I had really expected Santorum to finish a respectable but definite third in Iowa, with Paul taking the trophy. His razor-thin defeat (at least last I checked, so sorry if it turned out to be a razor-thin victory) really changes things a lot.

The difference between "definite third" and "almost first" is that the republican far right might finally have a not-Romney around whom they can rally. They've gone through every other stinking not-Romney except Paul, who's his own flavor of nut, and Huntsman, who is a stupid, whiny SOB who is merely Romney Lite(tm). They never go backwards.

At this point, anyone who is culturally opposed to Romney has one clear choice: Santorum. Anyone who actually wants to win the general has one clear choice: Romney. Anybody who wants to shred the remaining economy has one clear choice: Paul. There's no reason to vote for anybody else on the stage, unless maybe you went to high school with her or you feel sorry for the guy.

Any why not, really? I started hating Santorum long before his name was eternally smeared on Google, but I'm also a left-wing bleeding-heart neo-socialist. Santorum has done nothing to piss off the far right of his party: no compromise, no taxes, no missed opportunity to hate on gays even when they weren't part of the conversation topic.

The only reason they ever had to avoid him was that he's clearly unappealing to mainstream America, lost his senate seat with the widest margin of defeat for an incumbent senator in US history,and even in Bizarro world could not win the presidency. But by now, nobody else can, either, so why not nominate how you *really* feel? I mean, Romney's not going to win, so if you're going to lose, then why not at least make a point? I felt the same way in 2004 and screamed at the top of my lungs to passersby on the street on how goddamn stupid it was to nominate John "Igor" Kerry. Even if Romney *could* win, sometimes it's better to lose with someone you actually like than "win" with someone who doesn't represent you at all.


I include Paul not because he has a chance in hell of being nominated, but because he has his own brand of illiterate followers, and he will split the vote as the primary season progresses. At this point, he's probably helping Santorum more than Romney, because he's definitely not drawing away the evangelicals from the "real" candidates.

It's gonna be a great season. I got my popcorn ready.

 

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Paul very well may have taken the trophy. You'll learn about it tomorrow if you read up on how Iowa delegates work.

 

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That's just pure naivete that I would expect from across the pond. Yes, no delegates are assigned directly from the vote, but you're missing two important things. First, the "trophy" referred to was public sentiment, not the delegate count... this is NOT going to be a tight delegate race, just a tight race for the minds and hearts of republicans across THIS country. Second, there's no way in hell that the Iowa republican party is going to assign more than a token number of delegates, if that, to Ron Paul.

 

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Its really not. Santorum is unelectable and Paul is unelectable. It is going to be Romney.


What is HILARIOUS to me is that Romney is John Kerry. Rich, total waffler (perhaps the biggest ever), "out of touch" elitist... wtf happened, Republicans?

We have nobody worth a crap, nor do Democrats. Looks like we'll all suffer at least another 4 years and see what happens.

You clearly do not understand how the Iowa caucus system works then.

 

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Kerry wasn't a Republican, duh.

Haven't you figured out how this s*** works yet?

 

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And that's just it. We live in an age of tapes and microphones. Hypocrisy is easily exposed and the first people to really figure that out (the Jon Stewarts of the world) are banking.

You would THINK that these politicians would start figuring it out but their dinosaur asses are either too comfortable or too dumb to do so.

Politicians have it figured out to a science. It's you that's being played.

 

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If you think the same "trophy" would have been awarded to Paul if he had the majority vote then you're the one who's naive. The talking heads would change their tune quickly, and Iowa would suddenly not matter at all.

"There's no way in hell" just isn't a term that applies to Ron Paul. I thought last night would have proved that. If it didn't, just wait, there's more to come in New Hampshire.

 

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