BREAKING: Santorum and Romney tie for first. Some observations on last nights’ bizarre Iowa Caucus
January 4, 2012

 
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With 99% reportingLast night marked the end of the first “official” Presidential contest of 2012. And when the smoke cleared, Rick Santorum… who didn’t break out of the single digits one month ago, eked out a 34 vote victory to beat Mitt Romney in the final moments of the Iowa Caucus (a statistical tie of less than 0.06% of the vote). It’s the third time in three Caucus’ that Evangelical Iowa Republicans picked an Evangelical nut to be the GOP presidential front-runner (choosing George W. Bush in 2000 and former minister Mike Huckabee in 2008, with PTL huxter Pat Robertson coming in second in 1988. No caucus’ in ’04 with incumbent George W. Bush’s still in office.) And now Rick Santorum. Ron Paul came in at an extremely close third after holding first place most of the night early on (Paul, Santorum and Romney swapped places all night, with each holding First, Second & Third place at one time or another.) With 99% of precincts reporting, the race was still “too close to call” by the time coverage ended at midnight. A few interesting observations:
 

o Mitt Romney’s second place finish at 25% was lower than the 25.5% finish he placed four years ago. Romney seems to have hit a ceiling in his support.

o In Ron Paul’s third-place concession speech, he took a bizarre swipe at Milton Freedman’s 1966’s claim: “We’re all Keynesian’s now”, saying, “I look forward to the day we can say: “We’re all Austrians now”. This is an obscure reference to Austria recently auditing its own Federal Reserve in an effort to rebuild its economy. For people not familiar with the reference… like me, who had to look it up… it seemed a disturbingly Aryan thing to hear from a candidate who’s recently been accused of having racist views. Paul might want to choose his words more carefully in the future.

o Gingrich’s 4th Place concession speech (with 13% of the vote) focused almost entirely on attacking third-place winner Ron Paul, questioning “trusting Iran with a nuclear weapon” because “you can’t trust any culture that would strap on a bomb and become a suicide bomber”. Actually, I’m not familiar with a single Iranian suicide bomber (there probably were some, but not enough to single them out). The majority of suicide bombings we saw were in Iraq, committed by Iraqi’s against Iraqi’s. Newt also attacked Mitt Romney while praising Rick Santorum, seen by all as as a defacto endorsement of Rick Santorum, yet staying in the race simply to attack Romney to ensure he doesn’t get the nomination.

o Bachmann came in last with 5% of the vote (not counting Huntsman, who had less than 1% of the vote w/o even running in Iowa), making her the first candidate ever to win the Ames Iowa Straw Poll, only to come in dead last in the Caucuses four months later. In her concession speech, she decried “We will repeal Obama’s [imaginary] socialized medicine” and bragged how she “rejected Obama’s request to raise the Debt Ceiling” last year (which would of put the U.S. in default and destroyed our economy.) Later, Bachmann noted how… while she was out campaigning yesterday… Marcus “was out buying doggie sunglasses” to lift her spirits. O.M.G.

o Perry declared he would be “reassessing his campaign”… though not officially dropping out.. and “going back home to Texas”. Stick a fork in him folks.

o In Santorum’s “victory speech”, he said he’d institute “a 28% top income tax rate” because “if it were good enough for Ronald Reagan, it’s good enough for me.” The top tax rate under Ronald Reagan was 50%, not 28%. Santorum ranted how all of President Obama’s assistance programs for the poor “only create dependency upon the government” (so, if you fall on hard times, don’t expect any government assistance under a President Santorum.) Ricky also called to “repeal ALL regulations. Repeal them ALL!” because they are “crushing business”. Check the DOW Ricky, businesses are hardly being “crushed”. That would be the other 99%.

o Romney spent a portion of his speech to criticize President Obama for “doing nothing to stop Iran” whom he says “is about to have nuclear weapons soon.” Shades of George W. Bush threatening Iraq over its “WMD’s” one month after his own victory in Iowa. Romney went on to repeat his ridiculous accusation that “President Obama is on track to increase the Debt more than all previous presidents combined.” No, that would be Bush. Last I checked, the National Debt is nowhere near $22-Trillion dollars… which is what it would have to hit to be greater than “all previous presidents combined”, including Bush, who doubled the Debt to $11-Trillion by the end of his eight years. Romney answered his own question as to what he would cut to balance the budget, saying he would “start with ObamaCare”… which the CBO actually says REDUCES the deficit, not increase it. As to what Romney would replace “ObamaCare” with, he’s never said.
 

  • Total number of people who “voted” in Iowa yesterday: “Approximately” (because MSNBC coverage ended with 99% of precincts reporting): 122,000.

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  • Number of registered voters in Iowa: 2 million.

 
So roughly 6% of all registered voters in Iowa turned out to vote yesterday in the Republican caucus. Can you say, “Enthusiasm gap”? In 2008, 17% of all registered voters turned out to participate in the Republican AND Democratic Caucus’ (combined). Take from that what you will.

Final standings with 99% of the vote counted:

Santorum: 29908 – 25%
Romney: 29874 – 25%
Paul: 26097 – 21%
Gingrich: 16161 – 13%
Perry: 12536 – 10%
Bachmann: 6058 – 5%
Huntsman: 742 – <1%

This is going to be a fun year.

Sign my petition for GREEN JOBS TOMORROW fast & cheap. Use those $4 Billion in oil subsidies to put Solar Panels on the roofs of 40,000 government buildings, or order 100,000 hybrid mail-trucks. Not only would this INSTANTLY CREATE JOBS, it would spark ENTIRE INDUSTRIES with a future, reduce our dependency on oil, reduce greenhouse emissions, and quickly pay for itself (and cut future expenses) with the energy savings. We need 5,000 signatures by December 20th (extended to January 20th).

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January 4, 2012 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Election, Politics

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