Ditto. When hubby and I decided we would attend the caucus, I had to actually sit down and think about who I would be voting for. If I want to be very inspired about being an American, well, Gingrich is an inspiring speaker. However, he has not run a good campaign and it is evident that he can be knocked off his "game" very easily. I like Santorum; but, look at what the press has already done to him. Imagine what it would be like in the general. My sole focus is getting BO out of the oval office. I feel sad that I have to cross off the list someone who I like because of the media; but, that is the world we live in and I have to take that into account. The media is a wholly owned subidiary of the Democratic party. Ron Paul is simply a no go for me. I believe (after listening to him) that he is a 9/11 truther, and his foreign policy -- yikes.
So, Romney it is. I voted for him in our primary in 2008 (I had already sent my ballot in before he dropped out), and he is the one I picked today.
As for the caucus itself, I'm in Federal Way and the caucus was held in a Jr. High School Cafeteria. The fire marshall told the group that they could not have any more than 280 people in the cafeteria and there were tons more than that waiting in line. Hubby and I got in with the first group, but, the line was just as long after we got in the building as when we first arrived. They really needed a bigger place. I ended up being an alternate, so we will see if I end up going on to the next step. The precinct guy said that his wife wasn't too happy about him going, so I may actually get a phone call.
There were some passionate speeches about Paul never changing a position or vote in 40 years, Santorum being the most zealous Christian and Newt being able to slap down Obama on national TV. But, the most astute comments came from business people supporting Romney, Military vets who talked of not losing the war for the sake one good debate battle, and an analytical engineer who said his profiles matched up with Santorum first, Gingrich second and Romney third, but he had to engage a 'what if' scenario and think about how our country will fare if Santorum or Gingrich are not able to generate enough votes in the middle to take Obama out.
People spoke of Romneycare, Newt on the couch with Nancy (a sore spot for me), Santorum's tendency to put his foot in his mouth (wanting to vomit at Kennedy) and Ron Paul saying we brought 9/11 on ourselves. All in all the sentiment was that Romney can use what happened in the health care process to his advantage.
The Newt backers said he still hasn't said what motivated him to sit with Nancy and relented that he may be to inclined to opportunism.
Some people said they just didn't see Santorum beating Obama while his supporters said, "he can if we get to know him".
Ron Paul people were a little similar to Obama supporters when people asked about his foreign policy and newsletter problems they said, "I don't care". One comment was that his newsletter allegations about racism would be the ultimate fuel for Obama.
That brought the conversation around to a pragmatic discussion of who can raise the most money to fight Obama and his media. One man quoted a Ronald Reagan speech that said, "A perfect candidate does not exist. Give me an honest man that I can agree with 80% of the time and he'll get my vote." Some folks switched to Romney at that point.
In the end the unanimous vote from the total attendance was to work as hard a possible for the ticket, no matter who wins.