US Presidential Election 2012

[mylestheslasher]

Can someone tell me why the republican candidate selection process is a top news story on RTE news? I mean, are we going to get updates and interviews from every state for the next 6 months? I doubt Irish people are that interested what loonie the US republicans select to run in the next US elections. Give me an update when its all done RTE, until maybe use the taxpayer money to report some Irish news.

[Rossfan]

That's bad enough but RTE think that the ENGLISH Premier Soccer League is somehow Ireland's National sport.
5 minutes of the 6 minute or so morning bulletin at 8.30 took up  with MANCHESTER United - a soccer team from England.
There may be a lot of people in Ireland interested in that organisation and the League they play in  but IRISH public radio should be giving us all the Irish sport first and then move on to foreign issues.

[dec]

"the republican candidate selection process" gave us candidate George W. Bush and candidate George W. Bush became President George W. Bush and President George W. Bush gave us the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and presided over the beginning of the financial crisis which we are still enduring.

It is entirely reasonable for RTE to include this among the many stories that they are covering.

[whiskeysteve]

Those interested in following the presidential race might find the following link interesting. It shows the top 20 campaign contributers for the republican candidates and obama as well as their total campaign donations in a pie chart at the bottom.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?id=N00000286

For example, its interesting to see the favourite for the rep nomination, Mitt Romneys contributers. Obviously he will be particularly firmly wedged up the arse of the wall street banks (top 10 below)

Goldman Sachs    $367,200
Credit Suisse Group    $203,750
Morgan Stanley    $199,800
HIG Capital    $186,500
Barclays    $157,750
Kirkland & Ellis    $132,100
Bank of America    $126,500
PriceWaterhouseCoopers    $118,250
EMC Corp    $117,300
JPMorgan Chase & Co    $112,250

[Captain Obvious]

"the republican candidate selection process" gave us candidate George W. Bush and candidate George W. Bush became President George W. Bush and President George W. Bush gave us the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and presided over the beginning of the financial crisis which we are still enduring.

It is entirely reasonable for RTE to include this among the many stories that they are covering.

When America sneezes the world catches a cold.

[Orangemac]

As disappointing as Obama has been I would still prefer a Democrat to be elected. A crap Democrat in office can land America in trouble, a crap Republican president gets the whole world involved.

I don't know much about most of these Republican candidates but will the different factions in the Republican party row in behind the winning candidate? Is it a case of Anybody But Obama?

[lawnseed]

Can someone tell me why the republican candidate selection process is a top news story on RTE news? I mean, are we going to get updates and interviews from every state for the next 6 months? I doubt Irish people are that interested what loonie the US republicans select to run in the next US elections. Give me an update when its all done RTE, until maybe use the taxpayer money to report some Irish news.

maybe its easy to lift it. pure laziness. or maybe it diverts attention from the fact that the country is circling the plughole..?

i think obama is doing very well for his sponsors ie the pharmaceutical industry and the arms manufacturer's. I'd say a bank sponsored candidate will win next time.. because it must be their turn

[J70]

Romney wins NH, Ron Paul 2nd, Huntsman 3rd. Great showing by Paul. Thankfully neither Santorum or Gingrich did much, but they'll be strong in SC next time out. Hopefully Huntsman can stick it out for a while.

[Declan]

Vinnies take on it:

Inequality not on the agenda in US or Republic

January 11th, 1930
VINCENT BROWNE

IF ANY Irish Times readers stayed up last night to watch the post-New Hampshire primary candidate prayer meetings, they probably will have been struck by the banality of the rhetoric and the disconnect between the Republican candidates and the state of America.

That is, if there was a repetition of the post-Iowa caucus shenanigans. No reference to the perilous mountain of state debt, hardly a mention of the 20 million unemployed, no acknowledgment of the drift towards yet another war, this time with Iran, and the prospect of a later conflict with China, as Nobel peace-prize winner Barack Obama seems to envisage.

But perhaps most startling of all, no acknowledgment of how American society has changed over the last 30 years and how deeply divided, socially, America now is – an issue that features not at all in any of the political campaigns there. It is the huge disparity of wealth and income that has grown in the US.

This is a little surprising as most of the Republican candidates are members of Congress and Congress published last October, via the Congressional Budget Office, a report revealing in stark terms the scale of the transformation: Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007.

It reports that the 1979 to 2007 average household income in the US grew by 62 per cent but for the 1 per cent of the population with the highest income. Their after-tax household income grew by 275 per cent in the same period. The bottom one-fifth of earners had just an 18 per cent increase over the 28 years.

The report states: "The distribution of after-tax household income in the US was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979. The share of income accruing to higher income households increased, whereas the share accruing to other households declined."

