If the Repubs want to beat Obama, better vote for Romney in the primaries

[useless]

An Establishment Republican really cannot beat Obama. I'd like to see Ron Paul win the primary because he's the only one offering something different from the typical Establishment Republicans. Besides, Republicans should nominate him anyway so he doesn't run third party and ruin their chances.

A third party in America doesn't have a chance of ever getting in, nor does Ron Paul have a chance of becoming the president, even if he sticks in the Republican party (which he does for votes).

 

[Traitorfish]

An Establishment Republican really cannot beat Obama. I'd like to see Ron Paul win the primary because he's the only one offering something different from the typical Establishment Republicans. Besides, Republicans should nominate him anyway so he doesn't run third party and ruin their chances.

They should nominate him in case he threatens to sabotage his own party out of sheer spite?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

If the US drastically scales back its military budget as part of a compensation effort (a possibility) then Europe will have to begin funding its own defense, and all these perceived superiorities in their way of doing things will vaporize.

Man, that's one annoying zombie horse .
You don't spend so much on your military so we can get a free ride and afford our decadent welfare states, you do it because of power projection, 'patriotism', corruption and a 'defense' industry that has way too much influence.
This chart, of course, shows military spending (in 2010). See how the EU spends about twice as much on defense as Russia and China combined ?
Stop using Europe as a scapegoat and justification for your bloated military budget. The Cold War is over.
We're perfectly able to defend ourselves, thank you very much.

 

[Antilogic]

The other side of that coin is that the US has a lot of "defense" projects that fall under energy or industrial policy in the EU and elsewhere. Largely because researchers try to label as many projects as defense-related as possible to avoid getting their funding cut.

 

[Mise]

To be honest, every country in the world free-rides on American defense spending. It's not good for anybody involved. I'd rather the EU took more leadership in policing shipping lanes, for example. We all benefit from a safe, peaceful global business climate, China more than most.

 

[Leoreth]

Yeah, but if you start saying we should use the military to protect our trade over here, you get booed out of office by the media

 

[Tani Coyote]

Indeed. I understand Germany has a stigma towards militarism and nationalism, but you'd think that after seven decades, it would be understood that having a good defense doesn't automatically mean you're going to become a xenophobic imperialist dictatorship. It's like saying that establishing a missile shield is all part of some big scheme to be able to launch your own nuclear weapons without consequence, if you ask me.

I mean, wasn't equipping merchant ships with weapons, or escorting them, standard policy back in the day? In areas as rife with piracy as say, the Horn of Africa, I don't exactly see why someone would be opposed to escorting merchant ships. A few massive guns mounted on a vessel are a pretty good deterrent to theft.

 

[Ayatollah So]

I'm skeptical that it takes much of a navy to suppress piracy - but what does this have to do with Romney and the primaries?

 

[Archbob]

Ron Paul is ahead in Iowa, maybe we will see the new Ron Paul Kingdom come to light