General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDo these Santorum wins seem a little odd?
Was there any hint that Santorum was doing well in these states?
What about the exit polls? Do they jive with the results?
I am convinced that there is so much cheating involved in our elections. I admit it, I do not
trust election results--especially when the results seem counter intuitive.
I saw the hanky panky that went on in my state of Iowa. Fraud happens.
I'll just say what I think is happening. I think the Republican establishment is punishing Gingrich. I think
these Santorum wins pummel Gingrich and make him look weak and finished. Romney wins would have
only perpetuated the Gingrich-Romney dog fight--which often makes Newt come out on top--as he positions
himself as the "true conservative."
I think the Republican, elite, corporoestablishment needed to run the election off the tracks--and get
the focus off of Gingrich. Yes, this hurts Romney, but the entire Republican establishment is gunning
for Romney. They can prop his dead candidacy up like a Weekend at Bernie's scene--and get him back
on track with more multi-million dollar ad campaigns and with cooperation from the MSM.
Perhaps Romney will select Santorum as VP--so propping up Santorum for a while (to beat down Gingrich) will
really be a win in the long run for a Romney/Santorum ticket.
I smell a rat. And no--I have no proof. So don't ask me for links and pie charts. Most of America is scratching
their heads tonight and feeling as if something is a bit off. These bastards cheat and lie--they start illegal
wars, delight in torture, have no problem destroying our privacy and civil rights and have spent the past decade
empowering the corporations and allowing them to run our government. Come on...do we really believe that
election tampering is beyond these sociopaths?
Something doesn't feel right. Maybe someone else can explain it all.
Tunkamerica
(4,444 posts)on to the next.
Miqqyy
(12 posts)Republicons follow their instinks.
Obama3_16
(157 posts)But that's just my opinion.
CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)I guess this outcome seems unlikely. Santorum didn't have a lot of money to spend on
ads--in all of those states.
It just seems unexpected.
I suspect that the Republicans (remember the "math" that Karl Rove had?) routinely tamper with
elections. They're very, very pissed at Gingrich, and I wouldn't put it past them.
I wish I wasn't so cynical. I wish I had more faith in our election system, but I really don't.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)I can't believe Santorum won all three states just like that.
Whether there was some conspiracy against Newt, I guess its possible, because for some reason a lot of Republicans seem to hate Gingrich. Maybe they fear he would cause a Democratic party blowout and the republicans would lose in a steamroller or something if he had won the nomination.
CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)...the real big wigs in the Republican party--Karl Rove, the Bush family, the powerful corporations--are
all gunning for Romney and they HATE Newt.
REP
(21,691 posts)The rift between LDS and RLDS is too old and too deep for Missouri to vote for an LDS candidate. Aside from that, the LDS doesn't have a great history in Missouri (The Mormon War).
xmas74
(29,676 posts)If the moderates are at the caucus it'll be Romney. If the conservatives show it'll be a fight between Santorum and Gingrich. (Yep, quite a few coworkers refused to vote because Newt wasn't on the ballot.) What I'm curious about is the very vocal Paul group throughout the state. If they show up to a caucus (and this could happen) we could be setting ourselves up for an interesting fight.
kctim
(3,575 posts)There are tons of Mormons here and very few Community of Christ.
There are also sacred Mormon sites, two temples and Adam Ondi Ahman.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)I never thought they'd go for a Mormon, and there's not a Southern Baptist in the bunch. He's the "best" they've got.
Mitt's a Mormon, Newt's twice divorced with a proven record of serial adultery, and Paul is bipolar on the issues important to Republicans. None of them is very much trusted.
Unless they pull in an unknown quantity at their brokered convention (and I don't think Jeb Bush is going to be it), half the (R)s in the country are either going to have to hold their noses to vote, or just stay home.
At this rate, they may have to haul Cain back in.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)Turns out he was right. We had an even bigger laugh when we talked tonight.
Kennah
(14,315 posts)If this ain't strange and mysterious ways, I don't know what is.
hyphenate
(12,496 posts)It's dirty politics. And its been around longer than our country has been around.
Kennah
(14,315 posts)I think it's simply a case of the GOP electorate so baffled and confused because Faux News hasn't been consistently telling them how to think. As such, they are just randomly choosing based on the moment.
