Posted on 06/07/2012 5:09:30 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
For four decades, Minnesota has been fool's gold to every Republican White House hopeful who saw an opportunity there to steal a win in the Democratic-leaning state. But with a still fluid 2012 electoral map, both sides are eyeing the North Star State, known as much for its political quirkiness as for its progressive tradition.
A Republican presidential nominee has not won Minnesota since Richard Nixon pulled off the feat in 1972, making the state the longest-running GOP bust in the nation.
Still, Minnesota has been a hard-fought battleground in the last three presidential cycles. George W. Bush came within 2.4 percentage points of winning there in 2000 and within 3.5 points of taking it in 2004. And in 2008, the Republican Party once again had high hopes for Minnesota. John McCain accepted the party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul and both he and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin campaigned in the state that fall, but Barack Obama ended up winning it by a comfortable 10 points.
The current RealClearPolitics polling average has the president leading there by the same margin, but public surveys have been sporadic.
While news organizations have more typically placed Minnesota in the “safely Democratic” column this year, national Republicans and Democrats are positioning themselves to unleash full-bore efforts, if it looks like such a push will be needed and could affect the results.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
The question for MN and other similarly situated states is not can Mitt win them, but will Barack thoroughly fumble them away.
Judging by the state GOP convention, MN is in the bag for RuPaul!!!!!!
Yeah that’s really it cause Mitt is pretty pathetic but Bammy is even worse.
Even folks who say they would never vote for the lukewarm, flip flopping Mitt tend to point and laugh at what Barack is doing every time he tosses a banana peel in his own path. Mitt seems to not have that problem currently; recent flips of his all seem to be in the “right” direction.
The root cause is the non existent qualifications to register to vote in the Gopher State. The dembots take full advantage and with lax residency requirements at least 5% of vote is padded.
The question is how in the f#c& can anyone put Obama back in office who has lived in this country the last 4 years. And how can they elect a single Democrat as they walk like Zombies to vote in lock step for Socialism! Even here in Montana, dem’s who grew up here vote like commies. Scary.
Wow! Maybe he could win 54 of the 55 states.....
If Romney wins MN he will almost certainly have won IA, WI, IN, MI, OH, and PA too.
In other words the election won’t even be close.
Thus I think there are better places for Romney to spend his resources, such as any of those others I just listed.
It’s surprising, but not impossible. George W. Bush almost won it twice and Walter Mondale would have lost it had he been from anywhere else.
The downside is the Governor Tim Pawlenty has ruled out being Romney’s running mate.
MN is a leftist leaning state - Franken, Klobachur, Obama, Dayton and the list goes on back to Mondale, Humphrey, etc. People who love unions, people who think and vote the same for four or five generations - Democrat. They are in a mold and will not change. Majority of Minnesota people also like government benefits.
Don’t forget Keith Hakim Ellison...
Generalize much? We’ve also elected Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Rod Grams, Jon Kline, Chip Cravaack and Rudy Boschwitz among other conservatives, and flipped both houses of our legislature in 2010 for the first time ever. Governor Fauntleroy was the first Democrat elected governor here in nearly thirty years.
Minnesota does have a quirky tradition but once you get outside Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth you’ve got purple to red in color, and solid red in the west and south.
We’ve got our share of RINOs too, though, so it’s quite possible my state may be in play for the ultimate RINO, Mitt Romney.
Outside of the Twin Cities and the Iron Range, Minnesota Republicans often run very well.
Yah.
“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”
But the DFL and others have turned voter cheating into a high art. The entire state government apparatus, including the judges and the Minnesota High Court are in on the scam. If a competent candidate can't be found, they'll wait out a 2 or 4 year hiatus and the growth of government will just keep on keeping on...
Hasn't Rubio as well? Hasn't almost everybody? That's the stupid VP game. For some reason it's unseemly to not say "I'm not interested" when asked. Who are the last people to actually turn it down when offered? McCain turned down Kerry, allegedly. Bill Bennett turned down Dole (and didn't he have gambling problems or something he knew would come to light?). Pawlenty will say yes if asked. I don't expect it to be him though.
As to the state, if Romney wins it he's also winning OH, PA, MI, WI, IA and doesn't come close to needing it. But it would be great to take it from the rats the first time since 72 and make Obama spend money there.
I would like Romney to pick Rick Santorum or Bobby Jindal. Maybe then, he would have my support.
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