This January, the Republican Party will choose their nominee for the Presidential candidacy of the United States for the 2012 elections. The battle is getting stiffer, deeper, and more fierce within the GOP for front place in the primaries.

The battle to bypass the on-field verbal attacks among candidates with their so-called campaign related flip-flops, finger pointing and mind-wavering comments along with loads of unhealthy criticism has been going on between the Republican candidates as they struggle to reach the height of US politics.

These are the brave individuals who are ready to step in and potentially navigate the country through the rough tides that the Republican Party has been experiencing. One candidate who has entered the foray is former speaker of the house, Newton Leroy Gingrich, who announced his candidacy for Republican Presidential nomination for 2012 in May of this year.

Michele Bachmann, another Republican Presidential candidate who is a three-term Minnesota Congresswomen, is the current chair of the congress Tea Party caucus.

Ron Paul, US Representative from the State of Texas and a former medical doctor, is also a candidate for the Republican Presidential elections. Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, is a serious contender and a clear favorite for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination.

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and their fellow contenders for the presidential nomination will be facing state-by-state battles that will eventually decide their fate and mark an end to the intra-party race. As the Iowa Caucus approaches, Republican Presidential nomination hopefuls are getting desperate to out-smart each other.

Linda Upmeyer, Mr. Gingrich’s Caucus co-chair women, denounced the Romney campaign for buying 3 million dollars’ worth of ad buys in Iowa intended for negative ads against the Georgia Republican. She further said that it is Romney’s desperation and panic and she believed that it is not going to be comfortable for those who want to move forward.

Recently at the latest Presidential debate hosted in Des Moines, Iowa, Newt Gingrich received character-based aggression from his Republican opponents. Bachmann and Paul criticized Mr. Gingrich as “hypocrite” who profited from his contacts. Mr Gingrich shot back at Mr. Romney and said “the only reason you didn’t become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994”.

Gingrich rose to the top of the polls largely because of how he performed in the other debates this year. However, a few days ago Gingrich’s criticism of Paul Ryan’s plan as “right-wing social engineering” and then his denial of his own attack, is typical of Washington politics, and has led his competitors to question some of his platforms.

Politics has been the center-stage for this type of verbal war and an instrument to prove self-worth from a very long time. Perhaps what matters the most, keeping aside all of the “va-va voom”, is the articulation of promises made during the campaigns.

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Another intense GOP debate took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, that aimed at giving the nation another opportunity to get to know the candidates and their positions on certain topics. Throughout the night, finger-pointing was prevalent, especially surrounding the topic of illegal immigration.

As in past debates, illegal immigration was a significant topic of focus, but it was not only directed at Rick Perry.  Instead, every candidate got a chance to voice their opinion.  Perry has faced criticism over his previous policies on immigration, such as putting in place “magnets” that attract illegal immigrants.

During the Las Vegas debate, Perry turned the attention over to Romney’s lack of enforcement on illegal immigration.  He started quite a quarrel when he brought up Romney’s personal record on the subject. He stated, “Mitt, you lose all of your standing, from my perspective, because you hired illegals in your home, and you knew about it for a year.

And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about how you’re strong on immigration is, on its face, the height of hypocrisy.”  Romney responded that his lawn care service had illegal immigrants working for them, but were let go once he found out. Romney also proposed, as president, to set up an E-Verify System in which employers must check if their workers are legal and if their documents are real.

The other candidates have also had responses to immigration that have been voiced over the past few weeks, one being Herman Cain’s “electric fence” idea.  Herman Cain, who is now taking the lead in many polls, was asked about his idea of building an electric fence along the entire border of Mexico.

While receiving a few laughs, he responded, “Allow me to give a serious answer. Yes, I believe we should secure the border for real, and it would be a combination of a fence, technology, as well as possibly boots on the ground, for some of the more dangerous areas.”

Michele Bachmann also agreed with the idea of a fence and was the first candidate to sign a pledge that would build a double-wedged fence across the border. Rick Perry is opposed to building a fence in his home state of Texas, because he has explained that it would take 10-15 years as well as $30 billion.

Bachmann pointed out the long-term solution of spending money to build a fence now, instead of continuing to have an open border, by stating, “Every year, it costs this country $113 billion in the costs that we put out to pay for illegal aliens. It costs the state and local government of that amount $82 billion.”

