Posted on 03/14/2012 1:01:28 PM PDT by PSYCHO-FREEP
GOP being Punk’d?
We know that Democrats are crossing over in open primaries, such as Mississippi and Alabama, in order to vote for Rick Santorum, a big union candidate, their votes intended to throw the Republican National Convention into a contested balloting process.
This tactic was written up at the Daily Kos. Big union money has even invested for the Santorum campaign.
Pardon me for not having all the pertinent facts and I confess I don’t even have time to search for them all, today, to say nothing of presenting and formatting them, here. Can you help? Place further information into comments?
Santorum in Jackson, Mississippi, photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP If memory serves me correctly, CNN’s John King last evening pointed out there according to their exit polling, about six to eight percent of Alabama voters called themselves Democrats. However, I did not find breakdown by party at the exit poll pages in cnn.com. That seems odd in itself, eh?
And if that many Democrats were willing to tell exit pollsters what they did, how many more just walked by them, refusing to be polled? If you were a prankster-voting in such a case, would you want to be examined by a pollster? Maybe some would. Maybe more would not.
CNN’s exit polls (for Mississippi and for Alabama) and the actual vote counts may be found at their site (and perhaps others have published exit polls, please tell me if you find any). Santorum’s final edge over Gingrich was approximately two percent in Mississippi and six percent in Alabama. Theoretically, both of these tallies could be within the margin of pranking.
(Excerpt) Read more at gulagbound.com ...
Romney did surprisingly well under the outward support for Santorum.
There were even robocalls going out for dems to vote for Santorum. Kos and Huffo are as influential with Dems as Rush and Hannity are with Conservatives. They have a very sophisticated ground game.
Romney was the frontrunner in Michigan and Ohio. The goal was to weaken him and give those states to Santorum. The fact there was such a strategy should tell reasonable people that when your enemy uses their vote to skew an election, it is not to improve your chance of winning in the general.
That being said, I will vote for anyone but Obama and Romney.
The Rick bots are helpless and clueless. There boy is being carried over the finish lines by Obama’s union buds and they refuse to see it. You can research the web for just a few minutes and find hundreds of articles from credible sources about how the unions are digging in to support Rick now because they ultimately support Obama. It’s obvious.
Right, and the whole point of them crossing over, is to have Santorum the Nominee. Get it? If not, I give up.
Just keep your powder dry, and don't try to argue with them. They will try to get you banned if you do.
I’m adopting a strategy of talking about them and not to them. With one exception - there is one with some balance and perspective.
Do you sometimes feel we’re trying to reason with two year olds with their fingers in their ears?
I am being told that despite all contrary evidence, the crossover vote didn’t matter and was not organized. I’m sure that it will be a huge revelation to the unions to learn that they aren’t organized.
“Santorum at least understands the role of tariffs”
That would be a great issue if it was targeted towards the countries we have trade deficits with. But I have never heard Santorum speak about it and I’m sure he didn’t introduce legislation in favor of it, when he was in office.
I find it ironic and amusing that Newt - the Great Visionary - is reduced to populist hawking of cheap gas prices.
But go ahead and send him your $2.50 donation.
Time to face facts. Newt is just playing the role of spoiler.
Where can he win? nowhere
Newt does not engage in retail politics. He doesn’t press the flesh. He just pontificates from the podium.
Santorum is the Freedom and Liberty candidate.
And he is genuine.
Can't buy it. Romney is their dream opponent, I don't think even Democrats are stupid enough to try and sabotage the guy they know they can beat.
Believe it or not, some Democrats may actually like Santorum. There are many disillusioned Dems out there, I stood next to one at a Tea Party event, and they might want someone they can trust to abolish Obamacare.
“There is a Soros based movement (Daily Kos related) that are out to disrupt our primary, to ensure that Santorum gets the nomination.”
Even if Santorum does not get the nomination, this startegy is keeping Newt from getting the nomination. And Newt is the one they are desperate to stop.
There can be no true Freedom or National Security without Energy Independence. This is about saving our Freedom and our Economy, creating Jobs and paying off our National Debt.
You should check out the 30 minute Energy Plan video at Newt.org.
What evidence is that? The fact that your guy got less votes?
No comment, come back when you get a clue.
“....neighbors who have Santorum yard signs are also Christian & Homeschoolers. Santorum won our state on issues.”
Piety isn’t an issue.
When liberal media and the unions make a call for Dems to go out and vote in the GOP Primary for Santorum, it is what it is.
When the Dems state what they are going to do, and then do it, you don’t have to “buy it”. At that point, your choices are reality or denial.
