Super Tuesday (Thank God it’s over)
- Posted by Beth on February 6th, 2008 filed in 2008 election, Candidates, Fred Thompson, General, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Politics primaries · Republicans
Okay, I’m not gonna gloat about McCain winning big last night. Unlike some people, I’m not into insulting supporters of other candidates (except Paulbots). I’m of course happy, but I’ll keep a lid on it.
I thought it was funny as hell that the media pundits were all acting shocked that the South went to Huckabee. I wasn’t surprised a bit. I wish McCain had been able to pull it off, but Huckabee’s a strong force down here, for several reasons. First of all, he’s “one of us.” He speaks our language, and I don’t mean the religious stuff (although that’s some of it). Did you hear him mention “Roll Tide” and “Rocky Top” and the Bulldogs? That’s in Southern blood. But more importantly, Southerners are independent. Rebels, if you will, and they/we hate the media elites telling us how to vote. I think the media and blog jihad on Huckabee strengthened Southern resolve. Keep bashing Huck, and it repels Southerners. Hell, if it weren’t for some of his ideas and his lack of foreign policy credentials, I might have been tempted to vote for him just to poke the elites in the eye. But the issues do matter to me, and I couldn’t reconcile a lot of his with mine. Besides, McCain needed every vote down here and unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for Alabama. Congratulations to Mike Huckabee and the Huckabee supporters–y’all had a really good show last night, and your networking efforts have been amazing.
Well, Mitt Romney had a bad night, although I have to admit I’m not really surprised things ended up the way they did. Is anyone? (I mean other than Hugh Hewitt.) I thought California would be closer than it was. He of course won some states, more than Huckabee did, but didn’t meet expectations. We’ll see if Mitt and Huck stick around for the long haul. Honestly, I hope they don’t because I’m ready for this part of the election to be over. (Sorry. Just my opinion.)
So from here…there are a lot of Fredheads like me who have picked a candidate, and some who still haven’t. It strikes me as very strange that just a few weeks ago, we Fredheads were all on the same page, but after he dropped out, we went to war. Well, really, a one-sided war. Whatever. I do hope that the Romney supporters who were Fredheads can remember that, instead of saying (as I’ve heard over the last couple of weeks) that ex-Fredhead McCain supporters are somehow looking to destroy the conservative movement or that we’re not “real conservatives.” We all want the same things in the end; it’s just a question of how we get there. I DO think John McCain can bring about a resurgence in the Republican Party and in the conservative movement, as he brings independents on board. They won’t be invading the GOP, they’ll be joining. That’s how Reagan did it, after all. But I’ll write more about that later.
The big picture: Of the total votes cast, a lot more were cast for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. We have to get our people voting, and we need independent voters. I know Super Tuesday just ended and that there are still nine months until the general election, but we’ve got work to do. There are people who say they will not vote in November. My job is to make you want to vote for John McCain in November (with the presumption being that he will be the nominee), and if you give us–meaning those like me–a chance, I know we can.
Terrye says:
McCain did better in the South than I thought he would, coming within a point or two in many cases of the hometown boy Huckabee.
I think the big losers last night were the talking heads who thought that intraparty warfare was more important than defeating Democrats.
Way to go, now the country might be taken over by people who will immediately surrender to AlQaida, render our sacrfices in Iraq meaningless…and {like icing on the cake} give drivers licenses to illegals.
Yep, attacking McCain’s character and calling Bush Jorge really worked out for those guys…didn’t it?
Maybe this will convince them that not all Republicans hang on Rush Limbaugh’s every word.
And yes, they need to look at those vote totals. If Republicans do not get it together someone like Obama will run right over them.
raz0r says:
Happy? meh. Just ready for it to be over.
Stix says:
Hopefully the whole circus will be over afterthe weekend. The Republican Party needs to get thisover with and then get behindthe nominee, andit is looking more and morelike it is McCain. I might not like it, but the people have spoken. So it is time to get behind him and defeat the Socailists in the Defeatocratic Party.
I still wish that Fred was in it. I think that he could have done really well on Super Duper Tues.
Oh well, maybe McCain will choose him as VP
Stix says:
At least we are all happy Ron Paul got nothing. I am just waiting for the tin foils to sart talkling about voter fraud how Diebold screwed Ron Paul
Jeff H says:
Glad you’re not gonna gloat over McCain “winning”. That’d be like gloating that your grandma’s diaper was fuller than my grandma’s.
PaulW says:
Getting voter turnout for the Republicans will be difficult if there’s a 50-to-35 registered voter disparity that favors the Democrats. That’s one hell of a mountain to overcome.
It does mean the Republicans HAVE to start courting more Independent (and moderate/centrist Democrat) voters. But that also means tapping down on the hardcore far right stuff that tends to scare the Indys and Dems away… can the current GOP do that?
Beth says:
Hey Jeff, sour grapes? You sound like a Goracle sore loser.
You’re making it very difficult not to rub your face in “grandma’s diaper,” you know?
Beth says:
So am I, raz0r. I’m already sick of the election–and there are NINE MONTHS left. Ugh.
Vinnie says:
I could care less, come December, we’ll be living in Iceland.
(if you listen to Jawa Radio, you’ll get it)
Embrace the suck, losers!
Lord Bitememan says:
The interesting thing about Huck’s wins in Alabama and Tennesee is that they split so evenly in delegates. Of Huck’s wins in the real south (WV isn’t the real south) only Georgia and Arkansas were runaway victories.
The interesting thing about Huck, I think, is that if he managed to win the nomination and Hillary came out on top in her contest, I think he’s well situated to start making Republican gains among black voters. There are tons of black evangelical Christians, and with the way Hillary has conducted this campaign she could drive away a lot of black Democratic support. Huck has a good place to start picking up those alienated voters, go campaign in black churches touting Christian values and his record of compliance statewide with Arkansas desegregation orders. He wouldn’t poll beyond 30% of the black vote, but to take that big of a chunk out of that vote hurts the Democrats substantially. He doesn’t stand much of a chance of winning the nomination, but he certainly would have some options before him in terms of a new direction for the party if he did.
J Rob says:
Actually I don’t think McCain supporters are trying to destroy the conservative movement, well maybe those that double as paid staff do. I know that here in SC McCain won because we tended to view Huck as Jimmy Carter with an R after his name and Romney, while being from Massachusetts came off as more conservative that Huck, but he was still from Mass.
I am with McCain on a great deal, but there are two things I do not trust him on: Boarder security and the First Amendment. That said, I trust Hillary and/or Obama even less. Yeah I’ll touch the screen for McCain, but I will be holding my nose tight when I do.