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The 2012 Republican Debates (Mesa, AZ; CNN|8PM EST): Save the Panders

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Invisible_Insane

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Ongoing political discussion at the PoliGAF Community Thread.

The second-to-last Republican debate (two have been cancelled) takes place tonight in Mesa, Arizona. It's been a while since the last debate, let's see what the candidates have gotten up to:

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Mitt Romney Loves Michigan

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Rick Santorum Continues to be Rick Santorum:
Rick Santorum said:
"It's not about you. It's not about you," Santorum said at a Tea Party rally, directing his comments at the president. "It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your job. It's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but no less a theology."
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Newt Gingrich Is Still In the Race. Yes, Really.
Newt Gingrich said:
You can't put a gun rack in a Volt.
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As it turns out, you can.

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Ron Paul... Something About Delegates; Almost Wins Maine

Pollingfor the Feb. 28 Arizona and Michigan Primaries
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Who will come out on top? FIGHT!

Stream Link: The debate should be available for streaming tonight at www.cnn.com/live
 
Ron Paul should win. Even though he is a racist.
 
I've actually missed the debates, even though the most interesting characters dropped out a while ago.
 
Now that Santorum is a front-runner, the moderators will give him more questions which in turn will give him more opportunity to make himself look like a loon.

I can't wait.
 
As usual: Romney wins by not losing his cool. Santorum is revealing his true colors and they are unacceptable except to those in the GOP.

The problem still is Romney's strength is the economy, and if it improves, "We would have done it better" is not the strongest line for the GOP.
 
Mitt Romney has been lowering expectations in Michigan. I suspect this is because while the media and the public are focusing on the personal narrative, Arizona is far more important because it is a winner take all contest by default. In addition, Arizona is much more likely to be a swing state in November, particularly because the GOP establishment has enacted controversial immigration reform in that state. Mitt hasn't been so kind to the auto industry lately, either.

So my expectation tonight is for Mitt to focus on Arizona and bring up immigration reform. He will also pay special attention to real estate/housing.

By contrast, Santorum will want to deliver the deathblow to Mitt in Michigan, thus securing his place as the only viable alternative to Mitt Romney. He will count on his message being accepted in Arizona and later contests. Santorum is honestly just hoping to score a big win in Michigan that will propel him to super Tuesday. He's been doing a lot of campaigning in Ohio, in particular, that suggests he's looking to sew up the Midwest as his own territory.

Gingrich is in it for the lulz (and his burning hated of Mitt Romney). In all seriousness, I think he is waiting for Georgia and hoping that Santorum will blow up before then. The Southern strategy remains his only viable path to nomination, it's too bad most Southern States are awarding delegates proportionally this time around.

Finally, Ron Paul is in it to soak up as many delegates as he can in the caucus states and to have a bargaining chip at the convention.
 
So who'll try and go after Romney harder, Gingrich or Santorum? Unless he does well on Super Tuesday, this is one of Gingrich's last attempts to try and retake the frontrunner throne. It's also been a while since the last debate so I'm hoping those claws are freshly sharpened.
 
Zoibie said:
So who'll try and go after Romney harder, Gingrich or Santorum? Unless he does well on Super Tuesday, this is one of Gingrich's last attempts to try and retake the frontrunner throne. It's also been a while since the last debate so I'm hoping those claws are freshly sharpened.
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Gingrich will probably go after him harder. He has no reason to be nice and he has nothing to lose. He has almost no chance of getting anything in either Michigan or Arizona so he can afford to do some scrapping and get down in the mud.

Santorum will probably try to go after him too, but Santorum hasn't been the most effective attacker in past debates so in comparison to Gingrich's super troll form he's going to feel somewhat leaky.
 
I was gonna root for Mitt, because he likes things, and that appeals to the regular guy. But I think I might have to go for Santorum since he's prepared to invade hell.
 
Mitt's campaign has been straight up fascinating. He still doesn't seem comfortable in his campaign shoes and if it weren't for Super PAC spending he'd have been buried a month ago.
 
I hope so badly that Santorum wins Michigan.

None of these candidates will win the White House, but Santorum would make the general election way more hilarious.
 
