Posted on 12/27/2011 7:30:46 AM PST by TBBT
Via Ben Domenech’s Transom comes perhaps the least surprising news of the month. That news is that almost exactly half of all Ron Paul supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire self-identity as non-Republican. Without the support of these Democrats and Independents, Paul pulls roughly the same trivial level of support he got in 2008. This has some important implications for the state of the race.
First, as Neil Stevens has been patiently noting here on the front page, this makes Paul’s level of support in Iowa potentially much softer than it appears. While these voters can at least theoretically register as Republicans the day before the caucuses and spend all day caucusing with other Republicans even though this is something they have never done before, that is a lot to expect effort-wise from all but the most dedicated chaos causers. New Hampshire and SC are marginally easier for party jumpers to game and these folks won’t have a Democrat Presidential primary to distract them. However, by taking the R primary ballot, they give up a chance to vote in any D contested races downticket. It is impossible to quantify how many, if any, would be Democrat Paul voters will be deterred by this.
Third, this is conclusive validation of what I have been saying since 2007 when I saw Paul’s hippie supporters en masse on the campaign trail. Although some of his support comes from the last vestiges of the Buchananites, the vast majority would otherwise identify as liberal Democrats (or be too high to self-identify) as anything. As more and more of Paul’s crazy and extremist past comes to light, it is clear that Dems have seen an opportunity to tar Republican primary voters by associating them with Paul’s odious views.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
Yep.
Exactly!
The same thing is happening in NH open primary system too !
Soros party has picked apart the whiles in each states primary system to make crazy Jew hating Ron Paull the face of the GOP !
Never once thought it was. Libertarian views are inconsistent with Republican/conservative views. Republicans have never been a secular, laissez-faire behavior, party. They have always stood for values and morality as well as the fiscal and foreign policy beliefs.
Save our republic and get back to into God’s Grace.
Yup, and kinda hard to complain much about it either - considering our most vocal conservative, Rush Limbaugh, actively encouraged Republicans to do the exact same thing in 2008 (even going so far as encouraging people to change party registration to accomplish the mission).
Sorry my iPhone keeps respelling my words.
I meant to state Holes in each state’s primary system .
The only thing I can say in favor of Newt is I’d love to see him tear apart that little homo Marxist/Muslim in a debate.
The pubies better get a handle in this before there is no Pubbie party left.....
In other words, Republicans are only for liberty when it suits them?
Whatever. I will vote against Obama. At this point, the Republicans can run Howard the Duck and get my vote.
Ron Paul’s Base of Support: Not RepublicanWillard Mitt Romney's base of support isn't Republican either. This is what his supporters keep telling us. He is supposed to appeal to the broad middle of independents though there is no empirical evidence in the form of polls or prior electoral performance to support this ridiculous claim. Now if only conservatives would just bite the bullet and support the former corporate raider we could all put Obama out of office---this is their general line.
“Ron Paul’s Base of Support: Not Republican”
Many of them aren’t even SANE.
“Save our republic and get back to into God’s Grace.”
I agree...though I’d turn it around:
Get back to into God’s Grace and save our republic.
One of the problems this time around is we actually have a candidate that really does appeal to many leftists and Democrats. Ron Paul's foreign and defense policy views are on the far, far left, and there really are a lot of left wingers who think America is an imperialist monster that would love to elect such a guy - even if they oppose him on economic issues. It is going to be hard to keep this breed of paulbot out because many of Paul's cult following really will do whatever it takes to vote for him in the GOP primaries. Changing registration is nothing for these people.
And as far is Limbaugh is concerned, my point was simply it is kind of laughable for conservatives to complain about crossover voting screwing with our primary when one of our major standard bearers, Rush Limbaugh, actively encouraged the same thing last time around. Operation Chaos didn't achieve squat, but Limbaugh is known for having advocated such actions now.
John McCain...really?
First, like or not the Republican party really is quite a big tent. Probably half of GOP primary voters really are squishy go-along get-along moderates who cast ballots for the safe, established candidate they think has the best chance to win. Second, you can't beat something with nothing. Who were the great conservatives who ran competitive campaigns last time around? Thompson ran a crap campaign and flamed out. Huckabee? Seriously? That isn't someone even many/most conservatives can get behind. Now fast forward to this cycle? Who are our great conservative candidates? ((crickets)). Again, you can't beat something with nothing. Bachmann and Santorum are real, solid conservatives - but they aren't really good candidates and neither come across as particularly presidential or electable. Want to beat the candidate the establishment rallies around? Going to have to make sure we have a good Tea Party/movement conservative candidate that can actually compete with them.
Offense, but if your i-phone "corrects" your spelling, and it comes up with a word such as:
"..whiles.."
Then perhaps you need to return it.
You can go into your settings and ask your iphone not to correct your spelling. Mine was doing that to me as well and it drove me crazy. I changed my settings and it really helped. Before that I typed “Heathrow” and it typed “Heathens.” LOL!
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