Which Republican would you vote for in the primary?

[Straha]

Why the love for zombie Reagan? His greatest attribute was inspirational speaking, while his actual policies were shit. Modern Republican economic policy is not some distorted version of what Reagan preached; it is EXACTLY what Reagan preached.

Truth be told, Reagan really had no idea what he was doing. He was the first truly clueless figurehead President for his neocon/free-marketer advisors, who really came up with all the material. He was just the marketing presentation. For Christ's sake, he once cracked ethnic jokes about Russian cab drivers in a diplomatic meeting with Gorbachev, and had to be yelled at by his own SecState afterward. What a senile clown. Also, his people moderated their economic policy as it was shit later in his term; Bush simply only hired those Reaganites who were thorough ideologues.

It wasn't just in economic policy, his cabinet strong armed him everywhere. If you ever get the chance read Twin Pillars to Desert Storm. It's a book written by a man who worked for the Department of State, Defense and the National Security Council in a variety of important positions and was even on the plane to Iran during Iran-Contra and it is simply blistering of how Reagan simply did not even try to manage his cabinet. I have great respect for some of what the Reagan administration accomplished but beyond my respect for him as a consummate politician and a great showman I have very little respect for "Reagan's accomplishments" in office.

[Glocksman]

Bush simply only hired those Reaganites who were thorough ideologues.

Which Bush?
If you're talking about Bush41, then that's odd because during the 1980 primaries he called supply side theory 'voodoo economics'.
Now I can easily see Bush43 actually believing the bullshit and hiring the Reagan retreads.

[Straha]

So it's time for SD.Net vs. New Hampshire. Lets see how we did:

Code: Select all

CONTENDERS                              SD.Net                                     NH

Giuliani                                          12.16 %                                 8.55%
Huckabee                                       4.05%                                 11.22%
Hunter                                            0.00%                                  0.51%
McCain                                          35.13%                                 37.09%
Ron Paul                                        37.83%                                  7.67%
Romney                                          5.4%                                31.58 %
Thompson                                        5.4%                                  1.21%

This set of statistics has removed the corpse of Reagan's incredibly strong showing in the SD.Net crowd (which the pundits chalk down to a mixture of necrophilia and old school conservatism) as well as the much more silent advocacy for castration of Straha and for Alan Keyes. The eagle eyed out there will note that the New Hampshire primary does percentages do not, in fact, add up to 100%. This is because the votes for Tom Tancredo and for other write-in candidates have all been removed. The Straha Polling Bad Math Margin of Error is 3.9843%

[Honorable Mention]

I will be voting for Ron Paul in the upcoming primary.

[nickolay1]

It should be noted, that despite being a "doctor," Ron Paul is a creationist moron.

[Drooling Iguana]

Bunny Ears for President!

[Gullible Jones]

I think Herman might be better than any of these guys.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Bush simply only hired those Reaganites who were thorough ideologues.

Which Bush?
If you're talking about Bush41, then that's odd because during the 1980 primaries he called supply side theory 'voodoo economics'.
Now I can easily see Bush43 actually believing the bullshit and hiring the Reagan retreads.

Bush 43. Bush 41 knew that it was voodoo and he reversed more of it during his term because that's what the government finances needed. Ironically he was voted out for starting the budget balancing.

[Adrian Laguna]

I was wondering why there was no Republican candidate thread. There was, it's just they stickied it and that's as good as making it invisible as everyone knows all stickies are hundreds of years old.

Anyway, I'll start by mentioning that all Democrat candidates > all Republican candidates. The following assumes that Allah shall be willing a Republican into office and has graciously allowed me to chose which one.

At some point I supported Romney. He had a good record as governor of Massachusetts and I believed, and still believe, that he is a competent administrator. If the office of President was just administrating the country, I might want him in charge. It's not, not by a long shot, so as I've gotten to known him better the man has because rather odious to me. In other words, fuck Romney.

I never actually supported Giuliani, but he didn't look so bad for a while. After all, he was a decent major in New York. Note I didn't say good or great, decent, average, alright. Then I read his foreign policy essay and decided I'd rather just give Bush a third term.

Ron Paul is a lolbertarian, that's really all I need to know.

Mike Huckabee I hadn't even heard of until recently. I actually like the guy, he's honest, funny, cares about the poor, and a few other things. I also don't want his ass anywhere near the federal government, because he just so happens to be nutcase fundie.

That leaves us with McCain, actually it leaves us with McCain and a few others, but I know nothing about the few others so I can't state my opinion of them. He's a mixed bag, but I believe he is the best of a bad bunch. In the domestic front, it appears that supply siders don't like him, which to me is better than an endorsements from more realist economists. He's been pandering to the religious right far more than I'd like, but I believe he's just talking out of his ass (and making a strategic mistake, imo). Remember, McCain ran for President before and lost the primaries to an inarticulate fundie moron. On foreign policy he wants to stay in Iraq, but you can also see how his views are for more grounded in reality than those of Bush and other candidates. For one thing, McCain has been saying pretty much since the war started that the US didn't dedicate enough troops to secure the country. I doubt he'd invade Iran. So if I had to pick someone, I'd go with McCain.

[Mr Bean]

Thread unsticked

[Sephirius]

Fred Dalton, but only if he starts his press conferences with the DUN-DUN sound, and the location/date written in white on a black background.

[CmdrWilkens]

Even then I'm not voting for Dalton. The damn cabbie on my way home from work today had a wonderful little interview where Dalton ran the gamut from "evil judicial activism" to "everbody knows the Constitution is set in stone and is involiable law from the 18th century," all the way over into "oh noes teh immigrints will hurt us." All of that and he STILL didn't even sound enthused about his positions. Seriously the only redeming quality about Huckster, McCain, and Romney is that they at least show involvement in their campaigns like they actually want the job. Dalton looks like he wants to get a nice 400k to sit around and sleep all day while speechifying in the late afternoon.

[weemadando]

Huckabee. He's about the only one who has a serious chance of winning the primary and doing a spectacularly amazing fizzle at the actual election.

Others might actually be able to put on a show for the voters which would mean 4 more years of the Republicans.