I have mixed feelings about the political compass.

Yeah here is what I found
http://politicalcompass.org/uselection2012
It is interesting but not sure what they base it off of other than legislation and political positions.

It is true the only time I heard a politician talk like a European style Liberal in America is when they had that independent senator from Vermont? on...

that is Bernie Sanders, and he is pretty much a socialist. Vermont is one of the few states he could get elected in this country.

Romney's now up by 13 in Wisconsin. He was down 16 a month ago. I expect he will practically seal it April 3rd.

With no surprise, Santorum won the Louisiana primary.

Just like when he claimed he was just saying "blah" people instead of "black" people. His appeal to racists will only help him with that crowd. The nonracists weren't voting for him anyway.

I can't stand Rick Santorum, but was he really about to say the "N" word?

I think this is a case where he was thinking one thing but his mouth tried to say something else. I don't know if he was actually about to spout Schwarzenegger because the word doesn't make sense in the sentence he was speaking. Nevertheless, I'm hopeful his campaign will end soon so Romney doesn't have to deal with this knife in his back anymore and can focus on the general election.

Romney up by 18 nationally.

Romney backing Paul Ryan's plan shows how untouch he is
http://news.yahoo.com/paul-ryans-plan-a ... 00408.html

There is no reason to cut government that bad. Why should we sell of our national parks? If passed our country would go into a great depression and I would leave this country. Why stay in a country where I can't find a job.

Obama has come out hard against the budget
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/politics/ ... ?hpt=hp_t1

He even said that under Ryan's proposal the Parks would end up closing, and our roads wouldn't be fixed. To me this shows how out of touch Ryan and Romney are and why their policies would ruin our country. Obama needs to continue to get tough on this and should focus his campaign around these horrible policies.

I long for the day when the govt can't create any more debt ceilings. Then, we can all suffer equally.

If this debt issue isn't addressed then the solution (if there is one at the time) will only be that much worse. So when Obama wants to actually work with Congress and create a budget then he can get his stupid 2nd term. How about he make Lord Reid pass a budget in the Senate so both houses of congress can mash something out that the President can sign instead of blaming Pubs all day for their budget proposals.

The Republicans won't compromise. He was willing to make cuts in medicare and medicaid, but they refused to even allow any additional revenues. Why should the democrats make sacrifices and not the republicans? And you can't argue that Ryan's plan is good policy. Why is a good idea to even consider closing down National Parks, destroy the TAA, the National Weather service, the interstate system, and and other important government services?

Romney wins DC, Maryland, and most crucially Wisconsin.

Government Nigger? WTF?

The reality is that in the US the debt problem will get worse.
Its a issue Obama does not take seriously and would like to ignore but he cannot. Its easily number 2 after the economy...

Raising taxes on the rich will not help as the tax hikes needed would have to be large. In today's world where capital flows so easily I think in the end hurts the US long term.

It is at best part of the solution.

The reality is what we have seen is countries try to avoid austerity saying its bad... Then are forced into severe austerity that makes things even worse.
Meaning the point is a day will come when the country will have no choice but to severely gut govt programs.
It reminds of a small story I heard from an economist..

A person running a country tells its people that it can longer give everyone 5 applies a day. There are two choice you can either go from getting 5 apples a day to 4 but will you have 4 apples forever... OR we can continue giving 5 apples but end not able to give any apples or 1 or 2 a day...
I think this story is a good metaphor about the dangers of high debts...

Austerity was needed a long time ago in the US...

Frankly any person who still believes in Keynesian economic theory even now needs to get a good smacking because Keynesian Economic theory does not apply when a country has sooo much debt...

I will not go far and say that the stimulus was a waste but simply saying govt needs to spend outrageous amount of money to help boost the economy is stupid. The limited short term gain is far less then the long term cost...

Lol, OK

Obama, though, was willing to make cuts to medicare and medicaid but he wanted tax increases on the rich as well. I think we need both if Democrats should make sacrifices than republicans should sacrifice too. Either that or we need heavier cuts in defense. Making cuts in the National Park Service, TAA, Transportation, FDA, and Education won't do anything and will just hurt everyone.

Cuts will be required in all departments and in defense, medicare and social security with a mix of increased taxes for not only the rich but for many.

That is the only way the debt will become manageable...

I'm not an economics major, but in modern economics, aren't government's suppose to be perpetually in debt in order for the credit system to work?

Neither am I but I would think common sense would indicate that you can't just keep increasing your debt without attempting to reduce it or balance it. Besides, I think debt on the government is acceptable because you never know when you may have a war, natural disaster or catastrophe that suddenly impacts the budget negatively.

I would like to see defense cuts and a variety of other minor adjustments like slowly increasing the SS age and introducing a privatization option for those not drawing SS. Heck, I'd pay a couple % more in taxes as well to "do my share", but this type of thing needs to be balanced across the board. I feel though that this country is held hostage by the older voters which keeps politicians who are only concerned with re-election from attempting to tackle things like Medicare/Caid/SS in a meaningful way.

I heard this gossip/entertainment news guy on a morning radio show I listen to suggest that Romney's first choice for VP would be Condi Rice but his second choice is...

Ron Paul.

I didn't believe it. (The Ron Paul part)

Common sense, and populist thinking does not always apply to a modern context where society, and the economy by extension, has become very bureaucratic. You cannot compare personal, individual budget logic to the way in which a government's budget operates.

However, I am not an economics major, merely a history major, and I do know from studying history, the English governments in the late seventeenth century and eighteenth century did find it more beneficial for their governments to be in debt. I don't know how this operated, but when both parties support raising the debt ceiling and continually spending money, only to criticized these points when they are out of power in a democracy and politically charged nation, I grow skeptical, that's all.

It actually might be a smart move to bring in the youth vote. If things go well with Ron Paul, then Romney will be the front-runner. However, I think Ron Paul has too big of an ego to be subordinate to anyone.