2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Saw an interesting article that recommends picking Jindal has VP. I think its a pretty medeocre choice...he doesn't bring that much (LA is probably already in the tank).

Rubio is the rage, but he's still not ideal. He is (1) good lookin (2) hispanic (3) from FL...which makes him probably the best the GOP has. But he's young...7 years younger than BO was 4 yrs ago. This leaves a pretty sharp Romney relying on his 4 years as governor in tiny Mass as the centerpiece of the ticket's experience. An also sharp Obama ticket with Biden came in in 2008 with a pretty decent combo were better ready to lead the country than these two would be.



If true, 2008 taught it goes both ways.

Jindal is utterly brilliant and doing a remarkable job in Louisiana, where the old joke was how grateful they were for Mississippi. He wouldn't bring much to the party. But the bottom line seems to be the conventional wisdom: nobody votes for VP. Okay, except maybe in Texas in '60.

That listing of Romney's CV was complete? Right? No? Well imagine that.

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Jindal is utterly brilliant

Look. Jindal may be brilliant, I have no idea. But so far the only exposure to him for 90% of us was that one horrendous response he gave where he looked, sounded, and acted exactly like Latka Gravas. I hope he fired his entire staff after that and that he can put in a better showing now because (1) I've been told he does have both a brain and some independence and we need that, and (2) exorcism jokes? Are you kidding me?! Best. Election. Ever.

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Jindal is utterly brilliant and doing a remarkable job in Louisiana, where the old joke was how grateful they were for Mississippi. He wouldn't bring much to the party. But the bottom line seems to be the conventional wisdom: nobody votes for VP. Okay, except maybe in Texas in '60.

That listing of Romney's CV was complete? Right? No? Well imagine that.

Let's see. Might he have been a CEO? A $66B company...but one with just 400 employees.

Running a company is a far cry from managing the world largest economy. What is the other experience that will help as US/world's leader in the most challenging job there is? Easily the closest Romney gets to that is governor of Boston+. Probably comparable to BO's political experience 4 years ago. Rubio will be a disadvantage cause he will not help Romney where he needs it...experience.

Funny how in the end, the point here doesn't change.

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Running a company is a far cry from managing the world largest economy.

For that matter, was he really "running" anything, or was he aboard for his rolodex? Roger Sterling is a great guy, but I don't want him on my important accounts, I want the people he knows.

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Let's see. Might he have been a CEO? A $66B company...but one with just 400 employees.

Running a company is a far cry from managing the world largest economy. What is the other experience that will help as US/world's leader in the most challenging job there is? Easily the closest Romney gets to that is governor of Boston+. Probably comparable to BO's political experience 4 years ago. Rubio will be a disadvantage cause he will not help Romney where he needs it...experience.

Funny how in the end, the point here doesn't change.

So is being a state Senator in Illinois and a back bench rookie senator in Washington. Let's not gloss over His Fieldmarshallness' lack of qualifications and accomplishments four years ago. He had the thinnest presidential resume of the 20th (and 21st) century.

I'd also recmmend downplaying that "running the world's largest economy stuff." Because that's not what a president does. And even if it were, he's done a manifestly lousy job of it. Remember: "If unemployment remains about 8% I don't deserve a second term?" And the trillion dollar "stimulous" package, complete with "shovel ready jobs" that was going to make that happen? You do remember, don't you?

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Let's see. Might he have been a CEO? A $66B company...but one with just 400 employees.

Running a company is a far cry from managing the world largest economy. What is the other experience that will help as US/world's leader in the most challenging job there is? Easily the closest Romney gets to that is governor of Boston+. Probably comparable to BO's political experience 4 years ago. Rubio will be a disadvantage cause he will not help Romney where he needs it...experience.

Funny how in the end, the point here doesn't change.

Well, if Mitt wins he can always take bowing and apologizing lessons from His Manteuffelness. The great brain with the secret transcripts. And don't forget that thrilling, epochal victory over Alan Keyes. Man, that was impressive.

As Pat Buchanan once said of somebody else: his foreign policy experience in '08 consisted of having breakfast a couple of times at IHOP. Just a wag, but I'd imagine you weren't so adamant about "experience" four years ago.

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Look. Jindal may be brilliant, I have no idea. But so far the only exposure to him for 90% of us was that one horrendous response he gave where he looked, sounded, and acted exactly like Latka Gravas. I hope he fired his entire staff after that and that he can put in a better showing now because (1) I've been told he does have both a brain and some independence and we need that, and (2) exorcism jokes? Are you kidding me?! Best. Election. Ever.

