GOP struggle

     In this cartoon, all of the five characters are Republicans.  All are stacked on each other, similar to a todem pole.  Newt Gingrich is on the top, followed by Donald Trump, Michelled Bachman, Mitt Romney and a fifth character whos name is difficult to transcribe.  Their goal as a team is to reach the microphone behind the podium that is named, "2012 Presidential Material".  Once they can speak into the microphone, if they ever elevate to that plateu, then they can give their party platform or atleast the objectives of the Republican Party.  However this group is most likely a variance from the true conservative values of the GOP.  The current problem is that their stack falls short, they do not have the length to acheive their goal at the final moment, but Gingrich shows hope.  He is the only one that is optimistic.  Gingrich adds that there is a posibility as long as their tower remains straigth.  The ideological perspective is more of a liberal slant.  A conservative voter would be confident that a republican candidate will eventually stick out from the mix, but this cartoon depicts candidates and their counterparts in a situation that is unsturdy.  It is a huge obstacle to rise to this height, and a dilemma of choosing a consistent candidate to represent the GOP.  One irony from the cartoon is that the heaviest man is on the top.  Newt Gingrich had his name on the spotlight, but for this exercise his mass belongs on the bottom of the structure.  Gingrich must be switched out of order, but no matter who the person on the top of the pack, it is not likely that they will reach the microphone to share their insights on becoming president.  If they cannot get the presidential material, their shot at becoming the next president is slim.

 
The title, "A Rising Tide Sinks All GOP Boats," encompasses the whole picture of the cartoon.  The three republican nominee hopefuls all have their own personall rowboat and are under water falling to the bottom.  Romney and Santorum are not blown out of proportion, but Gingrich is an overweight man is a seemingly smaller vessel.  Fish are staring at these strange creatures.  On the surface of the wavy water the word "economy" is written.  The message overall is that the GOP candidates are loosing ground.  If the economy keeps on improving, then president Obama looks more accomplished and succesful in his original goal of boosting the economy and bringing it out of the recession.  Furthermore, the Republicans cannot attack Obama as much in the general election debates when the time comes.  The ideological slant is definitely liberal because most Republicans would say that Obama has led a failed presidency, and that it is his fault that the economy is so low, and any positive effect is merely recovering what the incumbent caused.  One source of irony is the facial expression of the fish.  They can be seen as conservative citizens who are dissapointed in them.  They are giving the men blank stares and show no disbelief in their current situation.  This cartoon shows that the GOP is not happy with any of these candidates and it is apparent if a clear front runner does not arise then there is little hope of defeating Obama.

What Republicans want

     All that has taken so far has been exciting.  There has been drama even before the Iowa Caucus which hurt and helped some of the Candidates.  The silent primary eliminated three candidates from the field.  Michelled Bachman got off to a slow start in the first place and could not get that tea party majority she was hoping for, even in Iowa where she grew up.  Rick Perry was in the lead of the Iowa polls for a solid week, but dropped down immediately after a few debates showed that he was not a good speaker, was unclear, and had trouble arguing and being assertive against his rivals.  A similar event happened to Hermain Cain.  It seemed he spontaneously rose in the polls, and miraculously held the top slot for a long time.  He probably would have done well in the caucus, but sadly he had to deal with the past, and could not overcome allegations of sex scandals.  With the field cut in half, Mitt Romney prominently took the drivers seat and finally had that lead.  Romney who had hovered at 25 percent in Iowa could not reach new heights and barely outplayed Rick Santorum.  However this is a problem to the Republican universe.  Republican voters are looking for an individual who is new, not a dirty old politician, but one who can create progress, work with the congress and keep the conservative ideals throughout their presidency once they are inaugurated.  The census is that Romney is too moderate, more likely to succumb to the liberal side and compromise, and form a plan that does not contain the core values of "Republicans."  This is most clear when his health care plan implemented in Massachusetts comes up.  He made sure that all persons of that state recieved health care at a low affordable price, which is more of a Democratic view, using government intervention to help individuals instead of individuals working hard to survive, a more conservative viewpoint.  Romney has also had trouble connecting to the average American.  He supposedly "talks like a robot," answering questions automatically with seemingly no thought process.  He also is very wealthy, and even being a Mormon comes up with the rest of his impairments. 

