2012 Political Predictions

[Teatownclown]

1) Obummer gets re elected and by December we've gone back to hail our chief POTUS OBAMA as he turns radically left on social issues sending millions of teabaggers scrambling for cover. Michele Obama finally starts speaking her mind again....

2) Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton  become the tie breaking vote in the Senate....

3) Congress begins forming new coalitions with each other and with new corporate welfare agents....

4) Governor Christy is picked by Romney as his veep. That will make each party have "hit man" representation.

5) The Wheeper shuffles over to be replaced by even more obstinate Schmoe Kantor.

6) More and more people will agree that paying taxes is patriotic.

7) More and more exposure will show how Nationwide the GOP seems to be trying to limit access to the ballot box.

8 )  God may just turn out to be a particle if a third test of light reveals the same results that Einstein was only %99.9 right....this little known fact will not expose the far right wing to false campaigning...

9) THE OWS MOVEMENT WILL REASSEMBLE ....instead of creating chaos, they will force Republicans to begin to separate from their urge to continue to rape and mug the entire middle class on behalf of corporations.

10) Bradley Manning will go to prison for a long time and remain America's #1 political prisoner.

11) As the economy begins to rock along, the GOP takes credit for any improvement. The EURO likens itself to TP.

12) Things stabilize in the Middle East as Iran's leader falls victim to a strange death. Syria's A$$ad becomes an even stronger ally to Hezbollah and Lebanon. Afghanistan continues to make American's dopie.... POTUS OBAMA uses his masterful foreign policy strokes to dominate the election. "It's the economy" will not be the main issue...

12) Fish start showing up with three heads near Alaska and Seattle....

[Townsend]

Lowest voter turnout for a presidential election in decades.

[guido911]

Breanna Manning's defense not taking the hero or "political prisoner" route:

Unfortunately, that sort of principled position is far from what his own defense team suggests motivated Manning's alleged perfidy. No, they appear to be pursuing the defense that he was a gay man in a Don't Ask, Don't Tell military, struggling with gender identity issues, who never should have had access to the files in the first place. His attorney focused on Manning's alter ego, Breanna Manning, and quoted an email from Manning where he said his "entire life feel(s) like a bad dream that won't end.  I don't know what to do. I don't know what will happen to me. But at this point I feel like I am not here anymore." That characterization suggests he was no hero; not a man standing for principle nor acting in the best interest of the country but, rather, a sad troubled soul worthy of sympathy.  It is a defense which appears to concede that he leaked the documents but also abandons any pretense of righteousness in exchange for an apologia for his behavior.

[Emphasis added].

http://www.mediaite.com/online/bradley-mannings-own-defense-appears-to-concede-hes-no-hero/

[Teatownclown]

Breanna Manning's defense not taking the hero or "political prisoner" route:
[Emphasis added].

http://www.mediaite.com/online/bradley-mannings-own-defense-appears-to-concede-hes-no-hero/

Did you ever consider his defense team must play the sympathy card because, this time, he wasn't burglarized by the President?

Where are your guesses for the coming year? 

[guido911]

Did you ever consider his defense team must play the sympathy card because, this time, he wasn't burglarized by the President?

Where are your guesses for the coming year? 

My guesses are that I will be taking my annual ski trip in mid March and a cruise in May. Don't really care about anything else right now.

[we vs us]

Obama wins the Presidency.  The Dems lose the Senate and don't retake the House, mostly due to retirements, the large number of Ds vs smaller number of Rs up for reelection, and radically gerrymandered districts across the country.  The Congress and the Executive will remained hopelessly deadlocked until 2014 at the earliest.

This will be a mixed blessing.  Government will miss opportunity after opportunity to positively affect our recovery, but at the same time the Bush tax cuts will expire on Jan 1 2013 (and unless we're in a recession at that point, Obama will let them expire) -- and that will solve a huge chunk of our budget/deficit problem in one blow.  

[Conan71]

Obama will lose the election and his supporters will blame Bush for the loss.

[patric]

Obama wins the Presidency.

One of the reasons Obama was such a disappointment is that he was responding to the pressures of how he would have to behave to get re-elected.

If he gets a second term, you may likely see a very different man, who this time around wont be so timid to take on the old guard political machine.

[Hoss]

Obama will lose the election and his supporters will blame Bush for the loss.

Unless the Rs field someone tenable, I don't see that happening.  Romney may be the last hope the Rs have.  For as well as they have been in mustering forces in the past, this election cycle sofar for them sure has been one giant Charlie Foxtrot.

