looking at the republican candidates, i suddenly was struck by the realization that president barack obama's re-election is all but assured. i realize now how slim the chances the republicans will reclaim the white house. i'm not upset either way. i don't have a dog in this fight. the only candidate i would bother to vote for is ron paul. he may suprise a lot of folks and win the iowa primary, but the masters of the GOP are not going to let him win the nomination. the republicans' best hope are a stiff northeast mormon that most republicans don't like and a disgraced former house speaker who is unelectable. i don't relish either gongrich or romney in the white house. obama is lucky the republican field is so bad. you have clowns like herman cain and rick perry. even the economy seems to be turning around, though i hope no one thinks any of the republicans will turn the economy around. they say no president has been re-elected with unemployment over 9 percent but there's a first time for everything. you have the sorry spectacle of obama asking iran to return the downed spy drone. i have no sympathy for our government. they should stop spying on other countries and they should stop being lackeys for the israelis. we may as well accept that obama will be re-elected. it's not a loss since none of the republicans would be better, except of course ron paul. i still believe romney will be the nominee. the basic fact of the matter is, if romney is the nominee, obama will probably be re-elected; if gingrich is the nomniee, obama will definetely be re-elected.