The 2012 Presidential Election Discussion Thread

Why don't you racists try the proven method of a short rope and a long tree??? And don't ya'all fergit the flour sack fer yer hayd... Bigot.

This. Unless you're not paying rent, it's difficult to scrape by any savings at all much less enough to go to college any time soon with anything <$12 or so/hr. And that pay or more, at least in my college town, is very difficult for someone without a college degree to come by.

If you work first, all you will ever do is work... No one ever gets ahead working... Here is the problem as I see it, Beth... This society acts as though only the educated benefit from their educations so they produce the very sort of educated people who care only for their own welfare because no one else but them ever did care for their welfare... Educated people ought to be produced very grateful for the society that aided them and made it all possible at a reasonable cost... No one should be made a slave as the price of an education, let alone into some immoral asshole who tells the society at every opportunity to go and fck themselves unless they want to wait their turn...

You know Cyc, that I am practically uneducated, but the sole advantage of the education I have is to help me to be contented with what I have, which is less, and that is exactly what a lot of educated people have to accept as the price of their survival...It is sad, but true... They should just close down all the liberal arts colleges, and turn all the universities into glorified trade schools where the truly talented can learn to make profit for the boss and live on peanuts.

OR compete with him, in their own places

Fido,
Your remark is totally uncalled for.
There was no racism in the remark David made, nor is any implied.

If you seriously think that a vote against Obama is racism, then you are the one with the racism problem.

I had missed this one, until I saw MM's post.

Fido, such exhortations as yours might well be in violation of federal law.
Possibly, u might plead insanity.
Has John Hinckley gotten out yet??

Absolutely do I know that votes against Mr. Obama are driven by racism against him, and all the blacks of America... The Republicans had no one to vote for last election, and look at which states they carried: Ye Old Confederacy...

I woud vote for a dog,
if we coud train him to do the job the way I want.





David

It's self-evident from the fact that it's only the conservatives who continue to question Obama's birthplace. Even the Donald continues to question Obama's birthplace, because that's what he hears from his compatriots - all conservatives.

There are also other catches to the save then college notion. Much financial aid is for specifically students immediately leaving high school and going directly into college. This means that if you're half way to your budget by means of grants, and you don't have the other half saved, you can't simply assume you will have those grants come time you've saved whatever remainder you had not earned.

This to me is less the driver though. The real problems is that tuition moves at a rate far far far greater than inflation. That someone could save up enough doing summer work etc two or three decades ago should not be projected onto youth today. As a percentage of the cost of college, teenage workers do not have a capability to raise enough funds as their parents made at their age.

A
R
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Newt Gingrich currently sits at the top of latest Gallup poll but he's dropping fast as people remember he used to be Speaker of the House and everyone hated him. Sigh, short memory span. Mitt Romney has remained steady throughout this circus but Republicans seem desperate to find "anyone but Mitt." Ron Paul has "surged" to an amazing 11%! Looks like the Ron Paul Revolution is underway... or not.

Thanks, JC. There is a thread, if you not aware of it called "The Republican Nomination For President: The Race For The Race For The White House."
It is up to some 60,000 views. Please check it out.
I started both threads (I really should get another hobby).

Here's a good report on "costs to go to college."

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html

Oh I must have hidden that one lol, thought it was pro republican or something

Dec. 30, 2011
Team Obama lays out electoral map strategy
Peter Nicholas | McClatchy-Tribune News Service

last updated: December 30, 2011 07:13:26 PM

WASHINGTON — The mood in President Barack Obama's camp is picking up these days, with his poll numbers inching northward and Republicans mired in what could turn out to be a prolonged, expensive battle for the GOP nomination.

When Obama campaign officials look at a map of the U.S., they see any number of viable routes toward the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.

In a fundraising pitch Thursday, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina laid out five potential pathways to the magic number.

The Obama campaign likes to start with the states that John Kerry won in the 2004 election, on the theory that these rock-solid blue states are a lock for the Democratic nominee. Building on the 251 electoral votes that Kerry received, the Obama campaign believes that it can win a second term if any of the following strategies pans out.

