Iowa Caucus

[SB Shock]

Early results showing it is a 3 dog race - Paul, Romney and Santorum. Gingrich and Perry 2nd tier opponents.

[SB Shock]

With 96% results in

Santorum 25%
Romney 25%
Paul 21%
Gingrich 13%
Perry 10%

Santorum has to be the big story.
Capture_cacus.JPGCapture_cacus2.JPG

[Kung Wu]

Cha-ching! I hope it actually means something though. Santorum really is probably the best bet out there in the field.

[ABC]

Though it is still early, I am having trouble coming up with a scenario where anyone but Romney wins the nomination.

Santorum is certainly a social conservative but he has a mixed record on fiscal issues. He has been a staunch defender of earmarks for example. That is sure to come up during the next week.

[Kung Wu]

Though it is still early, I am having trouble coming up with a scenario where anyone but Romney wins the nomination.

Santorum is certainly a social conservative but he has a mixed record on fiscal issues. He has been a staunch defender of earmarks for example. That is sure to come up during the next week.

What candidate doesn't have issues? In reality they are all perfect candidates, because they all have the title "N.O." after their name. That's who I am voting for after the primary, someone with an advanced degree in Not Obama.

Rick Santorum, N.O.
Ron Paul, M.D., N.O.
Rick Perry, N.O.
Mitt Romney, N.O.
... and so forth

If I was a candidate running for president, this is what my commercial's screenplay would look like:

BEGIN SCRIPT
FADE IN to close up shot of Rick Santorum, who is smiling, nods and then speaks
SANTORUM: "Not Obama. I'm Rick Santorum, and I approve this message."
FADE OUT
END SCRIPT

[SB Shock]

It seems:

Santorum = conservative on social issues
Romney = conservative on business/economics
Paul = conservative on small government

Fox did run a little biography piece on Romney as they waited for the results trickled in. It was very good and I need to get beyond my own prejudices and look a little deeper.

Santorum family practices what they preach - they evidently have a special needs daughter that was not expected to live past a year and who is now 3+.


The big question becomes what happens to santorum - does he start building momentum to make a move, or did he benifit from the demise of Gingrich?

Capture-santorum.JPG

[Kung Wu]

Fox did run a little biography piece on Romney as they waited for the results trickled in. It was very good and I need to get beyond my own prejudices and look a little deeper.

RINO. But .. what he has going for him is: Not Obama. And that's all it takes to get my vote!

The big question becomes what happens to santorum - does he start building momentum to make a move, or did he benifit from the demise of Gingrich?

Those aren't mutually exclusive. He may build momentum _and_ benefit from Gingrich's fall.

[pinstripers]

I can't imagine him beating Romney. Course, he'll get some money following this, but still........

[SubGod22]

I'm sure in the long run it'll be Romney.... But I think I'd rather Santorum or even Paul to be the nominee.

I'm still not overly impressed with any candidate out there.

[SubGod22]

Romney Edges Out Santorum

Rick Santorum landed a second-place finish just eight votes behind Romney, turning a stunning performance out of his long-shot bid for the nomination and ending up toe-to-toe with the presumed frontrunner of the national campaign.
Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn reported the official vote count at 30,015 for Romney and 30,007 for Santorum. Each candidate pulled in about 25 percent.

[Wu du Nord]

Iowa is embarrassing. There are many good things about the American system of government. The primary system isn't one of them.

[Wu du Nord]

Now that I think about it.... Republican voters are pretty embarrassing, too.

After this "Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich, hey wait, SANTORUM!!!" debacle, it must feel kinda dirty and more than a little hypocritical to criticize Romney for changing positions on important issues. ;-)

Edit: Oops, forgot Mr Black Walnut, HERMAN CAIN and the CAIN TRAIN!

[Maggie]

Oops, forgot Mr Black Walnut, HERMAN CAIN and the CAIN TRAIN!

Good on you.

[Kung Wu]

After this "Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich, hey wait, SANTORUM!!!" debacle, it must feel kinda dirty and more than a little hypocritical to criticize Romney for changing positions on important issues.

That's a bit disingenuous. You know there is a big difference between voters gathering new information on how politicians perform while stumping, versus the politician themselves changing their core beliefs. All you have seen is a large base of people with a fairly consistent ideology hunting for someone more in alignment with their belief system than the man with the most money. Looks like the man with the most money will probably win, as per usual though.

[ShockTalk]

That's a bit disingenuous. You know there is a big difference between voters gathering new information on how politicians perform while stumping, versus the politician themselves changing their core beliefs. All you have seen is a large base of people with a fairly consistent ideology hunting for someone more in alignment with their belief system than the man with the most money. Looks like the man with the most money will probably win, as per usual though.

I read your reply before looking at who you were replying to. Now that I know, did you expect anything different from him.

Nerd is my first and only "ignore". Now I know one more thing: Pay more attention to who posters are replying to.