Romney wins Michigan and Arizona primaries

UPI ^ | February 28, 2012

[WOSG]

Nothing is by accident with these folks.

[Tzimisce]

I guess we’re all going to have to get used to big government socialism.

So pay your taxes - your government is broke. :)

[achilles2000]

You just about summed it up...

[gogogodzilla]

Well, you prove my point. The election, as the electorate has been screaming, is hinged on jobs, the economy, the debt, etc.

Yet, that is what you ignore. Instead, you focus on issues that are, while important, not on the radar of the voters at this time.

Furthermore, you are so focused on these issues that you render everything else irrelevant. So you focus on the candidate who is the best on that, regardless of how bad he may be on other conservative issues.

That monomania blinds you. You support a candidate that is great on social issues, middlin’ on defense, and poor on fiscal/small government issues.

Whereas I look at them all, with special focus on pushing small government.

And Newt is an 80% type of candidate. 80% of what I want on both social and fiscal conservatism... which means he's good in all the areas, not just one.

But your monomania on solely social issues keeps you from looking at the rest of the complete conservative package. And that's specially bad when the election climate isn't focused on those social issues.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the great comments, the truth of which are undeniable. And when you look at where we reside on that repeating cycle, it’s quite chilling.

I was taking a guy to task last night for trashing Santorum for addressing abortion, homosexual marriage, and contraceptives.

I wouldn’t address contraceptives like Santorum did, but I do believe our culture is destroying itself, and promiscuity given cover by the availability of contraceptives is part of the problem.

Abortion? Homosexual marriage? He’s wrong to address them?

It makes you ask yourself, who do we as Conservatives actually believe here? If this guy is wrong to address these things, then I better start morphing me belief system.

Not gonna happen.

I appreciate your comments. You take care.

[DoughtyOne]

Hey, you’re probably on to something there.

[DoughtyOne]

I’ve not studied the 1860 election, but your comments are interesting.

There does seem to be an environment conducive to multiple parties popping up and causing the scenario you’ve been predicting. It will interesting to see play out.

Clinton won his first term with 43% of the vote. I hope you’re proven wrong this year, but I wouldn’t bet against it.

Good food for thought.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m going to have to say that I think you’re probably a lot closer to the truth of it than any of us want to believe.

It has been my take that we have one of the worst fields of candidates this year that I have seen.

So much opportunity, and so little preparation to take advantage of it.

[DoughtyOne]

The polarization of this nation is undeniable. It’s such a shame that a nation second to none, is being ripped apart from within. Where this leads is to nothing good, that’s for sure.

I honestly believe the Republican party is done.

[DoughtyOne]

The first figures I saw last night had Santorum in the lead about 40 to 38%. I expected to see that swing to something like 46 to 38%. Larger cities tend to take some time to count, and they generally swing the vote to the more liberal direction later on.

You’re right that there wasn’t a big traditional shift later on. There was a rather small one. I’m not sure what the Michigan vote count swing usually looks like on the nights of elections. This may be what their numbers generally look like. I just don’t know.

Do you live in Michigan? Not trying to undercut your theory. I just wondered if this was typical.

You are right that it was quite steady all evening.

[DoughtyOne]

You were under the impression Romney supporters frequented this forum? Really? You didn’t know that Santorum supporters did? Really?

If you thought trashing Santorum here non-stop for the last month or so wasn’t going to affect the vote, then why do it?

Sadly, Newt didn’t pick up votes. Romney did. Who knew?

[j.argese]

You either lack reading comprehension skills, analytical skills or simply want to misrepresent my position.
Don’t be a jackass.

[sodpoodle]

Sarcasm does not become you.

FReeRepublic is but a microcosm of political conservatives. Early on, the forum owner and a majority of FReepers had Mitt Romney categorized as a liberal phony.

There have been dozens of Cain, Bachmann & Perry supporters comparing their candidates to Paul, Romney, Huntsman, Newt and Santorum. Not always civil, but enthusiastic until their preferred candidate left the contest. Many turned to Newt.

