The Presidential Election For The World...

[Jubal]

...in which only Americans get a vote. 

Okay, this is the election to decide who gets to decide who's going to be the most powerful person in the world. And the elections before that to decide who they can decide between. Or at least to decide who gets to decide who gets to decide who they can decide between. Or in some cases to decide who gets to decide who gets to decide who gets to decide who they can decide between. Don't you LOVE representative democracy?

For the Democrats, we have the incumbent Barack Obama. With some successes - Libya's intervention seems to have been successful, finally finishing the War in Iraq, the killing of Bin Laden - but many more failures, most notably a healthcare bill that went far too far for Republicans whilst not going far enough for many Democrats, and the fact that the economy is still very fragile - he's potentially liable to fall to a strong challenger.

The race to challenge him from the Republican side is between five men now: Rick Perry, Texas governor, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of Congress, Ron Paul, Texan congressman, Mitt Romney, Massachusetts Governor, and Rick Santorum, a former Senator from Pensylvania. Romney is essentially the front-runner, far and away likely nominee, and the most moderate of the bunch.

So that's a quick overview. News coming in today that the other moderate in the race, intellectual but not terribly conservative former governor Jon Huntsman, has pulled out - as the only candidate accepting the science behind both climate change and evolution publically, this has dismayed some independents but will be a boost to Romney (the only person he pulled votes from) and possibly also to the right-wingers who see themselves as having successfully ousted one moderate from the race. So... who knows what will happen next?

[comrade_general]

Might as well scratch the Newt off the list.

[Jubal]

Romney's looking very, very dominant now. Which is a pity - he's a bit lame as a speaker, not terribly inspirational, and it'll greatly restrict any debate coming up to the election. But it looks like he's gotten South Carolina sewn up, which was Newt's last hope of catching him really.

EDIT: Gallup's poll for today looks pretty interesting, though. Those Huntsman voters don't seem to have broken towards Romney after all, or if they have he's taken heavier losses from his own base. A three point drop isn't much, but if it becomes indicative of a trend then the race might get rather tighter. That said, Gingrich, Perry and Santorum are vote-splitting too much. If one dropped out (say, Perry) then Gingrich might get a shot at seriously narrowing or closing the cap in SC. Seems unlikely though, the GOP's right wing are apparently their own worst enemy.

[debux]

Honestly, I'd prefer voting for the whole SOPA BS rather than the presidential elections... call me heretic, an idiot, an ignorant, but honestly seem to like politics that are old, not the current ones. I find even the whole soviet elections in 1917 (was that the date?) facisnating in comparison to this, but it might be also by the fact that I have no idea of what's going on on the US

[Jubal]

This election is rather a Hobson's choice - it's a question of the lesser of two evils as far as most Americans are concerned. The left don't like Obama and the right don't like Romney, but each side is too scared of the other reversing or consolidating the tiny movements made in this administration to consider breaking ranks. You know, unless Ron Paul turns out to have an additional nomination and a full pack of aces up his sleeve, which (if he does really, really well) could be fatal for Romney.

[Jubal]

And another one bits the dust... Perry is endorsing Gingrich, who has quite a bit of momentum, so the conservative vote is finally starting to coalesce on one person. Things might get interesting again. Might.

[comrade_general]

Leave it to Jubal to take more interest in an election that less than half of the entire population of the country that might bother to go out and vote in it.

[lordryan756]

Rick Santorum bit the dust. I would also like to point out in my opinion that if anyone of the candidates offers to repeal the SOPA bill, then they will win by a land-slide. I don't keep up with politics, but this SOPA thing is really out-of-line!

Special News Bulletin!
After much thought-out thinking, polls, and questionnares, I have come up with this:
People who care about the Presidential Election: 1/4 of the people in America
People who care about SOPA: THE WHOLE WORLD!!

Question: Do the politicians get this yet?

[Jubal]

All the GOP candidates have now spoken out against SOPA - Ron Paul, who actively campaigned against it from day one, is probably feeling rather smug. That said, I suspect many of them might bend to corporate pressure later, the anti-SOPA movement is just currently politically expedient.

I know I take too much interest in it, but it is important as far as the rest of the world - including me - is concerned. Particularly given the impact the US has in terms of the internet and international affairs.

And on the campaign trail, it's narrowing nationally and Gingrich seems to still be surging forth in SC. We've gone from a 23 point lead for Romney down to ten in a week, so things are still really volatile.

[comrade_general]

I think you're placing the presidential position too high on the pedestal.

[Jubal]

I dunno; I think that in terms of foreign policy, which is my main concern on account of being foreign, the Presidency drives that side of things. Or appears to from this side of the Atlantic at least. Besides, I'm a polling/elections geek, I sometimes follow electoral races in totally irrelevant places and countries just for the hell of it. 

[comrade_general]

Or appears to from this side

Now you're gettin' it.

[Jubal]

Ah, but appearances are important, not least in dictating how the rest of the world reacts. This is - after all - politics.

[comrade_general]

I guess so, in which case think of our prez as the cover to our book.

[comrade_general]

http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10282766-romney-rebounds-with-victory-in-florida-gop-primary

So goes the completely ridiculous piece of crap called the state primaries. My state doesn't get to vote until March 6th
You seeing the idiocy here?