Election 2012: Obama vs. Someone

by Timothy Horrigan; last revised December 26, 2011




The Democratic side of the 2012 primary race is pretty straightforward. Obama is still massively popular with us progressive types, even if he used up a lot of his political capital in 2010. The hatred from the Teabaggers just makes us love him that much more. The Republicans will have to run someone against him, but who?

These guys (and gals) are listed generally in the order of how interesting I find them— except I left Wayne Root for last.




About the Date of the New Hampshire Primary:

Originally, the date was officially set for the standard Town Meeting Day, which is the second Tuesday in March 2012. That would be March 13, 2012. However RSA 653:9 states that the Secretary of State can move the election to a date 7 days or more before a "similar election" in any other state. The Iowa caucuses are not considered a "similar election." In 2008, we had the primary on the second Tuesday in January which was January 8, 2012. Christmas & New Years Day were on Tuesday in 2007-2008, but they are on Sunday in 2011-2012,.

Back in the fall of 2010, the Democratic National Committee said the date would be Tuesday, February 14, 2012— but the DNC does not in fact set the date.


The second Tuesday in  January (January 10, 2012) will once again be the big day.

See:


For a week or two, Nevada's Republican Party had its caucus scheduled for Saturday, January 14, 2011, but it got pushed back to February. 4. Secretary Gardner would have plausibly ruled that those Nevada caucuses did not constitute a "similar" election, but he was totally ready to move the primary up to December.

The Iowa caucuses will be on Tuesday, January 3, 2012. (They constitute a "dissimilar "election because no actual national convention delegates are chosen.)

The filing period for Presidential candidates was Monday, October 17 through Friday, October 28, 2011. The deadline for changing your party affiliation (assuming you are a registered New Hampshire voter) was moved up to Friday, October 14, 2011: "Undeclareds" (independents) can still pick either party at the polling place on election day.


Contact: Secretary of State's Office 603-271-3242 elections@sos.state.nh.gov

September 30, 2011 11:15 a.m.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New Hampshire Secretary of State's Office


In a statement released today, following Florida's decision to conduct its primary in January, Secretary of State William Gardner made the following comments:

"For more than half a century, beginning in 1916, the New Hampshire Presidential Primary was held every four years on the second Tuesday of March, our traditional town meeting day.

In 1972, the State of Florida decided by law to have its Presidential Primary on the same day as New Hampshire. They were not successful. Since then we have not been able to continue having the primary on the second Tuesday in March, the only date specified in our state law to this day.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to have the upcoming Presidential Primary on the second Tuesday in March and still continue to honor the tradition of our First in the Nation Presidential Primary.

Because we cannot rule out the possibility of conducting the primary before the end of this year, we are, regrettably, as we were four years ago, forced to move the presidential candidates filing period to October. "

The two-week filing period for the upcoming NEW HAMPSHIRE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY will begin on Monday, October 17, 2011 and end on Friday, October 28, 2011.

Filings will be accepted at the Secretary of State's Office between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The office will be open until 5:00 p.m. on the last day of the filing period. Any filing made on the LAST day (October 28, 2011) of the filing period must be made IN PERSON by the candidate.


The Declaration of Candidacy form is available on the Secretary of State's website:

This form and the fee of $1,000 (cash or certified check) is required to be submitted by any person filing for the Office of President of the United States.

The last day for voters interested in changing their party affiliation is Friday, October 14, 2011. The supervisors of the checklist in every town will be meeting at a minimum of between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on that day for the purpose of correcting the checklist.



Barack Obama, Columbia College '82, President of the United States





Vermin Supreme: Yes, That is His Real Name

Mr. Supreme is the only candidate— aside from Mitt Romney— who openly admits that he is working to subvert America.


John Wolfe, Jr., Another Democratic Candidate

John Wolfe is an activist, lawyer, and occasional Congressional candidate from Chattanooga. He is the most serious of the "other" Democrats.


Darcy G. Richardson, Another Democratic Candidate

Darcy Richardson is a Jacksonville, Florida-based writer and blogger who for no immediately apparent reason has filed to run as a Democrat in the New Hanpshire primary.  He was the first Democrat candidate to officaly file the paperwork to run against Obama.  Richardson writes about politics, but he has not even alluded to his own campaign in his recent writings, as far as I can tell.  His three previous runs for various state offices (in Pennsyvana and Florida) were all on Third Party tickets.


Stewart Alexander, Socialist & Nissan Salesman

When I looked through Flickr for an embeddable picture of Socialist Workers USA Presidential nominee Stewart Alexander, I discovered that he toils way out on the front lines of global capitalism. In addition to his political activities, he works (presumably part time) as a Nissan salesman at a little dealership in Hemet, California (a small town in the desert east of Los Angeles and north of San Diego.) I think this makes him the only real capitalist in the whole Presidential field, with the possible exceptions of Vern Wuensche or Herman Cain.

Fellow Presidential candidate Darcy Richardson is Alexander's national policy director, which is a little weird— but not illegal (unless Richardson is a "straw candidate" whose only goal is to take Presidential Primary votes away from Obama.).



Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont


Ed Cowan, U.S. & World Citizen from Vermont

Cowan was the first Democratic candidate to file his paperwork in person. Even Obama sent Biden over to drop off the paperwork.


Sarah Palin, ex-Governor of Alaska

As recently as August 28, 2008, no one in the Lower 48 knew who the hell she was. But then, on August 29, 2008, John McCain made her a star. And now she won't go away. Until August 12, 2010, I merely disliked her.