All voters are not as informed as FReepers....that’s just the way it is. Not all voters look to FReeRepublic for guidance....so what happens on FR stays on FR.

[DoughtyOne]

I hope you’re not under the illusion that what we say here actually has any bearing on the outcome of the primaries.

I do believe that the overall tone of places like Free Republic do combine to contribute to the overall public perception.  If we didn't believe this at all, we wouldn't be here discussing the best policies to adopt, the best candidates to support.   I do believe that party players do frequent places like F. R., to study what the rank and file are thinking.  In that, we contribute to the overall cover given to candidates to do what they do.

Romeny has the suport of the media^e, the GOP^e, and moderates.  Those are not well represented here.  With the exception of him, I do find it interesting that the dynamics of people who are up and down this primary season, have almost identically mirrored majority opinion here.  That isn't a coincindence IMO.

The truth, I fear, is that informed FReepers are 0.003% of the voters. The vast majority of them are semi-brainwashed idiots who have grown up under public education and think that because Mitt Romney looks Presidential (if you don’t look too hard) he would make a good President. End of discussion. Throw anything else in their direction, and it’s just noise.

I'm not convinced you're wrong, but then the rumble on F.R. has rather closely mirrored the support that candidates have received.  With the exception of some groups that formed to go postal in support of a couple of people, the rank and file here have been farily astute at seeing problems and advocating for various individuals.

Many folks here gave cover to those who wanted to destroy Rick Santorum in Michigan.  Guess what happened.  What would have been the case if everyone here had said they wouldn't support someone going after Santorum like that?  Well, we'll never know.

Yes... I’m feeling down after yesterday. It’s distressing. Hell, I think I even remember some Republican politician coming on Fox yesterday and exclaiming how great it was to have open primaries because it showed people what a “big tent” we have.

I sure do agree with you there.  Imagine a church saying, "I think we need to let non-believers in to help us chose our leaders."  We're basically doing the same thing.  My state just opened up the primaries.  The Republican party didn't loft a whimper in objection.  This didn't surprise me.  It merely confirmed how bad the party has gotten.

The Republican party is no longer our friend.  And if you look back on it, they never were.  Reagan wasn't the party leadership's pick, and they have done their best to destroy our best ever since.  It's time to move on down the road to a party that truly shares our values.

[apoliticalone]

Call me more than a touch cynical, but I consider much of this coronation as being preordained. I do not trust the Party leaders to make sure that the votes are counted factually, truthfully and accurately. It’s become an inside job. The Party leaders want this over with ASAP.

Some extreme partisans may claim the ends justify the means. I disagree and see such a result as an end run on democracy. Democracy is about inconvenience, messiness and infighting, not convenience, expedience and tidiness.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t disagree with you, but you tell me who has more public baggage that the folks of this nation are aware of, Newt or Rick?

Most folks didn’t know who Rick was, much less what his views were in total. They knew plenty about Newt. Newt tanked. He’s struggling to win in Georgia, and isn’t even running in Virginia. He started his career in Georgia, and now lives in Virginia.

So what do we do? Well we pulverize Rick Santorum.

Okay, well we’ll see how that works out for us.

I appreciate the response.

[adc]

And the reality is what it always was. . . all “conservatives” are not pure and the the general voting public is pretty far away from true conservatism. As much as I personally identify more with Santorum than any other candidate, it’s just wistful thinking to believe there are more of “us” than “them”.

[Short Bus]

Yep. The Party Insiders Hath Spoken....

*gag*

[entropy12]

You are entitled to your opinions. 1st amendment is still alive and well.

[entropy12]

What it all boils down to is prosperity in the country. It is a well known fact that richer countries do a better job of taking care of environment. Example: West Germany Vs. East Germany. Same thing with maintaining buildings, parks, roads etc.

Prosperity is better served by a system which builds incentives for hard work. Creating more dependents with handouts and high taxes are the opposite to human nature for work hard.

It is really not much more complicated than that. Every policy Obama has pushed is exactly the opposite of basic human nature.