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McGillicuddy13
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Republican Debates
This should probably go in PCE, but I'm just curious...
Have you been watching?
Anyone you're thinking of supporting?
Anyone who terrifies you? 
- - -
I'll answer my own questions first, I s'pose.
H and I have watched two debates. We watched the last one in Iowa, and one other (I can't remember which), and I've read quite a bit about each candidate. I'm definitely a Ron Paul supporter - I'm a libertarian (socially liberal, fiscally conservative), and his ideas make a ton of sense to me. Perry, Romney and Bachmann definitely scare me.
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Re: Republican Debates
We're Paul supporters in this house. He'll never make it, but sometimes you've gotta vote for the person that makes the most sense to you.
Perry really scares me. Bachmann will never make it. Romney is less scary but I never can get behind those who are robot-like. Gingrich scares me a bit, too.
The only debates I've been watching are the fake ones on SNL, but I feel like sometimes, they are pretty accurate.
I have watched all of them.
I am definitely supporting President Obama. ETA: I would probably never vote Republican.
Every single candidate terrifies me as they all come with their own brand of craziness. If I had to pick one I would definitely select Perry, not only is he lost on most issues but he is now pulling the "I am a Christian so that excludes me from common decency" card.
I have watched parts of them thus far, but not enough. Rick Perry terrifies me, as does Newt.
I could probably deal with Huntsman or Ron Paul. There is no one I would wholly support or be excited about at this point.
I'm registered as a Republican (my dad was so that's what I initially registered as when I was 18). My views have since changed, but I haven't changed my registration so that I can vote for the republican candidate i find best in the primaries.
None of the candidates "scare me." What does that mean anyway?
As I have done ever since I was 18, I will be voting against a candidate and not for a candidate. Politics are so corrupt, no one with any deceny will run anyway and if they ARE decent at first they become corrupt pretty quickly. It is pretty gross.
If none of the candidates scare you, why would your strategy be to vote against a candidate? I think most people would define a scary candidate as one who makes you a little fearful of the change/policies that may come about with that person in office.
The President is a talking head. He/She can do absolutely nothing. It is not like a candidate takes office, wants A, B, C and D to happen and voila! It is law. I guess that is why none of them "scare" me because really, they don't have the power to do anything but take the blame for all the sh!t that goes wrong.
What really needs to happen, is that we need to completely wipe out Congress. I think that would be a good start. Even if we have a decent person as President, Congress completely voids that decency and we are back to where we started.
I haven't been watching the debates, but I have been following the news. Of the declared candidates, Jon Huntsman is my favorite followed by Ron Paul. I like that Huntsman is a social moderate and has foreign policy experience as a former ambassador to China plus domestic experience as a governor. I hope they stay in the race long enough to be able to vote for one of them in the Oklahoma primary. Of the higher polling candidates, the only one I could tolerate is Mitt Romney. Though I must say, I'm not excited about any of the candidates in the Republican field.
No way could I support Perry, Bachmann, and Gingrich. They seem to be increasing the crazy level as the first primaries draw near...not that it was low to begin with. I think it's telling that influential Republicans who worked under Gingrich's leadership (i.e. Coburn) don't support him and say he was lacking as a leader. Then add in his recent comment about impeaching "activist judges"- in violation of the constitution- and I definitely can't support him. Perry- war on Christmas? Kim Jong "the Second"? Seriously? Bachman- She's said some ignorant things, but I can't tell how much of that is plain ignorance and how much is just making ridiculous claims to get media attention. I don't support Santorum for his political beliefs, but I also don't think he's a nut job like the aforementioned other candidates.
That being said, I consider myself a moderate. Depending on who wins the Republican nomination, I may very well be voting for Obama.
I should have just waited for you to answer, so I could just say "this" and be done with it.
I disagree with PW's claim that our president has no power/influence though. I also always hate calls to "wipe out congress" because they never come with a workable alternate solution.
Ha! I was seriously thinking about just quoting your previous answer and saying I agreed, but decided not to take the lazy way out.
There are plenty workable solutions, the best being to set a term limit for those that are in Congress so they can't just camp out there forever and ever.
There are time limits in Congress. Do you mean the staggering of them every 2 years?
I watched the Iowa debate. I spent most of it pacing around the BF's living room, yelling at the TV and tweeting about the absurdity. I was so wound up I had to take smoke breaks.
Puppy, for me, being "scared" of a candidate comes in to play when I think they would push for a federal ban on same-sex marriage, stop health care reform, go to war, reduce funding for eduction, etc. Althought the President doesn't yield real absolute power, he does have veto power (REMEMBER THAT, OBAMA?!?), and he does have some power as the leader of his/her party. He/she also has the ability to nominate Supreme Court judges which definitely influences laws and history. So, I think the President matters.
Honestly, they all scare me a bit. I don't mind Ron Paul, but when he mentioned his age at the Iowa debate, I said (screamed) at the TV, "you just blew it, Ron!" I think he is too old to be elected.
I wish Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico was a legitimate candidate. He is a Republican I would vote for over Obama. Definitely leans Libarterian. He isn't afraid to say what he believes and what he says makes sense to me. Check out his Twitter: http://twitter.com/govgaryjohnson
At this point, although I'm pretty highly disillusioned with the current administration and most Democrats, I'll be voting for Obama. But I'm really, really hoping for an Elizabeth Warren Dem nomination in 2016.
LOL. As you can tell, I tweet about this quite a bit as well!
While I know that the president never has absolute power, I think there's definitely a difference, for example, between a George W. Bush and Barak Obama presidency. They push for different things, and greatly affect the world's perception of the United States.
Confession: I have never voted. Never. I'm currently registered as an independent, because I couldn't stomach the thought of identifying with either party. That said, I intend to change my party affiliation just so I can vote for Ron Paul. I've always thought exactly this, Puppy: "Politics are so corrupt, no one with any deceny will run anyway and if they ARE decent at first they become corrupt pretty quickly. It is pretty gross." However, I genuinely believe that Ron Paul is different.
Maybe I'm being incredibly naive, but agree with his views or not (I do), his record is consistent as hell, and - this is what really gets me - he actually lives his life in a way that supports what he says he believes. It sort of blows my mind. In my adult lifetime, I can't remember reading/hearing about a politician with that much integrity. Even though the media wants us to believe that he doesn't have a chance, I think he might. He's in the lead in Iowa. I think he's too libertarian for conservative Republicans, so they're trying to ignore him.
He may not be able to effect incredible change as a president, but I'd be thrilled to know someone with integrity, who isn't just on some giant power trip, is in the White House.
The end.
Palin isn't running, so no one scares me on that level.
With that said, I really don't want Michelle Bachmann to win the nomination. Nor do I want Rick Perry to win.
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