Posted on 01/17/2012 8:36:54 AM PST by Qbert
Oh my.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — It’s conventional wisdom in Republican circles here in South Carolina that if Mitt Romney wins the state’s primary this Saturday — having already won in Iowa and New Hampshire — he’ll be the GOP presidential nominee.“If for some reason he’s not derailed here and Mitt Romney wins South Carolina — no one’s ever won all three — I think it should be over,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday. “That would be quite a testament to his ability as a candidate and a campaigner.”
But what if Romney did not actually win Iowa? That could change the calculation considerably. And there is a very real chance that the Republican Party of Iowa will announce this week that Rick Santorum, and not Romney, won the Iowa caucuses.
Results released on caucus night — actually, at 2 the next morning — showed Romney won by eight votes, 30,015 to Santorum’s 30,007. Many observers assumed that those results were final, especially when party officials said there would be no recount.
But the results were not final. Even though there is no provision for a recount in the party caucuses, state GOP rules do require that the results be certified, which is nearly the same thing. That certification process began the day after the caucuses and is expected to wrap up this week, yielding a final, official vote tally.
The final numbers will be different from those released on caucus night. One campaign source says the vote count as of midday Monday showed Santorum ahead by 80-something votes. If that number holds through certification of the last precincts, Santorum will win. Of course, there is always the possibility that some of the final precincts will contain discrepancies that put Romney back on top. It’s just not clear.
“The counter to this argument: focus on what really matters- the delegate count.”
Nobody cares about the delegate count because after the first few states the contest is usually over. Its about a once in a generation election that produces a mano-a-mano that goes all the way, for example Ford-Reagan 1976 and Obama-Clinton 2008.
These kinds of shenanigans is why I won’t be voting Republican should Romney get the nomination.
Well I know they were essentially tied, but Romney got the headline. That transposition business is too convenient. I’m not generally into conspiracy theory, but the establishment have pulled out all the stops to get Romney the nomination.
Same here. I’ve voted for Romney three times already, and that’s enough for me.
"Nobody cares about the delegate count because after the first few states the contest is usually over..."
People who want to win the most delegates and get the nomination care about the delegate count...
But sometimes things are as they are. When the media was here in Iowa; they were doing as they always do everywhere. They are always looking for a story or a spin to put on things.
They were ready to move to NH; they certainly were not going to settle for “results not yet finalized” story.
Nah. Fox News? starts off their shows with “Romney - the winner in Iowa and New Hampshire...”
Fox News definitely needs a few new writers. In the gloss appearing with Lindsay Graham: “endorsed Mitt Romney in 2008.” Really. While he sat on McCain’s bus?
maybe Santorum wants to be VP
A quick GOP primary takes conservatives out of the media and allows Obama to use his bully pulpit to control more of the election year dialogue. The press is anxious to end this thing so they can get back to Obama-loving.
That's because they want to repeat the tremendous Ford landslide victory. Sarcasm off
Santorum said it didn’t matter.
Proof?
This isn’t a recount, it’s a recheck and certification by the state with each county of the vote totals via the paperwork the counties turned in on Form E. Most of the ballots, if there even were ballots, were in the trash by the next morning.
The state GOP does little more than certify the results. The counting and reporting of the numbers are entirely controlled by the precinct and county chairs. It is an extremely decentralized system.
I have no proof. But when heard about the last minute shenanigans the next day, I knew what was going on. If Santorum actually won, he would have been the news going into NH and the establishment, the manipulators, whatever you want to call them, wouldn’t have that. Romney had to be the name in everybody’s mind.
What was “going on” by the “establishment”? Each precinct and county independently reports and documents their results, there is no central control. All the state GOP does is verify and report the results. Human error and lax policy is alot more likely than manipulation.
Who is surprised by this? Not me. The Romney “win” was manufactured for the sake of denying Santorum the headline.
I just don’t trust them.
Does any of this matter? I have seen here on FR that the counting for the first few states in the Reupblican primary will be on a proportional basis, not winner take all. So, it's likely that there will be no change in delegates- or am I missing something?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.