My Views on the Race for the Republican Nomination

Politics has been, traditionally, a sugar-coated place, a place for sweet words and campaign promises (as opposed to real, "I'm a man/woman of my word and will follow through with my promises once in office" kind of promises).

Now, however, the tone has shifted from sweet to sour.

The constant bickering and mudslinging coming from the majority of the candidates is unattractive to say the least.  False statistics, quotes taken out of context, and personal attacks are some of the ugliest weapons a politician possesses, and they are being thrown around liberally throughout the debates in an effort to win by process of elimination.  It's a brutal process, one that I don't think the American public looks favorably on.  I'm gonna give my little rundown on all the candidates and what went on in the debate two nights ago, partially so I can speak to people who share my opinions, and partially because I just need to get the thoughts out on paper instead of having them bounce around my skull all night.  I think I'll start with Mr. Newt Gingrich.

My Opinion as of this last debate on Speaker Gingrich:

I start off with a quote:

"The problem with mudslinging is that no one comes out of it clean"

I came up with this line (or at least I hope the line is original because I am not hunting down that quote on the internet if it's not) while watching Newt dish out yet another smug package of political sludge at Romney.  Hurling everything in his political arsenal, I could help but notice how much worse I viewed Newt after each attack.  This isn't about his looks, although I'm fond of saying that Newt looks like a ham:

If you stare deeply in the center you might be able to make out his face.

It's that his razor-tongued attacks seem to hurt his reputation as much as his opponents.

In my oh-so-humble opinion, he is incapable of letting others have the last word, incapable of compromise, incapable of not sounding like a politician at all times (changing his positions to suit his campaign location), and just plain incapable of appearing remotely likable.

The biggest enemy to Newt is himself, which is fortunate for his opponents, because the man just can't keep his mouth shut.  He has shown that he will readily insult anyone, whether it be Governor Romney (his favorite target) or NASA (who he insulted for no particular reason).  He won South Carolina by insulting John King and CNN (?) and because the only other candidate close to his numbers (Mitt Romney) badly fumbled a question about his taxes.  Yeah, good job Newt.

He has a past of infidelity, of radical policies (he supported the death sentence for possession of drugs), of erratic and undisciplined behavior, and his only leadership position (Speaker of the House) basically ended with a coup to have him overthrown. As far as I'm concerned, his only accomplishment was uniting his own party against him to run him out of office, because everything else accomplished during that time was the product of better leaders whose coattails he rode.

My Opinion as of this last debate on Governor Romney:

By far the best-looking candidate (literally according to People Magazine and politically speaking according to his supporters, of course), Mitt Romney is considered by many to be the current front-runner in the GOP, and possibly the eventual Republican nominee.  Though he has his ups and downs like any candidate on the campaign trail, he has definitely been the most stable candidate and so far hasn't dipped below 25% in any of the primaries.

*Cough Cough*

Romney is usually a strong performer in the debates, and yesterday was no exception.  He came out aggresive in the latest debate in Florida and scored on a number of exchanges with Speaker Gingrich, raising an especially enthusiastic round of applause when he castigated a Gingrich ad calling Romney "an Anti-immigrant".

So for debate night, Romney was solid.  He comes across as the most presidential of all the candidates, and has probably the least baggage of the remaining candidates.

Though Romney himself has few large issues, many voters seem to find issues with him every step of the way.  Many voters tend not to trust Romney, saying that he flip flops and also finding fault with the amount of taxes he paid in 2011.  Also worthy of mention: Romney appears too rich for a lot of middle class and below voters.  He just can't help the fact that he talks like a rich person, and this, while not a deal-breaker among most voters, is still off-putting and could cause them to cast their votes elsewhere when combined with other issues.

As far as Romney's chances for taking Florida in the upcoming primary?  Given that his main competition in the state was Gingrich (who, as I mentioned above, never misses an opportunity to shove his meaty foot in his mouth, and he certainly didn't disappoint) his odds are looking pretty good, and, should he win Florida, he has a good chance of stopping the Gingrich train in it's tracks and becoming the GOP nominee.

My Opinion as of this last debate on Doctor/Congressman Paul:

Funny guy.

My Opinion as of this last debate on Senator Santorum:

Despite his extreme conservative angle that he takes on all the issues, I think he's a good guy.  Just by some of the answers he gave (which I am now far too lazy to look up), he seems, to me, like a rather down-to-earth, likable sort of guy.  I may not agree with him on all of the issues but that shouldn't stop me from thinking he's a good person, which I'd like to think that he is.  Is he presidential material?  Probably not.  But I respect him.

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Thanks for reading (or scrolling down to the bottom for some reason)! If you could comment and share, that would be fantastic, and I'd be very grateful.  This isn't going to be an all-political blog, so if you didn't like it there's still hope! Thanks again.