Iowa Hiho!

[AiA in Atlanta]

The almost constant American election cycle is a real flaw in the system: Obama went to work in early 2009 with the 2010 election cycle looming so he really had only a little more than a year to get anything done.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Seems Santorum beat Romney in the Iowa recount but that means fuck all now with the SC primary looming.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Perry drops out. He couldn't have won anyway because he is too dumb and religious. Wait! This is America. Maybe he could have won.

[Mattus]

It's been a big day on the campaign trail, fear and loathing are rife.

Cowboy Chucklehead has pulled the plug and put his 4% behind Gingrich. Of course it doesn't really matter who he endorsed, what's important is that the anyone-but-Romney vote is now being split only 3 ways. Is it a big deal? Frankly yes, I think Romney would have forgiven Perry his $10,000 betting debt if he'd hung around for another 2 days - because everything is riding on South Carolina now.

Why's that? Because it turns out Romney isn't the first candidate in history to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, when they washed off the beer and barbeque sauce, it turns out some dozen or so Romney votes actually said "Santorum". Now that's a fuckin big deal. Santorum has missed out on millions, literally millions in campaign contributions that went to Romney because Romney could make the claim of record breaking support and inevitability of being the GOP candidate. It's too late to undo the damage now. No one cares who won Iowa now, that only mattered for a few days after the caucus, when everyone thought Romney had won. But that's two days of being the front runner that Rick will never have. If Santorum were Al Gore he'd be in the high court demanding justice right now, rather than thanking baby Jeebus for this blessing bestowed.

What else? OH THE DEBATE!

Hi I'm John King from CNN, and I'm going to open the debate with a story from the women's weekly ( click here to skip to 2 minutes in)


Gingrich put the sanctimonious smack down on King for daring to raise the fact that he likes to fuck. He really, really don't want people talking about Newtie Jr's appetite for younger staffers. I wonder why? Well guess what, John King just put your former wife on the front page, and with her your former former wife, and the kids you left living on food stamps when you refused to pay her child support. John King just fucked you, Newt. I thought you liked to fuck?

But it won't happen in time for Saturday. In fact on Saturday the GOP base will still be so impressed by his backhanding CNN and the liberal media that he'll probably see a bump from this incident. But after that, when they begin to realise this horny old fathead is going to be going up against the "clean black guy" with the hottie first lady and the perfect nuclear family and he can't possibly win, they'll drop him like a sack of dicks.

The rest of the focus was on tax returns. Gingrich released his, proudly exhibiting his $3+ million dollar income and the fact that he paid 31% income tax, like a good citizen. But Romney still baulked at the request to drop his tax pants and show his too. Why is this? Lets examine it.

Romney is running on a platform of being business smart and understanding money. He's running on success. He's a billionaire. But what is his income tax going to say? It's a no win situation. Anyone who knows about money, any decent capitalist will use investments to negative gear their tax. So if he's decent with money, he'll be paying next to no income tax, right? I mean why would he, he already paid tax on that money when it was income from Bain capital, and he can reinvest enough of the money generated from investing that capital to offset his tax. But a fucking billionaire fatcat paying zero percent income tax will earn the contempt and disgust of the whole country. No there's nothing to gain there.

On the other hand, he's known for 4 years he would have to disclose his tax documents when he took a crack at the top job this time around, so perhaps he's decided not to negative gear his investment income and wear some income tax, just to appear a good public citizen? Bzzzt, if he hasn't offset his tax correctly he'll be the laughing stock of the financial cognoscente, and lose his advantage as the "money candidate". There's no winning here, it's a catch 22. Romney can't release his records and still win.

What's worse is that in 2008 he probably paid 0% income tax whether he liked it or not because he would have lost money, rather than earned any, when the GFC hit, after all his entire income is from investment now. Imagine that, the 'business smart success' candidate losing money. If he can't manage his own income, how can he manage the country?

Mark my words, the tax return will sink Romney. His only hope is that he's the last man standing in April when tax returns are filed in the USA.

Expect a close race on Saturday. Gingrich will be breathing down Romney's neck, and if he takes it it will be 1 all for the 3 mainstream candidates with only Uncle Ron playing wingman. Going from clear frontrunner, the inevitable victor to neck and neck will destroy Mitt. The stench of failure will kill his chances, and then we'll be stuck with the choirboy and the fuckhound.

I might even have to support Dr Paul!

[AiA in Atlanta]

The most interesting part of seeing these guys up close is seeing the way people like Rick Santorum and Gingrich respond to Romney in person: They appear to find him physically repulsive, their noses even scrunching up at him when they address him, like cops opening up a trunk with a body in it. And I think it's real, I don't think it's an act. Romney is so totally insincere and calculating and soulless, it physically offends other politicians. It's incredible to watch.

[Mattus]

Matt Taibi is a genius, but I wonder if the foetid stench Santorum and Gingrich are reacting to is their own impending failure.

[Mattus]

South Carolina, the state where George W. Bush's campaign suggested John McCain had fathering an illegitimate black child is living up to expectations of a dirty campaign. Automatic dialler calls pretending to be from the Rick Santorum campaign are calling his supporters to inform them he has withdrawn from the race and is supporting Mitt Romney, while a fake press release pretending to be from Newt Gingrich admitting to forcing his second wife to have an abortion are circulating.

[Mattus]

Meanwhile, campaign-Obama is back.

[freediver]

If they just switched to preferential voting there would be no need for all the extra elections.

[Mattus]

If they just switched to preferential voting there would be no need for all the extra elections.

What is this communist bullshit? Why do you hate democracy? "Extra" elections my ass. Let the people * decide! More elections means more sweet, sweet democracy.

Where is Frogen swinging his giant cock of freedom around when you need him?



* corporations are people too, right?