Oh for God’s sake it’s easy, if they’re not sure if waterboarding is torture of not just try it, then they’ll know.

I wonder what these candidates would make of it if their enemies used this “Enhanced Interrogation Technique” on American troops? Would that be considered acceptable and not torture then?

With exception to Ron Paul they’re total lunatics.

Why aren’t these people locked up?

Ron Paul seems to be the only sane one of the lot, the others are complete spoof artists!

It would be funny if it wasn’t real. No wonder so many countries view “the land of the free” with suspicion. There used to be reference to ” Chinese water torture” maybe this should just be called ” American style water torture”.

It just goes to show how f***ed up American GOP supporters are if they even think this is a debate. If you hold someone forcibly down and pour water on their head such that they feel like they cannot breathe. It’s torture. End of. If you think otherwise you have an out of the ordinary vindictive streak and should get help. Jaysis!

They want to stand up to china eh??

They better hope that china doesn’t call in all the debt the USA owes it or they’ll be in awful trouble. Most of that 12 or so trillion belongs to china in one way or another.

As for taking jobs? Well china along with many other countrys do the jobs that Europeans or Americans will do alright but can you get away with paying europeans or Americans the same low low wages? :)

Of course if you want iPhones etc made in America you can but then you can expect them to cost at a very very min x2 as much (1200 for an unlocked iPhone).

Not to mention the massive price increases on so many other things we use day to day.

What these people say about bring jobs back to America may sound great but they ignore the cost increases which would occur if they ever succeeded (they won’t)

Republican Fruitcake Convention

The 2012 election is there for the taking for the GOP. Fortunately the GOP will probably shoot themselves in the foot again and will nominate one of the above wackjobs and get no crossover democratic votes. If they nominated a rational, decent candidate like Ron Paul they would win a landslide imo.

“If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”

A vote for Romney is a vote to invade Iran?

Stand up to china, that would mean nuclear war. The war on terror exists only in the minds of the neo cons to facilitate their vision for a new American century( securing the oil producing areas). Iran has no nukes , America has thousands. Torture is torture. Fake intelligence was invented by the bush administration at the behest of aisap and the rest of the Zionist lobby to justify the Iraq war , and by the way Israel holds no value as a strategic ally of America , the lobby just keeps the pressure on and any non jew who speaks out against Israel or Zionism is branded an anti Semite . Ron Paul is the only sane person in the room.

The Republican Party in the US stands for bigotry and extremism and its obnoxious supporters cheer the idea of letting uninsured citizens die and boo gay soldiers fighting their wars. These candidates are utterly repugnant (some certifiably crazy) and in the vast majority of other western countries, would be well outside the mainstream and not afforded any degree of respectability.

Unfortunately about 40% of Americans share these views and in the southern states and parts of the Mid-West, represent a clear majority. Obama may not have turned out to be the dream President many imagined he would be, but he certainly deserves re-election when you consider his opposition. In any event, Americans and their fans abroad need to realise that their country is not exceptional and its power and status in the world is in decline regardless of who is elected next November.

@Kevin Sweeney

So it’s bigoted to oppose a far right agenda and party that promotes torture, homophobia, religious fundamentalism, a war on the poor, an arrogant and misinformed foreign policy and a version of capitalism so extreme that supporters seem to take pleasure at the thought of someone unable to pay for private health insurance being left to die?? We clearly have very different ideas on what the terms ‘bigot’ and ‘extremist’ mean..

Politics is show business for ugly people. The president/ prime minister/ Taoiseach is a puppet it’s the guys behind the curtain we need to watch out for.

I think that anybody who listens to republican debates and takes them serious is certainly a very very special kind of person.

Just when you think the republican candidates can’t get any nuttier , some new random IQ challenged weirdo appears on our tv sets to raise the idiocy bar further.

I know we have our own specially challenged voters who vote in awful politicians, but the US, particularly the republicans take things to a new level!

Any of these candidates who thinks waterboarding is not torture should be willing to undergo a session. Romney is correct in his position on China and trade. He and Ron Paul are the only two of this crowd who should be debating, in my opinion. The rest of the Republican field is an international embarrassment to the people of the United States.

…It’s a typical tactic of the far right to label their opponents the same thing they are rightfully accused of – bigotry, intolerance etc.

According to this kind of flawed logic, those who fought against segregation and for civil rights in the American south in the 50s and 60s were just as prejudiced as those they are protesting against.

