I am not sure whether all polls should be taken at face value. I've been quite suspicious ever since I saw the ridiculous PPP national poll - 
Romney 23, Santorum 38, Gingrich 17, Paul 13  - from 2/11. It was not even close to the 2 other major national polls. Fox News from 2/10 has 
Romney 33, Santorum 23, Gingrich 22, Paul 15 , while Gallup Tracking has been in the field every day and on 2/12 is showing 
Romney 34, Santorum 27, Gingrich 16, Paul 8 .

During the GOP primaries I gravitated towards Romney and thought that he would make a much better candidate than McCain. In retrospect it is obvious that Romney would have been in his element during this economic crisis. Since there is nothing we can do about the past election, we can at the very least begin helping GOP to move towards remaking itself into the Romney party.

Here we go! Post your final predictions for Super Tuesday. You can do either Dem or GOP or both. Whoever comes closest will have bragging rights as the best SC predictor :) No need to predict actual delegate counts. Also you don't need to do all states or go state by state. If you feel like it, just give the approximate number of states won, maybe some really contested states results, who's hurt, who's helped, what happens after Super Tuesday.

I'll post my predictions in comments!

Crossposted at RedState

Here I will quickly examine latest polls and Romney's chances to actually derail the premature coronation of John McCain. Unlike the large number of people eager to get on the bandwagon, I will not jump until the fat lady has sung. Sorry. And yes, I don't know if I will ever vote for McCain as a Conservative and it will depend on his behavior if he wins the GOP nomination.

Promoted by Brendan for weekend discussion

Individual liberty to me means freedom from coercion by both the government and other individuals. It is the most important role of any government, by the people and of the people, to uphold and defend these individual liberties against anyone who would try to take them away.

These are my views only and I've written on this before. The following is what I want my ideal country and its citizenry to look like.

why do those retards at dkos constantly need to point out to their dimwit readers what is "snark" and whatnot? Wait, I think I just answered my own question.

Example:

Halfwit with Kerry's intelligence writes up a non-humorous and incredibly obvious attempt at sarcasm. Something about evils of liberalism, while giving all the great liberal achievements as examples. He doesn't add "snark" as one of the tags for a couple of minutes. The following idiocy ensues:

Butthead: This better be snark, or get ready to get a buttload of donuts

Crossposted on Dkos

No offense to Daily Kos but they in general are not in the political Center. Having polls showing you are in the majority or even large supermajority on some issues does not automatically equate to being in the political Center.

I understand the desire to move the Overton Window, in which case constantly trying to spread the case of being "centrist" is not bad as long as you are aware that you are spreading propaganda. Regular, useful propaganda but propaganda nonetheless.

Read on...

Which of these theoretical statements do you agree with if any:

(Think of the assertions as objectively evaluated to be valid by our societal standards, and that everything was acquired/achieved in a legal manner. Also a better standard of life can mean a more luxurious lifestyle, education, property, salary, food, etc - whatever else that means in our American society.)

1. It is fair for the people who do more valuable/important work than others to have a better standard of life. (Doctor vs Janitor)

Read on for more...

I am generally a very pragmatic person, and while I am prone to idealistic fantasizing, I would be the first one to say that trying to build up a strong party is a waste of time, and protest votes outside the two main parties are throwaway. Well now I am not so sure so here is how I see it.

Read on...

I crossposted it on DailyKos .

It's not terribly applicable here as I doubt many would disagree with me (I think). But because I just posted it there, I wanted to be fair and bring it here.

This is in a way a supplemental to Hamas is not the Answer. by Lucius Vorenus. I'd like to address the absurd notion that Democracy itself is an Absolute Good, that it can do no wrong and must be respected in all instances regardless of the outcome.

Democracy (or government by the people, the many, etc) is an absolutely essential tool for the people to keep their government accountable. Without any adjectives it can be used for both Good and Evil (in the loose and non-religious definition of those words). Here in US we are much more partial to the Liberal Democracy which is practically synonymous to the Constitutional Republic.

Crossposted on dkos .

I saw clammyc's dkos diary So they hate Bush. How do we get their votes? and immediately thought of a few ways Democratic candidates could chip away at parts of the rather fragile Republican coalition.

The fact of the matter is some of us, conservatives/libertarians, like seeing a respectful nod and underscoring of common values between us. And you do not need to compromise or throw away any of your principles. Here is what Democrats could talk about with a slight change of emphasis:

Crossposted on DKos

Two days ago LarryInNYC wrote a diary titled Another Red Stater Reaches The End(er) Of His Rope. about my diary on Swords Crossed: Iraq, Bush, Congress and USA . I was somewhat embarrased by Larry's diary because I don't actively participate at RedState any longer. That kind of a "rat leaving the sinking ship" image does not help that blog, many members of which I respect. So, I would like to clarify that I am in no way affiliated with RedState nor should it reflect negatively on them. Yes my nickname means Ender from RedState but I created it over a year ago when I was a somewhat more active user there.

Crossposted from DailyKos . I am leaving this as a diary because it's not FP material. It was politely received on dkos.

I wrote this diary in response to perhaps a not well stated, and even an offensive question. It is not often that someone is very blunt about this but it gives me an opportunity as an American Jew to express some of my feelings on the matter.

This was the original comment that prompted me to think and write about it:

I have a serious question, one that has been on my mind for the longest.... Why is it that Jews in America, ones that were born here and no connection to Israel have more of a loyalty towards Israel than America at times? I'm a Black man, and care more about America than what happens to Africa. Just a question that I have been thinking about for awhile....

From the People's Cube :

Claims that Associated Press editors habitually slant facts in AP stories have recently been substantiated by a complaint from an AP writer whose report on last week's demonstrations in Paris was changed to a complete opposite of what she had written. "When they changed 'Muslim hoodlums' to 'disaffected youths' I thought they were improving on the sentence flow and prose styling," says AP reporter Ellen Stanley. "When they changed 'violent gangs' to 'violin fans' I thought they were making a joke. When they changed 'assheaded socialist policies' to 'inspiring government programs' and 'appeasement' to 'solution' I thought they were being sarcastic. Taken together, however, all these small edits changed the meaning of my report in its entirety.