Please define "investment" ...

If you mean borrowing large sums of money, or taking money out of the economy, and processing it through a bloated, inefficient and corrupt government and then using it to pay off political favours of the governing party I think that is the last thing the economy of the USA needs.

What the United States needs is for the government to get out of the way and allow small businesses to create jobs and grow the economy. Giving sweetheart deals to political allies' green corporation which goes out of business months later is a huge waste, and damaging to the economy.

I would put the odds of Ron Paul being the Republican candidate at roughly 0% ...

While many people (including myself) believe that Ron Paul is a strong candidate, there is a widespread belief that he isn't electable in the general election and therefore he won't win the primaries.  With that said, I think that he would be an ideal running mate for several of the other candidates and I would suggest they choose him if they won.

I always hear about "regulations for small businesses" and yet America usually tops the lists of countries that are best to start a business in (and that's disregarding our economic size)

Which is why i'm always skeptical of the "poor old small businesses," argument, seeing it as a front for the super rich to keep a few more hundred million dollars to themselves

That sucks! He's one of the smartest guys I've seen. USA would be well off with him. 

http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/09/federal-regulations-cost-small-businesses-more-than-large-ones.html

The cost for small businesses to comply with federal regulations is higher than that of large ones, says a new report from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Businesses with 20 employees or fewer pay 36 percent more than their larger counterparts (defined as those with 500 or more employees), says the report – called "The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms" -- from the SBA's Office of Advocacy. This is because a lot of costs are fixed -- the same whether you have two employees or 2,000. Total annual cost of following the rules for a small business: $10,585 per employee, or about $2,830 more than big business. Businesses with 20 to 499 employees paid about $7,454 per employee, or about $300 less than the largest companies.

"didn't win the first time around," isn't really an issue. I know Ronald Reagan lost to Gerald Ford in the '76 primaries, who then went on to lose to Carter (whom Reagan himself trashed four years later)

Becoming a presidential candidate is always about waiting for "your time," politically. McCain running as a sort of Elder Statesman was the best shot the Republicans had in 2008, but Romney is better positioned now to move towards an American middle that's fatigued by Democratic policies, but rightly scared by far-right ideologues

Really the Carter Election is about the best modern example of what's going on.  Carter or Truman.

Right down to Obama's likely election plan.  "It's not my fault and hey I may suck but the other guys will suck harder."

Perry plays into that strategy a lot better.  The only real albatross Obama has is the Healthcare plan.  Obama can complain all he wants about Republicans obstructing him, but really all it takes is the Healthcare reform to really hurt his arguement there, as he spent all his time and energy on that and since then has been kinda absent....

and well, it's not a particularly popular plan.

I guess you could try and run a whole campaign on "Rick Perry wants your grandmother to die."

Though Romney... would be tricky which is probably why they had the whole "Focus on mormons being weird" angle.

he should be the treasurey secratary

The next debate is on live through CNN.com

this.

hey just wait till we'er all rich so the millionaires can be the poor, the billionaires can be the middle class, and the trillionaires can be the rich. more money. more republican support.