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2012 US Presidential Election

Aussies are kind of appatheic and not terribly political, if we didn't have compulsory voting it's doubtful we would get many turn up.

And having such a small population, well it could be a tiny amount of people voting.

I wonder how they did elections when it was horse and cart transport - oh hang on we didn't get a parliament until after that, but still must have been a problem for remote
Aussies.
You know in Switzerland they vote for EVERYTHING, and they have something to vote for almost monthly, and they do it all electronically, think the only thing they don't vote about is taxes.
 
kxk said:
Aussies are kind of appatheic and not terribly political, if we didn't have compulsory voting it's doubtful we would get many turn up.

And having such a small population, well it could be a tiny amount of people voting.

I wonder how they did elections when it was horse and cart transport - oh hang on we didn't get a parliament until after that, but still must have been a problem for remote
Aussies.
You know in Switzerland they vote for EVERYTHING, and they have something to vote for almost monthly, and they do it all electronically, think the only thing they don't vote about is taxes.
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My mum works for Switzerland. She thinks it's the greatest country in the world, even though she's never visited there.
 
I have a bestie from Switzerland, she is lovely met her as a neighbour.

And I met the Swiss Ambassador in a previous job he was fascinating.
The Swiss sure have a democratic system to envy, but as the Ambassador said - easier done in such a tiny country
 
That would be a nice job, she must be curious about the country Ambassador really impressed me, such a charming and elegant man the one I met about 10 years ago.
 
I was surprised they had no openly gay senators.

NZ parliament has a disproportionate amount of minorities, we've had a transgender, lots of racial minorities, lots of homosexuals, a deaf woman. It's great.
 
Jeepers that is interesting it's taken so long for a gay senator.

3 states approved gay marriage; and Colorado approved legalising dope...commentary on ABC from USA saying these trends are here to stay, USA is changing rapidly and it's unlikely Republicans can win again in thenear future they are so out of step with how the population has shifted and demos changed/and are changing fast. USA is getting much more tolerant:)
ooooo this all sounds exciting
 
Bickering between Right and Righter as Republicans begin soul-searching
by: Catherine Philp, Washington
From: The Times
November 08, 2012 12:00AM

THE Republican Party was standing on the brink of civil war last night as the first recriminations broke out over Mitt Romney's humiliating defeat at the hands of US President Barack Obama.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly pointed an angry finger at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his warm embrace of Mr Obama in the wake of superstorm Sandy while Karl Rove, the former Bush strategist, erupted in on-screen frustration with the analyst who called Ohio for the President.

But those eruptions were small compared with the battle now looming among Republicans as they sort through the wreckage of their defeat in search of clues to what went wrong.

The easiest answer is Mr Romney's astonishing weakness as a candidate. Many Republicans were loathe to nominate him because of his inept performances during the primaries and his failure to connect with voters.

But others disliked him because they found him insufficiently conservative. Mr Romney's defeat, coming four years after John McCain's, will doubtless embolden some on the Right to argue that the party's great mistake has been to nominate moderates and look for a more conservative candidate next time around.

It is this struggle between the conservative and moderate wings of the party that lies at the heart of the looming Republican civil war.

Since the rise of the Tea Party in the wake of Mr Obama's election, conservative power over the mainstream party has been building, pulling it to the Right. Mr Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate was both a nod to this movement and an attempt to harness it.

But while Mr Romney's appeasement of the Right pleased conservatives, it sparked alarm among independents, who only began to soften towards him when he moved to the centre in the last weeks of the campaign. Any Republican who still believes they could have done better with a more conservative candidate should take a closer look at the results of this election.

Two Republican candidates for Senate, Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin, who had usurped more moderate nominees, lost their seats over remarks they made about rape and abortion.

Those comments contributed to the perception that the Republican Party has become distracted by culture wars from the more urgent business of fixing the economy. The fact that Republican-controlled legislatures across the country have spent the past two years waging war on reproductive rights and gay marriage has only added to that impression.

Few Republicans have put their party's plight in clearer terms than the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.

"If we lose this election, there is only one explanation - demographics," he told Politico this week.

"If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn't conservative enough, I'm going to go nuts. We're not losing 95 per cent of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we're not being hard-ass enough."

