Who will represent the GOP in 2012?

Satya

Satya

C'est la vie
Retired Staff
MBTI
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Exercise that Ni and guess who will run for President for the GOP in 2012.

Personally, I would like to see Gary Johnson run. He is like a young Ron Paul and has a strong history as the Governor of New Mexico. His pro drug legalization stance and libertarian stance on abortion and gay marriage, put him at odds with his fellow Republicans, but he may be the perfect choice to square off with Obama. Obama's base is young voters and Johnson would appeal to the Ron Paul movement of young voters. Furthermore, he is tested and intelligent compared to Sarah Palin, the most likely runner for 2012. Finally, he has the best position for appealing to the Tea Party movement with his small government philosophy.

Mit Romney and Mike Hukabee would probably be the worst choices the GOP could make, and are probably the most likely. They follow the same pattern of appealing to the Evangelical base that McCain did and will probably make social issues like gay marriage and abortion the forefront of their campaigns like Bush did in 2004. Romney will have trouble holding a position that he is against Obama's health care when he helped orechestrate Massachuseette's health care system. Not to mention him being LDS will have a lot of Republicans anxious. I could see Huckabee emerging as the most likely choice if he could appeal to the Tea Party movement.
 
I'm not much for following the play by play of politicians' careers over the nation. Aside from the most spotlighted obvious picks for the GOP nominee Palin, Romney, Paul, and Huckabee I'm not too sure.

I've heard the name Tim Pawlenty thrown around a few times. He's the governor of Minnesota. I took a look through his policies and the only thing really impressive is balancing the state budget without raising taxes, three times. Sounds cool but he got in trouble for cutting things out of his power to cut and the Minnesota Supreme Court got him for that. The last one I heard about was Bob Jindal but he has consistently denied running.

I really don't know. There are going to be a lot of people coming out of the wood-works in the next year or so. Election campaigns seem to begin sooner and sooner. Much to my dismay. So we'll probably get our answer in a few months. I'll intuit the real candidate once we have them all lined up for the first debate. If I had to pick a favorite out of the group of favorites it would be Ron Paul. I could definitely see Huckabee up there.

Is it weird if I want to see Jesse Ventura come out of nowhere, declare to run and then bash people's heads in? I know he is an independent but I figure he can just address congress with his fist. It would make C-Span worth watching.
 
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Daeledin said:
If I had to pick a favorite out of the group of favorites it would be Ron Paul.
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Not going to happen. He will be 77 in 2012. There has never been a President who was older than 70 when he was inaugurated. That was part of the reason age was an issue with John McCain and he is a year younger than Ron Paul.

Gary Johnson is pretty much a younger Ron Paul. His record in New Mexico is astonishing.
 
I read Romney beat Paul in the latest straw poll which was no surprise to me, but he only beat him by one point. Hukabee is a baptist and that particular denomination is pretty dominate; just 5 or so years ago over 1/2 of republicans believed it was important for politicans to be attentive to religious views/agendas. Same reason why many may prefer Romney.. More importantly Hukabee and Romney represent the old regime and people may find comfort in those kinds of views. However history is often referred to as a pendulum, and I think it's important to note it wasn't until the 60s that evangelical movement became intwined with the GOP. And with the recent rise of "grassroots" libertarians/republicians and their willingness to work with republicans, it wouldn't surprise me if Ron Paul or maybe even Gary Johnson was nominated. Those two would be preferable in my opinion, but I wonder what would determine one over the other.
 
Gary Johnson was on the Colbert Report last night advocating marijuana legalization (he also said that he smoked it and that the government lied). He sounds like/looks like a really good candidate.

The fact that he might be running for president was almost confirmed on the show too, and by that I mean that he denied it (but you have to see HOW he denied it).
 
Daeledin said:
I've heard the name Tim Pawlenty thrown around a few times. He's the governor of Minnesota. I took a look through his policies and the only thing really impressive is balancing the state budget without raising taxes, three times. Sounds cool but he got in trouble for cutting things out of his power to cut and the Minnesota Supreme Court got him for that.
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As a Minnesotan, let me add that Tim Pawlenty (or Governor Dweeb as I call him) hasn't balanced a budget yet.
He simply defers payments to cook the books so it looks like the budget is balanced. He just pushes the problems down the road.
Tim Pawlenty is a laughable choice.
And I voted for him once.