Ron Paul also responded to border patrol and illegal immigration by saying that the border lacks resources because they are instead being utilized overseas. “We worry more about the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  We need to bring the guard units home and the units back here, so we can have more personnel on our borders.”

Immigration continues to be a topic of debate as well as an issue the entire country faces, but what the nation thinks about each candidate’s plans is still to come.

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So the Republicans are three for three now. In each debate, the narrowed minded audience cheered or booed something to make the rest of the country cringe. I am just now sure why the GOP continues to cater to this small subset of their party while alienating everyone else.

During the GOP debate on Thursday night, host Megyn Kelly played a Youtube clip for a question to Rick Santorum. The clip was a question from Stephen Hill, a soldier in Iraq who, up until this week, had to “lie about who [he] was” in order to serve in the army. Hill asked if Santorum would reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

After the clip with Hill was played, several members of the audience booed him. Someone could also be heard yelling “faggot.” Nice reaction for the party that “supports the troops.” Santorum response was not much better. “I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military.

The fact they are making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to, and removing don’t ask don’t tell. I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military’s job is to do one thing: to defend our country… “

Kelly asked Santorum what he would do with soldiers like Stephen Hill. “What we are doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. That’s tragic. I would just say that going forward we would reinstitute that policy if Rick Santorum was president. That policy would be re-instituted as far as people in, I would not throw them out because that would be unfair to them because of the policy of this administration.

But we would move forward in conformity with what was happening in the past. Which was- sex is not an issue. It should not be an issue. Leave it alone. Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual. “

Although Santorum never denounced the audience’s absurd reaction, other GOP candidates did the next day. Jon Huntsman told Talking Points Memo that the booing was “unfortunate.” A Perry representative, also called the incident “very unfortunate.”

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The GOP debate on Thursday night was, once again, an attack on Texas governor Rick Perry. In the past, candidates have gone after the governor for his HPV vaccination in the state. On Thursday, it was about immigration.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum first attacked Perry over immigration. “I would say that he is soft on illegal immigration,” Santorum said. “He doesn’t want to build a fence. He gave a speech in 2001 where he talked about binational health insurance between Mexico and Texas. I mean, I don’t even think Barack Obama would be for binational health insurance.”

Santorum called Perry “very weak on this issue of American sovereignty and protecting our borders and not being a magnet for illegal immigration.” Perry defended his stance on immigration, especially a policy where he allows children of undocumented workers to receive in-state tuition costs at public colleges.

He said that the other Republicans who opposed in-state tuition for children of illegals were heartless. “If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said.

Romney pointed out that students from states outside Texas have to pay full tuition, putting holes in Perry’s logic. “If you’re a United States citizen from any one of the other 49 states, you have to pay $100,000 more. That doesn’t make sense to me,” Romney said. Perry had some awkward moments throughout the debate and seemed to be off his game.

Pausing and struggling to answer some questions. And the polls reflect that performance. A focus group run by Fox News said after the debate that Romney was the clear winner, and that Perry lost a large degree of support. Romney’s poise, confidence and specificity is beginning to impress voters.  Surprisingly, Santorum is also gaining support.

He had another strong performance during the debate. Rep. Michele Bachmann is already fading to obscurity as Republican voters are starting to see the electability problems she has.

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It is easy to forget that some Americans, apparently Tea Party members, believe that uninsured people should actually die rather than the United States providing any form of help. That fact was startling clear on Monday night during the Republican debate.

Late in the debate, CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer posed a hypothetical question to Rep. Ron Paul from Texas. “What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn’t have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?” Wolf Blitzer asked. The audience actually cheered at the idea of letting someone die because they don’t have health insurance.

This is the world we now live, allowing other humans to die rather than have some damn socialist system is preferable. Paul interrupted the cheering to offer an explanation for how this was, more-or-less, the root choice of a free society. He added that communities and non-government institutions can fill the void that the public sector is currently playing.

“We never turned anybody away from the hospital,” he said of his volunteer work for churches and his career as a doctor. “We have given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves, assume responsibility for ourselves … that’s the reason the cost is so high.” There are countless examples of people dying because they don’t have health insurance.

This is not a novel idea. It is a reality in everyday America. We can pump out our chests and talk about how proud we are to be an American, but a country that allows 45,000 citizens to die each year because they don’t have the money it not a place I am proud of.

