Free Republic

Ramcat - if I can distill the core of your argument, are you saying that:

Sometime we make compromises to get the most conservative individuals and policies possible into office?

If so, and while you may not agree, is not reasonable to share in Rick’s practical tactics and support Romney and still be a good conservative?

I’m not waiting for anyone’s blessing on the point but the line of logic cuts both ways. What’s good for the goose ...

Mary,

I’m a Romney supporter and while I think your position and actions are off - I’d most certainly care for your lab. We take in/give out about 5 dogs a year as is and my Dane has grown used to the arrival of strangers. In a very un-Romney like fashion, s/he could even ride in the car with me in the car to FL. Seriously though, drive to Detroit and make your case for Santorum. He’s not my guy but I know that you feel best about an election when you know that you did all that you can do. So go make the case for your guy!

There’s a big election after the primary and I while I know I’m in the minority of Romney supporters on FR th at nearly everyone here wants to see the end of the Obama presidency.

I’d much prefer a state by state approach where the Federal government simply offers to support the states that choose to be tough on illegal immigration. IMO, this would:

* respect state’s rights
* focus on the states that want to change vs. imposing it on the states that do not want to change
* push illegals to migrate to the states that choose to be sanctuaries
* and, most importantly, FORCE liberals to actually live with the consequence (cost, crime, higher unemployment, ...) of their decisions

It would be much to our benefit if states/people came to their own conclusion that illegal immigration is a mess and unsustainable.

As far as reflexive anti-Romneyism here on FR, they seem to not be able to help themselves. If God himself came down and vouched for Romney, 1/2 of FR would jump into the pit of hell just to prove a point.

Oh my Jimbo - your intellect, your values - just astounding. Your contribution to the collective intelligence here is significant, albeit negative.

So, no thank you. This Romneybot (or whatever simple name you substitute for any type of thought and clarity) will stay right here on FR with fingers on the keyboard, a smile on my face, and a boot up the backside of the thoughtless and feeble minded. There are some serious arguments to be made against Romney and I understand them. For me, on balance, I’m still supporting him. You, however, seem ill prepared to make any argument of any kind against Romney or for any candidate.

[HINT: if all of the words above confuse you, just substitute “Begone Tardbot”. Just trying to be helpful.]

I grew up in OH in the burbs with some pretty reasonable sized trees and a communal hatred of MI football (and of Woody’s lack of ability to delivery).

I suspect that being reasonably well to do that the Romney clan probably vacationed to the prettier sections of MI - seems reasonable but I have no facts to back it up. I’m sure there was a terrified pooch strapped to the car.

While I voted for him and am supporting him donation-wise, it’s very hard for me to think of Mitt having any part of a concrete jungle. In the board room - I can see it. On the street corner - just not able to get there.

Why would that be the case? I’ll stick with the truth in advertising view of the “Free” in FR and freely express my opinion. What’s the downside? A zot? Or the intellectual vacuum that is posters like jimbo123? I suspect most 2nd graders face more real consequence for their actions on the playground than what I’d get for expressing my thoughts here.

Oh no! Europeans are laughing at someone. If that’s your gold standard on what’s appropriate - you must be supporting Obama. All Republicans are laughable in socialist Europe.

The only issue I have with this story is that nobody from Romney’s team is noting that how many people of Romney’s level of wealth:

1) Only have 4 cars? I know people with much less wealth (and I’m not talking lawn cars) that have more cars.

2) Have American cars. Really? Not one Porche, BMW, ... With near 200M USD in assets, you’d think there’d be a family Rolls in there or something. I suspect most Patriots here don’t have as good of a record on buying American.

It seems like ages ago but I once preferred Cain but oh well. Once he left, I settled for Romney since I have low trust for Gingrich or Santorum as campaigners or as executives. There are some serious flaws in Romney’s record and in his plans going forward (and I’m in the minority minority thinking that the primary has been good for Romney’s platform and the party). That said, there are times when it’s tough to promote the view that Romney’s good enough.

So Jimbo123 - I’d like to thank most magnanimously you for your focus on trivial and cosmetic matters vs. serious intellectual arguments. I’m sure you believe you’re helping whoever your candidate is but I view you as your own inner Rombot (I think that’s what you kids call it these days). Keep on keeping on.

