You may be wrong about foreign policy not being a factor in this election. Obama has engineered US decline to the point where we have been marginalised in the world. Americans are a proud, nationalistic people and I don't think they will tolerate the implied promise of further decline coming from the Left. Of course, I could be wrong, and "free stuff," like buying students' votes, and their parents with the promise of free college, along with state-funding of birth control (read abortions) may carry the Democrats to victory. It's happened to other great nations in the past.As for the "free stuff" you have completely inaccurately stated who gets "free stuff," assuming you mean federal funding into those states above the average. Of the ten states with the most federal government transfers, five are red and five are blue: Red: N. Dakota (huge agricultural support payments); W VA (Largest payments for Medicare and SS); Alabama (Defence); KY (SS/SSD Unemployment and Rx); Alaska (Defence and federal government salaries)Blue: Conn (Defence and largest Rx payments in the US); N. Mex (Dept of Energy - 3 nuke weapons facilities and largest Medicaid expense - 22% of population on the program); Hawaii (Defence and federal government salaries); MD (Defence and more federal spending per capita than any other state); VA (Defence - highest proportionate spending than any state except CA)States That Get The Most Federal Money | Fox Business

The only abortions the federal government funds are in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother. Oh, and that only for those that qualify for Medicaid. I realize this is this month's right-wing talking point, but wtf are you droning on about?

I don't give a rat's arse about abortions - if people want to abort their young I'm fine with it and I'll gladly see my taxes support it. Most Republicans don't give a rat's arse, either. But the Democrats make it central to their creed and enough Republican wingnuts keep taking the bait to make it a winning issue for the Dems.As for the other issues raised, try reading them first before making stupid "wtf" comments.

It may or may not be true that most Republicans don't give a rat's arse about abortion, but it would appear that the wingnuts are running the party considering the congressional investigations into PP activities based on that bullshit video, when every state that has investigated the issue has found that PP did nothing wrong. That plus the fact that not a single Republican presidential candidate is pro choice. The closest is Pataki who suggests Republicans should stop trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Don't blame Democrats when all they are doing is stating they quite like Roe vs. Wade and would like things to stay the way they are. If that prods the Republicans into being stupid, whose fault is that?

If you don't "give a rat's ass" about abortion it's odd that you should mention it at all. The Democrats are not proposing to change the Hyde Amendment to extend federal government abortion funding. In fact, all the current "outrage" about abortion is Republican-generated, based on doctored (pun intended...) Planned Parenthood videos.

I don't see what Obama has done to engineer US decline, I don't even know what you mean by that.

As for the free stuff part. I apologise for saying that nine of the states that receive the most free stuff are red. It's actually only eight. My mistake.

Blue state, red face: Guess who benefits more from your taxes?

Perhaps it won't be conclusive in a few weeks, but a lot more will be known after the first debate. By then Biden will have definitely made a decision, and it will also be a chance for Sanders to be heard by many people for the first time, so it will give an indication if his support grows in areas where he is struggling, particularly with non-whites.

Maybe it was because he created the recession. You know, the one that started before he was elected and ended several years ago.Or possibly because people in other countries are no longer afraid that the US will randomly attack them, because there are fewer people with a negative feeling about the US now.Or maybe something vaguely to do with morals.Who cares, just state the the US has declined in the world due to Obama and some people are dumb enough to believe it without even thinking about what that statement even means.

I'm on mobile so can't paste the image, but here's an interesting link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/files/2014/10/PewNew2.gif

Apparently Ben Carson doesn't like fiat currencies and would like us to return to the gold standard. Say hello to a new Depression.

I got a kick out of Pauls trumpeting that idea as well a few years back. Not enough gold in our stockpile, at current prices, to back up the currency in.circulation, let alone the debt. Someone hit him with that and his answer was, there is always enough gold, it just depends on the price. Dumbass. In fact, I think that when I researched various countries gold stockpiles it still did not add up to enough.

Current U.S. reserves are around 400 billion dollars at today's gold price of $1,114....currency in circulation is about 1.38 trillion, or about three and a half times more than our gold supply...and that is physical currency not including all of that money floating around electronically. Then there is the debt of 16.3 trillion. That's a total of 17.68 trillion, or almost 44 times our gold supply at current prices..so to back it all up gold would need to be $49,238 an ounce to cover all of that. Right. Hello brass wedding rings.

Well I'll let Piers Morgan address your point. Here's the headline:

PIERS MORGAN: Thank God there's a strong President willing to stand up for American interests in the Middle East - shame it's not Obama

Laughable stuff.

Except...

"Russians Strike Rebel Targets in Syria, but Not ISIS Areas"

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/wo...=top-news&_r=0

Piers Morgan & The Daily Mail... a match made in heaven.

Yes, the Russians aren't doing what we'd like to see happen there. And what are we doing???? THAT is what 'engineering the decline' is all about. But some of us can't see it (or acknowledge it) even if it's kicking us in the nuts. Some here might see the Russians as being so much more benign than the US and they're fine with it. I'm not.

Welcome to the world of the Western Roman Empire at the time of Flavius Aetius - at least he led a coalition to defeat the Huns, although the final collapse came soon after.

It's easy to do what you want and appear as a strong leader when everyone in your country who disagrees with you disappears.