Depends on which Romney is running this time.

President Obama is in the unsavory position of being a failed incumbent who must defend his woeful history of non-leadership and poor policy.

Examples: Although the cost of a barrel of oil is not at historic highs (yet), the cost of a gallon of gas in my area is. Food prices are inflating at a rate of 20% per year. Underemployment is stuck in the high teens and there is no signs of easing. Ground troops will soon be in Libya if Obama gets his way. The Republicans have him so flustered he can't even get into his golf game on Sundays.

If Romney wins the nomination we will have a new President. He is recognized nationally favorably by most voters with the exception of a few uninformed here on FR.

If Romney is not nominated I think the Republicans will nominate someone who will be fiscally conservative thus making him attractive to the majority. Besides, all he'll have to run on is ending the wars (again) and balancing the budget (again).

But President Obama is a one termer. He may just quit early.

Astonishing...

Off topic, but I think MSNBC is in the process of rehabilitating debt commission co-chair (along with Clinton White House Chief-Of-Staff Erskine Bowles) and former Republican Senator from Wyoming, Alan Simpson.

It kinda reminded me of the rehabilitation (posthumously in many cases) of Soviet citizens after the death of Joseph Stalin.

Whatever...

I just watched Hardball's Chris Matthews asking former-Senator Simpson about what kind of future his own children will have if the debt crisis isn't addressed...

Will wonders never cease?

Yeah! What a shining 'star' that Simpson guy is... lol

It’s easy to laugh at former Sen. Alan Simpson’s bizarre malapropisms on Your World With Neil Cavuto. The Wyoming Republican appeard on the Fox News show earlier this week in his capacity as co-chairman of Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Early on in the segment (watch the whole interview here), Simpson went on a tear about the kids these days, claiming that

grandchildren now don’t write a thank-you for the Christmas presents, they’re walking on their pants with the cap on backwards listening to the enema man and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg…

http://www.conservativesforamerica.com/

Feisty...

You just don't get it, do you?

At some point, Democrats are going to hope that Bowles-Simpson has a chance.

Matthews knows this.

You don't, dear.

uhh maybe. but south park has nothing on the republican party in terms of attacking people because of their religion.

"It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism." - Michael Steele, 5/8/2009

...and if the Republicans are to be believed, don't even THINK of running for office if you're a Muslim!

Oh yes, the almighty power of Southpark. Nothing has been proven to sway elections more. Where IS the justice?

You clearly don't know a damn thing about the mormon broadway show being put on by the creators of south park. Educate yourself by watching an interview or two. They did an episode of it like 7 years ago, and turned it into a play because they enjoy the religion so much, and are constantly curious about it. No matter how much fun they may make of it, they find it to be a very "new and interesting religion" that they love and are curious about so much, they turned it into a play.

It's far from the left wing influence you claim it to be.

The creators of South Park are equal opportunity blasphemers. Have you ever seen how they treat (pick the religion/religious leader of your choice): Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, the Pope, God, Buhda, Money, Bill Gates, Scientology, the EPA, FCC, IRS, FBI, Jews, Krischnas. If they have not tried to offend your religion or its leader, then either your religion is not large enough to gain notice, or they just haven't gotten around to it, yet.

BTW: You gotta see the South Park explanation of why we have an Easter Bunny and why the Pope's hat is the way it is. Their "Latinized" version of the Peter Cotton Tail song is hilarious.

My guess is there's SOMEONE who the creators of South Park haven't tried to offend.

Odds are pretty long it would be the same group that "the Family Guy" missed.

If you don't like it change the channel. Sheesh, they're CARTOONS for cryin' out loud.

Who cares about South Park?

They are sooooooo 15 yrs ago. And they're p****ies afraid of "peaceful" muslims.

BTW: You gotta see the South Park explanation of why we have an Easter Bunny and why the Pope's hat is the way it is. Their "Latinized" version of the Peter Cotton Tail song is hilarious.

Not as good as Janet Reno raiding Stan's house dressed as the Easter Bunny.

