Tag Archives: 2012 presidential race

Rocky Anderson wins California Primary for Peace and Freedom – Rocky Anderson 2012

6 Jun

Rocky Anderson won the California primary of the Peace and Freedom Party yesterday! Rocky received 43.4% of the vote, with his two competitors receiving 30% and 26.5%. The party’s nomination will ultimately be determined at its convention August 4th and 5th.

The Peace and Freedom Party was founded in 1967 on the principles of peace, workers’ rights, democracy, ecology, feminism, and racial equality. These are issues Rocky Anderson has fought for throughout his career as a lawyer, community activist, mayor and Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign.

via Rocky Anderson wins California Primary for Peace and Freedom – Rocky Anderson 2012.

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Presidential Campaign Breakfast And Vice Presidential Suggestion | Irregular Times

30 May

Obama has $1000+ per head meet and greets; Jill Stein has pot-luck breakfasts.

A presidential campaign potluck – that’s what a genuine grassroots presidential campaign looks like. It’s the way most Americans are living now too. We aren’t attending fundraising events where we pay for our food. We simply share what we have.

This kind of open, easy-going attitude extends into Jill Stein’s search for a Vice Presidential running mate. While other presidential campaigns are hold secret meetings, and making sure that running mates pass focus group and polling tests, the Jill Stein for President campaign is simply asking Americans for their suggestions about who ought to be considered as a Vice Presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket this year.

via Presidential Campaign Breakfast And Vice Presidential Suggestion | Irregular Times.

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Americans Elect defeated by American indifference – Alex Pareene – Salon.com

15 May

Ignore the snarky tone of the article. It has some useful information. Too bad Americans Elect didn’t find more interest.

Poor Americans Elect. The well-funded experiment in fielding a third-party presidential candidate selected by the Internet is this close to giving up. It doesn’t have a candidate. It was apparent back in March that none of the declared candidates would meet the threshold of support necessary to qualify it for the online primary votes scheduled for May. Since then, no white knight has emerged….

A lot of the more prominent AE supporters and many of the people involved in organizing the group are disillusioned Republicans — like former Giuliani speechwriter John Avlon and former Bush strategist Mark McKinnon — which helps explain why AE keeps going after people who only appeal to … disillusioned moderate Republicans.

AE dreamed that superstars like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg or former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would decide to jump into the race once AE did the hard work of securing ballot access. You may note that neither of those candidates represents a significant national constituency whose interests are currently being ignored by the two major parties.

via Americans Elect defeated by American indifference – Alex Pareene – Salon.com.

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The Ron Paul Plot Thickens

8 May

Writing in Salon, Steve Kornacki reported that Ron Paul picked up a lot of delegates over the weekend, in maine and Nevada. Sorta.

Of course, not all of the Paul-ites who are winning delegate slots will actually get to vote for him at the national convention, since many are filling slots that are by rule designated for Romney. For instance, Romney’s overwhelming win in the straw poll that was conducted with Nevada’s February precinct caucuses guarantees that most of the state’s national delegates will be bound to support him on the first ballot. So Paul will actually have two types of delegates in Tampa: a relatively small group of delegates pledged to him, and a potentially much bigger group that wants badly to vote for him but can’t.

It’s that second group that is starting to make Romney’s camp, which sent its top lawyer to Maine for the convention this weekend, nervous. Romney-pledged Paul backers could try to change their states’ rules (or the rules at the national convention) to allow them to support Paul. But this probably wouldn’t work; the RNC is now threatening not to seat individual delegations that try this, and to pull it off in Tampa the Paul team would need an outright convention majority, something it’s not on course to have.

They could still stir up a lot of trouble, though. Even if they’re neutralized procedurally, Paul-aligned delegates could make their hostility to the GOP establishment clear during the convention’s prime-time hours. The potential for such an embarrassing, nationally televised spectacle is probably what the Romney team is most worried about at this point.

Ah, the Emperor has no clothes, is that Ron Paul’s role in this election?

 

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Ron Paul’s waging a cagy race that may have surprising results

3 May

Writing in Salon, Steve Kronacki reports that Repuiblic honchos are getting worried:

…the political world stopped paying attention to Paul about two months ago, and the threat of him bolting the GOP and running as an independent – a scenario long feared by Republicans – passed long ago.

And yet, the RNC’s chief counsel felt the need this week to issue a warning to the Nevada state GOP about the Paul campaign. At issue is this weekend’s Nevada Republican convention, where delegates to the national convention will be chosen. The state’s caucuses in February were a truly messy (that’s the polite word) affair, but Romney was the clear and overwhelming winner.