Yep, and even how they debate and "cheer" for their guy and the things they say. Romper room.
Santorum is so divisive, that they see him as the easiest to beat. And believe me, after Santorum lets his arrogant manner take over once he thinks he can't be beat, he will open his canyon sized mouth and stick both feet into it.
Which is exactly how the Democrats see him and why he will be so easy for them to beat.
“Romper Room”.
Love it! :)
I am glad you pointed that out. It’s mainly among conservatives that Romney is considered the weakest candidate. Some liberals agree, but there is no consensus among liberals and many think Romney with his money and organization and good V Obama poll numbers now will be the hardest to beat. They are split on this. And some think Romney winning wouldn’t be so bad for liberalism too. No consensus at all.
But without a doubt, there’s a huge number of libs who are convinced Santorum would be by far the easiest. In fact, they hadn’t even thought that kind of luck was possible til recently.
He likely can't which means brokered convention. I have a news flash for you. If a northeast friend of Romney/Bush/Rockefeller Republican wins the GOP will loose the general election and I'll throw in Jeb in the above mixture also. Conservatives have had enough.
Brokered Convention will have to produce a candidate all sides can support. Meaning a draft of someone like Demint etc. But Newt could not have won the delegates as he only won two states including the one he had served but was not born and partially raisd in.
Then, finally how can you prove that Santorum can win against Obama?
By pounding him on issues. He has to show this nation what Obama and the DEMs have caused.
Forget your dislike for Newt, he is no longer in the picture as far as the formal primary vote is concerned. There no way he can win, outside of a brokered convention.
Newt is highly intelligent but he has yet to gain control of his impulsiveness which is dangerous. He is very smart indeed but lacking somewhat in self discipline in many aspects including political ideas he has supported. If Newt had served as governor of Georgia or Virginia or as senator or congressman from either state he would have done himself and the party a huge favor. Like it or not Newt cut and ran at a very critical time in our nation. Worse was the fact our own congress was going after POTUS over many issues including an affair. What was Newt also doing? Manning up and fighting would have done him far less damage politically.
Part of his departure from the house was due to pressures from a coup of sorts Paxton and a few others were trying to pull off. The other part likely due too his own behavior which in the position he was in was indeed the public business to judge that was disclosed to the public after his resignation.
I'll go one further Palin would not get my vote right now unless she ran at least for congress and completed a term at this point. I would respect her a lot more had she at least announced earlier {before Labor Day say in early August} she was not seeking office so maybe we wouldn't have been stuck with Romney, Santorum, and Newt, as the top three GOP choices. I don't think she ever had any intentions to run in 2012. If you don't then say it and let someone else gain the support. If a person can't stand up too the pressures of a lower office and resign how can they stand up too pressures of a higher one?
You can be sure that in every state with an open primary, the Dems will be taking advantage of the “gift” of Santorum.
Rick has already written several Dem ads on the campaign trail.
As pointed out by Psycho-Freep, Rick is just getting warmed up.
But trust is though. Who do voters trust most? Romneycare, Newt who has major baggage, or Santorum not right on an issue a few times but is not Newt nor Romney. None of the three are real POTUS material. Of the three it is honestly a matter of who do you trust the most? By that I mean looking at public and private life. Voters simply see Santorum as being the most connected to the average persons plight. It isn't a matter of him being Reagan 2 as Reagan 2 was no where to be found this election even in the earliest days of this election cycle.
Maybe not, but he's one of the two remaining alternatives to Romney and Obama we have left.
You should be flogged for such a ridiculous statement.
I should be flogged for pointing out that Reagan was the dream candidate for Carter to run against in 1980? What other FACTS do you want censored?
It would not suprise me if Trump or Romney pull something like this. Keep our ears open.
Just this morning, FOX was already downplaying Mitts loss. They kept showing over and over that Romney would beat Obama if election were held today. Very irritating.
“Especially one as weak as Santorum. It is what it is.......We have no other choice.”
We did our best to warn what will come if Santorum gets the Nomination. Having Newt as VP with a guiding hand is the only shot this Country has.
Open primaries and voters believing everything they see are hear without researching has costed us another presidental election I fear.
I fear much darker days will soon be upon us.
Remember, they need some excuse. They no longer have any of the other arguments. Santorum leads Gingrich in total votes, hard delegates, soft delegates, number of states won, head-to-head results, and total placement in races.
They can’t complain Santorum has no longer been vetted, since he’s been being “vetted” according to them since a week before Michigan.
They can’t complain Santorum is taking votes from Gingrich, because there has never been a state where Gingrich came in 2nd, but could have won with Santorum’s votes; On the other hand, there are multiple states where Gingrich was crushed, but where a portion of his vote would have given Santorum a state.
