2012 U.S. Presidential Election

[Lemur]

Since the Repub primary appears to be over(ish), and the Dems are (naturally) running their sitting Prez, I guess it's time to start a general election thread. Only seven months to go!

Hmm. I'd better post something in here, or be accused of not really starting a thread. Okay, ladies and gents, I give you quantum physics election humor! No, don't thank me, it's all in a day's work.

A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney

The basic concepts behind this model are:.

Complementarity. In much the same way that light is both a particle and a wave, Mitt Romney is both a moderate and a conservative, depending on the situation (Fig. 1). It is not that he is one or the other; it is not that he is one and then the other. He is both at the same time.

Probability. Mitt Romney’s political viewpoints can be expressed only in terms of likelihood, not certainty. While some views are obviously far less likely than others, no view can be thought of as absolutely impossible. Thus, for instance, there is at any given moment a nonzero chance that Mitt Romney supports child slavery.

Uncertainty. Frustrating as it may be, the rules of quantum campaigning dictate that no human being can ever simultaneously know both what Mitt Romney’s current position is and where that position will be at some future date. This is known as the “principle uncertainty principle.”

Entanglement. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a proton, neutron or Mormon: the act of observing cannot be separated from the outcome of the observation. By asking Mitt Romney how he feels about an issue, you unavoidably affect how he feels about it. More precisely, Mitt Romney will feel every possible way about an issue until the moment he is asked about it, at which point the many feelings decohere into the single answer most likely to please the asker.

Noncausality. The Romney campaign often violates, and even reverses, the law of cause and effect. For example, ordinarily the cause of getting the most votes leads to the effect of being considered the most electable candidate. But in the case of Mitt Romney, the cause of being considered the most electable candidate actually produces the effect of getting the most votes.

Duality. Many conservatives believe the existence of Mitt Romney allows for the possibility of the spontaneous creation of an “anti-Romney” (Fig. 2) that leaps into existence and annihilates Mitt Romney. (However, the science behind this is somewhat suspect, as it is financed by Rick Santorum, for whom science itself is suspect.)

What does all this bode for the general election? By this point it won’t surprise you to learn the answer is, “We don’t know.” Because according to the latest theories, the “Mitt Romney” who seems poised to be the Republican nominee is but one of countless Mitt Romneys, each occupying his own cosmos, each supporting a different platform, each being compared to a different beloved children’s toy but all of them equally real, all of them equally valid and all of them running for president at the same time, in their own alternative Romnealities, somewhere in the vast Romniverse

[rvg]

I hate Obama.
I really hate Romney.

Right now I'm debating whether to pull the lever for Obama or write in Mickey Mouse. Still undecided.

[Whacker]

Right now I'm debating whether to pull the lever for Obama or write in Mickey Mouse. Still undecided.

You have NO idea how seriously close I've been to doing just that the past 2 elections.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I really looking forward to seeing Dems vs Republicans head to head instead of the stuff we've been having.

I hope Romney isn't as dumb about foreign policy as he's seemed so far. I'm inclined to think that judging presidents by economy of social issues is silly when the biggest screw ups come from foreign policy...maybe I'm biased by recent history.

[Kralizec]

I hate Obama.
I really hate Romney.

Right now I'm debating whether to pull the lever for Obama or write in Mickey Mouse. Still undecided.

The USA needs a leader who will balance the budget. Mickey Mouse is wrong for America.

Scrooge McDuck 2012!

[a completely inoffensive name]

Feel like this thread should be closed until the GOP convention is over. The subject matter isn't all that different than in the GOP thread and as long as Santorum and Gingrich want to stay in the game and be a distraction for Romney, not much is going to develop in the Romney v. Obama fight.

[Papewaio]

So I guess the cat is out of the bag on this one.

So any chance that an independent could run for the POTUS?

[Kralizec]

I'm pretty sure there are independents running in every presidential election. Of course, they're all hopeless.

[CountArach]

Feel like this thread should be closed until the GOP convention is over. The subject matter isn't all that different than in the GOP thread and as long as Santorum and Gingrich want to stay in the game and be a distraction for Romney, not much is going to develop in the Romney v. Obama fight.

I think we can just amalgamate it all into this one thread, it is what we did last election from memory. Romney's campaign will probably swing into general election mode pretty soon anyway.

Yep. People tend not to throw away their votes on indies.

Perot would disagree with you.

[drone]

Only seven months to go!

That thought is really depressing.

[a completely inoffensive name]

What's the point of linking to such stupid things. I would rather have the thread die than generate conversation on things not in any way important.

[drone]

What's the point of linking to such stupid things. I would rather have the thread die than generate conversation on things not in any way important.

Stuff like this just illustrates how insanely stupid this whole race has been. We may as well elect Zaphod come November.

Birthers for the win...

[Xiahou]

What's the point of linking to such stupid things. I would rather have the thread die than generate conversation on things not in any way important.

I wish such inconsequential things were ignored- but they're not. I was watching local news at the gym today and they ran this story.

[Tuuvi]

C'mon guys are you all really that blind? The morman prophet and wall street are the ones pulling the strings behind Romney's candidacy. Spelling America "Amercia" might seem like a simple typo, nothing to worry about, but it's really something more sinister. It was a freudian slip that betrayed Romney's true intentions: to create an un-christian corporate funded morman theocracy. The truth couldn't be more obvious.

[Major Robert Dump]

Originally Romney was going to buy America, cash out all her liquid assets, and fire everyone, making off with the dough. Then he realized that would make him like $7, so now he is bent on reshaping america in the image of BYU so he can get a bigger planet from Xenu

[a completely inoffensive name]

I am even more distrustful of Romney after reading "A Study in Scarlet". Poor Jefferson Hope.

