2012 GOP Presidential Campaign -- "This individual's going to accuse me of an affair for an extended period of time."

why would perry drop out?

HE'S THE TIM TEBOW OF THE GOP

seriously, perry sounds like he's about to drop out?

If someone were to maliciously ask Perry how many spaces should be placed after a period, would his head explode?

Perry is a huge stan for APA Style

charles krauthammer looks like he skinned a bunch of people and sewed their faces together and then stretched them over his own

look, u can even see the holes and shit where he didn't do a thorough job

Basically nobody went after Romney tonight. I don't get it.

so . . . that means romney did well?

Yes. I'm very depressed.

It means they think Mitt's irrelevant compared to the Newt Juggernaut.

This is like that one golf major last year where the guy from New Zealand with the funny name won; I've given up trying to figure out who wins this.

Yes. I'm very depressed.

― clemenza

don't toy with my emotions! if romney's on the verge of clinching the nomination, just tell me, and i'll prepare for the romney/rubio landslide victory over obama/biden.

The dream is over
What can I say?
The dream is over
Yesterday.

-- sigh --

Carrie Dann @CarrieNBCNews -- Perry campaign NEEDED a debate that didn't hurt what they perceive as real Iowa retail momentum. Looks like they got it.

hey!

obama must make his move today to ditch biden and bring rubio onto the ticket!! (/panic mode)

http://images.tvrage.com/screencaps/26/5108/149201.png

NOW YOU'RE THINKIN'.

i find all the rooting for various candidates really tiring so i've decided to just start front-running for whoever is leading in the polls and whoever wins the general election i'm going to join his party and then feel really good about how we beat the bad guys. being on the losing team sucks!!!!

@maggiepolitico: Newt, tells Hannity, "Mitt and I have become much closer" during the campaign.

you have to get close, in order to use a knife.

Gingrich/Romney

(not an election ticket)

really psyched for the Obamney general-election travesty now that we're officially a police state.

HA HA right on brother!

The national-security state has been dominant since before I was born. Becoming a police state was always just a baby step away.

I see the Nikki Haley shoe dropped for Romney, and while Branstad won't endorse, he's saying mean things about Newt.

I posted something similar to this last night--I'm not the only one wondering what's going on there:

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/deconstructing_michele_bachmanns_war_on_newt/

A thread for Rick Perry roffles

i'm guessing Alfred posted this already? but I don't see it.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/ron-paul-for-the-gop-nomination.html

Chait's response.

Sullivan's fascination with Ron Paul is between curious and O_O

it's not so curious when you read him go on and on about the bell curve...

I just skimmed some of the worst lines from the Paul newsletters, and I don't think I want to read them any more closely. (I remember reading/hearing about them during the '08 cycle.) Disappointing--I've come to like him over the course of the debates. Not for all his stuff about the fed--I don't know enough about monetary policy to know if that's as crazy as many commentators say it is. I just like his manner, and it is amazing to see a politician who never wavers--never--from his beliefs no matter what the context or who the audience, and who never dodges. Debate moderator asks him a question, he listens, he responds--and even if he knows he'll get booed, or knows everyone else on the stage will pounce with rehearsed lines that will get the crowd cheering, he says his piece. And he does it every time. I keep waiting for him to hedge as he gets closer and closer to winning Iowa, and he never does. So it's too bad there's all this other garbage.

The other night a friend and I shook our heads wondering why this man wasn't the nominee already. If the Tea Party had principles, then Ron Paul would be the Inevitable One.

Guaranteed to stop the bleeding and rescue Newt's campaign:

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/gingrich_lauded_good_parts_of_obama_health_plan/

Nothing can rescue that poor man now. Pray for his soul.

The concept of Newt's soul kind of reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoS635XbKhE

Why even worry about that has-been? National lead fading, going nowhere in NH, very possibly down to 3d in Iowa. Worked out perfectly for Pres. Romney.

You're taking this much better than I am. I'm on maybe the second or third stage of grieving, at best.

I've been a fan of Pres. Romney all along.

He's my favorite Republican technocrat.

I've been a fan of Pres. Romney all along.

I remember very well a time when you were all in for Newt...it was last Thursday, I think. I'm cutting a vicious flip-flop attack ad immediately.

Tomorrow morning I roll-out the "Bachmann '12" buttons.

New slogan: "There's still a chance." Catchy.

Des Moines Register unsurprisingly endorses Romney.

http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/17/23902/

Probably time for an RIP thread, but let Kim Jong-il have his day.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/the-gingrich-bubble-pops.html

I love how Cain's been wiped from chart history there.

it's kind of amazing how ppl forget every other prez campaign they've seen every 4 years.

Herman's line, below, was removed from the graph.

http://www.daviddarling.info/images2/number_9.jpg

Quoted from Joe Klein:

Iowa Republicans are not neoconservatives. Ron Paul has gained ground after a debate in which his refusal to join the Iran warhawks was front and center. Indeed, in my travels around the country, I don’t meet many neoconservatives outside of Washington and New York. It’s one thing to just adore Israel, as the evangelical Christians do; it’s another thing entirely to send American kids off to war, yet again, to fight for Israel’s national security.

What is this "again"??? None of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya were fought for Israel's national security.

Name a nomination in the last 30 years or so that resembles the way this one has gone.

The Vietnam and Korean wars were about Israel.

If Romney does take it, it certainly won't resemble 2008; Giuliani and Hillary were heavy favourites just prior to Iowa. This would be a presumed front-runner reasserting himself after, what, five different people moved ahead of him? I don't remember anything like that.

I guess it's just easier to blame AIPAC for all these wars than to blame the American public for getting us into war after war after war for the last fifty years. xp