I must have smelled blood... or ham. ;)

I confess....I didn't really miss you guys at all, I just hadn't heard a good ham or sphincter joke in a long time.

As far as who I am voting for.....I would vote for ANYONE over Obama. Meaning any one of the candidates that are or have been in the Republican primary process. I honestly do not know who I will be voting for in the AZ primary yet. But I do know that no matter who the nominee is, that person will get my vote in the general.

From my armchair, here is the breakdown I see.

There just are not enough Republicans (29% of population) to get their candidate elected all by themselves. Even allowing for a good bit of voter apathy among the dems.

To get a Republican candidate in the white house they are going to have to pull independents in greater numbers than the dems. So the question is not so much who's the best Republican but who can pull in more independents. After all coming in second in a winner take all race is pointless.

So between the current front runners who is going to be better at getting the independent vote? Newt or Romney? Seems like a fairly easy question to me.

What's the answer?

Really?

Romey. Newt is a freaking flake ball.

See, I don't agree. Well, I more or less agree about Newt, but not about who independents are likely to go for.

Did I say independents? I meant "cussed independents," who seem to get off on the candidate that says the biggest FU to everybody.

Romney is this year's John Kerry--a presentable but ultimately unlikable middle ground guy anointed to lose to the incumbent until we can come to some false consensus once again in four years that it's time for a change.

I never implied Romney would pull enough independents to swing the election away from Obama, just that he will pull in more than Newt.

When it's down to a two man race, Republicans are gonna vote Republican and Dems are gonna vote Dem. So all the current Newt'ers WILL vote Romney come election day. Just as Scaeagles said he would. So the more independents a candidate can get the better their chances are. That makes Romney the better candidate (unless a late bloomer shows up).

In the primaries, a vote for Newt is pretty much a vote for Obama and I find that amusing.

You can always write in Stephen Colbert ;)

Seriously. You must be getting as sick of this damned private sector job growth and decrease in public sector jobs as I am.

Uhh.....I'm not so impressed.....

From this article. I would link to the original story from the financial times but it is a subscription website.

And from this, which interestingly tries to spin 370,000 new claims as good news, saying that the layoffs have been "moderately low". Great news for al those laid off that it was only moderate.

Not impressed with the job creation.....more and more people are applying for first time unemployment.