The other races

In case you forgot there is a Presidential primary today in PA. Rick Santorum has dropped out but I just got a fundraising email from him a few minutes saying he will be on CNN tonight. And he still hasn't endorsed Mitt Romney. I hope Rick does well tonight along with Ron Paul voters who just may keep Romney under 50%.

The Republican US Senate primary ads have had Steve Welch and Tom Smith accusing each other of being closet Democrats. Blog Buddy Randy Potter predicts an upset.

Republican Senate Primary Race: In a surprise victory Sam Roher defeats Tom Smith, Steve Welch, and Marc Scaringi. Both Smith's and Welch's campaign ads highlighting their past ties to the democratic party made them both look bad. Also a big embarrassment for Governor Corbett backed Welch losing here.

State Auditor General Race: John Maher wins this one big. Frank Pinto gave it his best shot. GOP party establishment candidates always win these races.

12th Congressional District Race: Jason Altmire (D) defeats Mark Critz (D). This will be very close.

Santorum wins Louisiana

Santorum 91,305 49%
Romney 49,749 27%
Gingrich 29,655 16%
Paul 11,460 6%


Romney Etch A Sketch: Is aide's comment a present for his foes?

Asked whether Mr. Romney had moved too far to the right for the general election, Mr. Fehrnstrom said that the GOP hopeful would hit a reset button for the fall campaign. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” he said. “You can kind of shake it up and restart it all over again.”

Romney is still favorite to win the Republican nomination but you have to wonder if the Etch A Sketch comment is a defining moment like John Kerry saying "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Confirming the charge that he is flip flopper who will say anything to win an election. It reminds me of Dukakis in a tank, the Dean scream and his father saying he had been "brainwashed" by American generals into supporting the Vietnam war.

Next up April 3: District of Columbia, Maryland and Wisconsin then we have 3 weeks until the PA primary along with Connecticut, Delaware, New York and Rhode Island on April 24. Right now it looks like the only state Santorum can win out of this bunch is PA. After that the race goes south again to friendlier territory for Rick.

The Santorum camp sent out a statement to supporters:

Gort
The story in Louisiana yesterday was different than the one the Washington establishment and the Romney campaign are trying to sell us on.The exit polls in Louisiana shared some interesting information - when people can get to know the real Rick Santorum, he wins in almost every polled category. Rick won Tea Party voters, conservatives, moderates, liberals and every income group except one: people making over $200,000 a year (Mitt Romney won this group, but it was close).
We won because we had the resources to tell the real Rick Santorum story, and refute Romney's negative commercials and robocalls. Because when people get to know Rick's and Romney's real record, Rick wins every time.

Romney wins Illinois

Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary after out spending Rick Santorum 7 to 1 and some reports say it was 20 to 1 in Chicago media market. Rick's shoestring campaign, lack of discipline and poor organization is not going to be enough to catch the former liberal Governor of Massachusetts. Santorum again didn't have a full slate of delegates on the ballot. He was in Gettysburg tonight and will make his last stand in Pennsylvania on April 24th.


Mitt Romney 428,434 46.7%

Rick Santorum 321,079 35%

Ron Paul 85,464 9.3%

Newt Gingrich 72,942 8%

This comes after Romney's blowout win in Puerto Rico after Senador Puertorriqueño told the residents of the island to learn English. Then he told a state with a 9%+ jobless rate "I don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. It doesn't matter to me. My campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates." Romney's camp beat him over the head for both remarks. Even though Paul and Gingrich are still in the race they are diminishing factors.

This Saturday Rick is favored in the Louisiana primary then DC, Maryland and Wisconsin look better for Romney.

As the Man on Dog vs. Dog on Roof contest continues some interesting polling was done by PPP looking to the fall.


Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama's treatment of dogs?Favorable........................................................ 44%
Unfavorable .................................................... 14%
Not sure .......................................................... 42%


In general, do you think it is humane to put your family dog in a kennel on the roof of your car for a long car trip, or do you think that is inhumane?
Humane .......................................................... 14%
Inhumane........................................................ 68%
Not sure .......................................................... 18%

Mitt Romney once strapped his dog’s kennel to the roof of his car for a long car trip. Does this make you more or less likely to vote for him, or does it not make a difference?
More likely....................................................... 7%
Less likely ....................................................... 35%
Doesn't make a difference .............................. 55%
Not sure .......................................................... 2%

Bo rides inside and the Prez likes a Guinness.

Santorum wins a double in the bible belt

Mrs. G loves the color of the tie.



Alabama




Rick Santorum 35% 212,343
Newt Gingrich 29% 179,919
Mitt Romney 29% 178,601
Ron Paul 5% 30,494

Mississippi

Rick Santorum 33% 93,182
Newt Gingrich 31% 88,676
Mitt Romney3 0% 85,922
Ron Paul 4% 12,498

Romney outspent his opponents 5 or 10 or 50 to 1 and can't still can't seal the deal.It looks like this race will last until Pennsylvania. Joe V has invited Rick Santorum to Blogfest so I shall invite Mitt, Newt and Ron.

Ohio for Mitt

Romney 453,430 38%
Santorum 441,501 37%
Gingrich 174,456 15%
Paul 110,516 9%



From First Read

Here are the most up-to-date numbers for ad spending in the Super Tuesday states:
Ohio: pro-Romney $4 million, pro-Gingrich $739,000, pro-Santorum $950,000.
Georgia: pro-Romney $1.5 million, pro-Gingrich $950,000, pro-Santorum $214,000.
Tennessee: pro-Romney $1.3 million, pro-Gingrich $664,000, pro-Santorum $247,000.
Oklahoma: pro-Romney $576,000, pro-Gingrich $422,000, pro-Santorum $182,000.
Idaho: pro-Romney $126,000, pro-Santorum $3,000, pro-Paul $47,000.
Vermont: pro-Romney $61,000, pro-Paul $55,000.

NoDak for Rick

North Dakota is another Rick Santorum win.


Santorum 4,339 40%
Paul 2,938 27%
Romney 2,639 24%
Gingrich 933 9%

Click on the image for the details.

Romney wins New England

Mitt Romney tops the ballot in Vermont with 40% with Rick and Ron Paul coming in with about 25% each. Romney wins his other home state of Massachusetts with 72%. I lived in Massachustetts not long ago and there weren't many Republicans.

Mitt Romney wins Virginia but Ron Paul does better than expected

Mitt Romney won the Virginia primary 59-41 over Ron Paul but because of the inept organizations of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum they didn't make the ballot. Virginia residents Gingrich and Santorum couldn't even vote for themselves. I'll call this a moral victory for Ron Paul. He may get a clear win if we wait for the results from the Aleutian Islands.

Rick Santorum wins Tennessee and Oklahoma

Rick will live beyond Super Tuesday. I thought that Santorum would be out of this after South Carolina but then he won Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri. Tonight he chalks up wins in Oklahoma and Tennessee and is leading in Ohio. With 45% of the vote tallied in Oklahoma with Rick called the winner with 34% of the votes cast. Romney and Gingrich each have about 27% with Ron Paul gathering 10%. In Tennessee he has a 10 point lead over Romney with Newt coming in 3rd.

Newt wins Georgia

44%reporting

Georgia Primary

Updated 9:12 p.m. EST, Mar 6, 2012

Gingrich 204,835 48%
Romney 97,870 23%
Santorum 90,572 21%
Paul 25,933 6%

Newt said in his "victory " speech that he will get gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon. Herman Cain said it should be $2.999. Mississippi and Alabama are next Tuesday and he is looking for wins there.

Ohio exit polls

I'll be live blogging the results from Ohio and the rest of the Super Tuesday results as they come in tonight with less than flattering pics of the winner in each contest. If you have any favorite images of the Prez candidates please leave a link in the comments or send me an email.

