I have been following the antics of the Republican nominees for President of the United States with a fair amount of interest, far more than I have in past years.

There are a few reasons why. Firstly Obama is no shoe-in. He is far more Gillard than Rudd and the groundswell of support he went to the last election with has dissipated leaving far less to combat the serious corporate money the Republicans enjoy.

Secondly as a huge fan of Cenk Uyger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenk_Uygur from The Young Turks I am much more across the unfolding drama and more appreciative of what the result may mean for the future of the US and us. (I can recommend their app for those with an iphone, just search for TYT). Australia needs a show like theirs so badly.

As to the characters Romney and Perry would appear to be the so called 'top tier' candidates at the moment. But others like Michele Bacmann (scary religious type) and Ron Paul (extreme libertarian but with an integrity the others lack), plus Sarah Palin sniping from the sidelines, are making this a fascinating spectacle.

We might have our lot sprinting to the right, but as the Yanks tend to do their race is in hyper-drive. I may well be showing my colours here but I often get the sense I am watching a freak show.

I was wondering if other OLOers were following the process with similar interest?

While I disagree with some of Ron Paul's policies,he is a true Libertarian ,believes in the the original constitution,wants to end the wars of imperialism and most of all wants to END THE US FEDERAL RESERVE the criminals responsible for the economic crisis and the wars.

The banking,military,industrial complex has controlled Western Govts for a long time.Their New World Order will not roses and chocolates.It will be a global scientific dictatorship whereby those permitted to live and work will do so under strict regulation.Hitler used environmentalism to bring in his agenda.We are witnessing the same today.ie Strict regulation via so called threat of climate change.

Dear Arjay,

Ron Paul is certainly interesting but scrapping all income tax just ain't going to happen. It was notable that after the Iowa straw poll he came second but was completely ignored by the mainstream media. He is gaining support among even Democrat voters purely because of his honesty and consistency but to have him as president would be like taking cyanide, the old cure for syphilis when penicillin is available.

Jon Stewart did a very good piece on Paul and I would give you a link to his youtube clip but one of the most annoying things about this election is the inability for Australians to be able to access his past clips online as Foxtel has tied up the rights to the show and all we get is the message that the clip “is unavailable from this location”. As a result of such bastardry I have sworn never to subscribe to Foxtel. We are all poorer without Stewart's insights.

I loved Sarah Palin taking potshots at GOP donations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0jin5NVAr8

And we can only hope for more of the same.

The Democrats and Republicans - except Ron Paul - think it's desirable to take trillions of dollars from ordinary working people, by the sneak tax of inflation, and give it to big banks, billionaire foreign corporations, and foreign governments, via the Federal Reserve, which has never been audited, and does not report to Congress.

The Democrats and Republicans - except Ron Paul - adhere to the Santa Claus belief that government can make society richer by printing pieces of paper and stamping dollar signs on them. This just happens to be the process that causes economic depressions, and their cure? Print more money.

The Democrats and Republicans - except Ron Paul - are in favour of a state of perpetual aggressive war. It's at the stage where most Americans wouldn't even know how many wars they are in. The war in Iraq was based on lies from the outset which were all demonstrated to be such long ago, yet the USA has been there twice longer than it was in WWII; and who's against it?

The Democrats and Republicans - except Ron Paul - favour the increasing criminalisation of more aspects of American life. The war on drugs is just a re-run of Prohibition, but at least for Prohibition they had the decency to amend the Constitution. The fact that they didn't do so for the war on drugs is symptomatic of a rise in the authoritarian bipartisan belief that Americans are bound in unlimited submission to the federal government.

"The USA PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act, the TSA, the FDA, the CIA, renditions, assassinations, multiple and continuous wars, torture, bailouts, inflation, false flag events, secrecy, illegal searches, spying on citizens, private property confiscations, and much, much more is now commonplace! It is now considered to be a crime to grow your own food, to film the police, to sell lemonade on the street corner, to protest, and in many cases just to speak out against the State."
http://lewrockwell.com/barnett/barnett37.1.html

Why would any reasonable person *not* think that the Democrats and Republicans - except Ron Paul - are batsh!t mad?

Dear csteele,

You're right about the Americans being in "hyper drive,"
things on the whole are much faster in the US. People
don't "stand for election", they "run for office."

The following website may be of interest to people who
aren't familiar with the Presidential candidates.
The New York Times gives their photos and profiles and it's
an interesting read:

http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/candidates

csteel,The income tax only came in 1914 one yr after the instigation of the US Fed Res,allowed by Pres Woodrow Wilson.In 1913 the US Govt stopped producing new money for their economy.By offering to back Wilsons' campaign ,Rockefeller and JP Morgan et al were able to monopolise the money supply for the entire US Govt and so they needed the income tax to pay principal + interest on debt money created from nothing by private banks.The Fed had found a financial nervana.They soon started WW1 so they could finance both sides an also owning shares in the arms/oil industry,could clean up even more.

They then precipated the Great Depression of 1929 which then led to WW2 when they again made a financial killing.

Rothschild."Give me control of a nations' currency and I care not who makes the laws."

So here we are again today with a financial global meltdown.The USA and NATO is the most aggressive forces on the planet.Countries like Nigera are going to dump the US $ and use the Chinese Renimbi as trading currency.We are now in the currency wars and perhaps soon in a real fighting war.