[Lemur]

I think things like the iPhone app and Polandgate illustrate how thin the campaign is right now. It truly is silly season. Will this whole thing get more substantive? Maybe. Possibly.

Oh, and Fox and Friends ran a 4-minute attack ad against the Prez, claiming it was journalism. Network sorta-kinda apologized. Meh. Nothing to see here, really.

-edit-

Also note that Willard Mittington Romney's newly released birth certificate is just a "certificate of live birth," which is a completely different thing, according to the internets. Also it does not say he is not a unicorn. I SMELL CONSPIRACY.

[Xiahou]

I think things like the iPhone app and Polandgate illustrate how thin the campaign is right now. It truly is silly season. Will this whole thing get more substantive? Maybe. Possibly.

Obama has nothing to run on, and Romney's platform mainly consists of "I'm not Obama & I made alot of money in business". I'm not really expecting anything interesting in this campaign until the debates.


Since you brought it up, Polandgate is a little more noteworthy than a typo in an iPhone app that no one uses. This was an amateurish mistake by a speechwriter that has managed to offend an important ally. They'll get over it, but it was a gaffe.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Obama has plenty to run on, but like every Democratic candidate I have payed attention to in my life (see: all of them since 9/11) he won't capitalize on it because it provides fodder for attacks and it's better to be bland and slippery than spicy and mischaracterizable (not a word).

[Xiahou]

Obama has plenty to run on, but like every Democratic candidate I have payed attention to in my life (see: all of them since 9/11) he won't capitalize on it because it provides fodder for attacks and it's better to be bland and slippery than spicy and mischaracterizable (not a word).

What would he run on? Bin Laden was killed under his administration- but he can't beat that drum too hard without risking backlash. Obamacare is wildly unpopular, unemployment is still very high... what am I missing?

[Lemur]

Obama has nothing to run on, and Romney's platform mainly consists of "I'm not Obama & I made alot of money in business".

Yeah, as ACIN points out, Obama has plenty of record. And Romney has a record as governor; both men are perfectly capable of having a substantive debate.

However, we are in silly season, and the points being made and campaign videos are all yawners, or unintentionally hilarious.

For reasons I cannot explain, this seems more relevant than any campaign video so far.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Silly season gets longer each election. Eventually, if the trend continues (and if we aren't already there), substantive debates and hard numbers won't even enter into the equation.

I really don't think that substantive debates and hard numbers have even entered politics since 9/11. I have watched the youtube videos of the 2000 debates, and I would have voted for Bush Jr. if I could have back then, he made a lot of sense on the campaign trail. Then the 2004 debates which I watched first hand I remember being part of the decade long (and counting) blur of "FEAR! FEAR! 9/11! TERRORIST SLEEP CELLS! NEED MORE TSA! I'M MORE PATRIOTIC!"

Substantive debate don't involve closing your ears and shouting LALALALA when someone questions the war on drugs. Hard numbers don't involve McCarthy-lite accusations when someone brings up the fact that the billions spent on TSA security have resulted in zero terrorists being caught at the scanner stations.

9/11 extended the silly season to be all year long and now we are living in an alternate reality that people have been conforming to, not rejecting.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I think it is cute, hooahguy has bought into the sound bytes without looking into the real numbers.

[Lemur]

Best takedown of the Ryan speech I've read (at lunch):

Incredibly, the larger theme of Ryan’s speech was to assail Obama for failing to take full responsibilities for this state of affairs — Obama is “shifting blame,” “blaming others.” It is the single largest motif of Ryan’s speech. Let’s review: Ryan helps to create a massive structural deficit, repeatedly and almost single-handedly prevents a solution, then runs for vice-president, blaming Obama for the structural deficit and further blaming him for his unwillingness to agree that this is all his own fault. The really amazing thing is that it could possibly work.

[rvg]

Best takedown of the Ryan speech

Good article.

[gaelic cowboy]

Best takedown of the Ryan speech I've read (at lunch):

Incredibly, the larger theme of Ryan’s speech was to assail Obama for failing to take full responsibilities for this state of affairs — Obama is “shifting blame,” “blaming others.” It is the single largest motif of Ryan’s speech. Let’s review: Ryan helps to create a massive structural deficit, repeatedly and almost single-handedly prevents a solution, then runs for vice-president, blaming Obama for the structural deficit and further blaming him for his unwillingness to agree that this is all his own fault. The really amazing thing is that it could possibly work.

Ah ye cannot beat a bit of double think can ye, I see he claims a plant that closed under Bush is Obama's fault.

[Beskar]

Best takedown of the Ryan speech I've read (at lunch):

Incredibly, the larger theme of Ryan’s speech was to assail Obama for failing to take full responsibilities for this state of affairs — Obama is “shifting blame,” “blaming others.” It is the single largest motif of Ryan’s speech. Let’s review: Ryan helps to create a massive structural deficit, repeatedly and almost single-handedly prevents a solution, then runs for vice-president, blaming Obama for the structural deficit and further blaming him for his unwillingness to agree that this is all his own fault. The really amazing thing is that it could possibly work.

The BBC contributed this:
Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan has come under fire for alleged inaccuracies during his convention debut in Tampa, Florida.

[Major Robert Dump]

My imaginary girlfriend really liked the imaginary suit imaginary Obama wore during Eastwood's speech

[Goofball]

The BBC contributed this:
Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan has come under fire for alleged inaccuracies during his convention debut in Tampa, Florida.

The Romney campaign will continue to lie for one main reason: they have discovered that there are absolutely no consequences for doing so. A good article about "post-trust" politics:

http://grist.org/politics/as-romney-...ruth-politics/

[ICantSpellDawg]

This convention is a dud so far. I have to admit, if Mayor Castro wasn't so obviously parroting the platform he would be an interesting player. O'Malley is going nowhere, Ed Rendell should run in 2016