POLL CLOSING TIMES

7 p.m. – Virginia, Vermont, Georgia

7:30 p.m. – Ohio

8 p.m. – Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee

10 p.m. – North Dakota caucus results expected

11 p.m. – Idaho caucus results expected

1:15 a.m. – Alaska caucus results expected

Santorum wins a three way

Missouri

Santorum 55% Romney 25% Paul 12%

Minnesota

Santorum 45% Paul 27% Romney 17% Gingrich 11%

Colorado

Santorum 40% Romney 35% Gingrich 13% Paul 12%

Rick Santorum was smart to bail out on the expensive race in Florida that turned into a Newt/Mitt slugfest that Romney was able to tear Gingrich to pieces with paid media. Instead he headed to states that would have lower voter turnout that was more receptive to his "true conservative" message and it paid off. He didn't win any delegates in these races but the optics are good. Missouri was a primary that the other candidates ignored because the delegates will be selected later but a win is a win and Ricky won every county. Minnesota was a caucus with lower turnout than 2008 that Rick and Ron Paul did well. The most interesting result of the night was Colorado, Mitt Romney pulled 60% last time but lost by 5 points and Gingrich got buried everywhere.

Maybe the Tea Party is not dead after all according to the Denver Post:

"This harkens back to 2010, when the Tea Party essentially upset the established Republican candidates for the Colorado governor and Senate races, and it clearly demonstrates that the grass roots of the party remains very conservative and is unwilling to unite behind the presumptive front-runner,"

I'm not sure that this is an affirmation of Rick Santorum as it is a rejection of Mitt Romney. The guy is such an obvious phony as many of my local Republican friends tell me. He will say anything to win an election.

Santorum now has some wind in his sails but we can now expect the whirlwind. Just like dealing with Newt the Romney camp and others will go after Rick on policy and personally.

I'm sure the oppo research staff of the Romney campaign will be able to go after Santorum but I will give them a few helpfull hints.

Santorum favors caps on malpractice awards but his wife got a big settlement

Lawsuit Abuse Critic Explains Suit

On serving our country in the Armed Forces

What I'm asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country?"

Not supporting our veterans

Santorum and veterans

Ripping off the taxpayers of the Penn Hills School District

Santorum flap puts light on cyberschools

Earmarks!

And God said 'Let there be pork' Plus he dissed New Jersey

Santorum's "charity"

Santorum charity for the poor spent most of its money on management, political friends

His mortgage deal that you and me can't get

Santorum's mortgage raises interest

And the just plain wierd

“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,”



I have more, Call me Mitt.

Romney cleans up in Florida

Florida - 6545 of 6796 Precincts Reporting - 96%

Romney , Mitt 763,848 46%

Gingrich , Newt 524,741 32%

Santorum , Rick 219,634 13%

Paul , Ron 115,271 7%

Newt Gingrich said he is in it to the end but that could change tomorrow. He also brought up President Obama's singing and blew the food stamp dog whistle again. Mitt Romney read a speech off a teleprompter saying the President is an appeaser and apologist in foreign policy. Tell that to the terrorists that have been blown up by a drone attack or got a bullet in the head like Osama Bin Laden. Rick Santorum mentioned his ill daughter then paid tribute to his opponents and the way they make their money. Ron Paul is coming across as the happy warrior of this contest.

South Carolina exit polls

I got an email from a friend a few minutes ago saying that Newt Gingrich will win the South Carolina primary with 40% of the vote based on his/her glimpse of the exit polls. We will see.

This certainly has been a strange week in the weirdest presidential campaign seasons I have ever seen. On Thursday one story kept stepping on the other. It turns out that my favorite GOP candidate, Rick Santorum, actually won Iowa. Mitt Romney was still dodging the tax return question when asked if he would follow his father's honorable example he said "maybe." Texas Governor Rick Perry dropped out and endorsed Newt Gingrich. Newt previously said that John Bolton would be his Secretary of State so maybe he would appoint Perry as Ambassador to Turkey.