see link http://www.usatoday.com/video/news/iowa-caucuses-who-will-win/1244179341001

Immigration & Romney

       Immigration has been a hot topic for almost all the debates that have gone on, from Iowa all the way up to the first Florida debates.  But why has immigration risen as an important issue in voters minds and for the candidates to address?  The main reason is jobs.  Most Republicans agree that illegal immigrants most likely will work for a salary lower than minimum wage, thus taking the jobs of the average citizen who has to be paid no less than minimum wage.  If these immigrants are cheaper to have in business then no Americans can capitalize on job oppurtunities.  As Santorum has said plenty of times, if they are in this country "they have probably broken more than one law," such as stealing someones social security number to get highered.  Almost all the candidates agree that the borders must be more secured to illegal immigration can be reduced rapidly.  However, each candidate has a different stand on what to do with those currently raising a family and helping a business out in the US. 
     Romney is known for flip-flopping on issues, and he has in fact changed his mind on immigration.  Romney thinks that those who have been born in America or raised from a child in America should remain, because the US is their home, what they are used to.  Romney has changed his opinion of those who have recently "hopped the border."  At first he thought they should be deported, but now he is more sympathetic by saying that most illegal immigrants will self-emmigrate, decide to leave since there is no prosperous job oppurtunities.  Romney takes the spotlight since part of his family did immigrate to the US from Mexico.  His family has obviously live the good life and wants immigrants have the oppurtunity to gain citizenship, start a family, get a job, be free, and contribute to the US economy.

see link http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/01/opinion/1248069266155/immigration-and-the-elections.html?scp=5&sq=immigration&st=cse

Where Paul stands

     Ron Paul is trying for his third time to inherit the nomination for the Republican party.  He has obviously failed in his last two attempts, even in 2008 when Romney was also one of his competitiors.  Paul had gained plenty of support in Iowa and at one point seemed that he might overtake Romney in the polls up until the caucus, but that proved not to be the case.  Over the past years, Paul has had supporters stick to his perspective on issues.  Supporters will not budge from this congressman and they would never consider another candidate to represent them.  To most Republican voters Paul's views on the economy, foreign policy, taxes, social security, and health care seem out of the ordinary.  He wants the least amount of government intervention and have the states dictate the decisions on these issues.  Even on foreign policy, Paul does not want the US to be involved or preoccupied with other nations, and is very skeptical with have alliances or setting up massive trade paths between the countries.  He is a straight up libertarian, all for keeping civil liberties for citizens as high as they can be.  For Republicans to transfer their values and switch to a more libertarian ideology is difficult when most republicans are religious and may not be for allowing freedom for social issues, like pro-choice, or allow gay-marriage.  Paul seems a little to radical, but in order for Paul to gain voter support, his record needs to be shown because it is a clean slate.  His opinion has not wavered and he sticks true to his promises.  If citizens ignore his low electibility, he may be a huge threat.  Not for the nomination, but as a spoiler, taking away votes from the front runners, especially Gingrich who Paul despises.