The guy's a Rhodes Scholar, which under different circumstances you guys used to suggest is a terrific credential. Bill Clinton fell flat on his face on national TV, too. So?

Whatever happend to not jumping to conclusions? And looking at the complete record? And taking a "nuanced" approach? And having an open mind? And all that other boilerplate?

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Jindal is also Catholic. A Mormon and a Catholic on the same ticket? Talk about asking the South to hold its collective nose. Though I suppose if you really dislike Obama, religious differences can be quickly overlooked.

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

I guess its not Paul...Bachmann endorses Romney.

[Bakunin]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Going back to the discussion on military planning 20 years out, I do believe the future of air superiority lies in UAV's. If you can mass produce them at say $2 million apiece, the advantage is obvious. You could overwhelm any nation's air force through sheer numbers. For just $10B, you could buy 5,000 UAV's under this scenario. Good luck to any country trying to defend against that many aircraft attacking at one time. It's more or less the Chinese approach to land warfare - just throw insane numbers at the opposition, take heavy losses, but don't care because no defense can stand up to the assault. Plus with our stealth technology, there's no need to take heavy losses.

As far as how small these things will get, I guess that is really dependent on how small the weapon systems and fuel usage can get. I suppose we could build them to be the size of a common house fly, but there's not much point in that unless they can shoot something else down or blow something else up or provide surveillance.

[LynahFan]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

UAVs are great, and they have their place. I'm not 100% convinced yet that they are the solution for air-to-air combat, though that hypothesis won't be tested for many years out. That is a problem orders of magnitude harder than hitting a fixed (or even moving) target on the ground. Even if the target is not known ahead of time, "search and destroy" is trivial compared to "dogfight against a human pilot."

Even so, $2M strike UAVs wouldn't be able to take out anything bigger than a few Jeeps or maybe a tank. For that price, you're talking about a very small vehicle with limited "missions systems" (i.e. sensors and weapons) capability. Payload can only be some fraction (perhaps 20%, if you're lucky) of the total vehicle weight, and kill power scales directly with weight. The F117 carries a max of 5000 lbs of payload - you'd be lucky to get 500 lbs in a $2M UAV. A single Tomahawk cruise missile is pushing $1M, and any combat-capable UAV is going to be way more expensive than that. "Clouds" of UAVs is fun sci-fi, but it's not terribly realistic.

Their best use is for surgical strikes against soft targets, rather than as the main punch of a front line battle group. In other words, the ultimate weapon of choice in the war on terror. Perhaps that is the direction that all warfare is heading, but I don't think the US is quite ready to disband its mainline Air Force just yet.

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

I'd also recmmend downplaying that "running the world's largest economy stuff." Because that's not what a president does. And even if it were, he's done a manifestly lousy job of it. Remember: "If unemployment remains about 8% I don't deserve a second term?" And the trillion dollar "stimulous" package, complete with "shovel ready jobs" that was going to make that happen? You do remember, don't you?

Businesses are doing great. The Dow has doubled since W. Banks have the highest profits since 2006 and considerable other companies' since the 90s. Besides during Obama's administration, there have been 600k govt jobs cut according to newmax. What's your solution if there's plenty of funds out there for hiring...but it ain't happenen.

Are you suggesting there be some sort of government intervention to force businesses to hire? Are you suggesting that we baloon govt spending further?

Enough tangents, back to the original point. Romney is at an equal footing with BO's political experience last time out. Rubio might be disadvantagous due to his inexperience...leaving a Romney without an experienced hand. That leaves Portman as an interesting case. Portman (1) has experience and can actually help round out the ticket, (2) is from the Cincy area with more blue collar appeal, and (3) is a senator, not house member, representing a huge swing state that helps to address weakness in the pivotal midwest. His biggest drawback from what I can see is that he makes Romney look both warm and colorful in comparison. Still a better choice than Rubio.

[bronconick]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Romney's VP isn't going to be that important. He'll find someone to shore up a weakness of his, either electorally or policy wise, but Romney looks young and healthy. McCain looked old, had fought off cancer and I believe he's still occasionally having malignant growths taken off his skin. His choice became important because there was a higher than 1% chance that they would have to take power, even temporarily.

When you get down to it, Biden isn't exactly someone I'd consider to be Presidential or vote for.

[FreshFish]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

People believe what they want to believe, and then try to justify those beliefs after the fact. that's how our minds work. "Reason" and "logic" are artificial constructions, our minds do not "naturally" follow those paths.

See Daniel Kahneman's fascinating books on the subject.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

I guess its not Paul...Bachmann endorses Romney.

What a hypocrite.