Jan 26
Republican Race Gets Tight |  |
The Angry Squirrel - See all 25 of my articles
The times, they are a changin’
Boy, what a difference a month makes. Going into Iowa we were not quite certain how things were going to go. Would Ron “I know I am not going to get the nomination” Paul’s organization and ground game carry him to a victory? Would Mitt “I am the .006%!” Romney be able to surprise with a win in conservative Iowa? Would Newt “Searching for my fourth wife” Gingrich be able to matter again? Or would the late surge by Rick “I want to ban all forms of contraceptive” Santorum’s late surge help im succeed in Iowa. I would include talk about the others still in the race at the time, but Bachmann, Perry and Huntsman were not going to matter going in anyways and they are all out a month later, so who cares.
Anyways, At the end of a long night it was determined that good ole Mittens got the “victory” by a mere eight votes. If only the 50 or so people that voted for Herman Cain no longer in the race had chosen Santorum instead, Romney would have taken the loss. Oh well. The race then rolled into New Hampshire with a yawn and Romney took an easy victory in a pretty much give in for him audience wise. So after two contests Romney took was eyeying the knockout punch in South Carolina.
We headed into the south and suddenly just as it seemed Santorum was fading away in support despite being the new chosen one of the religious right he got a “boost” by Iowa declaring that it was he and not Romn-bot that had won there. Nevermind that the delegates are not really locked into voting that way right now anyways and that there were some missing votes, but hey they are Republicans when have they cared if an election result looked fishy? Romney was on the defense now. Once up 2-0 in the contests so far he was suddenly 1-1 and a big chance he would drop another in the Palmetto State. With Newt pushing all the right buttons of the conservative southerner he came out and handed Mittens a resounding defeat that he was not expecting. So after the first three contests we went from a non incumbent candidate winning the first two races for the first time in history, to a different candidate winning all three first contests for the first time in history.
Florida on the horizon
As the race heads into Florida it has come to a four man race, but by the debate Monday night it is clearly really only a two person race at this point. Santorum is going to be getting the votes he is right now, but will stick around I am sure just in case Newt does his usual and messes up somewhere along the line so he can take the nomination since it is clear that the electorate does not want Romney and now that the field is thinning numbers wise it can become crystal clear. Paul will be there as well and likely picks up some more delegates in those caucus states his movement and ground game can capitalize on, but just as it was going into Iowa it was clear as day he was not going to be nominated, heck he can’t even imagine what it would be like for him to be President. So you have Newt vs. Romney, The serial adulterer versus The unemployed guy who made $45 million over the last two years and paid around 14% in taxes.
I am looking forward to tonight’s debate in Florida. While I enjoy debates on NBC that try to have the audience act respectful and professional, I really enjoying when it is on CNN and the moderators allow the candidates to interact with the Republican crowd – with the crowd egging them on and the candidates showing the American people the exact message they stand for. The list is getting long and I am sure it is just going to continue to grow. We will see how it goes going into Tuesday, but right now I put Newt as the favorite to take all of Florida’s reduced number of delegates in the first winner take all contest and send Romney’s candidacy into a tailspin.
The day after the last debate we had the State of the Union address. It was a good speech, had some specifics, while I am optomistic after the speech I’ll still wait and see if anything gets done by a Congress bent on not doing anything that could benifit his status. They did vote unanimously today on a border control issue proposed by departing Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, but I do not see anything like that happening on any issue going forth.
Speaking of Giffords departure, it was a quite touching moment, but all I could think was how she is leaving the house with admiration and good will, but the current front leader of the GOP race left there in disgrace. Dammit there I go agreeing with Mittens, oh well that won’t happen on many things, so I guess I am all good.
Bad Nut of the Month
I’ll leave you this month as the race for the person to lose to Obama in November marches on with a very current Bad Nut of the Month. On his trip to Arizona today President Obama was met by Gov. Jan Brewer who invited him to meet with her. He responded by saying that would be fine, but she could depict the meeting accurately this time around.
Brewer evidently took great offense to this as it can be seen that she started to argue and lecture the President, getting in his face and wagging her finger in front of it. While it is kind of trivial on its surface it does represent a greater issue of Brewer and the Republican base in general have no respect at all for this President as a person or the office he holds. And for that, Gov. Jan Brewer you are January 2012′s Bat Nut of the Month!
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The Political Observers
Jan Brewer, Republican primaries
http://www.thesoapboxers.com/republican-race-gets-tight/
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