Monday Open Thread [1.30.12]
So Mitt Romney is pulling away in Florida. It looks like he will win the state by double digits, if not by 20 points. What does this mean for the Republican Primary race going forward? I suspect the race will continue for some time, and continue to be acrimonious, but the outcome is no longer in doubt: Mitt Romney will be the nominee. There are two question remaining: 1) Will Donald Trump jump in the race as an Independent if it appears Mitt Romney can’t beat Obama? and 2) What will Palin and Gingrich do? Given her comments over the weekend on her Facebook page, it appears she hates Romney with a passion, as does Gingrich. Do they cause trouble at the convention? Do they team up with Trump? Do they go third party themselves?
Well, here are some polls to occupy us for the time being. They are all pretty boring now.
REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
FLORIDA (Quinnipiac): Romney 43, Gingrich 29, Paul 11, Santorum 11
FLORIDA (SurveyUSA): Romney 41, Gingrich 26, Santorum 12, Paul 12
FLORIDA (We Ask America): Romney 50, Gingrich 28, Santorum 12, Paul 11
FLORIDA (PPP): Romney 39, Gingirch 32, Santorum 14 and Paul 11.
FLORIDA (InsiderAdvantage): Romney 36, Gingrich 31, Santorum 12, Paul 12
FLORIDA (Rasmussen): Romney 44, Gingrich 28, Santorum 12 and Paul 10.
FLORIDA (a href=”http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/29/10260572-nbcmarist-poll-romney-up-15-over-gingrich-in-florida”>NBC/Marist): Romney 42, Gingrich 27, Santorum 16 and Paul 11.
FLORIDA (American Research Group ): Romney 43, Gingrich 32, Santorum 11 and Paul 8.
FLORIDA (Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times): Romney 42, Gingrich 31, Santorum 14 and Paul 6.
NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Gingrich 32, Romney 24, Paul 14, Santorum 13
ARIZONA (American Research Group): Gingrich 32, Romney 32, Paul 12, Santorum 10
FLORIDA (Dixie Strategies/First Coast News): Gingrich 35, Romney 35, Santorum 9, Paul 7
FLORIDA (VSS/Sunshine State News): Romney 42, Gingrich 32, Santorum 12, Paul 9
MICHIGAN (EPIC-MRA): Romney 31, Gingrich 26, Paul 14, Santorum 10
GENERAL ELECTION
NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Obama d. Romney (45-42); Obama d. Gingrich (48-41)
MICHIGAN (EPIC-MRA): Obama d. Romney (48-40); Obama d. Gingrich (51-38)
I can’t link to it, but go to itunes and search for “David Ross On the Moral Foundations of Economic Behavior”
It is interesting stuff. Possibly fraught with ethnocentrism and/or racism but an interesting listen if you are a podcast addict like myself.
Here’s an interesting study to compliment your collection of polls:
http://www.cmpa.com/media_room_press_1_18_12.html
Trump, Palin…? May they continue their slide into irrelevancy.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/01/30/gingrich-doesn-t-like-romney-but-he-d-vote-for-him.html Newt will fall in line when Romney is the nominee…… the mass abandonment of what looked like free-will in the GOP begins.
It looks like conservatives really do see the world differently.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16770593
Conservatives focus on the negative (the sky is falling!!!), liberals focus on the positive (It’s a nice day).
Yep.. Conservatives… very negative.
I will set you straight. No, the donald will not run, even though with 36 seconds left before the gop convention, the donald might still be threatening to run.
As far as ginrich at the convention, if we do let him speak, it will only be during the first twenty minutes, before tv
, and his audience will most likely be a group of boy scouts.
As far as sarah palin goes, she still will maintain her primary demographic, ” horney old guys”.
But I agree with barbara bush, sarah palin should go back to alaska.
Liberal Elite – $15 trillion, slowest recovery in history, weak housing market, Iran close to nuclear weapons. All that is a good reason to be negative. What would you do to fix these problems?
Glad you asked:
1) First of all, so what? Freaking out about $15 trillion despite not caring when the debt was $11 trillion under Bush shows that this is a political tool, not an actual concern.
Fixing a debt problem in a recession is a recipe for a longer recession, as has been known by everyone except conservatives since the 1930s. Fix the economy first — or get a single-payer health care system — and the debt problem becomes much easier to fix.
2) The recovery is slow because, despite job growth in the private sector, states and localities are still shedding jobs. According to conservative economic boilerplate, a shrinking public sector should be leading to an economic boom. More public spending, on actual infrastructure needs this time, would help a great deal.
3) Putting more cash in the hands of the middle class would help the housing market. So would higher legal immigration levels.
4) Iran with nuclear weapons is not a problem for the US (except for the diplomatic pressure it would put on us to let our besties the Saudis have one too), but for Israel. Within another year Israel will bomb the nuclear facilities they can reach, then brace for the counter-attack, which will probably feature an attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz. Do not expect a ground war.
Geezer – I don’t like George Bush either. I thought he was a big government Republican.
A shrinking public sector will help once those people find a private sector job.
Cut regulations and taxes and private sector will grow. Countries used to do this and they were prosperous. Now we have progressivism. This is why the Western world appears to be on decline.
FDR raised debt tremendously. His growing of the public sector, big spending, tyranny prolonged the Great Depression.
If big government worked, we’d have no problems.
“Cut regulations and taxes and private sector will grow. ”
Okay, but according to your theory, how long does it take? We cut taxes and regulations right out of the gate eleven years ago, so the boom will start any day now, right?
Does your theory include a near-catastrophic financial crisis 7 years after you cut the taxes and regulations?
Puck- only if we still believe in progressive ideals like everybody should be a homeowner.
Puck, I’m disappointed in you.