What type of stories do you focus on when your candidate is doing well? The guy grew up there - those are the trees of his childhood. Is it an odd way to phrase it? Yes. But having FR filled with stories about Mitt’s views on trees says more negative things about the intellectual interest of a subset of individuals on FR than it does about Mitt Romney.

Mitt sure has flaws as a candidate. If I opposed his as the nominee, I’d focus on those vs. focusing on trees, a 2nd Cadillac, or his underwear.

One doesn’t have to be a nancy or anti-religion to find it off that someone believe’s to know God’s will on a subject and believe that they are the agent of that will. I’m sure she didn’t intend to state that Rick was on a Blues Brother style mission from God but it seems to come off that way. Hopefully she’ll clarify.

Sure, I’m careful about licensing and stick only to the fully open licenses (Apache & BSD). Basing the work off of Hadoop, HBase, ElasticSearch, & Mahout.

The system is for the large scale storage and processing of Business Audit Logging statements. It targets highly regulated businesses, has detailed UI needs, and serious operational concerns. None of those requirements is typically the sweet spot for FOSS solutions. We’ll see - it’s always a risk but I should have a good head start.

Understand the frustration. I’m currently writing a proprietary software service/system that is largely based on FOSS software. I expect to sell it for real $$. One must just stay away from areas that are easily commoditized. Sure there’s a risk that a FOSS solution might emerge in your space - but risk from a low cost producer has always been there. I personally do not view FOSS as a barrier to commercial success.

In a word, no. Most FOSS developers are either do it for a hobby or do it for very commercial reasons. Maybe your impression of open source was colored by Richard Stallman and the GNU project but that view was embraced and co-opted by the joys of making $$.

That said, I’m going to get back to a sweet little contract I picked up supporting a startup that is using FOSS software for BigData and Search.

Respectfully disagree. The team he took one for was the establishment wing of the republican party that everyone on FR keeps deriding. That was not a vote for the conservative team by any stretch.

IMO, Santorum has not witnessed the firepower of a fully armed and operational political campaign. There are 8 days left. I expect the positive Romney campaign to build from now till the 23rd (day after the primary) and for the long knives to come out from the 23rd to the 28th. Doubt it will be as nasty as with Newt but Newt makes it so darn easy.

Actually it was best that she was circumspect as Jimmy means the main bits not the “boys”. See urbandictionary.com definition #2.

To clarify, when Santorum moved left to win in PA it’s ok but when Romney moves left to win in MA it’s worse?

Don’t understand how one is worse than the other. There’s really no consistent conservative in the race once records are reviewed (though Romney seems to have governed futherest to the center/left but also in a state that was more center/left).

Other than not liking Sununu, the quote rings pretty true at FR. Look at any thread where Newt and Santorum folks go at it. Some days I don’t think Reagan would make it in the current climate what with his Democrat past and willingness to compromise.

The joke is a little worn but appreciate the point.

If you take a look at the RCP averages, nobody has been steadily above 35%.

see: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/republican_presidential_nomination-1452.html

I’m sure your point of view is common here. If Romney wins some will stick to it and others will hold their nose. I’m not saying he can get everyone on board but I do believe he can mitigate his losses significantly though I understand why you don’t share the thought.

Perhaps. Just don’t go for the “fall in line with Jim Rob’s or anyone else’s dictate” on FR program. Should have posted sarcasm warning but I didn’t think it needed it but what passes for clear thought here as of late might make it hard to pick up.

It’s these open boxes where we can type anything we want (save profanity). If Jim Rob or any moderators want to keep things to a party line maybe they can turn these open text boxes into multiple choice drop downs where we can express our choices of varied support for Newt. (that is kinda sarcasm)

The %ages may vary - but either way I don’t mean extreme like it’s a bad thing. My reasons for supporting Romney over Newt and Santorum are not because I prefer Romney’s ideology. I’d take a solid conservative that could win. I just believe Santorum and Newt are fatally flawed in many ways and not good representatives on the conservative ideology for a presidential election.

I think Romney can do a world class excite the base effort. I hope he’s smart enough to know that he has to. The base is teaching him quite a lesson making him crawl over glass to get the nomination. That’ll leave him resenting or reaching out.