@Da Noid: Saw that one too, LOL

@Doug Ponders: Yea, they may be 15 years ago, but I still laugh. Heck, I'll laugh at a good Bugs Bunny. Anything is better than watching the news. Too bad Comedy Central did force 'em to fold.

I wonder, did Tom Cruise ever come out of the closet ?

The republican base worships morons, but are not real sure about Mormons

Yeah, because no other person in the world has ever done that. Not Obama, not Bush, not Clinton, not Bush Sr, not Reagan, not Carter, not Nixon, not Lincoln.... Should I go on?

AM: Living in Illinois, we had our flip-flops out this past weekend. It was almost 80 degrees. I guess the flip-flops were broken out in NH, DC and Iowa too :)

Actually, I just admire the mental image of Mitt Romney wearing flip-flops and holding a bath mitt. Something in pink, perhaps. Maybe with a rubber duckie or a teddy bear.

But I digress. Sure. If it pleases you. And then I'll list all the times Congressional Republicans voted IN FAVOR of raising the debt ceiling. Just let me know.

Oh, well. Isn't that just like me to be impatient and change my mind. Here's that list.

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1500-The-Republicans-Haven-t-Always-Been-Against-Raising-the-Debt-Ceiling

Looks like they were mostly for it before they were ag'in it.

Should I go on?

Anna

Do you think it's time we got our house in fiscal order? Do you think, as a country, we'd be better off not pissing away 400 billion (cost of servicing our debt)?

I think everyone of them, Democrats included, should vote not to. But that's only a start. We should all expect every one of them to make hard choices.

Two living generations have created servitude for two generations not yet born. That's inexcusable.

Anna Molly

Actually, I just admire the mental image of Mitt Romney wearing flip-flops and holding a bath mitt. Something in pink, perhaps. Maybe with a rubber duckie or a teddy bear.

I laugh when I think of Obama wiggling his large ears at the Attorney General and stating: "It looks like we aren't in Kansas anymore toto."

The Republican Party is not ready to pull the lever for a Mormon. Sad state of the party, but true.

Clotho, you are probably right. Too bad, Huntsman is actually enough of a moderate (as in he's not bat&*# crazy) to gain many independents and several centrist Democrats.

Oh well, the Tea Party is going to destroy the Republicans between now and 2012 that it won't matter who they run.

With no leader, the TeaPublicans have allowed people like Rep. Ryan to come out with "plans to kill grandma" and more will be coming.

Now normally I don't even care to respond to such comments but in this case, I'll make an exception. You and people like you are what is wrong with this country. Throwing around words like "potential" is costing this country and future generations debt that will never be repaid through continued entitlement programs. We have become a country that rewards mediocrity...we now say, just try your hardest and if you fail, our government will be here to pull you up by the britches and take care of you. I'll be the first to admit that both sides have separate sets of agendas but it still comes down to simple economics. It's fairly simple...don't spend more than you take in. The liberal left would like to take a magic "tax the rich" pill that will solve the problems but sorry, no such pill exists. Sadly, the takers are outnumbering the makers and the imaginary money tree that Obama has been visiting has nothing but bare branches.

Even I can't believe in most of that load you just dumped. All the EPA does is listen to left-wing extremists like Mr. Inconvenient Truth Gore, and tell us what of our own natural resources we can't go after, and that we need to get from another country. Even though this country is capable of standing on its own, as far as oil is concerned, we don't. We are too worried about (even republicans) precious Alaska to remember that we could be living on our own.

High speed rail is a pipe dream in the US. You are an even bigger joke to think that it's what this country needs. It might work out well in your east coast world over there, but it doesn't do a damn thing for us out here in the west. The distances are simply too great to make convenient and cost effective. Do you even know how big places like Japan and Europe are? There's a reason Japanese people have built one of the best rail systems in the world. Because they have 130 million people living on a land mass the size of California. That's less than triple the US population, and they have less than 4% (<1/20th) of the landmass of the US.

