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Iowa Caucuses

I think Santorum is running for Veep at this point too. He has no realistic chance at the nom (even if he doesn't realize it yet). His best chance is not to fall to the side like all the anyone-but-Romney candidates before him. If he puts in a strong showing in SC, Florida, and Colorado, he can arm-twist Romney into giving him the Veep slot on the argument that he can energize the base, and Romney will need that to beat Obama's union-organized voter drives. I think it quite unlikely that Santorum can put in a strong enough showing in SC, Fl, and CO (maybe South Carolina).

Huntsman is simply running to be the Mitt Romney in 2016, if Romney loses to Obama. He's setting himself up to be the moderate-you-should-have-nominated. Paul is running because he enjoys being a gadfly and because he's a True BelieverTM in Libertoonism. Perry's running because he isn't actually as smart as Michele Bachman. Gingrich is running to promote his future books and speaking fees.
 
Does anyone know if this happened before at the Iowa GOP caucus - counting the votes in secret?

"GOP vote counting to secret location"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_...op-vote-counting-to-secret-location/#comments

The Iowa Republican party is moving its caucus night vote counting operation to an undisclosed location because of planned "Occupy Iowa Caucus" protests.

State GOP chair Matt Strawn was critical of the protests and said it's ironic that the Occupy movement is focusing on the Iowa caucuses.

"There's really no more grassroots process in American politics than the Iowa caucuses," Strawn said in an interview. "So it's a little puzzling why they'd choose to disrupt that process."

Strawn said the party is coordinating with local law enforcement to ensure smooth operations next Tuesday at the 1,774 precincts around the state.

"We're taking additional safeguards when it comes to the counting and tabulating and reporting of the caucus night results to make sure they're done in a timely and accurate fashion," he said.

In past years the counting took place at Republican Party headquarters, Strawn said. On Tuesday, it will happen at a secret location that will be known to the campaigns, which will have representatives on hand to view the vote count.

Strawn wasn't specific about caucus night concerns, but a handful of protesters were arrested on Wednesday trying to enter the Des Moines campaign headquarters of Mitt Romney.

Occupy activists from around the country have convened in Iowa to join local activists in an effort to draw attention to economic and political inequities.

Arthur Sanders, professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, said they area already succeeding by that measure.

"They see an opportunity to draw attention to what they think is important, which is a very different agenda than the Republican candidates have," he said. "They'll get the attention they want."
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Brown said:
I get a much stronger international exposure in Canada than I did in the US. Many of my friends have relatives or close contacts in Europe or Asia or the Middle East or elsehwhere. It is via these folks that I get a sense that people in other advanced countries are watching the US and can't decide whether what they're seeing is authentic insanity or not.

There have been times in election cycles (now and in 2007-08) when I have been treated like a man with a psychotic family, merely because I come from the United States, and maybe people thought I brought a little of that mental sickness across the border with me. No one has ever been rude about it, but some have politely made inquiry whether I was a rational person, or whether I was reflective of the lunacy they saw on television. A few have avoided making any comments about US politics out of concern for causing offense. When I first came to Canada, I encountered many Canadians who despised President George W. Bush (and I have YET to find a single Canadian who thinks highly of him), but were reluctant to mention their distaste for the man out of concern that I might have been one of his supporters.

Anyway, I submit that maintaining the national image is important. Trashing the national image to "win" the presidency strikes me as block-headed. In human beings, a quality of maturity is self-awareness and an understanding of what impressions you may be creating in others. When candidates do not care how the rest of the world perceives them or their causes, they show an immaturity that everyone else in the world can recognize at once, and it stains the entire nation.
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The funny thing about the "we don't care what they think" attitude here is that a lot of these people will sneer at a long haired guy with tattoos looking for a job.
 
Darat said:
Could the "she" not be the explanation? After all for many Christians (look at the RCC for an example) the idea of a female leader is an anathema?
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I don't think so. For all her crazy, she carries herself as a leader. She won the straw poll earlier this year and got herself appointed as head of the Tea Party Caucus in the House. I think it was people finally hearing just how crazy she is that led to her falling out of "not-Romney" flavor of the fortnight status combined with the rote, boilerplate talking points that she'd eminate rather than well thought out ideas and solutions that led to her downfall.

angrysoba said:
Yeah, that was my guess too. Although fifth might be more accurate after Bachman, Perry, Cain and Gingrich. Santorum peaked at a better time than the others though. Now some of the cable channels are scrambling to find out who this guy is.
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Santorum has been a Rep. and Sen. until just a few years ago. The talking heads know who is already.

JoeTheJuggler said:
I keep hearing about the dollars spent (on media ads in Iowa) per vote won, and Santorum was the big winner of that measure.
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From what I've been hearing, a lot of his success (apart from latest not-Romney status) was due to his retail politics in all 99 counties. I guess one could say he left a little Santorum in houses, churches, diners and meeting halls all over the state.
 
Perry ought to go back to his old job:

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Alferd_Packer said:
I guess you could say that santorum was all over Romney last night.
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Bluegill said:
Although Romney won, he didn't exactly clean up. He'll have santorum right on his you-know-what right up to the end.
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Quinn said:
Well no one expected him to wipe the floor with Santorum.
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timhau said:
Well, all they need to do is google 'Santorum', and...
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daredelvis said:
I know Santorum did not win, but does anyone know if Santorum covered the spread?

Daredelvis
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Small Town Jesus said:
A Santorum backfire?

Duck and cover!
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Alferd_Packer said:
No, Mitt's magic underwear contained it.
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UnrepentantSinner said:
No one was expecting Santorum to move from the bottom so quickly.
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I may be an atheist, but I have said it before, and I will say it again. God bless Dan Savage.
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
Actually, I hope he doesn't get his old job back, what with his complicity in putting to death an innocent man and his efforts to quash that fact.
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Actually, the job I was referring to was as a lackey in "the private sector"; Rick Perry driving a jalopy for a bunch of rich hayseeds, for example, would be a pretty good move for all concerned.
 
therival58 said:
Does anyone know if this happened before at the Iowa GOP caucus - counting the votes in secret?
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I don't know if it happened before, but do you know if there were election observers present?
 
Brown said:
Actually, the job I was referring to was as a lackey in "the private sector"; Rick Perry driving a jalopy for a bunch of rich hayseeds, for example, would be a pretty good move for all concerned.
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Ah yes. . . .I agree. Sadly, I suspect he'll become another bogus pundit like Sarah Palin.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
I have a feeling Romney's VP pick will be someone not in this field. I don't know who. I'm certain it won't be Palin.
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He's considered a moderate by much of the right-wing commentators so I'd wager he'll pick a hard-liner to satiate them and try and pull in more campaign donations from the base.
 
Oliver said:
I don't know if it happened before, but do you know if there were election observers present?
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I suppose technically it's not really an election in the sense that outside observers would make any sense. Caucus participants meet, hear speeches from anyone who wants to speak for each of the candidates, then vote one way or another. (Some precincts use blank papers, some use pre-printed ballots, and some use a show of hands.) There's no real guarantee of secrecy and no prohibition of discussing one's vote with others (or electioneering) during the process.

I'm not sure what an observer would add to the process.
 
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According to the Washington Post, Mittens may not have won in Iowa after all. Even with 8 pro-Santorum precincts missing, Santorum is now ahead.

And it was the Paulbots who were trying to say they got screwed. Interesting.
 
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