Posted on 12/20/2011 7:48:33 AM PST by US Navy Vet
Conservatives and Republican elites in the state are divided over who to support for the GOP nomination, but they almost uniformly express concern over the prospect that Ron Paul and his army of activist supporters may capture the state’s 2012 nominating contest — an outcome many fear would do irreparable harm to the future role of the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
2012 unbound: A novel campaign In spin rooms, bar rooms and online forums, the what-to-do-about-Paul conversation has become pervasive as polls show him at or near the top here just weeks before the January 3rd vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I’m not an elite, but I am Conserv. In this election cycle, with the Zero minions at work. If Paul takes Iowa, you can count on the Repub nominee being forced time after time to repudiate his insanity. This election has to be about OBAMA.
And yes I agree, if Iowa give the votes to Paul, the Caucuses should be ended.
I hope something kills the caucuses. It is a system to guarantee synacism among the base. It is crony politics at it’s worst.
I agree. The caucuses need to go.
Ron Paul is not a conservative, he is a libertarian kook and does not belong in the Republican party.
It is downright embarrassing to have someone who makes common cause with truthers and advocates a foreign/defense policy worse than Obama’s doing so well in the Republican party. Why any supposed conservative would support Paul is beyond me.
Gosh, maybe we should just end representative government so the “wrong” person can’t get elected. Nice to know the mentality of the Republican establishment...
Good. I hope he wins there just to show what a sham caucuses are. I am tired of this silly event being given so much importance. They didn't even go for Reagan in 80 for crying out loud. Once Paul has to go to states where people need to actually vote in a normal fashion, he is done.
Maybe if the ‘elites’ should start looking at themselves as to why the rank and file always seem to be dissatified with the status quo, instead of making a presidential election out to be some kind of horserace or something, things would be different.
Allow an American-loving conservative who understands the purpose for the Constitution on the ballot and you’ll never again be wondering ‘what to do’ with any candidate.
Harkin in '92
Gephardt and Dole in '88.
According to them, we should have had 2 terms of "President Uncommitted" in '72 and '76.
At the county convention, delegates to the state convention are elected and at the state convention, actual delegates to the actual nominating convention are finally elected. By then, no one is paying any attention to Iowa anymore.
So the whole Iowa caucus thing this year is really just a big pressgasm.
The powers that be in the party have made it clear they will not support him under any circumstance. If he somehow manages to get enough delegates to win the nomination, the rules will be changed before the convention to strip him of it. They will do away with the delegate process entirely and return to the old "smoke filled backroom" process of choosing a candidate that was used in the distant past (perfectly permissible, the parties make their own rules).
But regardless, Paul WILL NOT be the Republican Nominee even if it means handing the election to Obama.
I am working on releasing a projection model of the Iowa caucuses and Iowa General Election. I’m making it to show what the most likely outcome appears based on polling and to show where the GOP needs to perform better to win IA in Nov 2012. It’s a county-by-county analysis.
Secondly, I’m hoping my model will be a guide to determine if the Paulbots are manipulating the caucuses or not. I’m 18 counties through. 81 to go. Hope to be done by Christmas.
That is not what the article said. Closed primaries where actual Republicans are casting ballots are fine and are representative of the will of the voters. Very often caucuses, especially when you've got a candidate like Paul with a fanatical cult following, are not. Paul views are definitely not representative of the Republican party - mostly because he is a libertarian and NOT a conservative.
It is time for the caucus system to end. Period. It is also time the other candidates and the party stop tip toeing around Paul and handling him with kid gloves. Paul is not a conservative, not representative of the vast majority of the party, will not endorse the eventual nominee, and most of his hard core supporters will not vote for the actual eventual nominee anyway. Go away Paul.
Actually it has been only in the last century or so that voters had a say in the parties nominee and, if I remember correctly, all states didn't have primaries until 1972. Up until then the parties chose their own candidates behind closed doors. Not that I'm advocating we return to this, we would never have gotten Reagan (the party insiders hated him) but on the other hand we would never have gotten Obama (the insiders would have gone with Hillary).
Except that the caucuses aren't "representative government." They're a non-representative forum that goes which ever way they are packed by which ever special interest group gets there "the fustest with mostest."
You want representative? Then switch to a primary system in which only registered Republicans can vote. If you want to have a say in Republican Party decision making, then join that party. Otherwise buzz off.
The problem is less about the caucus system than Iowa's attention whoring role. The same day registration crap and wall to wall coverage of the months leading up to Iowa are the problem. If Ron Paul puts an end to this crap (focus on Iowa, specifically, not the causus system in general), he will have at least done us one small favor.
Whoever emerges as the eventual nominee needs to talk about the disaster which ObaMao has wrought, not the zany theories of Ron Paul and a zany system which allowed him to win in Iowa. The GOP has to be in charge of reforming that before 2016.
The rest of us need to make sure ObaMao is a one term president.
Venerable, or vulnerable?
And you have a problem with this??? God forbid other countries respecting us.
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