Government Motors should have failed. Those jobs and cars would have been sucked up by other corporations. GM would have left a hole that needed to be filled by other car companies. The proof is that there is another American car company that is doing just fine... Ford.

Tax cuts aren't necessarily good for creating jobs, when you give them to the richest 1%. Tax cuts mean more money in the business owner's pocket. It doesn't change a company's productivity any. Until I actually need to hire someone to keep the same pace, tax cuts only make a difference in my pocket.

Healthcare reform (read "Obamacare" by extremist moron republicans) is beyond perfect. Just the bailout funds for large corporations, are ridiculous. While the right wingers are stupid to want to repeal rather than fix, they have the right idea of pointing out the worst things about it.

I will agree and say that the GOP doesn't care about america. They only care about themselves. If you watch carefully, you'll notice that everything they do, makes their party followers happy when it comes to cutting spending. The only time they don't agree, are when it affects the salary of their government job. They only care about themselves, and other GOP party members. They do not care about anyone else, especially a democrat.

All that said, I think Obama cares more about republicans than McCain would care about Democrats today if he were president.

TJeffGOP: In 1969, the top tax rate was 77%, on incomes over $200,000. Inflation being what it is, that's like taxing incomes of over $925,000 at that rate. The corporate rates range form 22 to 52.8%.

AND WE WENT TO THE MOON AND WALKED ON THE MOON!!!!

If we did not believe in the future of this country and do what no one believed we could do, you would not be writing on the internet, right now.

We need to believe in the future of this country. Part of that is, working to make it possible for people to have jobs. It is not tax cuts that make this country great, it is believing in the future of this country and working to get it there.

LeftLeaningLisa:

High speed rail is a pipe dream in the US. You are an even bigger joke to think that it's what this country needs. It might work out well in your east coast world over there, but it doesn't do a damn thing for us out here in the west. The distances are simply too great to make convenient and cost effective.

So, let me review. You're saying that the possibility that high-speed rail might not be cost-effective in the West is a reason for not using it in the East, where you freely admit that "it might work out well"?

Is that right?

Well, then, by that logic, then let's just get rid of all public ferries, because it's for darned sure they don't work where we're land-locked. And since it's not cost effective for me to fly, let's just get rid of all airports. And not everyone can afford a car, so why do we need to keep up the Interstates?

Well? Why not? Isn't this exactly the sort of jaundiced, me-centered thinking that you claim to abhor, but you secretly practice? No? Read on:

We are too worried about (even republicans) precious Alaska to remember that we could be living on our own.

Res ipsa loquitur. YOU may not worry about Alaska, but our children and grandchildren may be worrying about Alaska when it's gone.

@TJeffGOP:

You, and people like you, are ALSO what is wrong with this country. The typical GOP attitude of "I know what's best for you, and you don't", is the plague of the two parties of sheep.

If you weren't so clueless you'd realize that much of the reason we are in the state we are today is because we stopped taxing the rich at such a high amount, so long ago. The "rich" tax rates are less than 50% of what they were 50 years ago. No matter what the cutoff point was, the rich are not taxed in the same way they were 50 years ago.

The rich are getting richer and richer from sucking off the poor and middle classes. The rich always say "What did the poor man do to make me my millions?". They always forget that a million poor men gave up their dollar for the rich man to be rich.

You want to sit around and be a stale cracker (conservative, non-progressive: aka against progress), then go right ahead and keep living in your 1950's world. I'll be living for tomorrow while you're stuck on yesterday, fighting world wars and spending American's money (to the tune of $1T on two pointless wars started by a republican)

This country needs more people in the middle, and fewer extremists from any side. I love that right now we have a somewhat balanced congress where no side can make a move without the other. They keep each other in check. Dems and republicans alike are worthless, republicans are just slightly more worthless since they don't actually care about other people that don't share their sheepish view. I may not agree with your extremist right-wing view, but at least I agree that we need to find an option that can satisfy both dems and republicans alike. The republicans could have cut planned parenthood funding, then they would have celebrated with a victory of cutting $1B (3 one thousandths of one percent of the initial $3.6T budget), and cutting tens of thousands of jobs. The republicans would have hailed the cuts of tens of thousands of jobs, as a victory. Again, proof that republicans only care about themselves, and not about anyone else. Government bureaucracy or not, we have a democratic president trying to save jobs, and a republican house trying to kill them.