see link: http://www.dailypaul.com/164587/ron-paul-on-hardball-may-13th

Newt retaliation

     Gingrich has been on the run about how to handle his campaign.  He has been disorganized and has lacked the amount of money needed to be successful at outcompeting his rivals.  Starting with Iowa, he did not manage his time well in many areas of the state, and because of this he did not amass enough supporters to give a speeches or have a signing event.  Even while attempting to gain support in Iowa, at the same time he had to try and gain support in New Hampshire, since the primary and caucus was a mere week apart from each other.  Newt has been struggling in these states in the state polls out right now.  He is not even in the top three for these two states.  Newt Gingrich, out of all this trouble and running around the state for nothing, while wasting valuable money raised on the campaign trail, he needs to find someone to blame for the damage.  Romney has been his target, calling Romney a cheapskate, one who does not play by the rules.  He has constantly been telling his competitors to stop releasing negative adds about him, because they are plainly false.  Gingrich from the beginning of his run for office promised that he would not run any negative ads or do any push polls through the telephone.  All Gingrich wants is a level playing field, but it seems that his vision is never going to be reality.  Positivity and politics almost seem opposites.  Romney's super-pact has mostly been attacking Gingrich, however the rule is, that the candidate and president of the super-pact cannot communicate, so Gingrich is using faulty logic when it comes to fair play.  Gingrich has to hope, due to his lack of money, that critisizing how other candidates organize their campaigns may treat him to a rise in the polls.

see link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/08/newt-gingrich-mitt-romney-new-hampshire-primary-republican-debate_n_1192799.html

Cain's reign

     Herman Cain is out of the race for sure although he said he was taking a break from the campaign trail instead of dropping his candidacy bid for the Republican nomination.  Cain had held the lead for awhile, gaining support from diversified demographic areas.  His appeal to the public was grand.  It was evident when the debates were held because the audience was behind his back, giving a tremendous cheer whenever he stuck to his disposition and spoke with such potency.  He ran an inspiring campaign until the end.  What ultimately determined his fate were allegations from women who claimed that he had a relationship with during the time he was married to his current wife.  Time after time he denied the claims about his actions, but there soon became too many attacks from the public and super-pacts of the other running mates.  Cain started out as a man with dreams that were extraordinary, much different then his counterparts.  His new ideas that were never thought of before earned a lot attention, mostly from tea-party supporter hoping for a total change and revolution in the government that captivates the nation currently.  Not only were his ideas simple, like the 9-9-9 plan, but these innovations in political thought were well planned and Americans could easily understand the content of the proposed bills.  He could relate to the average American probably the best out of all the candidates, mostly due to his humble backgrounds.  He started out in a family that was not well-off.  He worked his way up by working in plenty of different jobs to get enough pay to survive and move on.  He soon earned obtained enough money to open a small business, a pizza restaurant.  His success contributed to massive gains and soon became a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association.  This may have hurt his chances of wining the nomination, but he followed the American dream to become a wealthy man.

see link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/herman-cain-suspending-presidential-campaign_n_1126331.html

Newt treading for support

     Newt Gingrich has been criticizing Romney about not turning in his tax returns.  In a recent debate in South Carolina, Romney claimed that he was unsure about if he will release his taxes and said "maybe" to his final decision about the issue.  This was surprising, and the audience booed when this was spoken aloud. Romney will not even follow in his fathers footsteps of releasing his tax returns for twelve years straight, as his father did when he was the Governor of Michigan.  This seems discouraging to voters that Mitt Romney does not look up to his father George as a model to follow, and Americans look for a candidate to be a family man.  Someone who can relate to a regular American and drink a beer is what, instead of politician who is rich and removed from the middle class and does not respect what his father did.  This was the wrong answer, because it portrays Romney in a light that is dim.  Romney has a big family and a loving wife, so not looking up to his father when the question was asked was a bad decision.  Newt Gingrich has been especially demanding that he consider republican voters and release his tax returns.  Gingrich has released his information to the public and has claimed that the Americans have a right to see what we earn and how much they pay. He is obviously wealthy and pays a tax of around 30 percent which is on the high end of taxes.  Romney made sure that he should not be frowned upon for being rich, since he worked hard to have a high income.  Romney, in fact, even though he is rich, has made considerable donations to charitable causes. Gingrich is trying to put Romney in a tight position which will eventually lose some support of Romney voters in the end.

see link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46090453#VpFlash