Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign 577
bobwrit writes with this excerpt from CNN:
"Conservative challenger Rick Santorum announced Tuesday that he is suspending his Republican presidential campaign after a weekend of 'prayer and thought,' effectively ceding the GOP nomination to front-runner Mitt Romney. Santorum made his announcement after the weekend hospitalization of his 3-year-old daughter Isabella, and in the face of tightening poll numbers in Pennsylvania — the state he represented as a U.S. senator — ahead of the April 24 primary. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we made the decision to get into this race around our kitchen table, against all the odds,' Santorum told a news conference, flanked by emotional family members. 'We made a decision over the weekend that while the presidential race for us is over, and I will suspend my campaign effective today, we are not done fighting.'"
Re:News for Nerds? (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot is a US-oriented site. It's in the FAQ.
Re:"Suspends"? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ron Paul (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ron Paul (Score:5, Informative)
Why is nobody ever specific on what they find so frightening about his policies? Is the Constitution frightening? His positions are basically the positions of the founding fathers.
I'm going to assume that the 20% that scares you is foreign policy, since most people don't understand his views on that. We bring the troops home and defend our country's borders instead of those of another country. If someone attacks us, go to the Congress and get a declaration of war, identify a specific enemy (not just "terrorists" or some other vague concept), and then attack with overwhelming power and then COME HOME instead of occupying. Some politicians are doves and some are hawks. Ron Paul is a porcupine. They generally want to just be left alone, but if you mess with them you're in for a world of hurt.
Ron Paul is misunderstood on many issues because the media tends to distort his positions. Look at what the man himself has said and done and then decide.
I don't think you understand what homophobia is. (Score:4, Informative)
I don't understand your outrage. You should praise the beauty that is the living language we call English.
Re:News for Nerds? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Color me surprised. Or not. (Score:1, Informative)
That "outdated ideology" is the American ideology and defines the American way of life. If you don't like it there are plenty of other English speaking countries you can move too. America isn't for everyone.
Even Ron Paul's critics don't think he wrote those articles. He took moral responsibility for being a bad editor, but that doesn't make him a racist. Nor does it give him a "racist past".
Re:Color me surprised. Or not. (Score:5, Informative)
Outdated ideology? Peace and a balanced budget is outdated? Hardly. He has 70% support among people 18 to 35..... it's a *youthful* ideology not an outdated one.
>>>racist past?
Well let's ask some black people. Professor Walter E. Williams do you think Ron Paul racist? "Haahaha. That's ridiculous. I've known Dr. Paul for many years and he is definitely not a racist. On the contrary he's the most egalitarian person I know in Washington, as you would expect from someone who follows libertarian principles." (Quoting from youtube video when W.E.W. was guest hosting Rush Limbaugh.)
How about you, Bruce S. Gordon, former head of the NAACP? "Not in the slightest. I've known Congressman Paul for decades and he is in no way a racist. People who say that makes themselves look foolish." (quoting from radio interview)
And what Ron Paul's black volunteers? Well there are millions of them so I can't quote them here but you can certainly find their homemade videos on youtube. They think the charge is ridiculous, because they know the Drug Prohibition is the true racist policy (more blacks in jail than whites) and that Congressman Paul is the only one who vowed to end the prohibition as unconstitutional (10th amendment).
Re:What's wrong with Ron Paul? (Score:5, Informative)
(a) Nonsense. (And if you think you're right, then quote Mr. Paul where he said "I want to nullify the 14th." You won't find it.)
(b) We're already on the gold standard. At least the world banks are. They are hoarding gold at a rapid pace, because they know the dollar will lose ~20% of its value in just one decade (thanks to the Fed's rampant running of the printing press). A dollar is paper and has lost 95% of its value since 1920, whereas prior to that, from 1800, it hadlost none (because it was tied to gold).
(c) Is wrong. He wants to reduce the military to be a DEFENSIVE force, protecting our east and west coasts, rather than an offensive force that has killed or maimed over million innocent civilians during the last decade.
(d) is also wrong since he voted *against* the Constitutional Amendment to declare life begins at conception.
(e) He is right. The Congress has no authority to regulate who we must, or must not, allow into our private homes. Or force us to buy insurance we don't want. Said power is reserved to the Member States and the People thereof. (Read the 10th amendment sometime.)
(f) But that works both ways. States ALSO have the right to INCREASE personal freedoms, like legalized prostitution, or legalized marijuana, or legalized homosexual marriage (or even multi-partner marriage). For example Ron Paul supports California's legalization of medical marijuana, while no other president ever has. (Even now Obama's admin is arresting californians with weed.)
Re:Ron Paul (Score:4, Informative)
His position on abortion cannot be justified by the constitution
Oh, I think "leave it to the states" is a perfectly constitutional opinion.
From his own position description at http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/abortion/ [ronpaul.com]:
At the same time, Ron Paul believes that the ninth and tenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution do not grant the federal government any authority to legalize or ban abortion. Instead, it is up to the individual states to prohibit abortion.
Re:Color me surprised. Or not. (Score:5, Informative)
The IRS could use some trimming... we can all agree on that.
He never said anything about getting rid of public schools that I'm aware of. He just wanted to get rid of the Department of Education at the Federal level. He feels the individual State Boards are doing a good enough job and the Federal level is a waste of resources. (At least, that's how I interpreted it. Never did I get the feeling that he wanted to get rid of Public Schooling though.)
Re:Not really immune (Score:5, Informative)
No, not privy to any quirk. But from watching him he's a "true believer", in the tent revival sense of the phrase. He really believes God puts a soul in a fertilized egg, for instance. [lifenews.com] He thinks Satan - the actual literary character Satan - is in charge of colleges, universities, and Protestants. [allisnow.com] He said that the JFK speech about the separation of church and state "almost made him throw up." He believes in intelligent design and doesn't believe in evolution, and tried to make it into law. [wikipedia.org]
It's all well and good to be a Christian, but this guy is NUTS. Like padded room and Thorazine nuts. If anyone was going to push the jolly candy like button, it would be him or someone like him. He can't discern reality well enough to be trusted.
That's my opinion - take it for what it's worth.