[MP-Ryan]

Because seeing the absolute garbage that's coming out of prominent Republicans (Santorum, Gingrich) and their pundit supporters (Limbaugh), I'm starting to think that the political realm in the US just got replaced by Inquisition-era Roman Catholic church leadership.  Seriously, WTF is going on down there guys?  How does abortiion, contraception, or a host of other women's health issues have anything to do with running the United States of America?

It is SAD that the idea that employers providing health care should all have to meet the same basic drug coverage standards, including allowing women access to contraceptives (use of which LOWERS the abortion rate), becomes so contentious that the Senate is taking votes on clauses that would allow organizations to deny coverage, people are publicly berated and belittled on national media, and PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ends up involved because the right-wing of US politics is bat**** insane.

Unbelievable.  Don't Americans have bigger issues, like an economy in the toilet and a serious government revenue problem in desperate need of repair?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/us-election/us-election-blog/obama-offers-support-to-woman-verbally-attacked-by-rush-limbaugh/article2356966/

[Nuke]

havent you heard? america is Rome MKII!

[cloneof]

I agree, USA is the next great power about to get thrown out of the window.

I for one welcome the century of China.

[Dragon]

Want an insane government? Check out Poland. Not only the two largest parties are both right-wing (the "choice" is between far right and center/right), they spend most of their time attacking each other ad hominem, denying their own statements, wasting public money and convincing people that everything's all right. Not only they don't talk about economical problems the country has, the actively deny them and everything they can't deny, they blame on the opposition.
See why I want to move to America? 

[Nuke]

Want an insane government? Check out Poland. Not only the two largest parties are both right-wing (the "choice" is between far right and center/right), they spend most of their time attacking each other ad hominem, denying their own statements, wasting public money and convincing people that everything's all right. Not only they don't talk about economical problems the country has, the actively deny them and everything they can't deny, they blame on the opposition.
See why I want to move to America? 

how is that different than the us?

[Mr. Vega]

Because seeing the absolute garbage that's coming out of prominent Republicans (Santorum, Gingrich) and their pundit supporters (Limbaugh), I'm starting to think that the political realm in the US just got replaced by Inquisition-era Roman Catholic church leadership.  Seriously, WTF is going on down there guys?  How does abortiion, contraception, or a host of other women's health issues have anything to do with running the United States of America?

Unbelievable.  Don't Americans have bigger issues, like an economy in the toilet and a serious government revenue problem in desperate need of repair?

DISTRACTION.

[Dragon]

US politicians swear less, (still) have of plenty dollars and good military. Poland is poor, uses post-Soviet military equipment and is about the size of Texas, but somehow it's government (and most of it's citizens too) think they can compare to US. The only thing in Poland that can compare to US is it's ego.
tl;dr: Poland is what would happen if you took everything good out of America, compressed it to about the size of Texas and put it in central Europe.

[Nuke]

it seems the last several elections the campaigns revolved around non-relevant issues. i havent followed the elections much yet, i think im just gonna vote for my cat. if you had any sense, you should vote for me, and i will make it legal to shoot at politicians as a form of protest.
VOTE NUKE 2012 (or whatever year in which voting will be done in)
More Explosions
World Dominance
General Badassery

[Hades]

have of plenty dollars and good military. Poland is poor, uses post-Soviet military equipment and is about the size of Texas

What does this have to do with presidential politics in the least?

[NGTM-1R]

Unbelievable.  Don't Americans have bigger issues, like an economy in the toilet and a serious government revenue problem in desperate need of repair?

It's crawling out, and the Republicans can't say that or let people know it because it means they lose. (Not they won't lose already.)

You, like many others, have succumbed to the infowar about what news matters.

[Dragon]

My point was, Poland is acting much more important than it actually is, and politics reflect that. Polish people threat the national treasury as a magic factory of cash, and the government does nothing about it, pretending everything's fine. Ah, I forgot to mention that despite acting "big and important", every single Polish politician panders to whoever's important in EU at the moment, signing every stupid treaty that they propose. Though this is indeed more connected with politics in general than with presidential elections (other than no president so far has done anything to change that).

In Poland, the presidential campaign is an ad hominem fest and most of candidate adverts basically boil down to "All other guys are <insert rude word here>." or "I am better than all other guys.".
Polish government is definitely more insane than the American one. Anybody who thinks otherwise didn't visit Poland (and I envy such people ).
BTW, you've got my vote in any election you're going to run in, Nuke. 

[Sarafan]

the presidential campaign is an ad hominem fest and most of candidate adverts basically boil down to "All other guys are <insert rude word here>." or "I am better than all other guys.".

Sir, you've just described the presidential campaign of every single country in the face of the planet (this isnt coming from a American).

PS. not trying to troll/being sarcastic.

[Dragon]

Agreed, though usually, I see something besides that. For example, in other countries, they're sometimes actually saying something about their respective policies and current problems, how they intend to do something with it (and how the opponent will fail miserably at it).
In Poland, they engage in downright rude ad hominem attacks and almost nothing else. I know that all presidential campaigns have their share of insults, but a campaign composed in 95% of that? Come on. About 10 years ago, they at least used to insult the opponent's program and policies, now they don't do even that, focusing on opponent's past, personal life and other petty things. Also, 10 years ago, they didn't use language usually heard near vodka shops.
What's worst, this approach seems to actually work. The current prime minister won pretty much by the virtue of being comparatively nice and having a complete prick as an opponent. The president is even worse. Sure, he's nice and friendly, but neither bright nor eloquent. His opponent was... well, the same prick who was running for prime minister earlier.  Insane. Top that.

[FireSpawn]

Sorry Nuke, but I'm voting...

[Hellstryker]

It's been this way for awhile.

[BrotherBryon]

A former economic advisor to President Reagan was on the Daily Show last week. He pretty much came out and said what we all have been thinking for a while now. The Republican party today is just insane and the Democrat party doesn't have the balls to stand up to them. This is coming from a man who advised the president every single republican candidate claims to idolize. Mr. Vega had it right the reason why the Republicans or so hell bent focused on these bs issues is to distract the public from their stances on the really important issues. They know that if any one took a hard look at the items they have drawn a line in the sand to protect they would just laugh them out of office.

[Nuke]

Sorry Nuke, but I'm voting...

but cthulhu will raise your taxes!

[FlamingCobra]

Sorry Nuke, but I'm voting...

but cthulhu will raise your taxes!

Hell, I'll vote for him if he raises taxes on the wealthy!

[z64555]

Anybody get the feeling that this is a trend to get more voters (and not necessarily better voters)?

Taxation: It's a tool to fund the government's agendas. People generally get upset if their taxes are being abused on fancy dinners that they don't even get a bite of.

[Bob-san]

My opinion is that social issues are kept on tap to polarize voters against making real decisions. We've got a 2-party system--which should only represent 2 of 8/16 real combinations. (There are clear dichotomies when considering economic, social, authoritative, and foreign policies.) Most of the time, you stick yourself into one of those groups and just focus on what you agree upon. If they can frame it nicely to two major, they'll probably cinch the nomination. Most of the time, it's only to economic conservatives and social conservatives. This cycle, there is no standard-bearer for both groups. Libertarians rally around Paul, social conservatives around Santorum, economic conservatives (not to be mistaken with fiscal conservatives) around Romney, and, for Gingrich, those easily impressed by good charisma.