A report by the US Census Bureau in 2010 showed there were 46.2 million people living in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009. For black people, the poverty rate increased to 27.4 per cent in 2010, up from 25.8 per cent in 2009. From 2009 to 2010 the incidence of poverty among children under 18 rose to 22 per cent from 20.7 per cent, while children under the age of 18 in poverty increased to 16.4 million from 15.5 million.

On reflection, however, why should we be surprised there is no talk in America about such huge disparities of income and wealth, since there is no talk here about the enormous disparities in wealth and income here. Or at least no talk by representatives of the main establishment parties, Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil, nor by the media about this. This is not so much that people don't care, but that it's not on the official agenda and, for the most part, the media sticks to the official agenda and spin, to which it considers itself immune.

Just a few facts that hardly get mentioned at all now:

- The average income in the highest one-fifth of income earners was 5½ times that of the lowest one-fifth and that this gap widened from 4.3 the previous year – Survey on Income and Living Conditions for 2010;

- The same survey found that the scale of inequality of incomes in 2010 was higher (33.9) than at any time from 2004;

- The review found that the "at risk of poverty" rate (60 per cent of median income) was at 15.8 per cent compared with 14.1 per cent the previous year even though the threshold fell by more than 10 per cent from €12,064 in 2009 to €10,831 in 2010;

- According to the OECD, this State was the 23rd most unequal country of 31 OECD countries in the mid-2000s;

- The Rich List compiled by the Sunday Times in its 2011 edition, noted that the top 20 richest Irish people/families had aggregate wealth of €17.3 billion;

- A survey published in 2001 by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland showed: "In both the North and the South the all-causes mortality rate in the lowest occupational class is a 100-200 per cent higher than the rate in the highest occupational class." This was evident of almost all the main causes of death: for circulatory diseases it was 120 per cent higher; for cancers it was more than 100 per cent higher; for respiratory diseases it was more than 200 per cent higher; for injuries and poisonings it was over 150 per cent higher;

The CSO published in December 2010 corroborating and contemporary data. It showed: "Life expectancy at birth for males in the most deprived areas of the State was 73.7 years in 2006/07, compared with 78 years of those living in the most affluent areas. The corresponding figures for females were 80 and 82.7."

So it is not just the US that is dysfunctional. We too are in denial about dysfunctions in our own society. And while we send billions to fiscal elites across Europe and, correspondingly, pare elementary services for ordinary people here to the bone, we claim this is "responsible" and for the "public good".

But, for now at least, we are spared the prayer meetings, for which, thank God.

[ExcellentDriver]

The GOP have just gifted the 2012 Election to Vladimir Obama! The Voters in the Primaries are too easily swayed by the Corporate Media!

[Applesisapples]

What about Newt 'Palestinians are an invited people' Gingrich?

Invented even.

Correct.

Fc*king text corrections.

I sent a text message to a married female friend just before Christmas asking her if she fancied 'a pony after work'. I meant a 'pint' obviously, but I mistyped and it corrected it for me. Took a bit of explaining.

Was the pony outside?

[Applesisapples]

Was reading the other day that Santorum is actually a Catholic despite coming across as some sort of evangelical Christian psycho.

But is he a Castle catholic or a proper one?

Is there a difference?

From reading threads such as the Rory McIlroy one there seems to be.

OK then; we have this loony who "thinks children should be taught "Intelligent design" in schools and thinks that homosexuality is equivalent to "man on dog" sex" - which one is he?

Very definitely an altar licking catholic of the castle variety.

[J70]

The GOP have just gifted the 2012 Election to Vladimir Obama! The Voters in the Primaries are too easily swayed by the Corporate Media!

What is the "corporate media"? And who should the GOP be nominating to beat the commie, muslim kenyan?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

What about Newt 'Palestinians are an invited people' Gingrich?

Invented even.

Correct.

Fc*king text corrections.

I sent a text message to a married female friend just before Christmas asking her if she fancied 'a pony after work'. I meant a 'pint' obviously, but I mistyped and it corrected it for me. Took a bit of explaining.

Not half as much as it might have done had it 'corrected' it to 'a poke after work'! 

[ExcellentDriver]

The GOP have just gifted the 2012 Election to Vladimir Obama! The Voters in the Primaries are too easily swayed by the Corporate Media!

What is the "corporate media"? And who should the GOP be nominating to beat the commie, muslim kenyan?

1. The 'Corporate Media' is the mainstream Media Outlets which blatantly ignore the candidate that is planning to upset the Status Quo (in this case Ron Paul).

2. Obama also has Jewish Blood in him. The First Lady has a Cousin who is a Rabbi at Downtown Chicago!

3. Obama (through his White Mother) shares the same 'Bloodline of Power' as George W Bush, Sarah Palin and the UK Queen.