Meet The Candidates: 2012 GOP Thread

^exactly. Its always beena waste of time to vote in primaries in this state. But the GOP adopted the Democrat rules this year for its primaries, which wouldnt make much of a difference if there was a clear front runner... kind of like opposite of right now.

Wacky Rules Complicate Race for GOP Delegates (http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/GOPDelegates/2011/12/28/id/422373)

So Santorum did a repeat of what Huckabee did last election, spend all his time (apparently a year) and money in Iowa with the hopes that a big start will snowball into later primaries. It didn’t work last time and no one thinks it will work this go around. Before Romney was just sharing votes with Newt and Rick, now he also has to split them with Santorum for the next few primaries until the appeal wears off.

Because of the new “wacky rules” this go around most states’ delegates are award proportional (depending on how you define proportional). Iowa defined it in a way that awarded equal delegates to Romney, Santorum and Paul (7 each). So theyre all even, right? Apparently Paul’s people stayed after “stole” a bunch of delegates from the actual winners:

Ron Paul Iowa Caucus Delegates | TheBlaze.com (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-you-read-about-the-sly-move-the-ron-paul-camp-pulled-last-night/)

Basically Ron Paul isn’t going away anytime soon. Im not a Paul SuperFan or anything and i know he isn’t gonna get the nomination but hes playing this thing to make the next biggest impact.

This is turning into an absolutely fascinating election way ahead of schedule.

I don't think Paul's going away, but he's not going up either. Likely downhill as far as polling numbers go. Iowa was tailor made for a Ron Paul victory, yet Rick Santorum overtook him by a pretty sizable margin with a fraction of Paul's money and ground organization.

The golden rule, though, if your guy can't beat Mitt Romney, chances are he can't beat President Obama either.

Iowan here. Ron Paul cannot steal delegates. Delegates are nominated and elected by the people of individual precincts. These delegates then cast the vote in the county conventions. If the Ron Paul supporters were more willing than anyone else to be nominated, then they will be the ones representing their precinct.

At the county conventions delegates are selected for District and State Conventions. It is there the official delegates are chosen for the presidential nominating conventions.

If the whole system is full of Ron Paul supporters, then they are most likely to vote for him.

In the caucus four years ago, Huckabee won with 35% of the vote. McCain had 13%. In the end McCain won all of Iowa's delegate votes at the national convention.

Confused yet, haha.

Definitely confused.

Also from my understanding all the popular votes each candidate got amount don’t really mean anything, and not in the sense that Gore won the popular vote but got trumped by Bush winning the electorate vote. But rather in the sense that the poll is just a glorified straw poll. And that the actual delegates that are/were awarded were based off of the delegates that were nominated and elected after the “straw poll”, which normally are representative of the popular vote. So its not that Paul “stole” anything, its just that he won many of the actual votes for delegates, even if he didn’t win the respective pretend vote for delegates. VERY confusing.

Did you vote? If so did you stay after and vote for / nominate a delegate?

More or less you got it. Some of the delegates "awarded" will be up for grabs at the time of the convention. If you are a delegate, you are expected to vote for whomever the party elected, but in reality can vote for whomever you want. You are the elected delegate of your people. Now Perry won two delegates, and when he drops out his would be up for grabs. This is how McCain won all of Iowa's convention delegate votes, everyone else was basically out.

I did vote. While waiting for the vote count everyone stayed and we were able to elect our two delegates. Honestly I do not know who they voted for. We elected an 18 year old girl, and a man in his late 20s or early 30s who was a proclaimed former Obama supporter. I assume one was for Paul, probably both though.

Edit: I should add, four years ago, no one volunteered to be a delegate and basically you had to pull teeth to get someone to do it. This time around 4 people volunteered relatively quickly. I think the two that lost were definitely Paul people as they were sitting in a pro Paul group. They are my precinct's alternates.

Edit 2: This video explains it well.
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http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/387683_145772025535153_116979221747767_197482_1474 255261_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/387683_145772025535153_116979221747767_197482_1474 255261_n.jpg

They have my vote. We have enough nuts in office and running for office so why not.

Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/romney-parks-millions-offshore-tax-haven-160547876--abc-news.html)


The kind of jackass you really want in DC. Hides money in offshore accounts so he can avoid paying taxes. Guess who you think he'll serve once in office? Big businesses. This man has no idea about middle class nor does he care.

Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/romney-parks-millions-offshore-tax-haven-160547876--abc-news.html)


The kind of jackass you really want in DC. Hides money in offshore accounts so he can avoid paying taxes. Guess who you think he'll serve once in office? Big businesses. This man has no idea about middle class nor does he care.

Last week at the bar I found myself sitting next to someone who is working for Romney's campaign. He tried giving me the sell, I had to do everything I could to not give him one of these :doh:

Exclusive: Gingrich Lacks Moral Character to Be President, Ex-Wife Says - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-gingrich-lacks-moral-character-president-ex-wife-135852543--abc-news.html)


Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage.


Not that this is huge, but do ANY of them (dems or repubs) have the moral character to be president? I say absolutely not. Ron Paul may be the exception, but who knows even with that.





Last week at the bar I found myself sitting next to someone who is working for Romney's campaign. He tried giving me the sell, I had to do everything I could to not give him one of these :doh:


You have more patience than me Matty.

Exclusive: Gingrich Lacks Moral Character to Be President, Ex-Wife Says - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-gingrich-lacks-moral-character-president-ex-wife-135852543--abc-news.html)





Not that this is huge, but do ANY of them have the moral character to be president? I say absolutely not. Ron Paul may be the exception, but who knows even with that.





That's the thing. I don't really buy the moral character thing about any of these goons. Remember John Edwards once looked like a pretty good guy. Turns out he was cheating on his wife while she was dying of cancer, even had a lovechild from that affair, too.

being an idiot is relegated to one party