AlteredBeast
Fork 'em, Sparky!
The Candidates:
Mitt Romney
"The idea that I overpaid on my taxes has brought tears to my bionic ocular implants."
Newt Gingrich
"Now let me be very clear, I am stalling in hopes that what I say will make the moderator and all of my supporters look stupid. "
Rick Santorum
"You know what is on my finger? Hint: it rhymes with scrantorum."
Ron Paul
"Already legalized it."
Logistics of the Florida Primary:
The 2012 Florida Republican Primary, set earlier this year than in election cycles past, makes this contest the first big state to basically crown the next presidential nominee. Florida has chosen the Republican nominee each time since Gerald Ford; the Democratic primary chose Hilary Clinton over Barack Obama in 2008 by 17%, despite donors from Florida donating twice as much to Obama's campaign!
Florida decided to hold their primary so early in order to gain more prestige, candidate spending, and national focus, but they did so without the GOP's permission, which ends up costing the state half of their delegates, down to 50 from 99.
Immigrants are a very interesting part of the primary, as Cuban-born and descended immigrants favor the Republican party nearly 2-1 over Democratic presidential nominees. Immigrants and descendants from other Latin American countries continue to support Democrats on a much wider scale than Republicans.
2008 Results:
Current projections as of January 30th, per Nate Silver of the New York Times, which takes a weighted average of different polls. These numbers are shown to be some of the most accurate:
Hot-Button Issues:
Illegal Immigration - None of the candidates support the DREAM Act, with only Gingrich and Romney stating that they would support an altered form narrowing the focus to service in the military, and not to those illegal immigrants who go to college and get degrees.
NASA - Gingrich is all for moon bases, space travel, building up NASA again like the good old days. The rest of the candidates do not see the merit in putting too much government funding into NASA. Mitt Romney also stated that relying on private enterprise to fund space travel will probably never result in anything, as their is no reason for any corporation to dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars into space travel, construction, and industry.
Finances and Taxes - Romney has been under constant attack for his time at Bain Capital, his low tax percentage relative to his income, his accounts in Switzerland, the Caymans, and his large donations to the Mormon Church. Gingrich supports cutting capital gains to zero, in the hopes that it would spur all to invest (but would obviously benefit the most wealthy on a grand scale). Romney supports cutting capital gains down to zero for everyone that makes less than $250,000/year, while also reducing the percentage on higher levels.
Negativity - This has been called by nearly every pundit, reporter, election insider, and talk radio host, the most heated and negative campaign ever run. Almost all of the negativity surrounds Romney's individual mandate in Massachusetts that he enacted while governor in 2006, his personal wealth and tax returns, and his time at Bain Capital. Ads targeting Gingrich have focused on his time as a "historian" for Freddie Mac, in which he received large sums to advise them on historical situations, his multiple divorces, marital infidelity, asking his second wife for an open marriage, and sanctions placed on him for ethics violations while Speaker of the House in the mid-90's. Santorum and Paul have been relatively quiet both in the debates, and on the negativity front.
anything I am missing or am incorrect on, let me know.
Polls open: 7 am
Polls close: 7 pm
Results should start pouring in shortly thereafter.