Exit polls from yesterday bore out Mr Graham's conclusion. Mr Obama won 93 per cent of the African-American vote and 70 per cent of Hispanics, the fastest growing demographic in America.

Two-thirds of first-time voters, overwhelmingly the young and newly naturalised citizens, broke for Mr Obama. Among unmarried women, Mr Obama had a 38 per cent advantage; among all women, 12 per cent.

Pragmatists from the establishment like Mr Graham recognise the need for the party to change its ugly rhetoric on immigration along with its opposition to badly needed immigration reform.

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, is another of pragmatist warning that a change in attitude is overdue.

Mr Bush has been talked of as a possible candidate in 2016 but he faced a stiff challenge next-generation conservative stars like Mr Ryan.

Mr Ryan holds conservative views on social and fiscal issues, opposing abortion without exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother, and seeking to privatise and slash the social safety net.

Yesterday's results suggest the electorate holds a different view but that may not be enough to appease angry Republicans. For them, Mr Romney's loss is a repudiation of the argument he deserved the nomination because he was the most electable candidate.

"Dear GOP, in four years please don't go for the 'he's the most electable' argument," Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative blog Red State tweeted last night.

Let the battle commence.
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...n-soul-searching/story-fnb64oi6-1226512582219
 
Comment of the day, as found here: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/...tics_of_identity_and_the_dividing_of_america/

A constitutional republic has become a democracy of mob rule in which the mendicant majority now steals from future generations and the productive minority with a corrupted debased polity, society, media and currency. A once great country has become a socialist dictatorship, its constitution a worthless piece of paper, corrupted institutions once based on the Judeo-Christian ethic whose mindset is now to help its enemies both financially and spiritually, a country whose mindset is entitlement with no responsibility, a country that prefers lies to the truth. Its fall is inevitable. We are now in great danger.
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Both civil and global war draws closer.

But as long as we've got reality TV and multiple channels of 24hr sport, who cares, eh ?

regarDS
 
There were a number of contentious elections on the state level regarding same sex-marriage. What is Australia's stance on this?
 
bunnielebowski said:
There were a number of contentious elections on the state level regarding same sex-marriage. What is Australia's stance on this?
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It feels like we're going backwards, I think our state government recently changed legislation so same sex couples can't use surrogates, or something to that effect. :(
 
I've posted this before and it is worth posting again:


“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” - Alexis de Tocqueville
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regarDS
 
Analysis: It's never too early to talk about 2016
By Paul Steinhauser, CNN Political Editor
updated 7:04 PM EST, Thu November 8, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The GOP's next presidential nominee might be at Republican governors gathering
  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tops the list, but he has tough re-election fight ahead
  • Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are mentioned most often as Democratic candidates
  • GOP strategist says retread from past races won't be able to take party into the future

(CNN) -- Get ready: The 2016 campaign for the White House is getting under way.

Among those attending next week's Republican Governors Association meeting in Las Vegas are the group's chairman, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, as well as popular Republicans such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

While the RGA's annual confabs are all about policy and politics, 2016 is sure to come up because all four governors are thought to be contenders for the party's next presidential nomination.

Even though the 2012 election is barely in the rear view mirror, speculation over the next race for the White House is getting started. With President Barack Obama winning a second term on Tuesday, an incumbent will not run in 2016, meaning both parties may have competitive nomination battles.

The two names grabbing the most attention in the hunt for the next Democratic nomination are Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As he was leaving a Delaware voting booth on Election Day, Biden was asked whether it was the last time he'd cast a ballot for himself.

"No, I don't think so," he replied, smiling.

Last month, he dropped a mention of a possible '16 bid. While on a phone call with a voter in Florida, the vice president discussed health care and insurance, making his case for the president's health care reform law.

"And after it's all over, when your insurance rates go down, then you'll vote for me in 2016," he said.

Biden, who will be 73 on Election Day 2016, made unsuccessful bids for the nomination in 1988 and 2008.

As for Hillary Clinton, it doesn't matter how many times the soon-to-be-former secretary of state says she won't run for president again, there's always speculation that she may change her mind between now and the next presidential cycle.

