I am beginning to become scared that Romney/Ryan will win. Can smart people please post here and say reassuring things to convince me that he won't?

Ryan (who I first campaigned against in 2000 while a graduate student in Madison) is a great public speaker. Way better than Romney, though not par with Obama on a good day. The big problem with the choice is that Ryan doesn't put any swing states into contention, doesn't make any appeals to Hispanics (the ethnic group that will utterly kill Republican national tickets for decades to come), and doesn't make Romney look any more likeable than he is.

Really bad choice for Romney, but interesting choice coming from the Republican establishment. Its as if they're willing to sacrifice 2012 to keep Tea Party types enthused about local races and push an idea guy into the spotlight. Then again, Ryan 2016 could well go down like Goldwater 1964.

While I definitely thought it would be romney for the last few years, I do wonder what would have happened to Santorum if Gingrich hadn't fucked up his shit in so many states (quite a few were near ties between Rick and Mitt, with Gingrich getting getting more than enough to make the difference). I assumed most of Newt's votes were "Not Romneys" more '90s nostalgic than evangelical, and if Rick had picked up more of them than Mitt he could have won quite a few more states. Mitt probably would have blasted Santorum even harder, someone else might have run, etc, etc, but if Newt had skipped off earlier I wonder if Rick would have had an edge.

alfred otm

but sadly they keep resurrecting revisionist versions of his ghost, which is enough for enough of the people enough of the time

Mitt probably would have blasted Santorum even harder, someone else might have run, etc, etc, but if Newt had skipped off earlier I wonder if Rick would have had an edge.

It was always gonna be Romney (hell, I'm kind of amazed it wasn't Romney in 2008), but Santorum could well have had Ryan's spot if not for Newt.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110615120715/en.futurama/images/0/03/RonaldReagansHead.png

huh Bush d. Kerry was much closer than I remember it being

Then again, I knew Kerry had lost when he followed up a BEP performance with "a really special treat for everyone": James Taylor and his acoustic guitar so I probably just stopped following the electoral count

"I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for doody."

Dude was hammering youth and excitement and everything he'd done to get young ppl out, and then at his rally had both JT and Sheryl Crow do acoustic sets; I'm surprised he didn't have a video montage of 50s teens hula hooping to "Chantilly Lace".

The math of looming entitlement shortfalls doesn't have a political bias.

― The Painter of Blight™ (Sanpaku), Sunday, August 12, 2012 11:11 AM (30 minutes ago)

no, of course not, but ryan's flogging of entitlement cuts sure as hell does.

(and despite being created by a mad scientist out of dead body parts, he was about a bazillion times more adept at talking to people than Romney, even of half of those conversations ended up with a little girl drowning in a well)

do you guys dig how fucking batshit the GOP convention is going to be

REMEMBER

http://www.barewalls.com/i/c/428035_Rockin-Rebel.jpg

Aren't they still wondering whether they can keep Palin out or not?

xpost Jesus Alfred if ever we needed a reminder of just how ossified Rolling Stone got.

Mike Mills plays bass, Eddie Vedder was drummer for Hovercraft I say we got ourselves a supergroup on that cover

do you guys dig how fucking batshit the GOP convention is going to be

I'm hoping Palin morphs into an actual pit bull and eats Pawlenty

and Jackson Browne covering JT songs

no, of course not, but ryan's flogging of entitlement cuts sure as hell does.

Really really wish Obama had pushed something like Isabell Sawhill's suggested entitlement changes or even the Bowles/Simpson recommendations. To not suggest anything was ceding the idea high-ground to the ideologues of the Right.

Jesus Alfred if ever we needed a reminder of just how ossified Rolling Stone got.

you mean brian wilson isn't one of the ten best new bands?

Also hoping Huntsman tries to give a speech but bursts into tears instead, screaming "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE" and locks himself in the bathroom for several hours sobbing into a live mic

do you guys dig how fucking batshit the GOP convention is going to be

does ayn ryan undercut the ron paul riot?

cuz even if they didn't have enough to get him on the stage there are a loooot of ron paulies that got themselves made into delegates

Rand Paul forgoes his speech and instead shoots a round of skeet with homemade leaflets titled "Sherrie Law"

Rand Paul forgoes his speech and instead sings Steve Perry's "Oh Sherry"

Four words: Haley Barbour strip tease

OK I was going to find the excelsior thread to give DJP some luv but I'm too busy barfing now, sorry.

