Posted on 02/08/2012 12:04:30 PM PST by red flanker
Beneath Rick Santorum's stunning three-state sweep on Tuesday stands another stubborn sign of dissatisfaction with the status quo: Republican turnout is down.
I'm talking embarrassingly, disturbingly, hey-don't-you-know-it's-an-election-year bad. It is a sign of a serious enthusiasm gap among the rank and file, and a particularly bad omen for Mitt Romney and the GOP in the general election.
Here's the tale of the tape, state by state, beginning with Tuesday night: Minnesota had just more than 47,000 people turn out for its caucuses this year -- four years ago it was nearly 63,000 -- and Romney came in first, not a distant third as he did Tuesday night. In Colorado, more than 70,000 people turned out for its caucus in 2008 -- but in 2012 it was 65,000. And Missouri -- even making a generous discount for the fact that this was an entirely symbolic contest -- had 232,000 people turn out, less than half the number who did four years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The only exception is the showing of Newt Gingrich in both his dramatic win in South Carolina and then in his winning counties in Florida. Newt inspires people to turn out in record numbers compared to 2008, while Santorum and Romney are two dimensional politicians by comparison.
I see the POTUS election really only a tossup in 3 states Ohio, Penna, and Florida.
The other ones are already decided or too small to really matter.
None of the candidates are real likeable.
If, as it looks now, Speaker Gingrich doesn’t garner the GOP nomination, we must draft, nominate and elect Governor Sarah Palin president in the most crushing tidal wave of enthusiastic good judgment ever seen in the history of this nation. With that one bold move we will accomplish the dual goals of seeing America led by the greatest natural born leader in our generation, even as we witness the final implosion and last agonized shrieks of our endlessly lying extreme left loonies. Their entire movement, from the fabricated attacks on President Bush beginning with ‘Blood For Oil’ to the crammed-down-our-gullets lies of Obamacare and the Shovel Ready Stimulus, have been nothing but one vile deceit heaped upon another. Such an absolute inability to deal in the truth or to face the facts of our situation and its solutions only proves that there is simply no place at the grown-ups’ table for these diseased sputa. Good riddance to rubes, hippies and bad rubbish. Time to usher in the American Renaissance, carried in on the invigoratingly freshening breeze of President Sarah Palin.
Here's why the GOP turnout has taken such a dive...
you do know newt was on ballot in iowa,new hampshire,colorado,minnesota where he was up by 20 a few weeks ago and got only 10 percent,nevada...
ya newt inspires.....south carolina was more a f u to abc than anything
Oh, please! It was a non-binding primary.
If a real conservative is the republican nominee, turnout will be astronomical.
Apparently not yesterday, where he pulled 10-15%.
There's plenty of enthusiasm for Santorum on FR and in Missouri / Minnesota / Colorado. All those people came out to vote for a candidate they had been told couldn't win and should drop out.
Missouri is an odd case since this vote was non-binding.
But in general, the more people think Romney is inevitable, the less they will come out to vote - but now that he's been proven beatable, we should see higher turnout numbers ahead.
It’s a terrible crop of candidates and everybody knows it. I’m not supporting Newt because I like him; it’s just that I think he’s the best of the worst. I think many others feel the same way.
Willard Romney the open socialist...I think I’ll stop there.
Newt talks a good game, but he has a checkered past.
Santorum is a stale, uninspiring fiscal liberal. He’s also squishy on SOPA, one of the few issues that the left and right united against.
Wrong Paul and his personality cult need to be institutionalized.
A lot of Newt voters stayed home.
This is an indicator of a blowout win for Obama since neither Romney or Santorum can’t even inspire GOP voters and many stay home.”
Maybe.
But I think there is another possibility. While it is true that the GOP primary voters are not overly excited about any of these 3 guys, that doesn’t mean that they are not excited about beating obama. I can totally see the logic of sitting out of the primary and then coming back in November to beat obama. Sort of an “I don’t care who the nominee is, I am going to vote for him”.
I do think that could be going on here.
Negative campaigns breed negative sentiment leading to negative turnout leading to a LOSS.
Four words:
ROMNEY
GINGRICH
PAUL
SANTORUM
Sounds like a plan!
Where’s RNC this year?
It’s obvious. The GOP is not happy about any of this. The candidates were not what the base wanted to see
Because the conservative options for Obama’s opposition suck, that’s why. We do not have to coalesce around ‘the only one who can beat Obama’ now, but we must eventually.
I am not ready to pick/select now, despite others’ plaint to do so NOW. Let’s wait 2-4 months and see what shakes out. When the smoke clears, we can ‘coalesce’....
Why has GOP turnout taken a dive?
Probably because at least that many have given up on the Republican party. In 2010, lots of us out here busted our butts to elect conservatives to Congress only to see the same old same old again. Two trillion dollars later, some of us are saying, “is this all there is”?
Sorry, but we do not trust the Republicans any more than we trust the Democrats. Shit by any name is still shit.
LOL
Because those right wingers are really remaining in the field huh? Santorum is another big government social conservative like Bush, Romney is far left, and Newt with respect adjusts his principles for self advancement. Any wonder conservatives are unenthused...even if they partially brought it on themselves with their own votes. Tack on the Republicans elected to change Washington completely betraying the people who put them there the last couple years and no one in DC has a right to expect us to be happy about giving them more power.
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