Now the election is RMoney's to lose. I hope he is graceful in defeat. If not, he'll need to practice.

I wonder if he has had his concession speech written yet?

I don't much care for Rick Santorum.

But if the reason he's given for suspending his campaign is true and he's wanting to spend more time with his ailing daughter, then he deserves credit and praise for doing such.

Agreed. Trisomy 18 is not a condition to wish on anybody. It is somewhat of a miracle that his daughter has lived as long as she has. I suspect that Santorum and his wife are partly responsible for that. I admire that.

He'll keep spending millions of OPM as long as they give it to him. Heck, they may even have to bring some back from their offshore accounts and put it back into the economy. (I'm trying to think positively.)

So, will the GOP keep moving to the extreme right or will they start edging back to the center. No doubt Santorum helped to swing women voters to the Democrats. I hoping that pattern persists all the way through.

Supreme Court appointments are so much more important than gas prices. I just wish voters could get that. They are more important than a stalled recovery or even a setback in healthcare reform. They will shape the lives of everyone for decades to come.

And our long line of other Federal Judges waiting for their appointments...

Actually, he "suspended" his campaign. That means he can continue to collect money from the federal government for doing nothing, like the socialist he is.

Yes, indeed. All those unelected judges that you get to put on the bench if you can get past the obstructionists in the Senate where the minority rules.

In a sense they are "elected" in the fact that the Senate is the approving authority. The get the job by a vote of the people's representatives. But without the smiley I may have missed your point.

I should have put a smiley since I was being snarky about Obama's use of the term 'unelected judges' echoing the conservatives use of the term for decades.

The Supreme Court and federal judges are not elected for good reason and to stem the kind of partisanship and divisions we find in the other branches. It's a part of the checks and balances. Some courts have been more political and partisan than others. A lot of people have commented on the kind of questions that were asked in the hearing on Obamacare and how close they were to right wing propaganda language. The use of the word 'broccoli' comes to mind.

Again, I recommend the discussion of this issue on Chris Hayes show last weekend. There is always a tension between our democratic ideals and the reality of politics. Right now, we are backsliding in our ideals, IMHO.

John Zogby's Analysis: Santorum is Still Dangerous to Romney and the GOP

Yep, RMoney could still try to talk him into a VP slot

A new plan for a Ron Paul presidency: he will be selected by those who are conducting all the mass arrests.

FWIW, a blog post that says the evangelicals may turn to Ron Paul.

That would actually be a good fit for Paul (except for his Middle East policy), and it would give him a lot of fresh money and a big voting bloc, further disintegrating the GOP.

I'm down with that.

Some comments on that blog post refer to Ron Paul as a Baptist and thus a true Christian, while Catholics (Santorum) and lapsed Catholics (Gingrich) are not necessarily Christians ("and many do not believe Catholics rank exactly as Christians"). They then proceed to discuss Rmoney's Mormonism. One suggests that Rmoney should withdraw from the race, ceding his delegates and his money to Ron Paul, our nation's last hope for salvation from the corrupt anti-Christians in both parties.

The anti-Mormon streak among Evangelicals is not likely to go away. The idea of choosing "the lesser of two evils" is not likely to be very persuasive. While I would love for Evangelicals to form their own political party for the purpose of nominating Ron Paul as President and Michelle Bachman as VP, I would be almost as satisfied if Evangelicals sat out this election. The best outcome would be the expulsion of the Christian Right from the Republican Party, enabling it to live and breathe again. A third party, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, might accomplish that. Or they might adopt their old name, the Native American Party.

He had a chance to use that excuse last time she was sick in January

This is definitely a good question. I wonder though if Mitt will start walking back thinking he can control the extremists in his party or will he pick an extremist VP and be overwhelmed by him/her like McCain was with Palin. I'm thinking the right will push him underwater.

I have no reason to believe that the guy does not love his kids, but to be honest I don't buy it. Apparently from what I've been reading the right wing noise machine was ramping up the pressure on the guy to pull out as he was hurting their chances of winning in November, and he had been receiving 100% negative press from the usual suspects. I think someone had yet another quiet word and some promises were made and he saw the writing was on the wall. I think Mittens was letting something slip about some background deal or other when he said that he looks forward to campaigning with Santorum. My crack about Santorum as VP was only half in jest.

I don't know if it's true everywhere, but gas prices in River City have gone down 40 cents a gallon in the last 5 days. Perhaps this belongs in the "Obama Wins" thread, but I think by imposing oil import sanctions against Iran, he also, knowingly or unknowingly, called the bluff of the speculators who were driving the price of oil up based on the mythical threat that Iran oil supply was at risk because of the usual "trouble in the Middle East". There's no problem with worldwide oil supply. Demand is down. Gas should be $3 a gallon. China's demand is at a 5 month low. The increase in Japan's oil demand after the earthquake and the Fukushima disaster was half what was predicted. Global oil consumption is down. We got punked again by speculators. It'll take months for the price to parachute down after it rocketed up.

I thought would appreciate this political cartoon.

I seem to remember a time, not too long ago, when they thought they'd achieved supremacy over this great nation, or at least a huge amount of political power. There was talk of a permanent GOP majority, and the evangelicals had enormous power within the GOP.

Not any more. Not since they got McCain to put Palin on the ticket and she sunk him. Well, Palin and his reaction to the economy melting down. I still believe that's what happened. And the voters choosing McCain was in itself a big signal that the evangelicals' power was waning.

This year Rmoney has won out, it seems. The power of the evangelicals was el zilcho in the primaries. But they still have an organization. They still have the recent memory of being on top. They still have their dominionist beliefs, and part of that is the belief that doG is on their side.

I think there's about a zero percent chance or less that they'll sit out the election. I think it would be great if we could divert a substantial number of them to vote for Paul. The problem in my state is, if Paul runs in the GOP primary and loses, he won't be allowed on the ballot again as a third party candidate. And there are (I think they call them "sore loser") laws like that in other states, too.

The gop primary-the musical

Where is George W. Bush's endorsement of Rmoney for the Republican nomination? Even Cheney says that "Mitt Romney can do a whale of a job for us, as a candidate and as a president."

Of course, it is not all that clear (at least outside Cheyenne) what "whale of a job" might mean.

Have the Repugs locked George up somewhere where he cannot deliver his endorsement?

Bush actually has made an appearance arguing in favour of the retention of his tax cuts. I'm linking this as 10 seconds of Bush is all I can stand.



As an aside, He looks like hell. His face is completely red and the makeup does nothing to hide it, not to mention wearing a light Grey suit which brings it out more. I think from looking at him he is back drinking, but thats just speculation on my part. I'm also not squeezing out much sympathy.

If he had tapped Romney, his reaction to the economy wouldn't have been as big of an issue. Romney would've acted all "I know how this is supposed to work" and convinced people to trust him.

In a six week window, where the V.P. gets close scrutiny, Romney could've easily come across as the person who knows how to fix what's broken without being challenged that he actually contributed to the problem.

Since McCain and Obama were virtually tied in polls after the conventions, things could've gone differently with a different V.P. pick.