Rand Paul trades licks with Ted Nugent on live television - for best mileage here, "trades licks" can mean whatever you want it to mean here

Jan Brewer and Bobby Jindal perform their renowned comedy act "Pious and Biased"

Not since Britney and Madonna

Reagan body exhumed and hoisted on stage so that Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich take turns fucking it while Nino Scalia quotes from his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas

OK I was going to find the excelsior thread to give DJP aero some luv but I'm too busy barfing now, sorry.

Michele Bachmann's husband does a dance routine to "Where Have You Been" while wearing Chick Fil A pasties

Halfway through Rick Perry's speech, it slowly dawns on everyone that he is graciously accepting the party's nomination

AAAAAAH

This all needs to happen.

Cut to George Will at some point, a look of silent panic on his face.

full text of John McCain's remarks to the 2012 Republican convention:

Thank you all very much. Tonight, I...you assholes. You fucking assholes. You goddamn fucking assholes. Fuck, fuck, fuck...fuck you. Fuck you, and fuck you. You goddamn, fucking, fucking, fucking...you fucking assholes. My dick. Suck my dick. You assholes.

I'm actually just hoping Lynyrd Skynyrd (who are really performing, and no I don't wanna talk about it) turns in such a marathon performance of "Free Bird" that the whole convention gets thrown off schedule.

The Lynyrd Skynyrd of 2012 is not the Lynyrd Skynyrd of 1976 (literally!), but I hope that prediction comes true.

lynyrd's been super right-wing for a while

pretty christgau is just listening to nu-lynyrd to get pissed off

Lyve [Sanctuary, 2004]
Maybe the Allmans supported Bush too, though I bet not; maybe that fox Ronnie Van Zant would have turned into Charlie Daniels, though he would have nuanced it. But Daniels is Donald Fagen up against the backup-singer cheerleading and golden-oldies smarm of Johnny Van Zant, and where the Allmans replaced their mythic front line with Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, who jam at least as tight and hot, Gary Rossington didn't anchor that peachy a guitar section to begin with. A few of the post-Ronnie songs are surprisingly decent--"Red, White and Blue," for instance, is about Johnny's neck, hair, and collar. But you know what else it's about, and in case you don't he has four or five ways to rub it in, including thanks to God for the lovely Nashville night. Not Memphis, not Jacksonville--Nashville. C+

God & Guns [RoadRunner/Loud & Proud, 2009]
"You can take your change on down the road/And leave me here with mine," Johnny Van Zant begins one of the two songs that take up the title theme after has run through the pleasures of home, the perfidy of woman, and the mixed blessings of the music business for the umpteenth time. Like the wary younger sibling he's always been, Johnny will always hold onto a quarter and settle for what he knows, or thinks he does. Really, he ought to have some inkling that nobody worthy of his trepidation wants to ban hunting, burn the Bible, or slam old Uncle Sam, although actually that no smoking sign means exactly what it says. On the other hand, "Unwrite That Song" would make a nice B side for Darius Rucker. C+

I'm not predicting this, but I'm also not saying it's impossible.

http://i.imgur.com/MMbYs.png

I would be very surprised if Michigan went for Romney -- even my right wing relatives can't stand him.

Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2012 is the proverbial small business.

Also, given its lineup, Skynyrd in 2012 is a job creator, too.

Johnny Van Zant may run Lynyrd Skynyrd, but he definitely didn't build that.

are there poll numbers for people who won't vote for romney just because of the mormon thing? a lot of christian churches preach that mormonism is a cult and not to be trusted/taken seriously or even considered a part of christianity.

okay i found a number...

CNN) – Bias against a Mormon presidential candidate hasn’t budged in 45 years, with 18% of Americans saying they would not vote for a well-qualified candidate who happened to be Mormon, according to a Gallup Poll released Thursday.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/21/bias-against-mormon-presidential-candidate-unchanged-since-1967-poll-finds/

18% ain't chicken feed...

and they do note that 20% of americans said they wouldn't vote for a catholic right before kennedy won the election, but romney is no kennedy. there is no great fervor for him like there was for kennedy. or obama.