5th Round Pick wrote:What's this thread think of Rick Perry as a potential Republican candidate? Does he have a chance to win the nomination? Who would be his biggest Republican competitors?

MoBettle wrote:http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/08/02/rel12a.pdf

14% approval rating for Congress. wow

traderdave wrote:

MoBettle wrote:http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/08/02/rel12a.pdf

14% approval rating for Congress. wow

What are those 14% thinking?

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

5th Round Pick wrote:What's this thread think of Rick Perry as a potential Republican candidate? Does he have a chance to win the nomination? Who would be his biggest Republican competitors?

He's a moron.

CFP wrote:I did not know that. Holy shit. Is that true?

In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.

Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.

"When you stick your head out of the foxhole, people shoot at you. I've stuck my head out of a foxhole," says Sen. Rick Santorum. (Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)

"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.

He and Karen brought Gabriel's body home so their children could "absorb and understand that they had a brother," Santorum says. "We wanted them to see that he was real," not an abstraction, he says. Not a "fetus," either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described -- "a 20-week-old fetus" -- on a hospital form. They changed the form to read "20-week-old baby."

Karen Santorum, a former nurse, wrote letters to her son during and after her pregnancy. She compiled them into a book, "Letters to Gabriel," a collection of prayers, Bible passages and a chronicle of the prenatal complications that led to Gabriel's premature delivery. At one point, her doctor raised the prospect of an abortion, an "option" Karen ridicules. "Letters to Gabriel" also derides "pro-abortion activists" and decries the "infanticide" of "partial-birth abortion," the legality of which Rick Santorum was then debating in the Senate. The book reads, in places, like a call to action.

"When the partial-birth abortion vote comes to the floor of the U.S. Senate for the third time," Karen writes to Gabriel, "your daddy needs to proclaim God's message for life with even more strength and devotion to the cause."

dajafi wrote:While we're comparing Romney to losers from Massachusetts, let me suggest he most closely resembles John Kerry.

Seems vaguely presidential. Not the "fall in love" choice of his party, but a viable "fall in line" option. Can raise money. By no means stupid. But has things in his past that will trigger deep unease among swing voters, generally gives the impression of a man who combines sky-high self-regard with the absence of any core convictions, and loses the "rather have a beer with" contest because you literally can't imagine him relaxing in any way you would.

Now, I used to think Kerry lost because Rove managed to make the election a referendum on Kerry's character rather than Bush's performance. But the economic fundamentals in 2004 were a bit more favorable to Bush than I realized at the time--and it was still the closest win for an incumbent in decades. I think that if he's the nominee, Plouffe will similarly try to make the race about Romney's character rather than Obama's performance. But with the economy in much worse shape, it won't work unless he somehow shores up his base to something close to 2008 levels.

That said, if Romney isn't the Republican nominee, I have no idea what will happen.

5th Round Pick wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

5th Round Pick wrote:What's this thread think of Rick Perry as a potential Republican candidate? Does he have a chance to win the nomination? Who would be his biggest Republican competitors?

He's a moron.

What makes him a moron?

And if that's all he is then that's not half as bad as being a mormon.

Moron's get elected all the time, but not Mormon's.

phdave wrote:

CFP wrote:I did not know that. Holy #$&! Is that true?

I thought that story was better known.

Here is a Washington Post story from 2005 that describes the whole thing (in a story about how he prioritizes being a father over being a Senator).

In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.

Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.

"When you stick your head out of the foxhole, people shoot at you. I've stuck my head out of a foxhole," says Sen. Rick Santorum. (Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)

"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.

He and Karen brought Gabriel's body home so their children could "absorb and understand that they had a brother," Santorum says. "We wanted them to see that he was real," not an abstraction, he says. Not a "fetus," either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described -- "a 20-week-old fetus" -- on a hospital form. They changed the form to read "20-week-old baby."

Karen Santorum, a former nurse, wrote letters to her son during and after her pregnancy. She compiled them into a book, "Letters to Gabriel," a collection of prayers, Bible passages and a chronicle of the prenatal complications that led to Gabriel's premature delivery. At one point, her doctor raised the prospect of an abortion, an "option" Karen ridicules. "Letters to Gabriel" also derides "pro-abortion activists" and decries the "infanticide" of "partial-birth abortion," the legality of which Rick Santorum was then debating in the Senate. The book reads, in places, like a call to action.

"When the partial-birth abortion vote comes to the floor of the U.S. Senate for the third time," Karen writes to Gabriel, "your daddy needs to proclaim God's message for life with even more strength and devotion to the cause."

Interest rates on Spanish and Italian bonds rose to well above 6%, the level that signalled the beginning of the bailout process for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Meanwhile, interest rates on assets seen as safer fell sharply, with the yield on UK 10-year gilts dropping to an all-time low of 2.77%. Gold rose to a new record level for a ninth day in a row on Tuesday.

Wall Street's Dow Jones index had lost 266 points by the close in New York – its eighth successive fall and longest losing streak since the global banking system was on the brink of collapse in October 2008.

US shares have given up virtually all their 2011 gains, while stocks in Europe and Asia are already trading below the levels at which they ended 2010.

Eddie Jordan wrote:hate the term "pro abortion"

jamiethekiller wrote:cross post since i'm an idiot

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... y-20110525

yeah yeah, rolling stone. but their articles generally are pretty good.

Privately, Murdoch is as impressed by Ailes’ business savvy as he is dismissive of his extremist politics. "You know Roger is crazy," Murdoch recently told a colleague, shaking his head in disbelief. "He really believes that stuff."

When the 9/11 Commission began investigating Bush’s negligence in the lead-up to the terrorist attacks, Moody issued a stark warning: “This is not ‘What did he know and when did he know it?’ stuff. Do not turn this into Watergate. Remember the fleeting sense of national unity that emerged from this tragedy. Let’s not desecrate that.” In a 2003 memo on Bush’s overtures for Middle East peace, Moody again ordered the staff to champion the president: “His political courage and tactical cunning are worth noting in our reporting throughout the day.” During the 2004 campaign, Moody highlighted John Kerry’s “flip-flop voting record” – a line that dovetailed with the attacks coming out of the White House. In fact, Fox News was working ­directly with the Bush administration to coordinate each day’s agenda – as Bush’s own press secretary, Scott McClellan, later conceded. “We at the White House,” McClellan said, “were getting them talking points.” (Ailes and Fox News declined repeated requests from Rolling Stone for an interview.)