Posted on 12/24/2011 8:20:24 AM PST by shield
For those coming in late, let me summarize*: both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have been excluded from the Virginia Republican primary by the Virginia GOP. This has placed the VA GOP in an awkward situation, given that: they have excluded the current national and Virginian front-runner from their own ballot; have currently no write-in option on the ballot; do have an open primary that anyone can vote in; and generally have created an environment peculiarly suited for conspiracy theories involving Mitt Romney (and ones that won’t contain the word ‘Mormon’ anywhere in their description, by the way). The current defenses to all of this are “rules are rules” and “any campaign that couldn’t follow them are by definition poor campaigns:” I will leave it to the individual reader to decide just how either argument will play in, say, Peoria; I am frankly of the opinion that the above defenses are well-suited towards reassuring Romney and/or Paul voters – and will do very little to persuade the other 60-65% or so of likely Republican primary voters.
But since I’m telling Mitt Romney what won’t help his situation, it kind of behooves me to tell him what might.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
It doesn't change the fact Paul has problems with antisemitism and believes in Jewish Conspiracy Theories (he Appeared regularly on Alex Jones Radio Program to discuss such things..)
You will find if you hang with Alex you quickly lose credibility. If you don't believe try and post an Alex Jones article here on FR.
Newt is a larger than life figure. As such he has more than one legacy. The legacy of capturing the House deserved worship. The legacies since deserve to be remembered. Killing such worship requires a larger than life lesson, which Newt provided personally in my case. I walked into a lecture on healthcare reform, at my national Dermatology meetings, by Newt, nearly 5 years ago prepared to forgive the bad Newt and embrace the good Newt. Sadly it didn’t end like Return of the Jedi. He’s firmly in favor of the Empire’s big government/big business medicine; little patients and little doctors, like me, be blasted. Darth Newt lives and the prequels he’s presenting to explain himself make less sense than Episodes 1-3. Excepting those sections referring to Ron-Ron Paul. Darth Newt will get us to national socialized medicine faster than ObamaCare because Newt is more competent than Obama, and faster than RomneyCare because Mitt’s will progress slower - 2 flips forward and 1 flip back.
You forget that I happen to also be “One of those people who fought for YOUR freedom”, to accept ridiculous legalistic rules.
Since I went (And fought) before them, does not invalidate my service, or mean that they are not wrong or mislead either!
10,000 verified signatures protects the GOP elitist class? Hardly. You can get 10,000 signatures for Mickey Mouse for Prez. And you are making excuses for the five clowns who couldn’t follow directions. Mitt has been in this race to WIN it for the last three years. Not one of these other clowns ever had their hearts and wallets in it, and not one of them had objective or subjective hopes of making it past Iowa. Damn, if they can’t figure out how to beat a fuzzy headed liberal in the GOP primary, how on earth can they think they can take down Obama. Mitt can beat Obama; not so sure about any of the other Bozos. Mitt is not my guy, but he’s proving to be the only one who can win.
Disenfranchising the Virginia voters - who apparently support Newt more than anyone else and who apparently like Perry right much also - is the first thing my wife thought when she heard about it.
The rule was obviously meant to measure viable support. Perhaps it was well intended. But obviously it is now outdated and simply runs counter to its stated intent. Any such rule should be discarded.
Exactly. bttt
Let’s just say that NO candidates qualified. Would Virginia not have a primary? What if only one candidate qualified, say, Ron Paul? Then it would be like Obama where they don’t have a primary and just certify him the winner. Then maybe Virginia would go back and amend the rules.
You have to have standing to challenge it. Nobody had standing before.
But any candidate who was denied a place on the ballot now has the standing to challenge this rule.
I only hope and pray that Perry and Gingrich and Bachman and Santorum all march down to the court on Tuesday and file their lawsuits. I will contribute to the defense fund.