He doesn't have the charisma to make a successful run for President.
When listening to him try and rally the troops in a speech, he comes off as a Baptist Minister trying to swear.
 
Dragon said:
Gary Johnson was on the Colbert Report last night advocating marijuana legalization (he also said that he smoked it and that the government lied). He sounds like/looks like a really good candidate.

The fact that he might be running for president was almost confirmed on the show too, and by that I mean that he denied it (but you have to see HOW he denied it).
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I just saw that and I must say he does have charisma.
 
I like Gary Johnson, and he has a lot of appeal to dissatisfied Democrats like myself, but evangelicals would not be happy with him. He is pro-choice, divorced, non-evangelical, pro-gay-rights, and anti-prohibition.

He climbed Mt. Everest, which I think is pretty badass.
 
The GOP can only use an unknown at this point. All of their known candidates have made various shades of fools of themselves.

Obama came from absolute obscurity and to be honest, I can't see him having done anything else. The Republicans can't use a known figure of any kind. They're simply too completely distrusted. Fact checking a Republican is like shooting fish in a barrel. With an M44 using armor piercing rounds. And the barrel is made of origami. And full of gasoline and napalm.

The internet hurt the Republican party badly. Their only hope is massive, massive donations for corporate sponsors, which they can...in theory...get due to the unfortunate ruling from the Supreme Court this year regarding campaign finance.
 
I think Gary Johnson could win a general election, but I don't think he could win the Republican primary.

I think President Obama will be reelected in 2012. As much as people supposedly don't like him, when push comes to shove he will probably prove to be the lesser of two evils.
 
I just came across this since I recently joined this forum. I am glad Gary Johnson and Ron Paul left the horrible GOP party. Gary will be on the ballot in 47 states (he's currently trying to get on all 50, and likely will.) I plan on voting for him. I'm tired of this two party rubbish. America deserves better, America deserves Gary Johnson! Even though his chances of winning are slim, if more people found out that he is the better candidate and more agreed to vote for him, he could win. I know its a slim possibility at the moment, but that doesn't make it impossible. :-)
 
Dream=A_Wish_Your<3Makes said:
I just came across this since I recently joined this forum. I am glad Gary Johnson and Ron Paul left the horrible GOP party. Gary will be on the ballot in 47 states (he's currently trying to get on all 50, and likely will.) I plan on voting for him. I'm tired of this two party rubbish. America deserves better, America deserves Gary Johnson! Even though his chances of winning are slim, if more people found out that he is the better candidate and more agreed to vote for him, he could win. I know its a slim possibility at the moment, but that doesn't make it impossible. :-)
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Great post. I think the deeper you explore the political realities of the USA, and the widespread corruption, deceit, and manipulation, the more you realize that adopting the libertarian philosophy is the best way to go. Voting Gary for 2012
 
God... the last thing this country needs is a larger shove to the already imbalanced Right of the political spectrum!!

We are the most conservative country in the world out of all of the other non-3rd world nations. We're not on the top of any lists when it comes to our statistics in terms of health, education, prosperity, etc. Hell, there are even some of what we consider "sub standard countries" that outshine us in those areas.

The GOP could and should shrivel up and die off for all I care. They've become a cancer to our nation, we're no longer dealing with the Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Dwight Eisenhower Republicans anymore. Heck, Even Teddy was considered a "Progressive". Say that word now and most people will pull their children out of the room, covering their ears!

Thanks to a push over the past 100 years or so, by corporate interests (Oil barons, Steel tycoos, etc.) the "Socialist" end of the spectrum has become criminalized and labeled as a "bad word" - McCarthyism was the final nail in the coffin; anyone in a political office who even suggested a social movement was branded a Communist and cast out from society.

We used to have multiple parties back then who had influential members in parts of our government, Socialists were one of them. It's thanks to people in those positions that we have things like Child Labor Laws, FLSA, OSHA, Medicare and Social Security. Those people, though, have been mysteriously absent from the government for the past 50 years and now we even have candidates talking about getting rid of those systems we've all come to know and rely on, without even a fraction of the criticism they should be getting!

Every so often a candidate from that end does emerge and people consider them some type of whack-job not to be taken seriously.

The GOP can go burn each other at the stake and roast marshmallows in Hell when they all get there, in my opinion. I'd much rather vote as far to the Left as I can to try to balance this system back out.

...and I'm also a registered member of the Green Party :)
 
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