Just the other day, there was another heart-wrenching story about a young girl who died with a very treatable condition because she was uninsured. A ten-year old girl was sent home from the emergency room by two different doctors on two different days, even though during her second visit she was blue around her mouth and nose, had difficulty breathing and couldn’t pee.

She was diagnosed with the “worst kidney infection” this particular doctor had ever seen. The girl died the next day. Although Paul may have an idealistic idea of a free society, that is not what happens. Clearly. Maybe people are not turned away for not having insurance, but they aren’t given the best care either.

I don’t want to live in a society where it is celebrated that people die because they live in the wrong socioeconomic bracket.

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The second Republican debate of this month was held on Monday night in Tampa, Florida. Candidates spent much of the night attacking frontrunner Texas governor Rick Perry. Perry defended his controversial views on social security despite attacks from Mitt Romney.

“We have not had the courage to stand up and look Americans in the face” to tell them that “this is a broken system,” Perry said of Social Security in the opening minutes of the debate among eight Republican presidential contenders at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

When asked if he believed states should run social security, instead of the federal government as he proposed in his book last year, Perry skillfully dodged the question. Perry said it was time for “thoughtful conversations with Americans, rather than trying to scare seniors, as you’re doing.” “The term ‘Ponzi scheme’ is what scared seniors,” countered Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Former Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania criticized Perry for his views on immigration. Perry defended his policy of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition in Texas. “No matter what the sound of your last name, we believe in you,” he said, drawing some boos from the crowd.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is currently struggling to stay in the race, attacked Perry again for his controversial executive order of requiring the human papilloma virus, or HPV, vaccination for young girls in Texas. “If I had to do it over again, I would have done it differently,” Perry said, saying he should have consulted the Legislature on the issue.

Bachmann suggested that Perry passed the order because of campaign contributions. Perry stated that the pharmaceutical company, Merck, had given him only $5,000 of his $30 million campaign war chest.”If you’re saying I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended,” Perry said. “I’m offended for all the little girls who didn’t have a choice” to receive the vaccine, Bachmann replied.

Other participants tried to maintain relevance in the debate. Romney and Perry debated about who can create the most jobs as president. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich pointed out that the government does not create jobs, but that people do. Other participants included former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, Herman Cain, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, and Rep. Ron Paul from Texas.

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The Republican debate on Wednesday night was all about Rick Perry. Even Rick Perry noticed it, stating he felt like a “piñata.” Almost all of the other candidates gleefully swung at the frontrunner, while the Texan governor decided to support all of his controversial statements in his book “FED UP!”

For all the talk about job creation on the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, the words, “middle class,” was only mentioned two times in two hours. TWICE! It is clearer than ever than Republicans are not the party for the middle class. I am unsure if Democrats are either, but I know for sure that Republicans are not.

The debate was primarily between Rick Perry and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney about who had the better state and who created more jobs. Interesting debate since all of the Republicans claim the government does nothing for job creation and it is left up to the private sector.

The governors were prepared with a number of job-related facts to throw out. “Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt,” said Perry.

Romney countered that Texas created more jobs under Perry’s predecessor, George W. Bush, than under Perry. He also defended his record and minimized Perry’s by noting that Massachusetts and Texas have different political and economic conditions. “States are different,” said Romney.

“Texas has zero income tax. Texas has a right to work state, a Republican legislature, a Republican Supreme Court. Texas has a lot of oil and gas in the ground. Those are wonderful things, but Governor Perry doesn’t believe that he created those things.” Perry continued to assert that social security is a “ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.”

He stated if he was president, he would eliminate social security while reassuring people that depend on that income, they would be okay. Romney stated he believes social security is successful but that it is facing a funding problem, which he would fix. Bachmann barely talked at all and did not deviate from her talking points, even when pressed by moderators.

Every other part of the debate was predictable. Not many social issues were touched on by NBC and Politico moderators, although Brian Williams sort of asked Rick Perry about the death row inmate that was killed who is probably innocent, without mentioning the man’s name.

Williams simply asked in general if Perry had ever struggled with the idea that someone who was killed via capital punishment was innocent. The weak sauce allowed Perry to wriggle off the hook: “No, sir.

I’ve never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place of which — when someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States, if that’s required.”

Image Courtesy of  Robert Scoble (originally posted to Flickr as Tweeting the Gov) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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