Two questions:

Which wars did we lose in the 21st century?

How many Federally funded ferries are there in the U.S. and do they show a profit?

Amtrak's a failure and it runs mainly in the east. Would faster be more profitable?

Sorry.....three questions.

The Korean War, The Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the Afganistan War, the war on drugs, and the war on poverty.

How many Federally funded ferries are there in the U.S. and do they show a profit?

Sigh. Making a profit isn't ALWAYS the raison d'etre for government. This is the trouble with mixing up the functions of government with the alleged principles of business. It doesn't always translate. For example, transportation systems in cities are often subsidized because people who don't have private transportation need public transport to get to their jobs, which are often in areas they can't afford to live. The transportation doesn't turn a profit, but it serves a vital public purpose.

Amtrak's a failure and it runs mainly in the east. Would faster be more profitable?

Ever take the Empire Builder? A GREAT ride and speed and profit have nothing whatsoever to do with it. But to understand that would require that you have a soul that believes in something other than profit.

That's the sad thing right now, Anna Molly. We've been sold a concept of society in which there are no ethics, morality is only understood on a level of "we're the moral ones so we get to say" basis, and profit rules all discussions.

Anna Molly

How many Federally funded ferries are there in the U.S. and do they show a profit?

Sigh. Making a profit isn't ALWAYS the raison d'etre for government.

This type of thinking is the raison d'etre for the continuing spending of congress.

Simple math:

number of available jobs today
- number of jobs available at the end of the Bush presidency
= What you want to know

A job is a job, whether or not you want to count it as one. Just because your mom is the manager of McDonald's, doesn't mean her job is worthless.

Simple enough...if you choose to ignore the fact that the recession started in 2007 significantly impoverished the middle class...after years of stagnating wages.

Very funny.

Not as many as Newt, or Trump.

I thought he was a Republimon?

Wow. What an original comment on a "mormon." Didn't you get the memo that those that practice polygomy and members of the LDS church (aka - mormons) are two totally different religions? The LDS church has not practiced polygomy since 1890. But thank you for your sad and pathetic and completely overused attempt at "mormon humor".

Well,Hollie, would the current LDS/ Mormon religion be typified by the Mormon creature that moved into my dying mother's house, after she made sure that mom was removed? Hmmmmm?

HAHAHAHAH.. not THAT's funny, Ia..!

Trump/Palin 2012.

She's just declared she's a birther along with Trump so they can build their campaign on that!

You're kidding right? If not, then get back on the meds.

Which Romney would that be Judy? The leaning left Governor of MA or the pretend "teabagger" now?

When you say "pseudo religion" and "religious nutjob", what do you mean? Please, elaborate.

Why is it necessary to have a conservative ?

Why not just a good, responsible adult ?

Since when was it a requirement to be conservative to be a Republican? Abe Lincoln ? Ronald Reagan (the tax raiser and made treaties with communists) ? President Nixon, who opened up relations with the largest communist nation in the World? What type of "conservative" are you talking about ?

If you mean a "fundamentalist Christian" why don't you just say so ?

Wow: good post, dirp101.

That is what we thought last time and then they went ahead and nominated McCain who is far from a typical extreme right guy. Romney is a decent candidate but you are right that he isn't exactly what they are looking for. I do think he might have a chance with independents if he can navigate the path to the nomination. That being said, I think Walkers union charge (along with Ohio, & Florida governers) and now Ryans plan may provide a window that wasn't there before and make the 2012 election a little easier for Obama. Ticking off all public workers and seniors is a tough way to gain votes.

I'm not sure he is going to unacceptable to the Rep. party this time around.