A Small Protest, But A Protest Regardless
By Greg L | 13 February 2008 | National Politics, Prince William County | 16 Comments
In yesterday’s Presidential Primary Mitt Romney polled a lot higher than other former candidates in what the Republican Party must recognize as a small, but meaningful conservative rebuke. In Prince William County, Mitt Romney got 5.24% of the vote. Although this is a small percentage, it’s more than five times what other former candidates received, so this cannot be just die-hard fans unwilling to let go. In this jurisdiction Fred Thompson polled less than 1%, and Rudy Giuliani polled about half a percent. On the other side, Democrat John Edwards pulled in less than half a percent. In every other case when a candidate dropped out, they understandably dropped to the less than one percent category immediately. But not this time.
There are a lot of folks who will back the Republican nominee no matter who it is. God bless ‘em. There are some that won’t, and demand the nominee actually earn their vote. I suspect that this small portion of Republicans who essentially cast protest votes yesterday may also be a substantial portion of the core activists who volunteer on campaigns, write candidates checks, and are the foot soldiers in a political campaign. If their protest doesn’t get a response, and this is what’s happening here, the proof will be apparent later on this summer.
If the top of the ticket is unpopular with the loyalist base, all the volunteers will be working the downballot races, and the campaign at the top of the ticket will be begging for volunteers to help with the local campaign. This happens, and it drives big campaigns nuts almost as much as it drives the campaign staff of the downballot races crazy as they struggle to defend the scarce resources they’ve managed to obtain. This happened in Kilgore’s gubernatorial campaign, and definitely didn’t help him win that race. I suspect this is going to happen with McCain in Virginia if something doesn’t change here. The activists will be engaged regardless, but they may be pretty scarce in the presidential campaign.
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It was not only a small protest, it was inconsequential and counterproductive. All you numbnuts out there who voted for anyone other than McCain not only wasted your votes, you could have put them to good use by voting for Hillary, who, if she gets the Dumbocrat nomination, will get beaten by McCain. Obama, on the other hand, will continue to roll like a snowball down a mountain and make McAmnesty look like a 21st Century Au-H20.
Interesting commentary by Dick (I like toes) Morris:
Why Hillary Will Lose
By Dick Morris
Hillary Clinton has blown an almost sure shot at the Democratic presidential nomination. Having surrendered the lead to Obama, she is not likely ever to regain it. It is a fantasy that the Ohio and Texas primaries will be a “firewall” to contain the flames of enthusiasm for Obama and reverse her defeats of February. Just as with Giuliani’s supposed Florida firewall, Hillary’s will crumble as Obama’s momentum carries him forward to the nomination.
Before Hillary lost her first primary or caucus, she lost the dialogue with the Obama campaign vis-à-vis the totally misguided decision to focus her message on experience, surrendering the ground of change to her opponent.
The more she tried to emphasize Obama’s inexperience, the more she seemed to fence herself into the status quo. That it was the status quo ante of the Clinton years, not the status quo of the Bush administration, made less and less difference as the campaign progressed.
She ran on a message perfect for a Republican primary — experience — and abandoned the key to winning a Democratic primary — the message of change — to Obama.
Her decision to rely on special interest political action committee and lobbyist contributions and to seed her war chest with the checks of maxed-out donors gave substance to Obama’s contrast of the status quo vs. change. With her chief strategist a lobbyist and her top campaign team all in the business, she was awash in associations that crippled her ability to fight for change.
Obama became the attraction in the race while Hillary recited her laundry list of proposals with a deadening monotony.
She could have waged a grassroots, small-donor, Internet campaign of change based on being the first woman running for president with a serious chance of victory. The charisma could have been hers, the excitement hers and the novelty hers. But by embracing experience and pretending to be safe and tested, she deadened the excitement her candidacy could have generated.
She got a reprieve by winning in New York/New Jersey and in California/ Arizona largely on the strength of Latino and immigrant voters. Their concentration in five key states (75 percent live in California, New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas) gave her a draw on Super Tuesday. But too many of her votes come from Hispanics who fear blacks and from older whites who harbor residual racial feelings. Her and Bill’s heavy-handed attempts to polarize the election racially died on Super Tuesday in an avalanche of votes from white states like Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota and the like.
As the election turned from Super Tuesday to the heartland, where there are few Hispanics or new immigrants, Hillary’s campaign has lost its momentum and its prospects of victory. Obama’s victories in Maine, Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington state, and now in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland, show how complete is his mastery of states without immigrants blinded by the Clinton name to sustain it. Hillary’s hopes for victory in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina are a fantasy. The Latino population in those states is well below 10 percent and not enough to carry her to victory.
The super-delegates will not be enough to reverse Obama’s primary and caucus victories and they will run for cover and join the Obama bandwagon anyway.
Besides losing the rhetorical battle, Hillary will have nowhere near the money that Obama will have. Her preparations for a short war based on maxed-out donors and old politics were disastrously shortsighted, while Obama wisely cultivated online contributors who can regenerate with the click of a mouse.
When Barack Obama beat Al Gore to the punch and jumped into the presidential race while the former vice president was still deciding what to do, it seemed that Hillary had virtually wrapped up the nomination. While Gore could have beaten Mrs. Clinton, it seemed unlikely that a senator with two years’ service under his belt could do so.
