Usa Thread

[zzzz]

What I don't understand is why this unprecedented amout of petitions. Okay, some don't think Obama is a good President. In recent history some have been much, muich worse (Nixon, Dubya), why no secession petitions then?

 

Race has a lot to do with it. Some people just can't tolerate having a black for Pres. What I'm wondering is the legal aspect. A petition like that sounds like sedition.

[kamui]

What I don't understand is why this unprecedented amout of petitions. Okay, some don't think Obama is a good President. In recent history some have been much, muich worse (Nixon, Dubya), why no secession petitions then?

As for Texas specifically, if they seceded, they would become a minority dominated 'country' so let them. The demographics suggest that latinos and blacks are having kids at a far larger rate than whites.

Aslo, good luck in protecting that border. They'll spend a large part of their 'GNP' on that alone. Texas secedes they'll basically be a latin America country...lol.

 

I am surprise that you are surprised This hasn't anything to do with rational decisions. Don't forget that the right has been demonizing Obama since he became a candidate for president. For example one result of Obama's first election was that gun sales exploded. The same happened in recent months when people started to _fear_ that he would be reelected. All the while Obama didn't touch the issue of restricting gun sales at all and there wasn't the smallest hint that he would touch the issue during his second term.

 

BTW, that's why there is such infighting in within the GOP: in the end the GOP started to beliefe it's own propaganda that Obama is the devil who will destroy the USA. They where really shocked to learn that the majority of the electorate saw Obama completely differently. And now they struggle how to deal with the reality.

[unit731]

BTW, that's why there is such infighting in within the GOP: in the end the GOP started to beliefe it's own propaganda that Obama is the devil who will destroy the USA. They where really shocked to learn that the majority of the electorate saw Obama completely differently. And now they struggle how to deal with the reality.

 

The GOP and and the Fox News junkies live within a bubble.

Fox News kept stating over and over that Romney would win. Even Romney believed them.

I'm not sure if Fox News actually believed all that they were espousing. If they did, it just makes that network more pathetic.

The ratings for Fox News are high. The people that watch Fox News are believers.

Fox News will continue to distort the news.

Curious whether the GOP will change enough to win in 2016. Much can happen in 4 years. The mid-terms may show some signs.

[zzzz]

I heard on the news recently that California is turning Democratic big time; and California has historically been the leading indicator for the rest of the nation. Even Texas was reported to be turning blue. Republicans have been pushing the idea for a long time that it's better to take from the poor and give to the rich (because the crumbs will somehow trickle down from the tables of the rich to the poor ), so it will probably take a while for them to come around, more than 4 yrs IMHO.

[gobbledonk]

Petraeus should have come to Bangkok!

 

 

Compared to his wife, she is a 12. On a scale of a 1 to 5 ....

 

Holly may well be America's sweetheart, but that is one very homely looking lady, I'm afraid, Little wonder Petraeus strayed from the reservation.

[gobbledonk]

http://www.news.com.au/world/romney-breaks-silence-in-bitter-broadside-at-obama/story-fndir2ev-1226517390563

 

On paper, this doesnt sound all that 'bitter', but the media seem intent on grinding Romney into the dust of 2012.

[Flashermac]

I remember an editorial in a non-nutty-rightwing paper that asked if Obama was buying the election. As to California and Texas going blue, remember that both have huge and increasing Hispanic populations. Hispanics are the largest minority in the US these days, outnumbering Africa Americans by quite a bit. I used to hear bitter remarks about this from my Black GI friends when I worked for the Army in the 1990s. They'd say things like "... nobody sold their ass into slavery and made them come to this country and pick cotton." But they got Affirmative Action all the same.

[Flashermac]

Republicans to Mitt Romney: Exit stage left

 

 

Republicans don’t want Mitt Romney to go away mad but they do, it seems, want him to go away.

 

That sentiment was in full bloom following Romney’s first post-election comments — made on a phone call with donors earlier this week. On the call, Romney attributed his loss to the “gifts†President Obama’s campaign doled out to young people and minorities. For many, the comments had an eerie echo of the secretly taped “47 percent†remarks Romney made at a May fundraiser.

 

“There is no Romney wing in the party that he needs to address,†said Ed Rogers, a longtime Republican strategist. “He never developed an emotional foothold within the GOP so he can exit the stage anytime and no one will mourn.â€

 

Added Chris LaCivita, a senior party operative: “The comment just reinforced a perception — fairly or not – that Romney, and by default, the GOP are the party of the ‘exclusives’. It’s time for us to move on and focus on the future leaders within the GOP.â€

 

Speaking of those future leaders, several of the candidates talked about as 2016 presidential possibilities quickly condemned Romney’s comments as well.

 

“We have got to stop dividing American voters,†said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. “I absolutely reject that notion, that description … We’re fighting for 100 percent of the vote.†Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker added that the Republican party isn’t “just for people who are currently not dependent on the government.â€

 

The strong intraparty reaction — just nine days after Romney loss the presidential race — speaks to the desire within the professional political ranks of the Republican party to move on as quickly as possible from an election that badly exposed their weaknesses.

 

The prevailing opinion among that group is that there is much work to be done and that Romney will have a hand in almost none of it. Put more simply: Thanks for playing. Now go away.

 

Romney, of course, likely doesn’t share that opinion — still reeling from an election that he quite clearly expected to win but, well, didn’t. (And didn’t even really come that close to winning.)

 

What Romney seems most interested in doing at this point is rehashing why he didn’t win — with an emphasis (at least in his comments to donors) on what was wrong with voters, not what was wrong with his campaign.

