Tough. It was THEIR decision to make. And punishing Florida for the decision of the GOP is an example of their foolishness.
The polls always skew to McCain (see Michigan) Give me... Romney - 30% McCain - 25% Guliani - 21% Huckabee - 15% Paul - 5% Thompson - 4% (early voting and protest votes) give or take 2% in either direction for each.
I predict that many Floridiots will still not know how to fill out a ballot or use a simple voting machine even after shown a sample ballot.
Wrong. The 76 Convention nominated Ford BEFORE Reagan endorsed him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Republican_National_Convention Reagan listened tothe wrong advisors when he offered to take a liberal running mate. He would have probably won if he had nominated a conservative or at least a moderate like Howard Baker (given that in the pre-1980 GOP there were very few major figures as conservative as Reagan).
My guess is he's not talking so much about that as he is whether or not the national Party should be able to control it. I think a lot of folks would prefer a national primary to what we have now. Though I'm not convinced it's the BEST option because of the cost involved.
McCain and Romney winning Florida are equally bad. McCain because he gets more media-love, Romney because he gets delegates. But each is still better than Giuliani or Huckabee winning, because I suspect that both will drop out if they do poorly; Giuilani if he gets 3rd or worse, Huckabee if he gets below 15%. At this point Huckabee's got to know he's Pat Robertson 2008. I'd love to see Paul win Florida, but I very much doubt that'll happen. All in all, I think I'd prefer McCain to win over Romney - increases the chance of a brokered convention, especially if Romney takes Maine.
I still think Mitt's going to be the nominee. McCain's burned too many bridges with the base, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, etc. Even then, the only chance the GOP has of holding on to the White House is if Hillary gets the nomination from the DNC. After this weekend, even that's not looking so good, what with Bill showing his ass all over the place.
Ok, I must apologize; I was proceeding from a false assumption. I assumed that the Republican majority passed the bill over Democrats' objections. Finally found the bill on the Florida Legislature website (horrid system) and found that it was passed nearly-unanimously. (This is what happens when I'm not actually in Florida and am relying on the media for coverage. The local paper hates the state government; they twisted their articles to ignore this.) I find it quite bizzare that Florida Democrats didn't rise up against this bill. It's going to bite them in the ass, too. *sigh* I hate my state.
Other than the judgment pronounced upon it by the national Democratic Party (for which the matter was utterly none of their business), why exactly would they?
Looking at the recent polls Rudy, sans a surprising boost from early voters or repeat of the Dems '04 Iowa primary, seems to be screwed.
I am still surprised (well maybe not) that you are so unwilling to hold the Democratic party responsible for removing the delegates from the state.
Not to mention it was both Republican and Democrats who wanted the primary moved up. Out of a total 157 state congressman and state senators, only two voted against it.
I can't help but wonder if they would've pulled this shit with a state like California had we moved our primaries to say the middle of January.
A single, national primary would be about the best possible way of making sure that little-known candidates, and/or candidtates without much money available, have no chance of getting nominated. IOW, it amounts to handing political control of the country to the rich and powerful for good. The only choice we would ever have was which party's rich and powerful we wanted in control. No thanks. That would be even worse than what we have now.
So far it's McCain 35, Romney 32, Giuliani 15, Huckabee 13, Paul whatever's left. That ought to put an end to Huckabee and Giuliani. Unfortunately, Giuliani says he won't drop out before the debate tomorrow, so we have to listen to him for another day.
They're calling it for McCain. On the one hand, it's good, because it stops Romney from getting an even bigger lead in delegates. On the other hand, there's no question that the media anointing he's gotten so far will prove to have been only the beginning of the love-fest.
Why does Romney always look like he's about to cross the street when he gives a speech? He looks to the left, then to the right, then left again, then right once more, and so on...
Considering he's been shilling for Romney these past weeks, and despises Paul, I doubt that. Rush claims that a McCain nomination will spell the death of the party. I agree of course, but have to ask, where's the harm in that?