But the mistakes and strategic errors of the Clinton campaign gave Obama an opening that he exploited masterfully. It is Obama’s charisma that is winning this election, but it was Clinton’s mistakes that opened the door.
Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of “Outrage.”
I hope all those mad at McCain pay close attention to Obama, and his “positions” on issues. Your non-vote helps elect the proverbial emporer with no clothes.
I’m curious if Obama is elected if it can get any worse than it already is with a Republication currently in charge and a Republican congress that was in charge, that led us into the mess we have now.
ah…no due he did well. Do you know how many Mormons we have in PWC? It was a sympathy vote. Stop trying to make something out of nothing - AGAIN.
Do you know what would have been a HUGE protest? voting for Huckabee and actually beating McCain
Michael said on 13 Feb 2008 at 6:33 pm:
I’m curious if Obama is elected if it can get any worse than it already is with a Republication currently in charge and a Republican congress that was in charge, that led us into the mess we have now.
Yes. We will lose the Iraq war if Obama is elected and the consequences will be catastrophic.
Advocator said on 13 Feb 2008 at 11:54 am:
“…make McAmnesty look like a 21st Century Au-H20.”
LOL That one got my neurons going.
Ohh the spending!!!! If we elect a Democrat president with a Democrat congress. The pork will be so thick we will have to call ourselves pig farmers. Can it get worse? The answer is YES it can. They will end the war, which will mean all those who died will be wasted and start up the gov’t spending machine. Dems want everyone to feel like they are entitled to gov’t freebees!!! They are not. We need to cut the spending right now. Look at all of the earmarks in the recent stimulus package. I am glad they removed the majority of them.
Without an opposite party in one of the branches, we will end up spending way too much on gov’t handouts.
To all of you conservatives out there, check out the “Contract with Conservatives.” You can sign the petition at this link:
http://www.gopusa.com/activist/petitions/petition.php?petition=080211_cwc
“The party of Ronald Reagan — a collection of social and fiscal conservatives — saw all their work come together with the Republican Revolution of 1994. Republicans came to power through their dedication to core, conservative principles.
Since that time, the conservative base has seen the Republican Party go astray. From runaway spending, to big government programs, to assaults on our First Amendment rights to amnesty for illegal aliens, conservatives have become disheartened, and the time has come for dramatic change.
America can thrive under conservative leadership and government. The Republican Party is best equipped to deliver this kind of leadership, but too often, it has not. The time has come when conservative voters can no longer be taken for granted. Conservatives need something more than simple assurances. For our time, effort, money, and votes, we need a pledge. We need a pledge from our presidential nominee to uphold the core Republican values that built this party, and which have taken a backseat to politics in recent years.
The Contract with Conservatives is that pledge. It is a pledge to uphold the major conservative ideals that have been pushed aside over the past decade.
We, the undersigned, will support our presidential nominee and other candidates for high office, only if they uphold the Contract with Conservatives.
It is time to get back to basics. The conservative base will work for candidates who pledge to uphold conservative values.”
Loudoun, get a grip. If your county party was any indication of what you’d see happen across the nation, we’ll pass. Incidentally, the voters of Loudoun passed on your candidates as well.
Sitting around voting for anyone less than the one person who can and will deal with Bam Bam has to be a unified process.
Remember back in 2004 when moderate democrats and far left liberals were fighting? It probably cost them that election.
“Those who forget the past are destind to repeat it”. I suppose republicans had better snap out of this bickering, or just resign themselves to accept the democrat/liberal POTUS.
I think we’ve got 9 months to get the word out that his policies (eventually unmasked) suck, and that he has the blessing of the far left Moveon.org, which when brought to the masses attention does far more damage to him in the moderate centrist, and when the conservatives align with those moderates, McCain wins.
He will be there for four years, giving the Republicans time to find a stellar choice, promote them, and prepare for 2012 in a Hillary-free zone.
And allowing the inmates to run the asylum for those four years is not an option!!!!! The train has to be still on the tracks when it reaches 2012, and if there is a liberal win, it won’t be.
10 feet tall and Bulletproof said on 15 Feb 2008 at 5:48 pm:
Loudoun, get a grip. If your county party was any indication of what you’d see happen across the nation, we’ll pass. Incidentally, the voters of Loudoun passed on your candidates as well.
Loudoun is a PWC native and lives in PWC. So, you might want to go rethink what you’ve said to “Loudoun”.
You should not make such assumptions. I use “Lafayette” that most certainly does NOT mean I’m from Lafayette County.
You need to get GRIP!
Oh… if you can’t argue the message, take it in another direction? It matters not where any of you are from. The points stand.
Man, I’ve seen that exact style of obsfucation somewhere else….
Not trying to argue YOUR message. You made direct statement to “Loudoun” about the voters of Loudoun County. That was my only point to you.
Thanks, Lafayette.
10 feet tall… the word is “obfuscation” and I don’t believe that was Lafayette’s intent. Lafayette was clarifying that I most assuredly do not live in Loudoun County.
Do have a simply smashing evening!
Disgusted…are you Dyslexic? I am.