It is becoming increasingly apparent that the American people will have an echo not a choice in this year's presidential race. Mitt Romney, a billionaire insider who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and who has absolutely nothing in common with ordinary Americans, is poised to put the GOP presidential nomination in the bag barely before the race has started. Romney's win tonight with 38% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary mirrors the large victory the Granite State gave to prior GOP nominees, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and John McCain. Ron Paul finished second with 24% ahead of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who finished third with 17% of the vote. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum finished fourth and fifth with about 10% of the vote each. Texas Gov. Rick Perry struggled to get a mere 1% of the vote.
The next primary is South Carolina where Romney had looked weak, but the continued collapse of Gingrich's campaign has seen his large lead disappear with the rise of Rick Santorum. Still, Romney is beating both candidates in the latest polls in South Carolina. Paul is performing badly in South Carolina and has no plans to compete in the Florida primary, the largest primary state ahead on the calendar. Nobody in the field seems positioned to challenge Romney in Florida, a winner take all state that will give the victor 51 delegates. Perry's campaign is over for all practical purposes. Jon Huntsman, who like Romney is a super wealthy Mormon with little in common with the American people, learned today that he won't be on the ballot in several large states, including Arizona, Illinois and Virginia. He built his entire campaign on pulling an upset in New Hampshire, spending more time there than any other candidate, and finished no better than a distant third. Rick Santorum is proving to be a flash in the pan for good reason. He has no national organization or money to compete as a serious candidate, aside from being dead wrong on most of the issues.
As I predicted last week, there is really only one candidate, Ron Paul, who has the money and organization to go the distance against Romney. The GOP establishment, however, has been pulling out all the stops to destroy Paul at its own peril. The Huntsman "Manchurian Candidate" video created by a Karl Rove-like operative within the GOP establishment, worked as intended to stop Paul's momentum in New Hampshire dead in its tracks and to allow Huntsman to double his support over the past week from the single digits to his 17% showing, while preserving Romney's big lead. Middle Americans have no reason to turn to someone like Romney as an alternative to the failed policies of Obama. He has managed to be on all sides of an issue depending on the place and time his political ambitions took him. There is absolutely no enthusiasm at all within the party for his candidacy, and he carries more baggage than any GOP nominee in recent memory. If you had told me a few months ago the GOP was going to deliberately throw the 2012 presidential race, I would have said you were crazy. Today, I'm convinced that is exactly what is transpiring before our very eyes.
6 comments:
Ron Paul's son should be running for President instead of Ron. That said maybe 2012 will be the end of the world. At least Romney looks good on TV, Paul reminds me of Dole, way to old to pull in the younger voters.
Ironically, Paul is the only GOP candidate who is attracting the support of younger voters just like Reagan did, who was also supposedly too old to win.
As a socially liberal voter, 2012 is shaping up to be an excellent year. As you say, there is virtually no difference on these issues between Romney and Obama...
Romney was as liberal as they come before he decided he wanted to run for president as a Republican. Look at his record as Massachusetts governor.
When I went to the Iowa Caucus to help Ron Paul grassroots, I was easily the oldest person there. The kids there were in their 20's and 30's and some of the sharpest people I've ever met.
Where I work, some of us are already putting up RP signs at our desks.
Romney doesn't have the benefit of making up a biographical narrative like Obama was able to do to suit his ends. Romney's grandfather fled to Mexico to escape prosecution for polygamy (he had five wives). He took up citizenship there and died in Mexico. Romney's father was born in Mexico and fled back to the U.S. as a refugee during the Mexican revolution. He tried to pawn himself off on the American people in 1968 as a natural born citizen when he unsuccessfully ran for president against Nixon. Unlike Obama, he wasn't successful in fooling the American people on that constitutional deal-breaker.
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