When asked by Marie Claire magazine last month if she would make another bid for the White House, she said, "No, I'm not."

"I have been on this high wire of national and international politics and leadership for 20 years," Clinton said. "It has been an absolutely extraordinary personal honor and experience. But I really want to just have my own time back. I want to just be my own person. I'm looking forward to that."

But until she makes a Shermanesque statement, speculation will continue.

"The truth is, everyone else is frozen until Hillary decides what she wants to do," a Democratic strategist, who asked to remain anonymous, told CNN.

In addition to Biden and Clinton, there are some other possibilities.

Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo did not run for the Democratic nomination in 1992, which went to Bill Clinton, but will his son, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, go where his father did not? Cuomo is up for re-election in 2014.

Also possibly considering the White House is term-limited Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, the current chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

Other governors who might be considering runs are Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and outgoing Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

And then there's the U.S. Senate, where all 100 members may imagine themselves as president. Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and even Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts could be on any list of potential presidential candidates.

The Democratic strategist has some advice for potential candidates: "Everyone who wants to run for president in the Democratic Party should beat a path to Jim Messina's door. Then camp out in Iowa."

Messina was Obama's campaign manager, and Iowa, of course, traditionally kicks off the presidential primary and caucus calendar.

As for the Republicans, Christie is at the top of any potential list. But before any run for the White House, the New Jersey governor next year faces what may be a tough re-election campaign in a blue state.

McDonnell, who is term-limited at the end of this year and who was considered a possible running mate for Mitt Romney, may want to make a bid for the top spot.

Walker is a hero to many conservatives, thanks to his battles against public sector workers in Wisconsin. After surviving a recall election this year, Walker is up for re-election in 2014.

Jindal, who's very popular among fiscal as well as social conservatives, is also entertaining thoughts of running for president, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has to decide about running for re-election in 2014, may also take a second shot at the GOP nomination.

Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, returns to his leadership role in the House. Will Ryan, a favorite of fiscal conservatives and many tea party activists, make a run for the top spot in the next presidential cycle?

This week's election proved that the GOP has a problem with Latino voters. Will freshman Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a GOP rock star who's urging his party to address this problem, make a run for the White House? If he doesn't, maybe his mentor, two-term former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has strong relations with the Hispanic community, could make a bid.

Rubio, by the way, will be in Iowa in a week and a half to headline an event for the state's Republican governor.

Rubio isn't the only Republican senator whose name comes up. Add John Thune of South Dakota to the list. And will freshman Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky follow in his father's footsteps and run for president?

The GOP is famous for awarding the nomination to the candidate who came in second in the previous primary cycle, like with Romney this time. If that's the case, then watch former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. He gave Romney a run for his money, he's from an electoral-vote-rich state that the Republicans think they can reclaim, he's got a working-class background, and he's beloved by social conservatives.

Add in two more names from the 2008 cycle: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who performed much better than expected in the GOP primaries, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was her party's vice presidential nominee that year. Huckabee is still popular, thanks to his radio programs and weekly show on Fox News Channel, and Palin still commands a loyal conservative following.

"There is a vacuum of leadership right now in the Republican Party. Whoever steps up right now to point the party toward its future will help the party and advance their own fortunes politically," says Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos.

But Castellanos, who was a senior media adviser to Romney's 2008 White House bid, says don't look to the past.

"The next Republican nominee will be tasked with taking the party into the future. It won't be the old retreads. It won't be Santorum, Huckabee or Palin. We need a new Republican from the ranks of GOP governors, senators, or even Jeb Bush and (former Secretary of State) Condi Rice who still represent the GOP's future."

So what do these possible 2016 wannabes do as the very early preseason begins?

If they don't have leadership PACs already, they form them, make speeches, campaign for fellow party members in the 2013 and 2014 races, write books and do cable news interviews, as they build up allies and support in the states that vote early in the primary and caucus calendar.

"This isn't a phase where people decide to run for president, it's when they start to do things that leave that door open," says a different Democratic strategist, who predicts that "there will be a wide open field on both sides next time around."

Source.
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Chris Christie has copped a bit of flak for his positive response to Obama's handling of Superstorm Sandy though, not sure how much effect that'll have on his presidential prospects, or if it will be forgotten?
 
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