FieryIce
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We're lacking a political discussion thread on the election ... there are many things happening here and there that are probably not big enough to merit their own thread so a big thread to collect all the political discussion would be nice.
I would like to start the discussion with the Bain dilemma going on right now.
When Mitt Romney was running for governor of Massachusetts a decade ago, Democrats went before a state commission to demand that he be struck from the ballot. Their argument: After taking over the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he had ceased to live and work in Massachusetts, the state where he had built Bain Capital into one of the leading private equity firms in the world.
Mr. Romney’s team was just as insistent in arguing the opposite. For 30 years, his lawyer argued, “the center of his social, civic and business life has been in this commonwealth.”
Now, amid the heat of the presidential campaign and unrelenting attacks from Democrats over Mr. Romney’s tenure at Bain, the three-year sojourn in Utah has again become the source of controversy — but with the positions reversed.
President Obama and the Democrats are questioning whether Mr. Romney really left Bain in February 1999, when he took over the Olympics. And Mr. Romney and the Republicans are insisting that he ended his day-to-day management role at Bain after taking the Olympics job.
At stake is whether Democrats can hold Mr. Romney responsible for a series of now-controversial investments Bain made during the period in question, including in companies that specialized in outsourcing, laid off some of their workers or declared bankruptcy.
Mr. Romney faced a barrage of attacks over the issue on Sunday, as well as new demands, even from Republicans, that he release more tax returns. Democrats have seized on Mr. Romney’s Bain ties as a test of his credibility, suggesting that he is evading responsibility for his leadership of Bain.
The attacks have thrust Mr. Romney’s three-year leave to the center of the presidential campaign, questioning a central component of Mr. Romney’s case for election — that his business experience gives him the experience to steer the economy on the right course — while putting his campaign on the defensive when it could be attacking Mr. Obama’s job record.
READ MORE
I am very curious over why he refuses to release more tax returns (Obama has released about a decade's worth) ... it's probably gotten to the point that he's doing himself more damage by dragging this on than by releasing the tax returns and clearing up what happened at Bain. |
Ctenophorae
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Unfortunately, most of the people that I know that support Obama refuse to vote. 
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Lyskar
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| | Metal_Man88's Post | Originally posted by Gabu
This kind of behavior is what my dad really hates in politicians, and he was extremely impressed by how Obama handled his gaffes during the last election by actually dealing with the actual problem at hand, like the parking tickets Obama had.
I'm more surprised at the fact that there is still a significant portion of the country who will still vote for Romney.
They would vote for a dead lump of broccoli, as long as it had the shiny R symbol next to its name.
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FieryIce
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In an attempt to dispel rumors that Romney's tax returns hid something scandalous and scared him away, McCain says he didn’t pick Romney because ‘Sarah Palin Was The Better Candidate’
Well, that's not helping. 
In other news, the latest 3 polls from Ohio show Obama with leads ranging from 3 points to 9 points! You have to go back to June 5 to find a poll where Romney leads (by 3 points). I don't think there's any plausible scenario in which Romney wins without Ohio (though there are plenty in which Obama wins without it!) |
Elara
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Originally posted by Ctenophorae
Unfortunately, most of the people that I know that support Obama refuse to vote.
Show them the speeches from the Democratic National Convention... I already know two people who had a fire lit under their ass after seeing Obama's speech. I also think that the First Lady's, Pres. Clinton's, Julian Castro's, Tammy Duckworth's, Deval Patrick's, John Kerry's, Kal Pen's and Joe Biden's speeches were particularly great.
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Peardian
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 Even though this isn't the first election I've voted in, this is the first election where I actually have a good enough understanding of the issues that I can actually vote properly. I didn't want to vote last year because I knew I didn't understand things yet, so my vote was essentially wasted.
This is going to be an interesting election. And by that, I mean painful and embarrassing.
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Elara
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I think it's going to be aggravating just because of the money spent by super pacs on negative campaign ads. I don't care what they think, the SCOTUS was just wrong to allow Citizen's United.
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303darthbobby
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It's hard for me to stop thinking of it as a 'wasted vote,' but I think I'll be supporting Gary Johnson. Realistically, I'd like to see Obama in over Romney, though.
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DigitalBasic
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Then vote Obama.
This isn't a battle between a Democrat and Republican anymore. It is a battle between a Democrat and a fucking awful human being who has no sympathy towards basic human rights.
Like, I thought McCain and Palin were awful. Mitt Romney is just a dipshit who thinks men should control women and their bodies, gay people have no families, and supports rich businesses with horrible practices due to money.
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Lyskar
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| | Metal_Man88's Post | Realistically, third parties that aren't Theodore Roosevelt are going to pretty much never, ever get even near winning the Presidency--it's a historical fact.
Wait until one of the big parties dies to vote in a third party candidate--only then will you likely get a chance to vote in what would become one of the new big two parties.
On the other hand, in the Senate and the House, third parties do get elected, so it's not so wasted there.
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Lyskar
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| | Metal_Man88's Post | Originally posted by Nicole
Originally posted by Metal_Man88
On the other hand, in the Senate and the House, third parties do get elected, so it's not so wasted there.
With a few exceptions (generally established politicians running outside of their party for whatever reason- like Theodore Roosevelt and the presidency, really) does this really happen? I can't think of any examples... (other than Bernie Sanders? but he's kind of a de facto Democrat, isn't he?)
True, there's also weird things like... ugh... Lieberman...
They don't get many seats, but it's much more possible than on the presidential level...
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Peardian
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As terrible as Romney is, the election might actually be closer than we think. I can't find the exact article, but from what I've gathered, Obama's support rating is ~50%, and (amazingly) Romney's support rating is ~45-48%. It seems that for a number of people, this election will be "which one do I dislike the least..."
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FieryIce
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What you said, Peardian, contrasted with this:
"Poll finds that international voters, if they were allowed to vote, would elect Obama by a landslide with 81% of votes over Romney's 19%."
"The poll queried more than 26,000 men and women outside the United States. Sixty-three percent of those queried said the U.S. president has a high or very high impact on their lives while 29 percent discounted the impact and 9 percent said they were uncertain or didn't know.
Obama's support was highest in Iceland (98 percent); Netherlands, Portugal, Germany (97 percent); Ireland, Denmark (96 percent); Switzerland, France, Finland (95 percent); Italy and Turkey (94 percent); Brazil (93 percent); Romania, Saudi Arabia (91 percent) and Australia (90 percent).
Surprisingly, support for Romney fails to match Obama's everywhere except Israel (65 percent support for Romney).
Sigh, America. |
Peardian
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Because this is America! 
But really, Romney wouldn't even be up there running if there wasn't some significant percent of the population that would rather have him than Obama.
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