Who Hijacked the Primaries?

Human Events ^ | 1/31/08 | Brian Winterble

[Teacher317]

Whether intentionally engineered or not, the GOP was split into virtually every major faction of the party, with one candidate for each group and two for the limited-government conservatives. Limited-government conservatives went with Hunter and Fred, Evangelicals went with Huckabee, social-conservatives (and many fawning women) went with Romney, the old hawks went to McCain, and the rest went to media darling Rudy. Most ‘Pubbies simply will not switch candidates until “their man” bows out of the race.

As such, it became a simple “war of attrition”, and whoever stays vertical for the longest period will likely win. The MSM is doing their part to make sure that the remaining GOP candidates are “centrists” (to put it mildly). Well, they’ve been successful.

Imagine what the race would’ve been like if it was simply Romney, Keyes, Ron Paul, Rudy, Tancredo and Fred (without Huckabee or McCain). I’d dare say that Fred would get the majority of the McCain defense voters, a fair share of the Evangelicals, and enough of the rest to make him a statistical dead-heat with Romney.

Oh, well. So much for pipe dreams from a limited-government conservative.

I’ve long been fascinated by the differences between multi-member competitions that drop competitors one-at-a-time (like American Idol) and head-to-head tournaments (like the NCAA’s “Big Dance” basketball tournament). As we’ve all seen on American Idol, often the best performers get tossed out quite early, simply because the votes are so fractured among a larger number of competitors. Despite the fact that Singer X would beat the snot out of any other competitor head-to-head, they can easily lose in a multiple-person scenario... and often do.

Again, whether you think there was a conspiracy or not for the GOP primary race (where FReepers have long held that the real fight for conservatism exists), the field was exactly big enough and the factions were almost perfectly aligned so that anyone even remotely Federalist had no chance of winning whatsoever.

[mmichaels1970]

I really like this idea from Beagle8U:

My idea for how the Republican POTUS primaries should be run...

All closed primaries with registered Rep no less that 60 days in advance.

The dates of primaries will be set based on the states that were won by the Rep in the previous election going first.

The exact order determined by the % that the GOP had of the total vote in the state.

Liberal puke states that vote RAT every election will be the last to offer any opinion on the nominee.

That would put an end to the liberals choosing our candidates.

I guess this would entail somehow going after control of the RNC (they make the rules right?). But what do you guys think? The state by state campaigns would continue, but the voting order would go to the states that have been most loyal to the party.

I've also seen ideas floated to make several "super-tuesday-like" regional primaries.

[pepperdog]

“its time for the GOP to front-load the whole freaking process into one date”

Amen! Amen! Amen!

[cake_crumb]

"The problem was that conservatives split their vote between Thompson, Romney, Huckabee and Hunter."

Exactly.

[mtnwmn]

I hear ya!

[toyman]

Does anyone know what it would take to get all the primaries done at the same time? Seems this would be the only way each candidate got a fair shake.

[BubbaBobTX]

I think the RNC will pay dearly for this in the long run. I predict they will find it very difficult to raise the money needed to run competitive campaigns in the future when their traditional conservative voters stop giving them money.

I for one am done. They need to change the rules and only let registered Republicans vote or this will continue to happen because the primaries are front loaded with a number of small liberal states that let the RATs and independents cross over and muck up the process.

[AdamSelene235]

If Ron Paul was pro National Defense, I’d vote for him. Since he’s not, I won’t vote at all. It sucks big time!

Ther is a difference between being pro National Defense (which rp is) and pro Nation Building. Especially when the nation you are build is an Islamic Republic. Giving Islamic Radicals the power to vote for a radical Islamic Republic does not improve our situation.

Have you looked at the history of the Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa party? They supported the Iranian Revolution. They bombed our embassies.

Creating a democracy of Islamists and terrorist supporters is not an improvement nor should it be a US military objective.

[pepperdog]

Huckabee would be doing the country a great service if he pulled out today! It would clarify the situation for all but the most obtuse voter and kill McCain. But I’ve given up on any politican putting the country first.

[mmichaels1970]

This is actually going to be one of the MOST INCLUSIVE GOP PRIMARY SEASONS ON RECORD

I sure wish my vote would have mattered. Ohio votes in March. If this is one of the MOST INCLUSIVE GOP PRIMARY SEASONS ON RECORD, then I still don't think it's saying much.

[pissant]

If you are not paying attention to what is taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would be easy to make such speculation. Outside of US forces, the people killing the most jihadis in the world are Iraqi and Afghani soldiers.

[conservativegramma]

Sorry, I agree with him. My primary is after “super” Tuesday. Can you say disenfranchised ?

Add me to your list. As another disenfranchised voter I've been saying this for years now. I haven't truly had a choice since I started voting over 30 years ago since my primary is in May.

And as for 'write in' candidates? Poo. My state don't allow that either. And if a candidate withdraws before May? Poo again, their name is removed from the ballot. I have always been given a choice of whomever is leftover which is usually only 'the annointed one' by the time May rolls around. Amen to this article.

[norton]

"The problems is not that moderates hijacked the party.
The problem was that conservatives split their vote between Thompson, Romney, Huckabee and Hunter. "

The problem is that Huckabee and Paul brought nothing to the table but misdirection & packs of true (?) believers , that Hunter thought he'd be speaking to adlults and on somewhat equal grounds, and that Fred is apparently content to add "former candidaate" to his resume.

Oh, yeah, and that (defining today's moderate republican as "just like the other guys") moderates highjacked the party.

[cake_crumb]

"I don't know if he has the name recognition outside of the North East. However, you won't find a better conservative. And he would make an excellent candidate. He has passion energy and youth"

Yes he does have name recognition, and I agree that he would be the PERFECT conservative candidate...except that the reason he has national name recognition is because he fell afoul of the DNC media attack machine and was deliberately misquoted as saying nasty about gays, when he was trying to explain where Lawrence vs. Texas might lead. THEN he fell afoul of the "real conservatives", because he endorsed Specter since nobody knew who the other candidate was.

THAT draws a picture of what is wrong with this party.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I am disgusted at the WHOLE THING!

Talk about feeling disenfrancished!!

[anoldafvet]

Just a thought, but if we are CONSERVATIVES, why don”t we belong to the CONSERVATIVE PARTY? It exists in some places (New York of all places), why not take it national?

[Paleo Conservative]

I think state-wide winner take all primaries should only be allowed after Super Tuesday. All the primaries prior to and on Super Tuesday should be either proportional or by district. In Texas, the rules are that only if a candidate gets an absolute majority of the vote in a congressional district does a candidate win all the delegates from that district. If the top candidate just has a plurality within a congressional district, then the delegates are apportioned proportionally to the vote in that district.

[Hattie]

I think the RNC will pay dearly for this in the long run. I predict they will find it very difficult to raise the money.

What the RNC is counting on is that we will forget what has happened and just vote for McCain to "keep Hillary out." I have heard that so many times it does not resonate anymore.

Frankly I think the bigwigs are due a shock. They are going to lose voters, not just in this election, but permanently. This is not the 1960's anymore and too many people are able to share information.

[lone star annie]

Rick Santorum hates McCain. That is why I love the guy.

[rhombus]

But you gotta admit he nailed it when he said NH is a suburb of Boston...at least the Seacoast sure as hell is.

Absolutely. NH is totally blue. It's probably just a matter of time before an income tax and some sort of sales tax is rammed through.