USA presidential elections

[Robi D]

It does seem a complicated way of running it but i think i understand most of it, execpt Mauer why are you not allowed to vote in the primaries if you can vote in the election?

[Pastorius]

Edwards for me too, but I didnt bother to understand the dutch stuff after a while, and only after voting did I see the translation....

[mauer]

Am I still confusing you guys?

I am allowed to vote in the primaries, and do! I was just saying that it isn't a guaranteed right to do so. They could change the system in place right now, which is the primary run offs, and replace it with a system of their choosing if they wanted to. With the "They" being the individual states. Maybe someone smarter than me will come along this thread here pretty soon and make it plainer.

[Matrix]

Indeed. I read two states (Florida and another) do not participate in the caucus for the democratic party as a penalty, because they wanted to hold the caucus before supersomethingday.

[romeothemonk]

quote:Originally posted by Beorn

I just didn't get what you said at all, mauer. You have the right to vote but you don't, so the states work this way unless they don't, which they do. And then it's the parties that decide what happens anyways. That's what I got, and I'm pretty darn sure it's fucked up.

In South Dakota, they have closed primaries. Many states have closed primaries or caucauses where you have to be registered with that party to be able to vote in the primary. As I am a registered member of a fifth party, I will not be able to vote in the primary for either a republican or democrat.

[romeothemonk]

Mate van overeenkomst per kandidaat
Kandidaat Overeenkomst
Mitt Romney (R)
Fred Thompson (R)
Mike Huckabee (R)
John McCain (R)
Rudy Giuliani (R)
Hillary Clinton (D)
Barack Obama (D)
John Edwards (D)

This is kind of sad for 2 reasons: 1) Romney has a great economic plan, but he belongs to a cult, and his stance on Pro-life is very diluted. 2) Huckabee is basically Jimmy Carter, and I currently doubt his ability to pick his own nose, let alone lead the country.

I have to support Fred, as anyone with a de facto slogan of : Secure the Borders, Punch the Hippies, Kill the Terrorists is a true winner in my book.

Interesting note, almost all of my radio stations come from Iowa, so I got a severe dose of electioneering.

I really think Obama sounds like Pro Wrestling's "The Rock" Anyone else see the connection or am I too goofy?

[sz_matyas]

A number of states don't actually practice open polling for candidates. What actually occurs in Iowa (and other states that use a Caucus system instead of a primary system) is that there is a series of meetings starting at the local level where you select representatives to the next higher level meeting (city-county-state-national) and these candidates promise to vote for certain people (but have been known to break these promises).

To attend these meetings you have to be a registered party member and sometimes they put additional restrictions on them, sometimes you don't even have to reside in the state to attend (though at the higher levels you have to be elected as a delegate from lower levels).

As Mauer said, there is no guarantee that the highest vote getter will be the nominee, each party is allowed to nominate it's representative any way it chooses (for example the Democrats say that Florida and I think it is Michigan get no vote at the national convention for holding its primary early).

In the presidential election, individuals technically get no say either. The electoral college is the sole voting body, with its members appointed by the states, though all states currently do a winner take all approach in the past it hasn't always been this way.

And Fred does have the best slogan. (Besides they had a great article in The Onion: If Elected, I Will Have The Hottest First Lady In U.S. History and I know it's fake, but still fun)

[Robboo]

Edwards
Clinton
Huckabee

Shocked by my top 3...scared too.
I will not vote for Obama to inexperienced on a world stage. I will not form for Rudy...he is a dork running on 9-11. I would vote for McClain , but he seems to be going off the deep end recently.

If you want to know who will the election....I have never voted for a winning presidential candidate since Bush vs Clinton.( read that as ever). And Only once have I voted for the winning governor and that was a KKK member vs a soon to be convicted crook. I voted for the crook in the runoff and another guy in the Primary.

I dont want to confuse you guys BUT in Louisiana our system is different from all the other states. In state elections any candidate can run in the primaries. Then the top 2 candidates face off in an runoff election unless one candidate has 50 % plus 1 vote. Then he wins without a runoff. LA runs under Napoleanic Law for alot of our government. Screw the rest of the US...we got it right. The best 2 candidates get a chance regardless of party and there has often been 2 reps or 2 dems facing each other.

[Socrates]

quote:Originally posted by romeothemonk

I have to support Fred, as anyone with a de facto slogan of : Secure the Borders, Punch the Hippies, Kill the Terrorists is a true winner in my book.

I doubt this impacts 300,000,000 Americans in their daily life ! Kill the terrorists ? That's what Bush has been trying for several years. Result : ben Laden still alive, Iraq is a failure (still terrorist actions and no stable foreseeable future as of today). Failure. I'd myself be more concerned with talks about jobs, social security and housing. But I guess the subprime crisis (impacting a lot more people than the terrorists will ever be able to) is not important ? I think it's a national tragedy, it reveals the completely shocking nature of how the country takes care of its own (second-class) citizen. Terrorists ? They will be fought whatever the President is. Tis just a slogan, just like "-25% on sausages during the next hour" at the supermarket.

[romeothemonk]

quote:Originally posted by kryszcztov

I'd myself be more concerned with talks about jobs, social security and housing. But I guess the subprime crisis (impacting a lot more people than the terrorists will ever be able to) is not important ? I think it's a national tragedy, it reveals the completely shocking nature of how the country takes care of its own (second-class) citizen.

Krys, the subprime credit market is actually quite entertaining to me. I have spent the past 2 years doing quite a bit of research on credit, housing, and investing as well as investing in housing. I know several people that have hit the big time doing investment housing. Others have seen it too. You cannot turn on American cable TV without seeing a show on house flipping and the insane profits some people are pulling out of it.

That then attracts a large number of people who do not understand the risk/reward factor of highly leveraged debt positions. With banks allowed to create CDO's (Collateralized Debt Obligations) to resell the debt on the secondary market, their metric is throughput of loan generation. People then go and buy 2-3 houses with very little margin, and a slighteset wind can take them down. And it has.

Recently on CNBC, the Federal reserve and President Bush concocted a plan to stop ARMs from resetting, and there were 3 simple rules.
1) You have to live in the house as a primary residence.
2) You cannot have missed more than 2 months in a row of payments
3) Your loan has to be resetting before 2010.

Of the more than 3 million subprime loans in the country, only 6,000 qualified for this lock in. That is why subprime is not causing people to lose their primary residence.

My uncle that lives in Pheonix AZ notes that lots of people are losing or have lost their second home there. There are whole neighborhoods that are empty. That is also because builders didn't get/use sales forecasting.

Whomp can offer more guidance here, but it doesn't hurt my feelings at all to see some greedy bastard banks have to take huge writedowns on debt, lose tons of money, fire some heartless CEO's, and actually apply some planning and controls to their fixed income and commercial credit debtloading.

Plus, these people with subprime are freaking nuts. I make ~60k a year. I bought a house that cost 126k. I hold no other debt. I financed my house at 80% of the balance from the bank at 6.375% and the rest from my parents at 5%. 10 months of the year it is a struggle for me to meet these payments (I haven't missed and will never miss one), but it gets kind of tough when your wife wants new clothes and you can't afford them, so you can stay in your house. It truely comes down to personal discipline. If you got it, you can do well, if you lack it, it is only a matter of when things go down the crapper.