On Saturday, though, Paul supporters are expected to flood the state convention and could account for the lion’s share of attendees. This is what prompted the RNC’s counsel to warn the state party that its delegation might be denied seating in Tampa if it’s dominated by Paul-ites. Continue reading →

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Roseanne Barr for President

1 May

Roseanne Barr is running for President on the Green Party. Her campaign website:

On August 4th, 2011, Roseanne Barr announced her candidacy for President of the United States on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, declaring that she would not run as a Democrat or a Republican “because they both suck and they’re both a bunch of criminals.” She has since decided to seek the nomination of the Green Party of the United States.

On Day 1 of #OccupyWallStreet, September 17th, 2011, Roseanne became the first public figure to stand with the occupiers in downtown Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, delivering a speech before the very first General Assembly.

If elected, Roseanne’s presidency will manifest world peace in less than one year!

You know what they say, if you want to see interesting things happen, set a goal and go after it. Even if you don’t reach the goal, good things will happen. One year! Peace! Sounds good to me.

Go to the campaign Facebook page and Like it. Continue reading →

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Gary Johnson, the anti-war 2012 candidate – POLITICO.com

10 Apr

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is branding himself as the anti-war candidate of the 2012 campaign, dismissing both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as standard-bearers for “interventionism.”

Johnson, who dropped out of the GOP primary and is now seeking the Libertarian Party’s nomination, said opposition to the war in Afghanistan represents a potent force in presidential politics — one that neither major-party candidate is in a position to channel.

“Get out tomorrow,” Johnson said in an interview with POLITICO. “We should have gotten out of Afghanistan 11 years ago. Eleven years ago! Romney is saying we should stay in Afghanistan until the mission is accomplished. What does that mean?”

Obama, on the other hand, has “doubled down” on an unpopular and directionless war, Johnson said. What’s more, he warned that the White House could try to gain electoral points with a strike on Iran before the November election out of a “political calculation … that bombing Iran shows strength.”

If Johnson wins the Libertarian nomination next month, he would become the only general-election candidate with a down-the-line stance against the unpopular war. For a long-shot third-party candidate, who will essentially be campaigning for a place in the fall debates, Afghanistan is conceivably the kind of issue that could draw national attention to an underdog effort.

via Gary Johnson, the anti-war 2012 candidate – POLITICO.com.

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Jill Stein for President

10 Apr

Jill Stein is running for the Presidency under the Green Party. Here’s the opening of her bio:

About Jill Stein

Dr. Jill Stein is a mother, housewife, physician, longtime teacher of internal medicine, and pioneering environmental-health advocate.

She is the co-author of two widely-praised reports, In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, published in 2000, andEnvironmental Threats to Healthy Aging, published in 2009. The first of these has been translated into four languages and is used worldwide. The reports promote green local economies, sustainable agriculture, clean power, and freedom from toxic threats.

Her “Healthy People, Healthy Planet” teaching program reveals the links between human health, climate security, and green economic revitalization. This body of work has been presented at government, public health and medical conferences, and has been used to improve public policy.

Jill began to advocate for the environment as a human health issue in 1998 when she realized that politicians were simply not acting to protect children from the toxic threats emerging from current science. She offered her services to parents, teachers, community groups and a native Americans group seeking to protect their communities from toxic exposure.

via Bio of Dr. Jill Stein.

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Nassim Taleb Endorses Ron Paul

13 Mar

Nassim Taleb is an economist and a student of risk. And that’s why he’s endorsing Paul. “Only one candidate, Ron Paul, seems to have grasped issues and is offering the right remedies for the central problems we are facing.” Only Paul understands the economic risks the Republicrat CorpState is creating. Paul’s addressing structural problems in the economy. The others are dulling the pain with Novocain; Ron Paul’s going for the cure with root canal.

According to Taleb, Paul is the only one with the right policies for the “Big Four”:

  1. Deficits: Rampant bureaucracy is feeding on itself and running up costs
  2. The Fed: Paul is “the only one with the guts [to go after it].”
  3. Militarism: Another self-feeding institution.
  4. “America is about resilience and you don’t achieve that with buy-outs. You need a certain rate of failure.”

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Ron Paul’s Delegate Strategy May be Working – Kenn Jacobine – Open Salon

13 Mar

Given his campaign’s strategy of focusing on caucuses and out hustling his rivals at local, county, and state conventions nationwide the main beneficiary of a brokered convention would be Texas Congressman Ron Paul. The fact of the matter is that most Americans do not get involved in politics. Many rightly view it as an ugly, corrupt business. Others are too busy following American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, or the latest escapades of Lindsay Lohan. While others would rather leave it to the professionals. But, Ron Paul supporters are different. They may not outnumber the supporters of other candidates, but they are hungrier and more dedicated to their principles. They are much more willing to show up, outlast, and fight for delegate positions than the supporters of rival candidates. These attributes seem to be paying dividends for the Paul campaign at least in the early stages of the delegate selection process.

[I’ve added italics, BB]

via Ron Paul’s Delegate Strategy May be Working – Kenn Jacobine – Open Salon.

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