 

That MO, while understandable for someone who has spent the last six-plus years of his life running for president, is tremendously problematic for a party that needs to get away from the stereotype that it is of, by and for white, affluent men even at a time of growing diversity in the country and the electorate.

 

“The recent comments about what happened in the election are 100 percent wrong,†said Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “The 47 percent comments represent both a fundamental misunderstanding of the country, they offer a constricted vision of the Republican party and the potency of a big tent conservative message. “

 

Former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis was even more blunt: “It shows a huge misreading of the electoral landscape. A rather elitist misread. Where does he think his votes came from in rural America?â€

 

Also worth noting: The White House was quick to jump on Romney’s remarks. “That view of the American people of the electorate and of the election is at odds with the truth of what happened last week,†Carney said Thursday morning.

 

Here’s the two-pronged problem for Republicans at the moment: 1) Romney has no motivation to toe the party line now, and refrain from making such comments, given that he will never again be a candidate, and 2) even if Romney quietly steps aside now, the party is left without any sort of elder statesman to help broker future policy and political fights.

 

To the latter point: While Democrats have Bill Clinton as their triager-in-chief, using his gravitas to help extend and articulate the Democratic brand, George W. Bush seems perfectly content to spend the rest of his days outside of the public spotlight in Texas. And, while John McCain remains an active force in the Senate, he was never someone that Republicans truly saw as one of their own. Now, in Republicans’ best case scenario, Romney is headed to that same path of obscurity.

 

http://www.washingto...xit-stage-left/

[Steve]

I heard on the news recently that California is turning Democratic big time; and California has historically been the leading indicator for the rest of the nation. Even Texas was reported to be turning blue. Republicans have been pushing the idea for a long time that it's better to take from the poor and give to the rich (because the crumbs will somehow trickle down from the tables of the rich to the poor ), so it will probably take a while for them to come around, more than 4 yrs IMHO.

 

California is already Democrat for presidential elections and won't change anytime soon. The shift happened in the early '90s. Calfornia was actually a 'Red' state for the Republicans. Piror to '92 they went for the Republican candidate during the '80s, '70s, etc.

 

The state turned Blue because of their anti immigration stance. The state republicans were drafitng a lot of anti immigrant legislation. The Rodney King riots in '92 saw a lot of latinos get angry as well, They were in there rioting with Blacks (and even some Whites, Hollywood's rioters were mostly poor whites). You have to understand that it wasn't only Blacks that were being beaten by cops, Latinos were often worse because they had no voice. Both legal and illegal latino immigrants were even more marginalized than Blacks were who at least had the NAACP and other groups. What does a Guatemalen or Salvodorean have who was stopped and beaten by a cop?

 

in '93 there was propsition 187 which was very very divisive. It was an anti immigrant bill drafted by Republicans and made the state's latinos turn Democratic. The state's Republicans turned that state Blue. The state Republicans did what Republicans did nationally and thought they could get out the white vote by going against a minority group. They ignored the demographics and now its bit them in the ass. Probably one of the biggest blunders in terms of Presidential consequences there ever was in recent history.

[Steve]

Mitt's remarks doesn't read good. I don't think he gets it. What gifts? I didn't get mine. If that's what the Republicans are thinking they are in a lot of trouble. Women and minorities didn't get any gifts. In fact, a few Black politicians were criticizing Obama for NOT doing enough for the horribly high Black unemployment. Maxine Waters a few years ago at a speech was lamenting at a speech saying she doesn't know why the President doesn't even come to Black events and speak or addresses the specific needs of the high Black unemployment rate.

The numbers bear out. Black and latino unemployment rates far exceed Whites, even amongst college educated, its almost doubled. If ever there was a chance for the Republicans to capture a good portion of the Black vote specifically it was the last election. Kemp was smart and said that he would privatize the federal housing projects and give it to the people in them and make them instant homeowners for example. He also championed and pushed for 'enterprize zones' for the inner city that if a company opened a business there they would get favorable tax treatment. Those solutions are win-win. Housing projects cost the government untold millions each year. They are decrepid, unsafe, often crime and drug ridden. There was a pilot program in St. Lous where they made the residents, almost all Black owners and when they saw that they had equity in property the place changed dramatically. It was changed into a co-op and they instituted curfews and such and voted out those who consistently violated the rules. They painted the place, planted flowers, etc, because they saw that their 20k value of their apartment could easily go to 30k or 40k if it were safe and looked good. Wonderful idea. Went no where because of a lack of support from the government. So we go on wasting millions when we could have had a lot of poor people who would be paying property taxes, and lowering the crime rate of their area.

 

Anyway, I digress. What amazed me was the internal polling of the Republicans. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind Obama would win, it was just a matter of how much. The various polls saw it. I posted it. Those polls are very accurate. Vegas even picked it and they are not in the habit of getting odds wrong when money is on the line.

 

Now the Republicans are going after the latino demographic with immigration compromise. They've written off Black support. Too much bad history there. I do think that is the wrong idea. They can get a good chunk of the Black middle and upper classes. Middle class is middle class. No matter where you are around the world, no matter the race. You have the same concerns. Are you going to get your kid a good education and get them into a good college and how are you going to pay for it. Can your home value hold steady. Etc. I've heard a lot of Blacks talk about Ron Paul for example. The Dems are willing to look at every demographic and find out if there are any points to score. The Republicans seem to be living on some other planet believing old stereotypes, etc. Disconnected from anything outside their traditional demographic.

 

The fact is America is changing and the demographics, whether we like it or not, are going to get 'darker'.