She hardly campaigned in New Hampshire at all before dropping out of the race. She visited the state just once since her two brief appearances in 2008. She made no significant public appearances during that one visit.  Basically she went out for breakfast with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, visited a local fish coop, and attended a small private house party.

I won't be shocked if she drops back in.




Judd Gregg, former Senator from New Hampshire (and former Representative and Governor)

Back in December 2010, an odd rumor went around that Judd Gregg was running for President. It would be hard for anyone from an early primary or caucus state to run: you can't get a "bounce" from winning and your local party operatives will resent you. But Gregg has the additional handicap of being totally without charisma. He is not the worst potential candidate around, but he is far from the best. He has been around New Hampshire politics for decades, but nationally he is best known for accepting and then rejecting a nomination to be Obama's Commerce Secretary. That's not a good thing to be best-known for.




Willard M. Romney; ex-Governor of Massachusetts



Fred Karger, Political Consultant & Gay Rights Activist

For decades, Fred Karger was a mainstream Republican of the type now derided as "RINO" ("Republican in name only") He worked behind the scenes as a political consultant and lobbyist. When he came out of the closet, he decided to become the first openly gay Presidential candidate. At least, he is the first plausible major party contender since President Buchanan (James, not Patrick) to be openly gay.





Newton Leroy "The Eft" Gingrich: Used to Have the Same Job John Boehner has Now



Rick Perry: Governor of Texas




Dr. Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas:

Rick Santorum, ex-Senator from Pennsylvania

It seems odd that Santorum is running again. His views are, even by Tea Party standards, troglodytic. His 2008 Presidential run was stymied when he lost his 2006 Senate re-election campaign by a Hodes-like 56%-41% margin. But he is back.


Michele Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota

Teh crayzee!



Gary Johnson, ex-Governor of New Mexico

Johnson preceded Bill Richardson as Governor of New Mexico. They never ran against each other because Johnson was term-limited. Johnson takes it for granted that he would have defeated Richardson.


Jon Huntsman, ex-Governor of Utah & ex-Ambassador to China

Huntsman served as the Ambassador to China under President Obama, which is a slight problem if you are running as a Republican. Aside from that he is known for being the "Other Mormon" (alongside Romney.)




Herman Cain, Rich Dude

Cain was a successful businessman who semi-retired in his early 50s and became a political commentator. And now he is in in his 60s and running for President— or he was running until we found out about all his girlfriends.





Vern Wuensche, Reasonably Well-Off Dude

My late father and I had a long conversation with Vern Wuensche on a street corner in Portsmouth, NH on Boxing Day 2007. We liked him a lot. He is a great guy with some very good ideas (and relatively few bad ones.) He got 36 votes in 2008: ours were not 2 of them.



Charles "Buddy" Roemer, Former Governor of Louisiana

Buddy Roemer recently announced that he would be living in New Hampshire full time— not to retire but rather to run for President. His big issues are campaign finance reform and the "fair tax." Unfortunately, "Fair Tax" has become a dirty word amongst New Hampshire Republicans, who oppose an income or sales tax.



Dr. Hugh Cort, Self-Proclaimed Counter-Terrorism Expert

In 2008, he claimed to be the only candidate who could prevent Osama bin Laden from blowing up the Capitol. Osama is now dead, and the Capitol is still standing— and Dr. Cort is still running for President.





Bob Greene, Thorium Power Advocate





Aldous C. Tyler, Activist

Aldous C. Tyler has an engaging autobiography on his web site which is impossible to summarize adequately. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin and supports himself on the fringes of the information technology industry. He has also been active in progressive talk radio, although currently he (apparently) only does a weekly hour-long show on WSUM-FM 91.7FM. He is opposed to the 3 C's: Corporatism, Continuation and Capitulation.




Bob Ely, Dark Horse Democrat

He has a web site, entitled "Work More; Keep Less" He also says he "expect[s] to be the least popular president of all time. " Coming just a few years after Bush II, that is an ambitious goal.


Robert Jordan, Dark Horse Democrat

Robert Jordan is from Orange County, California and he wants to eliminate all restrictions on petroleum production. He also wants to raise the gas tax. This is a pair of positions guaranteed to enrage both Democrats and Republicans. He has a web site with a few well-though-out platform planks— but he tells us nothing at all about his background, aside from the fact that he is a veteran.




Craig (Tax Freeze) Freis, Dark Horse Democrat



Cornelius Edward O'Connor, Dark Horse Democrat





John C. Haywood, Dark Horse Democrat

He is from the "other" Durham— Durham, NC.


Chris Hill (left) with TV host Denis Goddard

Christopher V. Hill, Dark Horse Republican
He grew up in New Hampshire, but inexplicably lives in another state, Kentucky.





Michael J. Meehan, Dark Horse Republican
He is not one of the South Bend Meehans




Mark Callahan, Dark Horse Republican



Cody Judy, Leah Lax, and Thomas MacLeran, Birthers

These three total unknowns signed on to "birther" petitions by Orly Taitz, and Mr. Judy allegedly even attended the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission's near-riotous hearing on November 18, 2011.  But they aren't on the New Hampshire ballot, even though it only costs $1000 to file. I don't quite see how they could think they're entitled to demand that Obama be thrown off the ballot when they themselves aren't on it.




Wayne Root with friends. (He is 3rd from the left)
Wayne Allyn Root, Columbia Class of 1983, Las Vegas oddsmaker & author

(Root was a classmate of Barack Obama's: they were both poli sci majors.)



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