South Carolina Primary Thread

When you have media people and pundits like Coulter ringing the bell for as long as they have, I'm surprised they are surprised that voters don't respond when someone running for office rings it louder.

http://www.someguywithawebsite.com/cartoons/2012/120123_gingrich.html

 

Ann Coulter, you helped create this shit. And now you're upset about it?

It cracks me up that Fox put Newt on about 3 kajillion times a day over the last however many years, put on other people (like Coulter) to walk justthisclose to the line of overt racism and general dickishness, and encouraged every excess of Tea Partydom (including the Fox "News" producer rallying the crowd at a Tea Party event, and sending its own pundits for live coverage of Tea Party gathering) and now they're all shocked, shocked, that the core audience is going ga-ga for Newt? Who is Ann Coulter kidding, other than herself?

If Fox News and Coulter were so concerned about reasonableness at the polls, they wouldn't have spent so many years, making so much money, encouraging a mindset of being as unreasonable as possible.

 

I am gratified at the level of interest on the part of liberals in the Republican candidates and primaries.

 

Because there's just so much intellectual heft underpinning the "fair share" crowd ...

 

I just don't understand how the GOP can be this fucking dumb.

You want to beat Obama more than anything else.

The only one in that field who has a prayer of beating Obama is Romney.

Why do they keep gutting him and undermining him?

 

Because they feel he is too much like Obama.

 

Because the GOP needs Obama to win this time around and get a candidate they like in 2016.

 

It's not the GOP that's dumb. The party itself has tried to position Romney as Mitt the Inevitable. Only problem is, after the debacle of 2008 the keys were yanked from the party establishment by all the Tea Party types, and Fox News was more than happy to go along for the joyride, especially as some of the movement's supporters and figures had electoral success in 2010.

Problem is, some of the short-term gain of courting the Tea Partiers is resulting in some serious pain. We saw some of that when Delaware boosted sure thing Mike Castle in the primary for Senate in favor of Not a Witch. Now we're seeing it as primary voters get jazzed by Angry Newt.

However, I don't think it's all emotional. I think there are Republican voters who genuinely believe Romney doesn't stand a chance against Obama. Given how Romney has screwed up handling stuff like questions about Bain, and his tax returns, I can't say I blame them for thinking that. In South Carolina, voters who placed "electibility" as the most important factor went for Gingrich over Obama:

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577175480758093506.html

Also interesting from that same story. The 88 percent of voters who said their economic situation was worse or holding steady were majority for Gingrich. Only the 11 percent who said they were getting better went for Romney.

Ultimately, in Gingrich v. Romney, if it doesn't come down to Romney outspending everyone or Reince Preibus putting poison in Gingrich's drink, the voting could come down to who can best harness the anger and passion of people pissed at the world -- people who may well be just as pissed at Wall Street as they are at Obama. Romney is never going to get those people. He just doesn't know how to do it. Meanwhile, Gingrich, to get elected, will say ANYTHING to get those folks.

And there ain't a damn thing the GOP can do about that.

 

And the GOP establishment is in pure pants-shitting mode. First, can't like this TPM polltracker that shows Newt with an unfavorability rating of 58.6%.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/the-chart-democrats-dont-want-gop-voters-to-see.php

Meanwhile, Washington Post's "Right Turn" columnist Jennifer Rubin is begging all the Republicans who refused to run for president to reconsider.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/an-open-letter-to-republican-leaders/2012/01/21/gIQA9abjGQ_blog.html

 

All he's tried to do in modern times is stir shit. It sells books and draws lecture crowds. Who gives a shit what he says?

 

I thought about starting a new thread on this, but I figured that history showed it would only get locked anyway, so I will mention it here: The Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin is going to happen. It might be in the middle of primary season and it might be later, but if he gets tossed out on his keester, that's just going to be another sign of chaos within the GOP.

 

Going to be great watching that disingenuous bitch get rolled and sent home to shine shoes.