it would create for the Virginia GOP:
McDonnel becomes VP, LG Bill Bolling serves out the rest of his term, and is the sitting governor, permitted to seek a term of his own. The current AG has already announced his intent to run (which has pissed off Bolling supporters who assumed he would be unopposed for the nomination). Now Cuccinelli faces the prospect of primarying a sitting GOP governor (rare of our 1-term system), or bowing out. If he does, it would divide the party more than a straight-up primary (and yes, I do believe it is a primay, not a convention…benefit of being an incumbent), because should he win, the GOP will have lost the “incumbent’s advantage”. This would further anger some within the party, and affiliated-independent-moderates.