To top it off Newt turned a question in the debate about an interview with his 2nd wife who said he was a 2 timing shit who wanted an open marriage into an attack on the media. The crowd ate it up because Republicans are always the victim of some media conspiracy.

The thing I'm looking at tonight is the Herman Cain vote. It was too late for Stephen Colbert to get on the ballot and write-ins are not allowed so a vote for Cain is a surrogate vote for Colbert. I'm enjoying the mischief.

You Tube weekend

The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday and if the polling can be believed Mitt Romney is headed to a blowout win and he is leading in South Carolina. This thing could be over before the Florida primary on January 31st. Rick Santorum doesn't have the time, organization or money to capitalize on his strong Iowa finish and Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry will help split the not Romney vote. Jon Huntsman is betting everything on New Hampshire but even if he does well he will have the same problems as Santorum going forward. Ron Paul probably has the money and devoted following to stick it out to the end so Romney has to very careful with him. If he pisses of Paul he may mount an independent bid so I expect Paul to get a vote on a few planks of the party platform which almost nobody reads or takes serious anymore. We will see if that will be enough to appease him.

Back to the YouTube thing.

Via The Dish I love satire





Our local canine community is reminding me why I could never vote for Romney.

Mitt Romney abused the family dog


He put the dog on the roof of the car! What kind of an asshole does something like that? The dog was literally scared shitless. And to top it off he later gave away the dog.

Rick Santorum wins Iowa

CNN 120,900 votes

Santorum 29,944 25%
Romney 29,926 25%
Paul 26,182 21%
Gingrich 16,210 13%
Perry 12,574 10%
Bachmann 6,064 5%

Update: When I called it a night Rick was ahead by 18 votes. The final tally is Romney 30,015 Santorum 30,007. Michelle Bachman dropped out today and Rick Perry dropped out last night but changed his mind today.

Paul Begala: "I would have never guessed Rick Santorum would be so happy about two men being tied up together...So while the winner of Iowa in terms of expectations is Santorum, the story is the man he basically tied: Mitt Romney. Not to put too fine a point on it, but when you can't beat the Man-on-Dog guy, who lost his home state by 18 percent, you stink. You really stink."

Waiting for the Iowa results

The Presidential general election is sometimes described as the the Super Bowl of American politics so tonight we start the playoffs. The conventional wisdom is the Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and our very own Rick Santorum will finish in the top 3 with Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry possibly looking at the end of their White House hopes.

Like the rest of you political junkies who read this site I await the results then on to New Hampshire.

This guy doesn't like some of the descriptions of his state.




D.B. Echo said...
Check out the cow at :30! From the same mold as Three-O-Nina!

One week until the Iowa caucus

All the attention this week has been on the 3 way battle between the front runners Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and the surging Ron Paul but my favorite Republican candidate Rick Santorum is still in the hunt.

Iowa has a history of surprising the political commentariat with Mike Huckabee winning in 2008 and Pat Robertson coming in 2nd in 1988. A little known former Governor of Georgia somehow spun his 2nd place showing to uncommitted in 1976 as a win making him a national candidate. Jimmy Carter then won the New Hampshire primary, beat George Wallace in Florida and defeated the field in Pennsylvania wrapping up the nomination.

A 3rd place or better showing by Santorum means his longshot candidacy would allow him to go on and camp out in South Carolina skipping New Hampshire hoping to become the next not Romney. If he wins or comes in a close 2nd in South Carolina it then would be a showdown in Florida. The political junkie in me wants the race to last until at least Super Tuesday, March 6th and I can hope against all reason that the Pennsylvania primary on April 24th will be the deciding contest like 1976.

Tempering my enthusiasm Rick's camp can't do the hard work of actually getting on the ballot in an important state like his home state of Virginia.

Santorum Fails to Make Virginia Primary Ballot

Santorum was born in Winchester, Virginia and moved to Butler County, Pa. as a child. He officially changed his residency to Virginia after leaving office.

Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be on the ballot in Virginia. Even fellow Virginia resident Newt Gingrich failed to get enough signatures confirming that his campaign is an unorganized mess. Jon Huntsman, Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry also failed to follow the rules.

Newt put out a bizarre ad staring an elf that is not Wil Ferrrell:

Rick Santorum wins Pennsylvania Republican straw poll for President

Capitol Ideas is reporting from the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee meeting where all the buzz is about the plan to blow up the way the state will allocate it's Electoral College votes in the Presidential election and the brewing civil war that has pitted the legislature against the state party leadership worried about down ballot races and the Republican US House members who are worried about getting reelected. I would usually expect cooler heads to prevail who would keep the winner take all system but in this crazy atmosphere anything can happen.

pawatercooler.com has the results of the straw poll that for some reason doesn't attract as much attention as the one in Iowa.

In the interest of fair and balanced coverage that Fox News has pioneered I decided to put up the unofficial Gort42 campaign photos of some of the candidates. Please send pics of the candidates if you have better ones.

Former PA Senator and long time Virginia resident Rick Santorum topped the poll with 138 votes out of 388 tallied. The horse race coverage people like percentages so that is 35.5%


Mitt Romney came in 2nd with 98 or 25.5%. The dog that he strapped to the top of his car for a 12 hour ride didn't have a vote.

Flavor of the month Texas Governor Rick Perry got 71 votes of the faithful (18.3%). If he signs a few more death warrants he may increase that percentage.




Ron Paul continues to be the Rodney Dangerfield of this race, no respect at all. 21 votes



Jon Huntsman may be the most qualified guy in the race after being Governor of Utah and Ambassador to China. He even speaks a foreign language that probably disqualifies him with the English Only Crowd. In today's Republican Party that is a handicap. Look for him 2016. Tom Ridge endorsed him. 18 votes.

Herman Cain. 16 votes.

Newt Gingrich is someone I sometimes liked when he was talking ideas instead of his scorched earth policy of partisan warfare. 14 votes.

Last in the poll was Michelle Bachman.

ALex said: Only 12 for Michelle Bachmann? Maybe that anti-vaccination insanity had a stronger effect that I thought.

Whoever wins the Republican nomination has to run against this guy. 0 votes.

The Virginian

I'm surprised that this hasn't got more play in the PA media/blogosphere.

From the Trib:

Rick Santorum said at a Harrisburg news conference that he's now an official Old Dominion resident.

"We've been voting in Virginia for the last few elections," he said. "I officially changed my voter registration, I think, a year or so ago."


Maybe it's because nobody really takes his Presidential bid seriously since the latest Wapo poll nationally has him at 3% and Rasmussen shows only 4% support in Iowa. But he is still plugging away even after his Irene interrupted fundraising tour of Pennsylvania calling in some chits.

From Capitol Ideas:

Santorum Picks Up Endorsement of Some of PA State Senate GOP.

I'm glad I didn't see Lisa Baker's name on this list.


In addition to Browne, Corman and Scarnati, the full list of Pennsylvania GOP senators supporting Santorum includes: Sens. Mike Waugh of York County; Bob Robbins of Mercer County; Richard Alloway of Franklin County; David Argall of Schuylkill County; John Eichelberger of Blair County; Mike Folmer of Lebanon County; Bob Mensch of Montgomerry County; John Pippy of Allegheny County; Robert Tomlinson of Bucks County; Kim Ward of Westmoreland County; Don White of Indiana County and Gene Yaw of Lycoming County.

You all know that I have a soft spot for Ricky and had mixed feelings when he lost the 2006 Senate race to Bob Casey for all the wrong reasons.


We can't lose Rick Santorum

Remember the Cyber School thing and wanting to start a war with Iran that Ron Paul smacked him down on

He hasn't disappointed lately

Rick Santorum Gets Into Heated Argument With Student Over Gay Parents

So he got to mix the 2 themes recently

Santorum: The Gay Community Is On A ‘Jihad’ Against Me