More broadly, tho, I would be interested in your take about directly growing jobs--where & how to spend money for what jobs? For example: Would you want Huntsman or any other Repub to support government funding for infrastructure, for airport expansion, for transportation quickly & directly since such funding could be expected to produced extensive hiring in short order? What about a central infrastructure bank that Sen. John Kerry has proposed? (Note: I focus on the Repubs here because you have expressed your support for Huntsman.) Would you favor direct funding in the manufacturing area? Or would you favor extension of unemployment benefits? What about extension of the payroll tax holiday for employees?  And, also, what about tax incentives for small businesses for hiring?

Huntsman would drop the marginal rate paid by the richest Americans by more than a third to 23 percent -- a lower rate than rich people paid during the Coolidge and Hoover Administrations or any time since. He would also eliminate all taxes on all capital gains and dividend income -- the primary forms of income for the wealthiest Americans.

    - All Social Security benefits would become taxable. Senior citizens that currently receive the average Social Security benefit as their primary income source (as is the case for most seniors) currently pay no income taxes on those benefits, but would under Huntsman's plan.

    - Many middle-class parents would lose child tax credits and tax benefits for education and child care that are more valuable to them than a tax rate cut.

    - Huntsman's tax plan would also eliminate the employer health insurance exclusion, which helps enable some 160 million Americans get coverage through their jobs.

    - One of the most successful pro-work, anti-poverty initiatives, the Earned Income Tax Credit, would be abolished.

    - Veterans pensions and disability benefits would become subject to tax, as would all military combat pay, military housing allowances and meals, workers compensation payments, public assistance benefits, and state foster care payments. link

He then attended Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, was elected senior class social secretary, and was also elected as one of A&M's five yell leaders (a popular Texas A&M tradition analogous to male cheerleaders).[11][12] Perry graduated in 1972 with a 2.5 GPA, earning a bachelor's degree in animal science.[12][13]

Perry said that the Corps of Cadets gave him the discipline to complete his animal sciences degree and earn a commission in the Air Force. In a 1989 interview he said that "I was probably a bit of a free spirit, not particularly structured real well for life outside of a military regime, I would have not lasted at Texas Tech or the University of Texas. I would have hit the fraternity scene and lasted about one semester."[

Sounds nice, but it certainly begs the question - if you don't need congress, what took you so long?

Let's at least get to w/n a few weeks of Nov 2012 before writing off Obama.

Meanwhile last I checked Obama still had more overall electoral appeal and likability than Jimmy C. did towards the end.

Carter also got the toughest and most charismatic opponent possible in St Ronnie.  I don't think either Perry or Romney are remotely close to being in the Reagan category of formidable opponents.  I'm not even sure Obama, however much he stumbles and wimps out in dealing with the GOP leadership, is as politically clueless and unliked as Jimmy was in 1980.

Obama also doesn't suffer from being seen as weak and ineffective in FP, as Jimmy did, nor on DP is all the blame on the incumbent as with JC.  

Before the national championship game last January, people noted the culture between Eugene and Auburn could not be any different. Indeed. Auburn, Baton Rouge, and other SEC cities are dominated by everything we don't like about football-homophobia, rednecks, halfwits. Reading LSU blog sites lately (because of the huge Oregon-LSU game this Saturday) has been depressing-misspellings abound, anti-liberal sentiment is everywhere, it's just generally awful.

I've spent most of my life in the ultimate college town.  The one big chunk of time I wasn't here - college.