2012 U.S. Presidential Election

[Lamrock]

I mean, voting's pointless and the 18 month campaign trail should really be more like 18 weeks (or shorter in other countries) and its still a year away, but we gotta have a thread. In this lockout year, the infotainment news channels' constant Sportscenter-esque programming should hold me over somewhat. (don't ask me why I love playing with electoral college calculators)

Hopefully Benji can help me out with some content in this thread. The only candidate I think I'd even consider voting for is Jon Huntsman, but of course he's at like 2% in the polls. More likely a 3rd party candidate for me.

He'll fall to fourth place within a week, but if Herman Cain wins the presidency, I'll send in my 2K associations to some NBA teams and see if they hire me to be their GM.

[shadowgrin]

Watch it in order as it is arranged, top to bottom. It's like an ongoing series.

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[benji]

Some websites:

Democratic Candidates
Barack Obama, incumbent President, assured nominee.
Randall Terry, anti-abortion troll.

Republican Candidates
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, "moderate" empty suit, may in fact be a robot, Fudge, 2008 Republican candidate.
Herman Cain, 999, former CEO of Godfathers Pizza, NINE-NINE-NINE, still figuring out this whole media will report stuff you say thing, 999.
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, keeps tabs on the wind, imploding campaign because he has yet to figure out the debates, possibly retarded, sounds like Al Gore sometimes, Corn Dogs.
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, lots of "ideas" no matter how bad they are, dislikes the media and fidelity, will hold up a plane if you give him a bad seat.
Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas, second best candidate, 1988 Libertarian Presidential Nominee, 2008 Republican candidate, seen more vaginas than you, Dr. No.
Michelle Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota, has 23 foster kids, socially insane, gay husband helps people "de-gay", Corn Dogs.
Jon Huntsman, former Governor of Utah, the other Mormon candidate, seven kids, billionaire, boring "moderate."
Rick Santorum, a frothy mixture, former Senator from Pennsylvania, worst possible candidate, tyrant douchebag, family man.
Gary Johnson, the best candidate, former Governor of New Mexico, won't steal your bike, climbed Everest, has used marijuana recently, kept out of the debates on purpose.
Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana.
Andy Martin, birther.
Fred Karger, gay activist.
Jimmy McMillian, THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH.
Withdrew: Tim Pawlenty (former Governor of Minnesota), Thaddeus McCotter (Congressman from Michigan, Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld guest), Jonathan Sharkey (wrestler).

Third Party and Independent Candidates
Jack Fellure, Prohibition Party candidate.
Robert "Naked Cowboy" Burck
Roseanne Barr, also candidate for Prime Minister of Israel.
Joe Schriner, some dude.

Remember, this is the most important election in the history of the world and nothing is more important than casting your vote.

[el badman]

What a masquerade. Perry was pretty much seen as the assured nominee a month ago or so, but a few debates showed how essentially clueless he is about everything, and now it's Herman 999 Cain who's surfing the media wave before everybody realizes he also has no idea what the hell he's talking about most of the time. Romney is pretty much the John Kerry of the republicans.
I'm guessing all those candidates are going to do their best to try to harness what's currently going on with the Wall Street protesters, and that would pretty damn ironic if they succeeded.

[Patr1ck]

What would happen if absolutely nobody voted? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

[Dc311]

Rick Perry, Governor of Texas,possibly retarded

He ruined this state and fucked it up for teachers and students.He really is retarded.

[benji]

What would happen if absolutely nobody voted? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Dissolve the electorate and form another?

He ruined this state and fucked it up for teachers and students.He really is retarded.

If you think the current state of Texas is "ruined" and was done so single-handed by Rick Perry (the second, or third most powerful politician in his state) I wonder what you think of Jennifer Granholm, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Barack Obama.

[Dc311]

Let me rephrase that.He and most of the politicians here in Texas ruined this state for teachers and students.
And i really do not give a damn about the other three.

[benji]

ruined this state for teachers and students.

Elaborate.

And i really do not give a damn about the other three.

You should.

