Posted on 01/13/2008 5:10:24 PM PST by HokieMom
Traditional conservatives distrustful of Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are eager for Mitt Romney to win the Michigan primary Tuesday and re-emerge as a force in the Republican presidential-nomination race.
Top Republicans who gravitated to the former Massachusetts governor because of his enunciation of limited-government conservatism fear another second-place finish — especially in the state where his father was once governor — would end his run.
"Card-carrying Republicans will find it very hard to vote for John McCain," said GOP campaign consultant Tom Edmonds. "It would take a lot of votes from independents for McCain to be victorious as the Republican standard-bearer."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I don’t think most people have found that to be the case, from what I’ve heard, but of course nobody is sweet and friendly ALL the time. If he was in Kabul, I imagine it was stressful stop on some whirlwind tour involving little sleep. What was he doing there?
The whole primary process has become a joke, and it’s getting to be a dangerous one. IMO it’s really way past time that the two major parties threw out this system and replaced it with a closed system. Limit primary voting to people who have been continuously registered with the party for some specified period of time (like a year) AND have either donated some minimum amount of money or volunteered a minimum number of hours. The current system is apt to produce nominees who are not in fact “the party’s” nominee, but the choice of the electorate as a whole in a pre-election that thwarts the whole concept of each party putting forth its nominee. The time for every random citizen to vote is in the general election. Party primaries should only involve people who have some meaningfully active membership in the party.
Interesting tidbit from Afghanistan. So is he pandering here? What do you think?
The Dims are in the bag for Romney, Kos is telling all the liberals to vote for him. Frankly, I’d eye an victory by Romney in Michigan fairly suspiciously.
The liberals hate Mitt Romney so what’s not for us to love?
Mitt in Michigan. Thompson in South Carolina. Run the McCain Express of the rails.
If Thompson can’t carry SC, then I’ll probably vote for Mitt in Arizona’s primary (5 Feb).
At this point, I’m an Anyone But Huck McCain voter!
What i’ve read is that the Left can’t stand McCain because of his support for the war. I’m thinking they go Paul.
I’m totally in favor of closed primaries, and you explained well why.
Let the parties pick our strongest candidates without interference. If you want to be independent or undecided, fine. But, wait until the general election to vote then.
You could be right about libs and McCain. And I did see a lot of Ron Paul signs on the roadside in Michigan.
Romney is a Republican. The union minded mental giants won't be voting Republican at all.
If Edwards and Obama are sitting this Michigan thing out, then there must have been a deal made with that Clinton Devil that is quite evident to the wannabe pretenders.
Someone may have caught this already but here is the answer in case they havent:
Michigan moved up their primary in an attempt to usurp some of the power of Iowa and N.H. (which was against party rules) and the party punished them by stripping them of their delegates. Afterwards, with no delegates at stake, Edwards and Obama kissed up to self-absorbed Iowa and N.H. voters by “boycotting” a race in which they had nothing to lose.
It’s not like those who are independent or undecided or didn’t meet the party’s requirements in time would have no influence in the process. They are still free to volunteer their time, donate money, and engage in face to face or online discussions with other people (including many who are party members and will be voting in the party’s primary) as to why they support candidate X. And I suspect the sort of system I proposed would also promote the development of viable third parties — a positive development from the viewpoint of those of us who think competition is a good thing.
Hi again. Just to wrap up this discussion - I talked to my friend in Michigan. She’s a Democrat, who did vote in the Republican primary because she felt the Dem primary - with only Hillary on the ballot - did not allow her to participate and choose a candidate.
She voted strongly for McCain.
Mark Levin covered McCain’s record yesterday on his radio program. No wonder Democrats like him! Thanks for the update.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.