Self described conservative voters have been swinging in their stated preference among various candidates for a year now as all of them have been subject to both fair and extremely unfair media exposure, and sometimes outright distortion. Lots of this slung mud has been smeared on a daily basis at this website, frequently by posters whose Freeper names I personally have never seen before but are listed as having joined many years ago. But that is another subject for another day. The conservative core in this polling is basically looking for anyone besides Mitt Romney who might still have a reasonable chance to defeat Obama in just over 11 months time, and as each possibility has been vetted or decided to not compete others have been grasped at with growing desperation.
The bottom line is that these polls are almost meaningless in such a piranha tank environment and in an open caucus it could well come down to the one candidate who has until now not received much serious notice by the school of ravenous fish. We know who the media and a party establishment that is happiest in the minority want selected. Santorum may be the last alternative with a real chance of coming out of Iowa with momentum and a crow bar big enough to turn their apple cart on its side.
iowa is different.
I live in iowa and I really think every state should do it like iowa does. You are allowed to change your vote. In fact, if I remember correctly, sometimes you are forced to change your vote. I could be remembering incorrectly, but it seems to me like everyone divides into groups, one group for each candidate. If a group has less than the minimum required people, then that group is disbanded and everyone in that group is forced to go join another group. The winner is the group with the most people.
So I am going with the expectation of voting for santorum, but if there isn’t enough people in the santorum group, I will join another group. I havn’t figured out yet who my second choice will be. Maybe perry. You just never know what is going to happen at a caucus sometimes.
The reason I think the iowa method is better is it is more involved and has a way of scaring off the people who are not really into politics. checking a box on a secret ballot is easy. you can do that without having any strong beliefs. But when you go to a caucus, you better be ready to explain to people why you choose the person you choose. You also better have an alternate candidate in mind just in case.