[Dc311]

From what i could remember,this state is in the last five of 51 in education.Which has not improved since Perry has been governor.He cut spending towards student growth,underfunding the education system by over $5 billion.The state has a reserve fund(called the "Rainy Day Fund") of over $9 billion.He did not want to at all go into it to help the teachers,staff and students out.The result is more crowded class rooms,more work for the teachers to handle as well as new teachers not being hired.Also the issue of outdated textbooks is in there as well but i am not too familiar with that one.And there was also the issue of him refusing to apply for a grant for about $720 million(I am not sure about the dollar amount.I know it was over $710 million though.) for education from the US government.Just because he did not want to adopt the national curriculum standards for this state.


I wanted to kick him in his child molesting face when he said(in so many words)that the state was not to blame for layoffs of teachers.

He is not to be trusted.He will not win the republican race.

[benji]

From what i could remember,this state is in the last five of 51 in education.

Makes sense.

ALEC thinks Texas is 8th: http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Sec ... _Education, NCES has them about 13th, so does NEAP. Even the Pew Centers stupid study that includes how much is spent as a performance criteria has them middle of the pack.

Which has not improved since Perry has been governor.

What could he do about it?

He cut spending

During Perry's reign, Texas has increased education funding 20% in constant dollars and 10% in constant per capita dollars. Despite the zero-baseline budgeting and the part-time legislature.

underfunding the education system by over $5 billion.

How was this number decided? Who decided it? Does that mean Richards was underfunding the education system by $40 billion a year? That despite doubling the amount of money Texas spent on education in just five years that W. Bush was still underfunding the system by nearly half?

The state has a reserve fund(called the "Rainy Day Fund") of over $9 billion.He did not want to at all go into it to help the teachers,staff and students out.

So it would solve the "underfunding" in just education for a year and seven months and when it's gone...then what? Are you going to cut all other services to maintain the extra education funding? What happens when revenues plummet in the future, and with your zero-base budgeting you no longer have that $9 billion to ever tap into again?

And there was also the issue of him refusing to apply for a grant for about $720 million(I am not sure about the dollar amount.I know it was over $710 million though.) for education from the US government.Just because he did not want to adopt the national curriculum standards for this state.

And that's not a good reason? State budgets are getting wrecked even worse due to the strings attached to every federal dollar they're addicted to, especially Medicaid, and the federal education demands have been lots of wasted money for no gains and loss of local control. What happens when the federal money goes away? What happens, when like always more money does nothing to improve student achievement and there's a whole new set of standards to adopt at millions of dollars? The smart states reacted this way to the "stimulus" while the rest used the band-aid on their gaping flesh wound and now are up shit creek with the lost temporary money.

his child molesting face

Source?

[Dc311]

Great points man.
I am going to look into that alec.org website.I have never heard of it.

[benji]

[Patr1ck]

He's got my vote.

[Lamrock]

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btw that Gary Johnson guy seems okay. Shame he's not in the running.

[benji]

btw that Gary Johnson guy seems okay. Shame he's not in the running.

It's on purpose. He polls better than Santorum and Huntsman, but they're front runners!

[benji]

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[el badman]

Saw that this morning... Classic Perry.

[Dc311]

I have seen that for 11 years already.

[benji]

Looks like Newt is replacing Cain who replaced Perry who replaced Bachmann as the anti-Romney.

Meanwhile:

@AndrewNBCNews
When I asked Cain if today's Libya gaffe builds on idea he doesn't have in depth knowledge of foreign policy, he simply said, "999"

Later:

@AndrewNBCNews
To clarify: My previous tweet was NOT a joke.

[Patr1ck]

Was Cain the guy who was like "yee-hah!" a few years ago?

[el badman]

Was Cain the guy who was like "yee-hah!" a few years ago?

Are you referring to Howard Dean?

[Dc311]

HaHaHa!I almost forgot about that guy.

[Patr1ck]

Yeah, I realized that after I posted, Herman Cain was a black guy.

[Lamrock]

Wonder what the media will do when Ron Paul wins Iowa.