Imagine you eat pizza, then vomit, so you don't like pizza very much.
Next you eat fish, then vomit, so you don't like fish very much.
Now you eat ribs, then vomit, so you don't like ribs very much.
Whatever you eat is going to make you vomit, but it wasn't the last thing that made you vomit so you figure what the hell.
JHB
(37,161 posts)...it's really not all that mysterious.
They're having a succession crisis, and each group has the knives out to take all the marbles. From each other, that is. And they're all too convinced that most of the country agrees with them to back down.
GeorgeGist
(25,323 posts)God is not a whack job.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)We should always ask that. We shouldn't just trust that there is nothing fishy going on.
I don't know either of course.
Missouri and Minnesota I understand. MO is very religious. Somewhat Catholic around St. Louis and evangelical, pentacostal, etc. everywhere else. Also Newt was not on the ballot in MO, so it was a perfect storm for Santorum
Minnesota looks alot like Iowa. Lots of born again folks. Also Michele Bachmann may have had a big organized contingent there that would have caucused for Santorum. I wouldn't have predicted this result in MN, but it doesn't shock me.
Colorado I do not understand what happened there.
MADem
(135,425 posts)There's a lot of starch, and no red meat.
No wonder the doggone Alfalfa Club elected their "President" -- Jeb Bush. They smelled the lack of enthusiasm for the proffered meal a mile and a month away!
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I mean, he's got all the things they want- he's completely batshittery winguttitized on the socio-religio-veggietales-culture war Jesusbagger issues, he's still on his first wife, he's the right race, gender, and religion, and did I mention that he's completely batshittery winguttitized on the socio-religio-veggietales-culture war Jesusbagger issues?
Plus, he's an idiot. He's their fucking dream date, which speaks awfully ill of him that even the pinheaded cranio-rectal inverts of the GOP base were desperately hunting for something- anything- else to take home from the right wing nut bar, before settling for the Santorum.
It's like he's too lame even for them. Which is pretty lame.
MADem
(135,425 posts)He looks like the guy you'd LET your daughter stay out till 2 a.m. with, because you know she'd be safe.... and completely uninterested!
What it came down to, I guess, is which candidate sucks the least?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Like watching a crazy old lady at the Piggly Wiggly try to decide which brand of half-off, past date bologna to buy.
You want to scream: "They ALL Suck! Just Pick, Goddamit!"
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)trust a Catholic only a tiny bit more than a Mormon. I think that's why it took so long.
Are there any numbers on what flavor of batshitty conservative religions make up the right? I'm thinking southern Baptist and their cousins, the independent baptists (where I grew up), are a big part. But that may easily be my cultural bias responsible for that theory - that's mostly what I know because that's mostly what I was exposed to...
My Methodist Aunt and Uncle are really the only actively religious people I know (forum company excluded - i mean in real life) who vote democrat. And even they feel they are not too typical in their denomination.
Bohunk68
(1,364 posts)lips of Frothy's and start imagining things. How could you really call him a santorum? Bad boy. Bad boy. Stop that!!!!
Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)No freakin' way!
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)See here: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
Minnesota: Santorum +9
Missouri: Santorum +13
The only surprise was Colorado.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I can't quite put my finger on it.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,505 posts)Ter
(4,281 posts)The elite that's capable of fraud all want Romney.
hyphenate
(12,496 posts)could have some involvement. I won't deny I've been wondering when the ugly head of the neo-cons and the religious right would rise, and find a puppet president they could control again. Santorum is ripe for that.
JI7
(89,264 posts)even in states he won. so when there are states where there are larger percentage of those type of voters it's no surprise he wont win.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)Ron Paul came in second? Santorum by double+ digits? Noot barely trailing 3rd/last?
I know they hate R-money but this just seemed a little out of the norm tonight.
jsmirman
(4,507 posts)that has been very clear for a long time now.
These idiots cycled through Herman Cain and Governor Numb Nuts, at one point.
But it's like a condensed schizophrenic episode - every day they wake up and realize that they don't like the new personality that they've chosen.
Justice wanted
(2,657 posts)Colorado is the heart of the Mega-churches and Minnosota keeps voting the Bat-crazy-eye Bachmann so that doesn't surprise me BUT Missouri?
xmas74
(29,676 posts)since the primary was a glorified straw poll. We'll see if Santorum holds in March, when the caucus is held. (And the caucus is what matters-this primary counts for absolutely nothing.)
