The new Primary Thread

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
...so AQ and Iraq could plausibly be friends, according to common sense.

Not so. Saddam ran a secular neo-Fascist government. Al Qaeda is a reglious organization taken to fanatical levels. Religous fanatics and secular governments don't get along well.

And the supposed "threat" facing us was that Saddam was going to give weapons of mass destruction. Why would a paranoid dictator like Saddam entrust his valuable weapons of mass destruction to a bunch of fanatics who had vowed to overthrown him?

[Kuciwalker]

Not so. Saddam ran a secular neo-Fascist government. Al Qaeda is a reglious organization taken to fanatical levels. Religous fanatics and secular governments don't get along well.

Did you read anything I wrote up to that point?

[snoopy369]

Can we get back to the real topic here and discuss the primary and the polls Go get a thread, you two...

[Kuciwalker]

Once reasonably intelligent posters stop saying incredibly stupid things, sure.

[Zkribbler]

Alas. I have been shamed into silence.

[Alexander I]

And it's time again for another “Medal” and Delegate Count as we sit on the cusp of "Super-duper-tsunami" Tuesday.

Republicans:
McCain: 3 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze, 97 Delegates
Romney: 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 92 Delegates
Huckabee: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze, 29 Delegates
Paul: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 6 Delegates
Thompson (Out): 1 Silver, 2 Bronze, 0 Delegates
Giuliani (Out): 1 Bronze, 0 Delegates
Hunter (Out): 1 Bronze, 0 Delegates

Democrats:
Clinton: 2 Gold, 1* Silver, 1 Bronze, 232 (48) Delegates
Obama: 2* Gold, 2 Silver, 158 (63) Delegates
Edwards (Out): 1 Silver, 3* Bronze, 26 Delegates

*Clinton also placed first in Michigan and Florida, though her two chief competitors took their names off the ballot in Michigan and both states have been deprived of delegates by the DNC. Obama placed 2nd and Edwards 3rd in Florida.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

So, as we head to Super Tuesday tomorrow, eight states have had their GOP primaries/caucuses, with Romney leading in wins and McCain leading in delegates and momentum. Six states have had their Dem primaries/caucuses, though 2 are currently disenfranchised, and Clinton is leading the total delegate count though Obama has the momentum and confirmed delegate count.

Tomorrow could probably decide the clear frontrunners, with 19 states having both GOP and Dem primaries, 2 having just GOP, and 3 having only Dem primaries, for a total of 24.

What a mess.

[Flubber]

Sounds like fun to me!!!

I'll be watching the results with interest-- Mccain might sew things up but Clinton-Obama might go to the bitter end (the disenfranchisement of two states could really come into play)

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

I'm merely pointing out that the case of North Korea means that having nukes, or potentially having the will or means to acquire them, is not itself a motivation for an attack.

No, you said it was immaterial. A much stronger claim, and one that is, yes, false.

Immaterial means "of no consequence." My original claim was that "Whether Iraq possessed WMDs or not was immaterial" to considerations of an invasion, and I maintain that to be correct. Iraq having weapons of mass destruction of any kind was of no consequence because 1) there was no threat against us, credible or otherwise, 2) there was zero reason to believe Saddam was in league with anyone who threatened us, 3) WMDs alone clearly did not merit a military response as such, as NK demonstrated, and 4) it was not evident that all non-military measures had been exhausted.

Actually I was talking about the Allies and the USSR. You have a poor track record interpreting my posts...

There was nothing to interpret. All you said was WWII. Admonish me for poor interpretation when you stop being hopelessly vague.

Why overwhelming? "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is both common knowledge and common sense. AQ is our enemy, Iraq was our enemy (we'd been bombing them for years...), so AQ and Iraq could plausibly be friends, according to common sense.

That's an incredibly simplistic argument. Surely, since Saddam was our enemy, the world could have (indeed, should have) expected an alliance between us and AQ, since the enemy of my enemy is my friend. O joyous day! I wouldn't call that common sense, though "enemy of my enemy is my friend" might be a common maxim.

It was always quite evident that Saddam hated AQ and AQ hated Saddam. Bin Laden had launched numerous diatribes against Saddam and his secular ilk, and despite public shows of piety Saddam crushed fanaticism and terrorism utterly as a challenge to his authority. The very idea of them teaming up is extremely farfetched and defies everything that was known about AQ, bin Laden, and Saddam up to the war.

As for common sense - to paraphrase Voltaire, it's not so common.

[Krill]

Originally posted by Flubber
Sounds like fun to me!!!

I'll be watching the results with interest-- Mccain might sew things up but Clinton-Obama might go to the bitter end (the disenfranchisement of two states could really come into play)

Since one of them is Florida, and that they might decide to vote GOP in the main election, it would make for a very weird decade of voting there.

[Perfection]

I JUST SAW RON PAUL!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Did you touch him?

[Perfection]

No

I snuck into the volunteer seats though so I got a good look at him.

[MarkG]

so what's the best site for results?

and is there any site i can make bets on?

[snoopy369]

cnn.com is probably fine... you have another 24h of waiting though sir

[MarkG]

Originally posted by snoopy369
you have another 24h of waiting though sir

yeah i know the US is several hours behind the rest of the civilized world