So will it be Mitt or Newt.

[Captain Kirk]

According to all expert opinion the race to have a swordfight with Obama is down to MITT (is that short for something?) or NEWT (are they making these up?).

So who do you American chaps believe will end up in the smiley, wavey camp? No idea myself, but there again I'm British - and not terrifically well educated - so what would I know anyway.
I was intrigued by the mob baiting Romney to release his taxes, which he eventually did, and those showing that he paid around 13% on his $45mill which according to Romney is all he needs to pay "and not one cent more". Then once released there seems to have been no comeback from his opponents - so what was the point? Or did I miss the point myself? Were they initially suggesting he had been avoiding paying? Again you guys would know better than me but my guess is that your average working joe in the US pays maybe somewhere between 20-30% in taxes and yet Mr Super-rich is paying only 13%. If that is all he is entitled to pay then surely that should have been the point to begin with. The fact that the megabucks guys pay a lower % in tax is the problem with the system. Why didn't any of them say they'd fix that unfair system? Or is that hitting too close to home for all of them?

As for Obama, I remember way back then, when he spoke I'd listen intently, possibly believing here is someone different. I turned on the news the other day and there he is giving the State Of The Whatever it is speech. I watched, eyes glazing over and ears phasing out within two minutes and then switched off. So sad, turning out to be just another "in it for me" knobhead.

[RichLB]

Here's my take - albeit from a relatively naive point of view. First off, we have to look at what's happening to the political process in the US. The reality is to win an election it takes money - money to pay for television ads, recruit a staff of "volunteers", and all sorts of other things. No candidate has enough money to finance a run on his own. They have to rely on donations. And there's the rub.

In the US, there is a limit on how much money anyone can give a candidate directly, but there is no limit on how much money citizens of groups of citizens can spend on a candidate's behalf. This has resulted in Political Action Committees (PACs) forming to promote their choice or a few mega rich folks backing particular interests. The candidate has no direct control on how those funds are used due to a Supreme Court ruling that such expenditures are part of Freedom of Speech.


The result of all this is that candidates, in order to win, must curry the favor of these contributors. Unfortunately, the rich and PACS seldom have the same interests as the populace. This has given rise to two (and a couple minor) movements - the Tea Party (individuals identifying with relatively radical right wing agendas) and the Occupy Wall Street group ( a somewhat unfocussed amalgamation of liberal and libertarian points of view). While these splinter groups are unlikely to weild enough power to control a national election, they DO target individual members of Congress and that frightens and somewhat controls them.

So, predicting who will win the Republican nod of the head requires balancing these several forces. It requires pleasing the mega rich, getting the backing of various PACS, keeping the Tea Party and Occupy movements off the back of your aligned supporting members of Congress, and last of all getting people to vote for you. My guess is that Mitt Romney has achieved the best accommodation of these conflicting forces. I don't think many like him, but I think he'll be heading the ticket.

[lvdkeyes]

Newt's real name is Newton. Why he would choose to be called by a word meaning an amphibian is beyond me.
Romney's real name is Willard; Mitt is his middle name. Where that name comes from is a mystery to me.

[Gaybutton]

Romney's real name is Willard; Mitt is his middle name. Where that name comes from is a mystery to me.

This is just a guess on my part, but many parents bestow the mother's maiden name as their child's middle name. Maybe that's where the name came from, but I have no idea what his mother's maiden name was. Come to think of it, I've never really understood the purpose of middle names at all.

A lot of people involved in politics had, shall we say, rather unique names: Adlai Stevenson. I've never heard of anyone else named Adlai. McGeorge Bundy, Rahm Emanuel, Strom Thurmond, Trent Lott, Tipper Gore, Lady Bird Johnson, Millard Fillmore, Scoop Jackson, to name a few.

[lvdkeyes]

Nope, Mitt's mother was born Lenore La Fount.
On researching I found that Mitt is a nick name for Milton, Milton was Mitt's cousin and was a Chicago Bears quarterback.
Often middle names are given to honor a family member. My middle name comes from a great uncle.