Riehl World View: Santorum Kicked The Mitt Out Of Romney
In Colorado, last night Romney received 22,875 votes for 35% of the vote. In 2008, he received 33,288 for 60% of the vote. Santorum won with 26,372 for 40%.
In Missouri, Romney received 63,826 votes last night for 25% and second place. In 2008, he received 172,329 votes for 29% and third place. Santorum won with 138,957 for 55%.
As for Minnesota, Romney received 8,096 votes for 17% and third place behind Ron Paul. In 2008, Romney received 25,990 votes for 41% and first place. Santorum won with 21,436 for 35%.
Romney’s trending coming off of his loss to John McCain in the 2008 primary is not positive. He attracted more votes as the not McCain alternative that year, than he has for the nomination. The low turnout across the primaries doesn’t appear to be good news for the GOP in general, either. They’ve been counting on an energized base to defeat Barack Obama in November.
I think what is holding down participation this time around is voter understanding that voting for conservative change and action in Washington – as they did massively in 2010 – doesn’t mean they are going to get what they want. Instead, they will get Gentry GOP Ruling Class mandarins like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell who stretch themselves supine before the Obama juggernaut while whining there is nothing they can do, wah. And now they are presented with a carbon copy of these gutless wonders being relentlessly pushed by the same GOP establishment as the “inevitable” nominee. It’s enough to make a guy say “Why bother voting at all? Nothing ever changes. They’re all in it together, and none of them give a damn about anything I care about.”
And you know what? That guy would be right.
I’m not voting for any prez candidate this year. I can’t even work up any enthusiasm for any down-ticket elections, though that may change. Now, if there were a “None of the Above” slot, I’d be there.
No Steve, if everybody thought that way, what would we political junkies do? Besides, there IS a ‘none of the above’ category, although it’s not written down as such. I’ve run across a choice between a blithering idiot and a drooling moron more than once, and my solution is to refuse to vote for either one. It doesn’t get counted as a NOTA vote, and some ninnies think there’s something wrong when one race gets more votes than another, but there’s no law to compel anyone to vote for every single category on the ballot. So go forth and abstain to your heart’s content.
Maybe we can get a default candidate as a write in – imagine if enough conservatives as a protest vote could write in for Ronald Reagan or Calvin Coolidge? Imagine if Coolidge could come close to winning a state like NY, where many conservatives must just vote for Bugs Bunny or abstain because the (R) has little chance anyway.
I think, this time around, I’ve reached the tip-over point…
None of the people that seem to be winning are anyone I care to vote for, and the only people I care about voting for don’t seem to be capable of winning anything.
I’m seriously considering taking a vow of abstention from national-level elections until, say, about 2025 or the collapse of the current Two Branches Of A Single Party “system”, whichever comes last.