Agnostic said:
Looking forward to hear how Santorum plans on defeating Satan.
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Asked about the Satan stuff from 2008, Santorum flopped around like fish. He said they were not relevant today, but he also he would defend previous statements and then used code words to talk about Satan ('and, yeah, taking on the forces around this world that want to do harm to America').

“These are questions that are not relevant to what is being discussed in America today; what we are talking about in America today is trying to get America going,” Santorum said today. “That’s what my speech is about, that’s what we have been talking about in this campaign. If you want to dig up old speeches of me talking to a religious group, then go right ahead and do so, but I’m going to stay on message and I’m going to talk about things that Americans want to talk about: creating jobs , making our country safe and secure and, yeah, taking on the forces around this world that want to do harm to America.”
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So he is still fighting Satan but he only wants his fellow religious people to hear that dog whistle.
 
I was watching Santorum give a speech in Arizona on C-Span.

The speech was well written, but his positions are awful. An emotional, well-written speech can't cover that up.

End all entitlements. Cut Taxes. Military budget at 17% is not part of the problem. Happiness isn't about economic gain or liberty, but about serving god (seriously, only that's happiness?)

Fuck him.
 
I an still holding out hope that Rick Santorum wins the nom. It would make the general a lot more entertaining than if Mittens won.

Plus, the electoral map would look so darn lulsy.
 
viciouskillersquirrel said:
I an still holding out hope that Rick Santorum wins the nom. It would make the general a lot more entertaining than if Mittens won.

Plus, the electoral map would look so darn lulsy.
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now if Santorum can just learn to shut his damn mouth before Michigan (and let Mitt keep opening his), he's almost got this, lol
 
Santorum needs to knock this debate out of the park to provide buoyancy to his poll numbers.

Gonna be interesting to see who Gingrich decides to go after...
 
Is it time to compile ideas for tonight's drinking game?

I've got a bottle waiting for "Mormonism is not Christianity" to come from Santorum.
 
Santorum is hilarious. He always criticizes Iran but he basically wants to turn America into a Christian version of Iran.

I'm rooting for Santorum. It would be great for months more of Santorum jokes and then a huge Obama victory.

GO SANTORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
DasRaven said:
Is it time to compile ideas for tonight's drinking game?

I've got a bottle waiting for "Mormonism is not Christianity" to come from Santorum.
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Pandemonium -- if he ever said that. I'm going to offer up these suggestions:

"punish job creators"
"Failed Economic Policies"
"Cut, Cap and Balance"
"War on Christianity"
"Prolonged the recession"
"tough stance on immigration"
"earmarks"
"sanctity of life"
and of course: "Regan"
 
Miletius said:
Pandemonium -- if he ever said that. I'm going to offer up these suggestions:

"punish job creators"
"Failed Economic Policies"
"Cut, Cap and Balance"
"War on Christianity"
"Prolonged the recession"
"tough stance on immigration"
"earmarks"
"sanctity of life"
and of course: "Regan"
Click to expand...

You're also going to hear quite a bit about how Obama's failed us at the gas pump.
 
Agnostic said:
Looking forward to hear how Santorum plans on defeating Satan.
Click to expand...

Maybe by wearing ashes on his forehead like Joe Biden did.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/02/22/ashes_at_tonights_debate

Apparently he's campaigning right this moment with Ashes on his forehead.

https://twitter.com/#!/rickklein/status/172398372249026565

I didn't think I could take Santorum any less seriously than I do already, but if he comes to the debate with ashes...for fuck's sake, man....
 
The Michigan primary is very very close, between Romney and Santorum. We will see after that debate, if someone of them, will gain momentum in Michigan or the race will remain close in Michigan.
In Arizona polls, Romney is leading in Arizona, and is the favorite for Arizona.

In national polls Santorum is leading nationally.
Santorum is also leading in Ohio polls. Ohio is very important state for the race.

If Santorum wants to keep leading nationally and in the important for the race, state of Ohio, he must win the Michigan primary.

Because if Romney will win both Arizona and Michigan, he will regain momentum and in the polls before Super Tuesday he will be 1st, both nationally and in the state of Ohio.

That's why Michigan is so important for Santorum. He has 50-50 chances to win Michigan and if he will, he will probably be the favorite for the Super Tuesday, as national polls shows.
But if Santorum will not win Michigan he will lost the momentum nationally, and he will not leading the polls before Super Tuesday.
 
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