Tuesday May 22nd 2012
Democracy in America
American politics
The Republican nomination
Live-blogging the Florida primary
Feb 1st 2012, 0:29 by The Economist online
(Photo credit: AFP)
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The Gingrich Santorum, Romney, secure twilight home for the elderly and feeble of head. Possible sanctuary for those who have gone Obarmy. Pwbbbbbert.
Gingrich is a brittle candidate who isn't all there. Who knew?
Well done, Florida, well done.
I must repeat again, Mr.Romney is not a desired perestroyka man, there is zero chance that he can be the new hero, the desperately awaited new american Gorbatchev. Looking at his tax philosophy, it is clear he is not the one who asks "What can I do for America?".
Newt did well among married men. Apparently married men thought, "I understand."
Surprisingly, there isn't much of a difference when broken down by education. The two Catholics combined got 40% of the Catholic vote compared to 56% for Romney.
Interesting fact: Not only did Florida lose delegates for cutting the line but they also lost convention passes for using winner-take-all instead of proportional allocation as they were supposed to.
Newt: "I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor."
WTF? Life kind of makes sense. Fortune? He's gonna give up all his money? Sacred honor? Didn't you pledge that to each of your three wives? He might as well have said, "I promise to have and to hold you, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. For real this time. I'm serious."
Gingrich has honor (sacred or otherwise)? Who knew?
Ron Paul overlooks the fact that our roots included being unable to defend ourselves against British-sponsored native american terrorism, and included a wide variety of improperly declared wars against said native americans (who were often provoked, and certainly not unique in attempting genocide from time to time)
He traded it for that fortune he's going to share with us- and for Patriotism! And look, grandchildrten!
He's trying to show he knows the Declaration. How cute, Newt remembers material from grade school US history. A founding father he ain't.
Oh wow. I don't think I've ever heard that line before. Did anyone else catch that?
When did Gingrich delude himself into thinking he is a Washington outsider?
And who are the people who fall for that line?
The Historian, for all his jeremiads at European government, seems to have very Hungarian ideas of jurisprudence...
Does he write his own speeches ? This one is so badly structured surely a pro can't have written it.
Did The Historian just promise us a 2 hour inaugural address?
People who combine blind faith with very short memories.
The Historian's attempt to channel the founders sounded suspiciously like a marriage vow- I guess weddings are getting to be a habit for him...
More like Byzantine....
@RLG- I think the faithless cow outside Doug Pascover's door might have more honour than Newt Gingrich (not to mention a better record on child support)
Purple is spot on- the guy needs a fight, all the time. Extremely dangerous indeed.
Purple, John Edwards is still a politician, but without a polity.
A nice pivot by Santorum, decrying personal feuds while attempting to step in and profit from the personal attacks on Gingrich
Gingrich's taste in music seems as questionable as his taste in wives- does the country music doom him when the campaign moves north?
The Historian praises being positive in the midst of a negative tirade...
@RLG- anything smaller wouldn't fit the ego...
Heck no. I'm not watching and I'd say if he's playing from the Lee Greenwood/Toby Keith jingoistic end of the spectrum that'll be good throughout the GOP primaries but not so good in the general election. If he's playing music from the Merle Haggard/Randy Travis Patriotic songs, that's good through inauguration day. At which point he can go back to Haydn, Gloria Gaynor and Mongol throat singing.
Purple, the big white spot in the upper right hand corner of TPM's map:
Precincts reported: 79.45%
Romney: 46.9%
Gingrich: 31.61%
This isn't half as much fun as the blood-curdling debates..
Certainly not for Santorum ; he's being drowned out when one member of his audience speaks.
"as a historian, I know that putting a jet pack on and making an early start on the lunar base is what I am called to do right now, and then I will be elected supreme ruler of the galaxy." wooooosh.
Black: The Republicans seem to be inventing an opponent to run against that bears little resemblance to the actual president.