- The West. The Obama campaign says that one way to get over the top is to win Colorado and Nevada, states that Obama carried in 2008. "We believe if we register more voters, start putting teams in place that can start talking to voters, we can win these states," Messina said.

- Florida. Florida, Florida, Florida. Al Gore's presidential hopes collapsed amid the Florida recount in 2000. The Obama campaign believes that if it wins Florida's 29 electoral votes, the race is over. "We can't just have a Florida strategy, but Florida is the easiest way to 270 votes," Messina said.

- The South. We're not talking about Mississippi, Arkansas or Alabama. But the upper South is within reach. Obama won both North Carolina and Virginia in 2008, the first Democratic candidate to pull that off in decades. Messina said that if Obama can win what he called the "New South," he's set up to beat the Republican nominee. It's no accident that the Democrats are holding their nominating convention in Charlotte, Messina said. "We put the Democratic national convention in Charlotte, N.C., in part because we believe so deeply in this map," he said.

- The Midwest. Obama will be hard-pressed to win Indiana next time around. Yet the Obama campaign says it can build a winning strategy around victories in Ohio and Iowa. Obama has blanketed Ohio in the three years of his presidency. And his first trip outside Washington in 2012 is to - you guessed it - Ohio. He'll head to Cleveland on Jan. 4 for a speech on the economy.

- Beyond. No one in Obama's campaign leadership expects him to have an easier time of it in 2012 than in '08. Unemployment is high, Congress is gridlocked and voters are disillusioned with Washington. Still, anything can happen in an election year, and the Obama campaign hopes to pick up certain states that went Republican in '08. The most promising is Arizona, Messina said. Arizona is the home state of the 2008 Republican nominee, John McCain, so Obama didn't compete there last time. In this election, though, Arizona may be in play. "There are hundreds of thousands of eligible voters who are unregistered in Arizona," Messina said. "We're excited about our opportunities there."

Competing on so large a map takes money. Which was the purpose of Messina's video. He invited viewers to send in donations.

"People have speculated this is a $1 billion campaign," he said, referring to reports that Obama expects to raise $1 billion for his re-election. "That's (expletive). We don't take PAC money, unlike our opponents. We fund this campaign in contributions of $3 or $5, or whatever you can do to help us expand the map."

Responding to the notion that Obama has multiple paths to re-election, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said, "The president's path to re-election includes deceiving voters into believing a second Obama term will be any different than the first - three years of failed economic policies that have taken our country in the wrong direction.

"From home foreclosures to high unemployment and economic uncertainty, Americans have been living in the Obama economy for three years and that will be the No. 1 issue when they head to the ballot box next year," she said.

(Peter Nicholas reports for Tribune's Washington Bureau)

They are whistling in the dark. They and their stuffed shirt hero Obama are tosat.

Best wishes for a happy new year, Georgeob. It should be an interesting year.

The south is a lost cause for the dems, but I think FL is a bit more open for Obama.

Thank you. I wish you a Happy new year as well.

Interesting that todays news contains reports of market (betting) data showing the odds of Democrat success in retaining the Presidency (currently 53%, and up from about 48% a few weeks ago); and retaining/getting control of the Senate and House (20% & 30% respectively).

This tends to confirm the conventional wisdom that the presidential race will be hotly contested; and that the House of Representatives will remain Republican. The 20% forecast for Democrats retaining control of the Senate is a bit of a surprise (or perhaps a recent development) in that just a couple of months ago many of the self-appointed experts have been forecasting that the Democrats would retain control of the Senate, though with a narrower majority. The betting oddsmakers have been forecasting a Republican victory in the Senate for a long time.

My guess is that the tide flowing against the Democrats is too pervasive and too fundamental for the president to survive, notwithstanding his appeal in some quarters and his symbolic status as a force for change. There is also an odor of incompetence and superficiality surrounding his administration that I believe will also continue and play a role in the outcome.