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FOr me it is, since I’m in Virginia. Why would I support a candidate I can’t even vote for?

Or more importantly, why would I support a candidate who couldn’t be bothered to collect signatures.

Yes, there are a lot of signatures needed, but it’s not hard. We have republican committees in every county. All you have to do is send your petitions to each committee, and ask for help. You’ll get half your signatures just passing the petitions around the committees, and then they can collect the rest.

If you were paying attention, Virginia had an actual ELECTION in November. All you needed to do was ask the republican committees to pass your petitions to the people they had handing out sample ballots. A couple hundred actual voters at each precinct — and you’ve got your numbers.

Funny thing is, I bet Cain had enough signatures. He had his petitions at the polling places. But he dropped out, so I presume they decided not to file.

I don’t think Santorum and Bachmann were even trying. I wrote to both campaign more than once asking them if they wanted help, and to offer the signatures of my three voting age family members. Neither responded, although Santorum put me on his mailing list.

I call on Santorum and Bachmann to drop out, and let their supporters move to real candidates who are actually RUNNING for the nomination, as evidenced by doing the mundane task of QUALIFYING FOR THE BALLOT.

Meanwhile, my job is a lot easier now. Gingrich or Perry. Perry or Gingrich.

Maybe I’ll wait until tuesday, and see if they both qualify — although I agree with Sabato. Virginia law puts the decision absolutely in the hands of the RPV, and they can use any standard they want. That’s why Romney is already “qualified”, they decided if you submit 15,000 signatures they won’t even count them.

And if McDonald is supporting Gingrich or Perry, he won’t let them get bumped. Heck, assuming both Gingrich and Perry have supporters on the RPV (I will note they have BOTH headlined RPV events, Perry months ago and Gingrich yesterday), I think they’ll watch out for their candidate.

But if you want to be “helped” onto the ballot, you first have to actually submit signatures. Bachmann, Santorum, Fail. Sorry. You are out of here, please resign so we can get a real conservative to win in Iowa?

I agree with you, that for Perry and Gingrich, there is no real excuse. One of the basic questions a good campaign manager should be asking is about the status of each state, to ensure they have the requisite number of signatures, with a reasonable safety margin.

Apparently Santorum was close. Here is a note from his Facebook page:

TEAM SANTORUM: Tomorrow is the deadline for ballot qualification in Virginia and we are close to reaching the 10,000 signatures needed. We are making one final push and need your help. If you are able to help get some signatures collected in the next 18 hours, please email: shelley@ricksantorum.com.

He has less available resources and staff than any of the other candidates running. I don't think that it's an issue of him not being able to be bothered. He's simply running on a shoestring budget (and in general has done an excellent job in my opinion).

Bachmann, Santorum, Fail. Sorry. You are out of here, please resign so we can get a real conservative to win in Iowa?

In fairness, most would say those two are "real conservatives".

Their problem is that they are not "viable" real conservatives. That fact will not change even if they perform well or above expectations in Iowa. Their fans will cling on to any perceive success in Iowa as a sign that - even if it's a long shot - their guy/gal has a chance to win this thing. It's just not going to happen. Neither stands a chance against the Romney machine. What happened there in VA. with not getting on the ballot is just further evidence of that.

"Meanwhile, my job is a lot easier now. Gingrich or Perry. Perry or Gingrich."

Not so fast, apparently you did not read the whole article:

"The worst part is that Perry and Gingrich, either one of whom could still become the Great Grassroots Hope against Romney, might not have qualified either. You need 10,000 signatures to make the ballot but 15,000 are recommended since a bunch are bound to be thrown out as false or duplicative as the petitions are scrutinized. You also need at least 600 signatures from each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. Romney submitted 16,026 and Ron Paul submitted 14,361. Perry’s total: 11,911. Gingrich’s: 11,050. If they end up getting bounced, the Republican primary ballot for one of America’s key swing states will consist exclusively of … Mitt Romney and Ron Paul."

I’m asking you to cut Santorum some slack. I’m a Newt guy right now; but, I think Rick Santorum is going to be the “surprise” coming out of Iowa. But, unlike Michele Bachmann, the boy has limited finances and staff.