Obama and the 2012 Election

Ron Paul, the status quo? Are you serious?

Kurtni:

He's against most Supreme Court decisions because judicial review is not an inherent power of the court granted in the constitution, not the principles of the decisions. He wants them to come about in other ways, though he would interpret exactly what you quoted to protect the rights of fetuses, I would imagine.

He looks at the Constitution in the most radical and unrealistic way you could ever imagine.

It completely baffles me that people believe the judicial review powers of the Supreme Court are not implied by article 3 of the Constitution. Or that a Supreme Court which is able to rule on the constitutionality of state laws is not necessary for a functional democracy. This will sound horrible, but I'm glad that although European states have their authoritarian tendencies something like this could never happen in Europe where the EU human rights court rules over everything anyway.

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Mitt Romney, considering he's the most likely Republican candidate.

^
I have to agree with the people I've heard on the news. Romney winning a few votes by very small percentages in two states out of fifty does not make him the front runner. Republicans are so divided on what candidates they want. Romney didn't win by landslides in NH or IA. In Iowa he may have won by 8 votes (and he may have lost by 12).

^

While the Iowa Caucus and NH Primary don't ever set anything in stone, they've traditionally been good indicators of the Republican candidate. I'll be more interested to see what happens with SC, though, seeing as no Republican has ever been elected without winning it.

^
They are. I just . . . almost don't think it matters. I wish I cared more about the Republican side of things in this election, but they honestly all seem like such a joke to me that I really don't honestly believe any of them can win against Obama. So I don't care who gets the nod 'cause I believe they're just gonna lose the big one.

^

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. Or at least, I hope so. But I think if anyone has a chance at it, it'll be Romney. But it seems to me that the Republican Party is far too divided as of now to make much of a difference.

And as for Ron Paul's views on the Constitution--I have such a problem with the frameworker argument. First off, the writers of the Constitution argued furiously about what the language implied. If they couldn't decide what it meant, how the hell are we supposed to? Secondly, suggesting that government should stay exactly the same for 200+ years, in my opinion, is absurd.

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And the writers all hated the Constitution and hoped that, when America grew up, we would go back and fix it.

dru isn't satisfied.:

Romney winning a few votes by very small percentages in two states out of fifty does not make him the front runner.

It is though for Republicans, because of their first-past-the-post primary system. The race between Obama and Clinton for example was so intense, because it did matter that Hillary came in only a few percentages behind, because those delegates counted for her because Democrats use a proportional representation system. Romney winning by 8 votes still means he wins it all.

kafka.:

It completely baffles me that people believe the judicial review powers of the Supreme Court are not implied by article 3 of the Constitution. Or that a Supreme Court which is able to rule on the constitutionality of state laws is not necessary for a functional democracy. This will sound horrible, but I'm glad that although European states have their authoritarian tendencies something like this could never happen in Europe where the EU human rights court rules over everything anyway.

I agree with you whole heatedly, I was just speaking from Ron Paul's warped POV. I think most Americans also agree with us, and don't realize how radical and dangerous Ron Paul is. All people know about Ron Paul is he is 'different' and that's all his supporters care about, regardless of if those differences are good or even worse.

I sincerely hope Obama doesn't get another term in office. I would love for Ron Paul to win, but I would/will vote for anyone who isn't Obama.

^ How come?

I'm not American, so the elections never directly form my life, but I've always supported Obama. I think like many others he's made a few mistakes and I don't agree with everything he says or does, but overall he's the president I think is most reasonable and his values are still the ones that make most sense to me. I hope he'll be president for another term.

Ou, this could be interesting: Only Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are going to be on the Virginia primary ballot. [Explanation here].

Virginia's primary is on Super Tuesday. Five of the ten states that day have open or semi-closed primaries, meaning independents (and possibly democrats) can vote in them, and currently Ron Paul seems to be having some success with the independent vote.
While the swing of the independent votes in the other open/semi-closed states will be interesting enough, there's 5+ guys on the ballot there. Virginia's open primary will have just Paul and Romney in a two-man race, so if they're both still in contention by then it could be one to watch.

bella heart shawnee:

^ How come?

I'm not American, so the elections never directly form my life, but I've always supported Obama. I think like many others he's made a few mistakes and I don't agree with everything he says or does, but overall he's the president I think is most reasonable and his values are still the ones that make most sense to me. I hope he'll be president for another term.

I agree with this. It's almost as if some people focus too hard on mistakes that leaders make. In the end, being president doesn't give you special powers, and Obama is only human. And if Paul gets elected into office, I doubt he'll be mistake-free either.

It astounds me that people would vote for someone simply because he's not someone else.

pierrot the clown.:

It astounds me that people would vote for someone simply because he's not someone else.

You gotta vote for whoever you think will run the joint properly, not because they are "not that guy". Seven billion people qualify for "not that guy" and it...doesn't work well.

pierrot the clown.:

It astounds me that people would vote for someone simply because he's not someone else.

No kidding. As long as not being Obama is the only stipulation... Kurtni 2012, I'll start taking donations now!

Kurtni:

No kidding. As long as not being Obama is the only stipulation... Kurtni 2012, I'll start taking donations now!

If I was an American, I'd vote for ya.

Although I think Captain Jack Harkness would have been an epic President. For the first week or two at least. He'd get impeached for flirting with everything with a pulse and a zipcode ...

I'm not sure why, given that his tactic of crazy-pronouncements [The video were he condemns gays in the military while saying prayer is awesome] reallllly hasn't gone down well so far, but Rick Perry has come out in support of the marines who urinated on dead bodies. He thinks the White House's criticism shows 'disdain for the military' and has described the acts seen on video as the kind of 'stupid mistakes' 18-19 year olds do. source

Just....what? I know that there is [despairingly] some division of opinion over the ethics of this situation and what should be done about it, but if he wasn't swinging for the fences in his Youtube video, he certainly is here with trying to pitch Obama as anti-military because of his reaction to this specific event. Every PR step he takes to me seem like another affirmation he's effectively out of the running, but hasn't realised it yet.
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Though in a less extreme fashion then Perry is, I think Gingrich doesn't look all that good at the moment either. The attack ads he and his PAC have been piling on Romney haven't really done him any favours, maybe even backfiring a little, and his position wasn't supershiny to begin with.

All the republican candidates are jokes.

Romney, Santorum, Perry, Gingrich? Lol.

I don't know what anyone sees in any of these four men.

Oh, Santorum saying that rape isn't an exception for abortion, /genius.

I tend to lean Republican on a few things, but the candidates are indeed a joke this year. I have no idea who to vote for, if I should even vote at all this year.

Those who didn't get on the Virginia ballot only have themselves to blame. In Virginia you have to get, I think, 10,000 signatures on a petition to get on the ballot. Only Romney and Paul did the work. The others started whining about how it's unconstitutional and wanted to get on the ballot without signatures. Basically saying "I didn't do my job, but I want to get paid anyways."