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Very small turnout.
They just don't like Mitt, and the Evangellicals still turn out no matter what.
The big story is how small the turnout is.
eShirl
(18,503 posts)it was ever thus
MadHound
(34,179 posts)This doesn't seem odd at all. After all, look back and see the track record this year. Michelle Bachman was on top for awhile after the Iowa straw poll. Then Perry came out strong, until he opened his mouth and showed people just how dumb he was. Then Herman Cain took his turn on the runway, and was the conservative darling, until it turned out he had been wondering where all the white women were at(Blazing Saddles reference for those of you who are humor impaired). Then Gingritch had his turn in the spotlight, but the lighting showed up the fact that he was still just as weird, crazy and out of touch as he ever was. Now, on the strength of a couple of minor primary contests, and a beauty pageant in Missouri that didn't mean a thing, Santorum is being propelled to become the latest, greatest hope of the batshit crazy wing of the Republican party.
Meanwhile, Romney continues to hold a steady course, beating back one challenger after another. The one thing about all this is that the longer this continues, the more likely that there will be a brokered convention. That's where the real fun will come. But I think that what this rotating platform of favorites shows is that anybody representing the batshit crazy wing of the Republican party, while looking good from a distance, turns out to look horrible to the electorate upon closer examination. I think that the Republican party wants a candidate who is bad boy crazy like a Santorum, Bachman or Gingritch, but with all the patrician respectability of Romney. That's why they keep tossing up these three week favorites, one after the other. I fully expect that Paul will get his turn on the runway as well here in a few weeks, he's the last out of the clown car after all.
But in the end, it will be Romney.
ananda
(28,876 posts)... is voting in the GOP.
renie408
(9,854 posts)to prove. Romney is expected to clinch the nomination, so his supporters probably felt like they didn't really need to bother. Gingrich wasn't on the ballot in MO and even if he were, he hasn't really put anything into these three states and he is losing support across the board every day. Santorum supporters may have seen this as their chance to shine some light on that little shit, so they did.
xmas74
(29,676 posts)and Missouri had extremely low turn out-one poster stated in the low teens. This primary was an expensive shamble.
Oh, and it doesn't count, not one bit. There will be a caucus held in March and that will decide who actually wins in Missouri. If Santorum takes the caucus in March then that'll be something to talk about.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)DevonRex
(22,541 posts)Evangelical Christians like Santorum. They even voted on it as a group a few weeks ago and decided to support him.
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)surging in CO.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)pretty much guaranteed a win for Santorum.
aaaaaa5a
(4,667 posts)yellowcanine
(35,701 posts)He likely would not help Mitt get Pennsylvania - Santorum is not that popular there. Mitt would be more likely to try to snag Florida with Rubio as VP, imo. Florida is more electoral votes and Rubio would in theory help Mitt there more than Santorum would help in PA. Plus Mitt probably needs some kind of minority as VP given that he is white bread going up against a minority incumbent. Rick Santorum is a kind of minority of course, given that there are not that many actual douches who might be a VP candidate.
Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)The people who make and service the electronic voting machines are in Santorum's corner.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)I'm not sure that vote tampering or rigging the results even needs to be a part of it.
There's been a huge push in evangelical communities to get out the vote for Santorum, and it wouldn't surprise me if the RNC weren't actually behind much of that purportedly "grass roots" effort, for exactly the reasons you describe. And how convenient is the recent resurgence in the news of stories about cultural wedge issues?
I think it's always smart to look for the big money influence, and the motives you describe for the PTB to push Santorum make an awful lot of sense.
.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)They are a very big network capable of turning out a lot of voter and a lot of foot soldiers to drag their friends and neighbors to the polls.
No one is talking about how this made Gingrich look week or what a terrible day it was for Newt. They are talking about how it made Romney look week and what a terrible day it was for Mitt.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)Santorum wants to convert our current legal system into one that requires our laws to be in agreement with religious law, not unlike what the Taliban want to do in Afghanistan.
They been praying for a candidate that thinks like they do.
He's very dangerous to the future of our country and not to be taken lightly!
Enrique
(27,461 posts)don't you find it odd that Romney is the front-runner, even though the conservative base hates him?