Posted on 02/19/2010 2:40:09 PM PST by TitansAFC
And so it begins:
CPAC embraces the new Mitt Romney
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33161.html
South Carolina mulls 2012: Romney? Palin? Huck?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/South-Carolina-mulls-2012_-Romney_-Palin_-Huck_-84732787.html
Romney now biggest threat to Obama head to head
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/18/ppp-poll-romney-now-biggest-threat-to-obama-head-to-head/
These are just a few examples from the last two days.
You'll also notice the (once again) packed straw poll at CPAC, and a sudden surge in Freepers attacking Sarah Palin at every turn.
It seems the push is already at full force. Mitt Romney is the guy to beat, like it or not (remember that McCain enjoyed -5% support at FR during the campaign), and the GOP is circling the wagons early this time.
Add to that several weekend columns out-of-nowhere attacking Sarah Palin again (George Will, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Kathleen Parker, et al).
let there be no doubt, the organized effort is afoot.
-—”There are going to be primaries in 2012 and he or she who will get more votes will win the Republican nomination for President in 2012. All the conspiracy theories about a group picking the nominee in 2012 is just BS and Stupidity.”-—
Riiiiiiiight. It’s that simple.
That’s why they change Primary rules and dates every cycle, for a good, honest primary season. That’s why they’ve changed debate rules, the allocation of delegates in key states, and whether or not the primaries are open to other party voters in a given state in each and every election cycle.
This has nothing to do with who gets the most votes per se - this has everything to do with how delegates get allocated, and which voters get to decide that in each state.
I betcha 10-1 on every dollar you’re willing to put up that by Election season 2012 every Romney stronghold will either be winner-takes-all on delegates, or disproportionate to the winner. Meanwhile, all of the other states will find it necessary to allocate proportionate to vote count.
Then to top that off, we’ll see which states decide to have open primaries, allowing Independents and Democrats to decide who gets the delegates. I’ll wager we have more open primaries in 2012 than we’ve ever had before. I’m sure you’ll find it coincidental, but the rest of us know better.
Wake up! We’ve been watching this movie for two generations. Your claims of pure and holy are as bogus as an Obama campaign promise.
WHICH particular state thread did you copy and paste that from? There are fifty just like it, as you are aware, I’m sure.
Word of the day....
context
con·text [ kón tèkst ] (plural con·texts)
noun
Definition:
1. text surrounding word or passage: the words, phrases, or passages that come before and after a particular word or passage in a speech or piece of writing and help to explain its full meaning
2. surrounding conditions: the circumstances or events that form the environment within which something exists or takes place
The dispute needs to be viewed in its historical context.
Prep the canon fodder! Good idea...
If Rommey is the Republican candidate, I will be doing something else on election day. Better yet, if Rommey gey=ts the Republican nomination, just call off the election and give obama four more years. The results will be the same as if the election was held.
Tell me, Jveritas:
Whom did Registered Republicans pick as the nominee in 2008?
Who?
A vote for BIGLOVE is a vote for Zero
Yet, John McCain was the nominee. This was due in large part to opening states like Florida to non-GOP voters, and by making sure that more moderate states disproportionately allocate their votes to the winner of that state's primary.
The “trick” was most evident in the Buchanan/Dole slug-fest of 1996, where the GOP began a process of opening-up more and more states’ primaries to ensure an edge for the more Moderate candidate after Buchanan scared the hell out of George H.W. Bush a few years earlier (they had also begun a process of publicly talking-down the Iowa caucus after it became apparent that it was a SoCon stronghold - more Moderate candidates even began to skip it entirely). They then changed the rules of the debates to prevent candidates from asking each other direct questions (this would later be “tweaked” in one or two debates to allow for a single question to be posed candidate-to-candidate), so as to prevent firebrand populists from de-pantsing the Party Guy or tripping the Party Guy into a deadly soundbite goof.
Finally, they opened up three very large primaries that would have voted Buchanan over Dole had just GOP voters been the ones casting ballots.
There are several tricks the party uses to make sure their candidate has a nearly insurmountable edge. We will see more “tweaking” in the coming days to ensure Romney has an unfair advantage.
Sorry but independents have the right to vote in primaries. Are you advocating close primaries for just Republican registered voters? Were these primaries closed for Republicans during Reagan time for example? GW Bush?
close=closed
The GOP doesn't open state primaries. State law makers, many of them Democrat controlled, pass local laws that put requirements, such as openness, on primary elections.
The only affordable alternative for the GOP, is to scrap such open primary elections in favor of a caucuses.
Not in New Jersey. This is handled state by state.
It seems kind of ridiculous to allow non-Republicans to decide who gets to run as a Republican. But it is a very effective way for the moderate Republicans to keep control when the situation is right.
Fine with me. I can find other things to do election day. And I know a lot more who feel the same way.
It's handled by state lawmakers in each state. See my previous post.
Yes. I think GOP voters should choose the GOP nominee.
-—”Were these primaries closed for Republicans during Reagan time for example? GW Bush?”-—
As stated before, there have been many “tweakings” of primaries to achieve desired outcomes.
‘NO ROMNEY! NO MCLAME!
Is the GOP going to give it to the Socialist again?’
We have primary elections to dump the RINOS. Let’s do it.
-—”The GOP doesn’t open state primaries. State law makers, many of them Democrat controlled, pass local laws that put requirements, such as openness, on primary elections.”-—
In some cases, as in CA, the parties make up their own respective rules. Here in Illinois, it is a “closed” primary, but all I have to do is ask for a Democrat ballot and I can get one with no further questioning.
Plus, we have seen first-hand how Party leaders can push to change how delegates are allocated, not to mention use their influence to open previously closed primaries (See: Tennessee). The parties decide how delegates will be allocated, and that can be a very useful tool for the national GOP establishment.
There is a lot that can be done, and has been done, to tweak the system.
“...Sarah did what she had to do...”
You’re echoing Rush Limbaugh on this issue, maybe unintentionally. He said the exact same phrase during today’s show.
What I am telling you (and I said it to the radio this morning during his show - yes, I know it’s a crazy habit to talk to radios) “...is politics requires cold bloodedness”. The only people who matter are voters who believe in you and put you in office.
She was a great Governor of Alaska, I know she could be a great President, but Romney and McCain aren’t her ‘pals’.
Sarah Palin doesn’t owe McCain jack squat. He used her, hoping to get female votes after Obama passed over Hillary as a VP candidate - don’t every think it was otherwise. And I knew about her a long time ago and was hoping, hoping, hoping, John McCain would chose her as his running mate.
Now she is being ‘set up’ by Romney and McCain as being a fellow traveler of theirs. She destroyed the ‘Corrupt Bastard’s Club’ in Alaska, which was admirable. But she’s putting herself in the RINO camp with Mitt and John - BIG MISTAKE.
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