Bloggingheads Community

Bloggingheads Community (http://bloggingheads.tv/forum/index.php)

- Life, the Universe and Everything (http://bloggingheads.tv/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15)

- - Iowa! (http://bloggingheads.tv/forum/showthread.php?t=7284)

I guess we should have a thread, right? NYT has Santorum and Romney neck and neck, with Paul lagging by a percentage point or two at the moment. Thoughts? Angry rants about those damn corn farmers picking candidates for the rest of us? Bueller?

Ok, I've got a genuine question: can you get a recount in a primary or caucus? If so, has this ever happened?

Technically, Iowa is a straw poll. No delegates are awarded.

The caucuses will elect delegates to the local conventions, which will elect delegates to regional and state conventions, which will elect delegates to the RNC. Those conventions will adopt rules based on Robert's rules of order that will govern themselves. Disputes are governed by those rules. Generally, 2/3rds of delegates and seated alternates can accomplish anything they want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimM47 (Post 236088)

Technically, Iowa is a straw poll. No delegates are awarded.

Ah, good point (Why do I say this as if I already knew? I read that about three hours and had never heard about it before in my life?). I guess when the actual benefits of winning are all intangibles like "momentum" or better press coverage a tie can work out.

57 votes for Herman Cain!! Woohoo!!

And 671 for John Huntsman.

By the way, did you see Ron Paul's concession speech? He made a HUGE pitch for the gold standard and Austrian economics.

I'd comment, but then I took an arrow in the knee.

I really haven't been following things with the current primary, like at all. I have to say though, after seeing both speeches from the top guys in Iowa, Santorum came across as much warmer and more likable... and I am probably far more against his view of things.

Romney started going into attack dog mode too fast and it seemed inappropriate for the moment. You could kind of see it in his sons/wifes eyes too. The moment he went off into attack mode their expressions turned... they turned into "here we go mode"

There was no happiness or satisfaction or joy for the duration, there was only waiting until it was over. Jesus, I am pretty late realizing it, but I see now. It's not that people hate Romney, he is just unlovable. And still he is the best chance the republicans have. The one best hope against Obama, the Automaton, it's almost depressing enough to make me want to vote for a social conservative gay hating Santorum.. almost.

I called it IRL on New Years Eve.

...okay, I'm better now! Anyways, I haven't been very politically aware since well before the rise and fall of Cain, but.. Santorum? When did he surge? Last I checked he was was of those low single digit not serious candidates. Or is it something peculiar to Iowa?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starwatcher162536 (Post 236126)

Santorum? When did he surge? Last I checked he was was of those low single digit not serious candidates. Or is it something peculiar to Iowa?

No PAC money went against him because nobody thought he had a chance. All roads lead to Romney. It's over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starwatcher162536 (Post 236126)

...okay, I'm better now! Anyways, I haven't been very politically aware since well before the rise and fall of Cain, but.. Santorum? When did he surge?

At the end -- check the exit polls and you see he got all the people who decided at the last minute, which was predicted for the last week or so. He was the only non-Romney left and there wasn't time to really slam him. The Santorum Surge was the talk of the NYE party I attended.

(On the other hand, my dad, the Romney supporter, is quite pleased with the results and is convinced still that Santorum is obscure and a non-factor. I'm mainly just still hoping for an entertaining race.)

Erik Erikson is cranky again:

Everything You Heard Last Night Was Bull

Quote:

...The Republican field was unable to reboot because we had no logical successor coming out of the White House to either win or lose. We went back to McCain and have had to work our way back through unresolved issues from 2000. And now, when the field should be rebooted, we’re having to deal with Mitt Romney who should have been displaced by an heir in 2008 and instead, because the 2008 season did not reboot the crop of candidates, is now the guy three quarters of the GOP does not want who is about to be the nominee.

Our process is chaotic because Bush left us no heir to win or to be rejected through a cathartic process of locking in gains or moving on from Bush. Yes, this one is Bush’s fault...

But that’s not the only issue the media has failed to pay attention to. There was some serious bull crap coming out of reporters’ mouths last night that is flat out false.

For starters, the media would have you believe that the 123,000 people who turned out for the Hawkeye Caucii was a record. This is simply not true except superficially....

At its best, this turn out does not signal core enthusiasm with the field as it is presently constituted and perhaps signals that an alternative could still jump in. Considering “winner takes all” races do not come until April, someone coming out now could campaign and build momentum to the winner takes all states.

Additionally, anyone who says “this was a victory for retail politics” should be beaten with an Iowan cattle prod. Rick Santorum’s “victory” — and it was a victory in every sense but those 8 votes — was because he has run one of the most God awful disastrous retail campaign operations of any candidate with enough popularity to get on the debate stage.

Santorum visited all 99 Iowan counties, some of them repeatedly. His “successful” campaign never, ever caught on with Iowa voters despite all that retail time in Iowa. It only became successful when ever single other candidate had been vetted and imploded and there was absolutely no other person familiar to the voters who could stand as the non-Romney candidate.

Had Santorum run a successful retail campaign and caught fire on his own accord, he’d have been vetted by now and probably also succumbed to the Romney machine. His campaign was not successful, it’s just all the others sucked so bad.

The ending sounds like wishful thinking:

Quote:

But by God Mitt Romney may now get the political beating everyone has been expecting him to get. Newt Gingrich has nothing left to lose. He can go Newtlear against the guy he sees as having destroyed him. Newt Gingrich can unleash unmitigated hell against MItt Romney and just like the attacks on Newt were true, they’ll all be true about MItt Romney, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starwatcher162536 (Post 236126)

Everyone else in the Anyone But Romney grouping had already had their surge and receeding. he was the only one left.

On Iowa (and NH) deciding, I think it's obnoxious that the parties allow them to be first every year, but I don't really mind. In particular, I think Iowa is unrepresentative (though not as much as often assumed -- here's a breakdown), but there's something to be said for the candidates introducing themselves in a thorough way. Of course this year ads seem to have decided in large part.

The breakdown is interesting to me, as I have relatives in Iowa who are in agriculture, so I am always surprised at how little of the economy agriculture is.