Well, that's the President that they have been talking about all along. I can't remember a time in the last 3 years when what (other) Republicans said about Obama bore any noticable resemblance to him and his policies. I certainly wouldn't expect any of the candidates to change that now.
@WW- you may need to join Wolf Blitzer in getting that color-blindness tested...
Romney is now calling on voters to remember the cold war- his comment about presidents pretty clearly ruled out all our leaders since Bush I. Given that, would you rather be worried about getting a job or getting nuked off the face of the earth by vindictive Russians?
CNN commentator made a good point about negative ads. Newt doesn't like negative ads because they inform voters.
CNN also reports a huge gender gap. It's a dead heat among men.
Newt can still claim that Newt+Santorum is pretty close to Romney's numbers and Florida is a swing state so he can still beat Romney in redder states. Unfortunately, Santorum voters seem to prefer Romney over Newt.
Well, they inform voters when they are not based in fantasy. All the ads which consist of the opposing candidate speaking (in the past) are all to the good. But some of the negative ads are merely fantasy and delusion -- I'm not sure that they inform anyone.
Generally speaking, the rationales people give for their actions, the beliefs they say they hold, and even their reports of past actions are not especially reliable. Anyone who has spent much time around human beings knows this.
Romney's father was born in Mexico... why wonder Romney carried FL Latino Republicans?
Hence, Gingrich took the Panhandle while Romney took whatever has a Latino community - registered Republicans.
I'd like to see Romney's papers.
Has he released his birth certificate, and I mean both the long and short forms, and in duplicate?
You never can trust these people...
Better yet, his tax returns. 10 years minimum; all of them would be better. After all, if there was nothing there, he would have done so already, right?
I wasn't sure what could possibly be in there, I asked my accountant. He told me that based on what was in the ones Romney did release and the tax laws, earlier in the 2000s there might be a few years where Mitt (legally) paid a tax rate very close to zero. I can imagine it won't look very good and there will be people who won't believe it was legal, but I agree with Chris Christie, just bite the bullet and release.
Maybe he's reticent to release them because there's a ton of cash in the Caymans, and Swiss Bank accounts.
And, I can see the ad now -
"Middle class America pays its fair of taxes to support our fighting men and women, and to educate our children.
Mitt Romney, however, hides his millions from the tax man.
Mitt Romney, bad for America."
WW, I could see Romney pivoting to attacking Obama almost immediately, dismissing any Gingrich attacks as sour grapes and harmful to the conservative effort to stop Obama from destroying the nation.
Shoot, 3 post limit. I just went to CNN, and their front page results tracker doesn't even show Ron Paul as a candidate. Ouch.
Wow, looking at the exit polls, some striking demographics...
Florida's ethnic makeup: 60% white, 17% black, 18% latino.
Republican primary exit polls: 83% white, 1% black, 14% latino.
And in a final comment to myself:
Talking to myself on the internet is much better than just commenting to the TV; at least I have plausibile deniability that it is directed toward someone else!
We're readin gyou; even if we aren't always responding. I guess that improves your plausible deniability. ;-)
OneA, I'll pick-up where you left off.
jouris, we're reading your plausible deniability, too.
I deny the alligations and (this being Florida) defy the allegator.
"I deny everything. I wasn't even there . . . and besides, the witnesses have been eliminated."
Either that, or I should be more worried that after talking to myself, I receive comments back!
Obviously the rest of us are merely figments of your imagination. ;-)
Anyone for a go at solopsism?
Santorum 13%... out, I guess.
Poor Ron got 7% only.
Santorum did largely abandon Florida though. You can argue for continuing if you deliberately don't compete much in a particular state.
Santorum can abandon any state where's a GOP Latino community.
CNN are inordinately proud of predicting the blindingly obvious.
No wonder Republicans are worried about voter fraud; 102% of former Santorum supporters made it to the polls tonight.
RT @CBSNews Coming up in 5 minutes on @CBS: A @CBSEveningNews special report on the #FLPrimary hosted by @ScottPelley
Whatever happened to Katie Couric?