The fact is the GOP in the US are not similar to most mainstream centre-right parties in Europe and elsewhere. They have far more in common with the likes of the BNP in the UK and the Front National in France.

In fact I doubt even the British or French fascists would be so outrageous as to call for some of the “policies” contained in the Texas GOP state platform for example:

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/06/21/103568/texas-gay-marriage-felony/

“If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”

“Under Obama, it is as if the US has decided it wants to lose on the War on Terror.”

Sooo, under Obama two wars are currently being wound down with tens of thousands of US troops to come home by christmas but under the GOP a third war with Iran would be started, a war that American hasnt the manpower, funding or national inclination to undertake and this is a standpoint these goons are using to slither into the whitehouse. Morons.

As for the China comment, there is an reek of sour grapes about that. Its less about American being at odds with China on principal and more about jingoistic pride. Chinas rise hurts Americas ability to maintain an international hegemony.

This lot are scary! Waterboarding, Abu Graib, Rendition? Merkozy stomping around Europe bullying countries away from their individual democratic rights, the Republican and Tea Party mix in the States, Assange under wraps and a corrupt popular press. What next? A knock on your door cause you left a few shouty lines on twitter?

So would all the Irish Ron Paul supporters here vote for an Irish politician who would;

Pull out out of the UN
Does not believe in welfare
Does not believe in unemployment insurance
Does not believe in minimum wage
Does not believe in state pension
Does not believe the state should provide health care (ie: churches & non-profits can provide it)
Does not believe people with disabilities needs laws to protect them
Does not believe in the Civil Rights Act 1964 (outlawed discrimination against blacks and women)
Does not believe in global warming and would close down the environmental protection agency

I think people see his commonsense foreign policy and his position on the Federal Reserve and get carried away

Ron Paul all the way.

Yes I do hold socially progressive views and have no problem admitting that. And if you don’t like the source then by all means click directly on the website of the Texas Republican Party. You will still find the same odious policies listed there such as calling for the criminalisation of homosexuality (!) a complete ban on pornography etc. These people are right-wing extremists, who want to impose their Christian fundamentalist views on everyone else. You may see that as name calling, I see it as an accurate description of a party that in some respects is even more bigoted in its outlook than its far right equivalents in Europe.

Terribly worded headline. Republican candidates are split on the issue. Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul declared it was torture, and thus opposed its use. Cain and Bachmann said they’d support it.

If only Republicans weren’t so thick, they’d nominate Ron Paul, the only candidate with his head screwed on.

@Ryan Allen

What you posted may have been correct at one point but the current Republican Party is far from the big tent, broad church outfit you are falsely claiming it to be. Moderate Republicans are a dying breed and are being purged from the party at every level. The process started with the election of Reagan in 1980 but even this much vaunted hero of the American right would find it hard to meet with the approval of the demagogues who control the party today.

Also, it is not credible to compare US and Irish political parties. The centre of gravity in American politics is very much tilted to the right – In much of Europe the Democrats would be centre or even centre right and certainly where economic policy is concerned. So what you have is a centrist party vs a hard right party.

As for Mitt Romney, he is possibly the most devious and unpalatable of all the Republicans running (which says something!) and has fully signed on to the hard right agenda of the fundamentalists who now control that party. For example, he did everything in his power to undermine marriage equality while Governor of Massachusetts and even took to mocking the state’s acceptance of same-sex couples and “alternative lifestyles” when campaigning in 2008 in southern states. He is most certainly a bigot.

Again, in any other western country, these people would be regarded as ultra-fringe candidates and taken about as seriously as Dana is here. The fact that they and their far right views are considered “mainstream” in America is a sorry indictment of the current state of politics and society in that country.

I’d like to know if the average American citizen makes of these people, do they cringe as much as us when the read the nonsense that the GOP candidates come out with?
I’m sure Obama was pandering to the masses in the last few weeks when he said that “he was the underdog” in the Presidential race at this time but could you imagine what’ll happen if any of these folks get in to replace him!

Agree, Ron Paul is the best candidate on the republican side. But I hope some other country or organization is prepared to assist Israel and South Korea, they will be annihilated without US support, Ron Paul calls for no US interference in foreign affairs. He will close all US overseas bases and take care of the US within its borders.

It’s just the start, the yanks want to introduce it as an Olympic sport, cant be any worse than fencing

Again Adam you are name calling, it is the tactic of the left, comparing the GOP to the BNP and the Front National.

Your ideology is clearly revealed when you use “thinkprogress.org as reference,