They can’t complain that Santorum isn’t “playing the game” to stop Romney, because in the Alaska Caucus, which is the ONE PLACE where you could actually PLAY a game and give a competitor the win, it would have been Gingrich giving Santorum 400 votes, and Gingrich didn’t do it (in 2008, Huckabee DID give McCain caucus votes to beat Romney).
They can’t complain that Santorum didn’t drop out, because the new Gingrich “strategy” is that everybody has to be in the race.
They can’t push the “Gingrich will sweeep the south”, because Santorum has more southern states than Gingrich.
So what do they have? “Santorum isn’t REALLY winning because he’s attracting democrats who are trying to stop Romney.”
But this is the first chance they have to safely make that argument, because no matter what their views REALLY are, they could never, on Free Republic, have complained about democrats giving Santorum a victory over Romney. But here, Gingrich was slightly ahead of Romney in 2nd, so they make the argument.
Frankly, I don’t care if Santorum is beating Romney by getting Obama to vote for him. That was SUPPOSED to be the plan. Heck, some Gingrich folks are actually in THIS thread complaining that it is Santorum supporters who fail to understand the plan, at the same time they are upset that Santorum is actually doing much getter at implementing the plan.
And Santorum supporters are the ones that made the plan possible, while Gingrich supporters spent weeks bad-mouthing Santorum and his supporters for not quitting the race after South Carolina — which combined with Gingrich’s limited-state strategy would have handed Romney the inevitable nomination by now.
As far as the Media loving last night’s results, it makes good television. If this were a selection with Romney winning each race and collecting delegates, it would just be running the table. Unlike last cycle, where there were contests on both sides, this year only the Republicans are having a fight for the nomination. And fights make for good television.
Yesterday you also saw just how nasty it will get. The media pointed out that Gingrich’s stragety for the south came apart. So, he came out swinging pointing out that Romney placed third in 2 states.
Newt’s plan is now to deny Mitt the delegates to win the nomination, since he has no where else to go except out of the race. Can he do that? Unclear. Maybe the best approach is to keep pressing Mitt from 2 sides, keeping the results a plurality instead of a majority win. There could be enough unrest where Newt and Rick can win enough to prevent Mitt from reaching the magic number.
And, the political stunts always come back to haunt you. Operation Chaos was trumpeted the last election. Now the Republicans may be having to deal with it.
Lastly, I will state that the organizational skills of most of the candidates leave a lot to be desired. Virginia is an embarassment with only Mitt and Ron Paul on the ballot. And Romney’s supposed blowing off a candidate forum since it was not being broadcast is just another example of Mitt projecting how he is better than the rest of us. They are interviewing with US for the most important job in the world. Show us you are ready. Right now, none of them are, IMHO, showing us that they are ready.
“Of the three it is honestly a matter of who do you trust the most? “
If nominated, I trust Newt Gingrich to go after Obama on the communist takeover of this country. If elected, I trust Newt Gingrich to roll back the communist gains we have had during the Obama administration. Romney won’t even call Obama a socialist and Santorum can’t stop taking the contraception bait the dems put out for him.
Newt had a bad marriage during his Speakership and still balanced 4 budgets, reformed Welfare, first Republican majority in the House in 40 years, etc. He’s happily married now. He went to God for forgiveness. As a born again Christian that’s good enough for me.
You just described our current president.
I'm glad he got that part of his life settled. Forgiving someone is not the same thing as giving them your trust again. That even after forgiveness is still must be re-earned.
He doesn’t have the Affirmative Action Quotient going for him.
Seems like Rush proposed the same thing in 08. If this has already been mentioned NO I didn’t read every post.
MS Ping
Yes...Operation Chaos was in 2008 and I was a proud participant. We have closed primaries, though, so I had to register as a *spit* dem. But, I did and unregistered the day after the primary no worse for the wear. ;o)
Frankly, Mittens did much better in MS than I thought he would.
NO...I didn’t read every post, either.
I agree! WHY do we still have open primaries????? Can someone who knows please let me know? ‘Cuz it seems like the stupidest possible thing we can do as a party.
LLS
I cannot disagree with that statement. However, Newt is the strongest Republican candidate to take on the MSM (i.e. those with the slobbering love affair with Obama) in decades.
>> Why on earth do we still have open primaries? <<
Because the state legislature sets the rules as to whether or not a state has voter registration by party. It’s called “states’ rights.”