[Conan71]

Unless the Rs field someone tenable, I don't see that happening.  Romney may be the last hope the Rs have.  For as well as they have been in mustering forces in the past, this election cycle sofar for them sure has been one giant Charlie Foxtrot.

I fail to see where it's any different than any other Presidential election when there was not a GOP incumbent running since 1980 or so.  You never see unity until either it's clear one candidate has crushed all others in the primaries, and at the very latest, the convention.  The Democrats were pretty fractured in '08 at the start of the primaries.

[Gaspar]

At this time last election season, no one thought a community organizer from Chicago with no business experience, no economic experience and very little political experience could ever be president. Hillary was a shoe-in with vast connections, and a solid platform for economic growth.  All she faced was a guy with a 2 word mantra that was well spoken and made people faint.

Don't underestimate any candidate no matter how shocking the concept of them winning the presidency is.  Hillary underestimated President Obama because he relied on emotional response and cult of personality over substantive plans.  When her party saw how successful he was at manipulating the vote with just words, they dropped her like old cabbage. 

At this point, any of the candidates (except Ron Paul) are eligible for the nomination and have the opportunity to pull mass appeal from the base, when the time comes. Their biggest challenge is appealing to all of the voters disenchanted, betrayed, and dismayed by president Obama.

[Townsend]

Why Mitt Romney Is Winning, and Rick Perry Is Losing

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/03/why-mitt-romney-is-winning-and-rick-perry-is-losing.html

[we vs us]

At this time last election season, no one thought a community organizer from Chicago with no business experience, no economic experience and very little political experience could ever be president. Hillary was a shoe-in with vast connections, and a solid platform for economic growth.  All she faced was a guy with a 2 word mantra that was well spoken and made people faint.

Don't underestimate any candidate no matter how shocking the concept of them winning the presidency is.  Hillary underestimated President Obama because he relied on emotional response and cult of personality over substantive plans.  When her party saw how successful he was at manipulating the vote with just words, they dropped her like old cabbage. 

At this point, any of the candidates (except Ron Paul) are eligible for the nomination and have the opportunity to pull mass appeal from the base, when the time comes. Their biggest challenge is appealing to all of the voters disenchanted, betrayed, and dismayed by president Obama.

Romney 2012 /= Obama 2008.  Central to Obama's success was his sense of newness and of being outside the system.  Even during the general he was still shiny and new, and voters were discovering him a piece at a time.  Romney's been running a "national" campaign now for several months and is a known quantity.  Hell, he was part of the also-ran's last year.  There's much less of a chance that he'll be able to define himself further or improve on the image he's got.  This is not to say he can't win the election, but I just don't think it will be on those terms.  Whatever Mitt is, he's not a bright young newcomer and he's not perceived as a change agent by anyone (unless the change you mean is "someone who's not Obama").

[Gaspar]

Romney 2012 /= Obama 2008.  Central to Obama's success was his sense of newness and of being outside the system.  Even during the general he was still shiny and new, and voters were discovering him a piece at a time.  Romney's been running a "national" campaign now for several months and is a known quantity.  Hell, he was part of the also-ran's last year.  There's much less of a chance that he'll be able to define himself further or improve on the image he's got.  This is not to say he can't win the election, but I just don't think it will be on those terms.  Whatever Mitt is, he's not a bright young newcomer and he's not perceived as a change agent by anyone (unless the change you mean is "someone who's not Obama").

The primary thing that Mitt has going for him is decades of turning failing businesses into billion dollar companies. He also has a calm, presidential delivery that by it's very nature puts others on the defensive. If it's economic recovery people are interested in, then he may be an attractive candidate.  He has his share of luggage though, and did far better in the private sector than he did as governor over a very liberal state.  That could go either way for him, it could indicate his ability to compromise and work within accepted liberal frameworks, or it could position him as too much of a moderate for the Tea Party conservatives.

[Townsend]

Perry's predicting:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/sources-perry-starts-buying-sc-television-time-109466.html

Rick Perry's campaign, in the past two hours, has started buying TV time in South Carolina, two sources confirm.

The size of the buy was not immediately clear, but the intent was. It's a signal Perry is planning to stay in the race through the state's primary later this month, and that he'll treat Iowa as what one source called "the starting gun," as opposed to the finish line.

While Gov. Nikki Haley is backing Mitt Romney, South Carolina is a state where Perry has had a fairly strong ground game. And given how low the expectations have been set for him, if he secures a close fourth-place finish, he may be able to spin it into a path forward for the rest of the month.