So only one viable candidate - the Romney-Bot - and one tin-foil hat on the VA ballot. Swell.

It looks like it all depends on if they count all the sigs gathered or not.

Numerically - in terms of delegates - it may not matter much...

But the media coverage, generated narratives, conventional wisdom, perceptions, and damaged momentum will be brutal.

State? County? eh?

Is the Person at the State Level who qualifies the signatures a DemoRat?

Now the non-Romney voters are being outright disenfranchised? This stinks of a conspiracy.

At this point, I think it would be hilarious if Republicans just stayed home, or only voted for other things on the ballot and left the presidential primary blank.

I hate seeing Romney get a walkover, even if this thing will wind up meaning nothing.

The media will try to make it look large. It isn’t.

When you’ve been running for President for 6 years and the establishment has your back, then these things are easy...

When your campaign just got off the ground a month or so ago, and you are just now getting the fundraising into gear... Well it may be a little harder to get competent ground games in place.

Then again... How hard is it to get 10,000 valid registered signatures etc... ?

"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."

--- Admiral Josh Painter - (Fred Dalton Thompson) Hunt for Red October - 1990

How’s it going to look when Romney loses a head-to-head against Ron Paul? May be bad for Mittens in the long run.

I never imagined that I would be forced to vote for Romney or Paul (no write-in votes for primaries in VA), depending on which one could strategically help a candidate that I do support. Bazarro World.

That would be interesting wouldn’t it.

If those two wound up with 723 votes combined, that would sure send a message.

Just as I predicted on the Perry thread.

Simple answer, write-in your candidate of choice.

VA is not going to want to a failed primary.

IT’S OFFICIAL FROM THE RPV TWITTER FEED:

VA_GOP RPV
After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary.

It doesn’t matter who the Person who qualifies the signatures is if they don’t fill out the forms properly. As stated in the continuation, some 2,000 are missing the address of the signer so they cannot be verified. Also one of the circulators was not eligible to do so.

I am currently seeking signatures for nominating petitions. To be valid, people must print their name and address clearly to have it found, and then sign it to be verified and date the signature. At the end the person collecting the signatures must swear that they witnessed each signature and that they are eligible to circulate the petition. They must be over a certain age, and a resident of that state. There is a fine and possible imprisonment for falsifying anything on the petition.

It is really important to have good staff supervising and training the circulators. Newt got a late start, and part of his staff walked out on him. Not a good management situation.

Is Newt’s campaign inept? They cannot let things like this happen. If this is an indication of how he runs his campaign, we have a huge problem.

>> How hard is it to get 10,000 valid registered signatures etc... ?

How hard is it to go up against the GOP establishment?

What kind of amateur hour is this???

If you're running for PRESIDENT (for cryin out loud) you'd best damn sure have your paperwork settled.

I miss Fred.

:-(