>> If it weren’t for <<
and Newt’s lack of self-discipline
and the opposition to Newt by former close colleagues like Tom Coburn, Dick Armey and Tom Delay
and that Newt — clearly one of the best-known politicians in the whole U.S.A. — ALREADY has a 60% national rate of disapproval
and that Sheldon Adelson apparently has told associates that he has written his last check for Newt’s super-pac
Looks to me as if Newt’s campaign clearly is finished. The big question remaining is whether, like Huckabee, he can suppress his personal animosity toward Romney enough that he’ll be able to acquire his own talk show on FNC!
>> The open primary is something I’ll never understand. <<
As far as Mississippi and Alabama are concerned, nothing could be easier to understand:
These states don’t register voters by party. So there’s no feasible way to have a “closed” primary.
>> Newt has won two states, one of them his home state <<
Uh, make that his “former” home state. He has been a Virginia resident since 1998.
If I were a Democrat, and in an open primary state, I’d certainly vote for Santorum. He is without a doubt the weakest GOP candidate left in the race.
I know his proponents don’t believe that but its true. The play book used against him in ‘06 is going to work just as well in 12.
Don’t know if the allegations that they are playing with our primary are true, but I know if I was a leftist, that’s exactly who I’d want as the nominee.
And Santorum lacks the ability to win... He didn’t lose his home state by 18 points in 06 as a fluke.
In fact, a poll just conducted showed if he were to run again for Senate against the same opponent right now he’d LOSE by 8-10 points.
This guys a dud folks. The play book used to destroy him in ‘06 is going to work just as effectively in 12, because the man hasn’t changed one iota since then. His own sound bites will be used against him to make him look extreme, and the electorate will reject him.
Here is the truth about this election, anyone, and I do mean ANYONE who isn’t viewed as unacceptably extreme will beat Obama.. This election is going to be a referrendum on Obama. Every poll shows the electorate, by a very large majority wants this doofus gone.
So, all the Republican party has to do is put up ANYONE who is not viewed as more radical or risky than Obama and they will win. ITs a binary decision, The electorate wants to replace Obama, however they won’t replace him with someone they view as radical/risky as he is, or moreso.
Santorum’s problem is, simply this, he doesn’t have command of the english language, or the intellectual depth, to effectively defend his social conservative viewpoints without creating sound bites that make him look like an extremist. That’s it folks. Santorum’s own sound bites were used to paint him as unacceptable in PA in ‘06, very effectively and he never was able to counter it, and he got smoked by 18 points. That exact same plan of attack will be used against him this year if he is the nominee with the same outcome.
Santorum is a social conservative, but he’s not a small government fiscal conservative, however that won’t generally keep the base from voting for him. However, the sound bites he creates nearly daily when trying to articulate his social conservative viewpoints, will turn off more than enough of the 40% of the swing vote to keep Obama in power.
Yes, his social conservative views fire up the social conservatives in the base, and his issues with not being a fiscal and small government conservative are not to the point where the fiscal and small government conservatives by and large would not vote for him if he is the nominee... but the sound bites this guy creates in defending his social conservative views are going to be used to evicerate him. Just like they were in 06.
Now, understand, I am not saying Santorum is wrong for holding social conservative views, or that when you listen to his defense of them in full context that they are not logical, however, most of the electorate will never hear those full arguments, they are going to hear the sound bites that make him look and sound like a heartless monster, over and over again, in news, on You Tube Mashups, etc etc etc.
As much as the electorate wants Obama out, they will not put someone they feel is as more more dangerous in... the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. Of the 3 candidates left in the Republican Primary, Santorum is the only one who can easily be painted as radically extreme by the left, deservedly or undeservedly, and the fact they can do it with his own sound bites, and not one or two, but hundreds he’s made over the years. Santorum had no counter to it in 06 and far as I can tell has none now, nothing has changed about the guy.
Romney’s issue is will the base hold for him, if it does he’ll win. Newts issue will be convincing the 40% he’s not the monster he was spun to be nearly 20 years ago, which I suspect he will heartily do, if he can he’ll win. Santorum’s issue is overcoming his own mouth, so that the swing voters don’t view him as a monster and I don’t see any indication he’s going to be able to do it, he continually to this very day keeps creating fodder to paint him as extreme with.
Can you imagine? Santorum as the Nominee? Total disaster!
Interesting, because that was the 'conventional wisdom' regarding Ronald Reagan about this same time in the Presidential Election cycle of 1980. ;o)
>> Newt’s issue will be convincing the 40% he’s not the monster he was spun to be nearly 20 years ago, which I suspect he will heartily do <<
I wish with all of my heart and soul that I could agree with you. But Newt has shown time and time and time and time again that he simply lacks the self-discipline to stay on message and to execute a successful national campaign.
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