This kind of arbitrary rule making just irks me to no end. The system is designed to protect incumbents who don't have to qualify under this system. It also encourages and rewards election fraud.
Every patriotic conservative should be up in arms over this.
>> Mitt has been in this race to WIN it for the last three years. Not one of these other clowns ever had their hearts and wallets in it, and not one of them had objective or subjective hopes of making it past Iowa. >>
There is nothing I can say now to “enhance” your credibility any more than you just did yourself. Not sure how much attention you pay around conservative message boards, but supporting someone who has been running for three years BECASUSE they have been running for three years is not exactly gonna win you friends around here.
And that such person is Mitt - well, I just don’t know what I can possibly add to that.
And Godspeed to you good FRFiend! We need more FReepers like you, especially these days.
Hey if you want to take up arms against the State of Virginia over Primary rules more power to you. I'll be glad to watch you on TV. Maybe you can wear a snazzy costume and have some cool quippy quotes to shout as you open fire on the Virginia GOP because you didn't get your way.
Basically, the fair thing to do is allow write-ins. That way the other candidates can’t complain about the signature rules being changed midstream. And if they did complain, how can they win an argument that simply disenfranchises voters and limits their freedom to vote for anyone they want to?
>> You have to have standing to challenge it. Nobody had standing before. But any candidate who was denied a place on the ballot now has the standing to challenge this rule. >>
EXACTLY!!!!!!! This is the point that the ninnies who are crying “foul” and “sore loser” can’t get through their narrow little minds. You can’t challenge a rule until it has harmed you - and it won’t have “harmed you” until it is applied. Thus today is the first day it can be challenged.
Slam dunk on your part. Great point.
Just dang.
No way will be overturned for this primary. The General Assembly starts meeting in January. It would take a new law to change who could be on the primary ballot and it wouldn’t be done retroactively given the fact that the candidates were notified about the rules beginning on March 6th.
We need to force this to the top, or we lose permanently.
Neither Perry nor Gingrich challenged the VA rules as they scrambled to meet them. It was only after the fact that suddenly everyone is shocked! shocked! that the rules are so stringent. So now the rules should be rewritten retroactively? Or disregarded altogether?
The VA requirements have been in place for at least three presidential election cycles, so far as I know, and this situation has never before obtained. So, yes, it does speak to the organizations in place for the two disqualified candidates. They would do better to mount write-in campaigns, if feasible, and get their ground game in order, than to challenge the ballot disqualification.
Unlike the ‘00 GOP primaries, VA’s is not critical to the nominating process this year; however, quite like ‘00, many here today sound eerily like SoreLoserman.
You really are not very logically gifted are you. You don’t understand analogy do you. I bet you are some kind of bureaucrat or lawyer or accountant by trade. Maybe a public school teacher. But I won’t swoosh analogies over your head any more.
There will be those who challenge this law and I’ll make a double prediction for you:
A: the challengers WILL win the challenge OR
B: the Virginia primary will be considered totally irrelevant.
There is no other viable option. A Mitt V Paul primary will never mean squat.
This is either changed - or the Virginia primary is a Mitt V Paul affair and thus a national joke and a huge embarrassment to Virginia, Bob McDonnell, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
The smart thing to do for Mitt’s campaign is to call for the primary to be open to all 7 candidates. A one on one contest with Paul would be hugely embarrassing to Mitt regardless of whether he won or lost it. McDonnell would suffer huge damage to his reputation.
There are no other options.
The State Board shall certify the results of the presidential primary to the state chairman. If the party has determined that its delegates and alternates will be selected pursuant to the primary, the slate of delegates and alternates of the candidate receiving the most votes in the primary shall be deemed elected by the state party unless the party has determined another method for allocation of delegates and alternates. If the party has determined to use another method for selecting delegates and alternates, those delegates and alternates shall be bound to vote on the first ballot at the national convention for the candidate receiving the most votes in the primary unless that candidate releases those delegates and alternates from such vote.
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