Super Tuesday

[Sera]

Newt Gingrich has won Georgia, NBC News projects. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House who represented Georgia in Congress, said Georgia was a must win for him to remain credible as a candidate.
Vermont and Virginia are "too early to call" at this point, but Mitt Romney leads in both.
To play along at home and when to expect calls and characterizations from the NBC News Elections desk, here are the final poll closing times in each state:
7:00 pm ET: Georgia, Virginia, Vermont
7:30 pm ET: North Dakota, Ohio
8:00 pm ET: Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee
9:00 pm ET: Wyoming
10:00 pm ET: Idaho
Midnight ET: Alaska

The first headline said Gingrich won Virginia, kinda hard to do when you're not even on the ballot! Paul doesn't seem to be ahead in any state. I was kind of hoping he'd be able to compete in VA since his only competition was Romney and Virginians don't really seem to keen on him (at least in Central VA, NOVA might be a different story.) I also noticed that Ron Paul was the only candidate to actually travel to Alaska to campaign. Wonder if that will matter (lol).

And in case anyone cares: A Guide to Super Tuesday

[Siatdiat]

I'm in Virginia, no one went in to vote at the primary in my neighborhood except me and my friend.

[Sera]

Ha, yeah I'm not hearing much from my friends and family in the way of voting today. Not shocked, it's never been a big thing in VA. My grandad had a really risky surgery today so most of the members of my family that would have voted were busy at the hospital so they didn't bother.

They'd have probably Ron Paul'd though.

[Demosthenes11]

ohio the only one that really matters

GO SANTORUM

[Sera]

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/06/147925...ts?sc=fb&cc=fp


Live results from NPR on that link

ohio the only one that really matters

GO SANTORUM

disturbingly enough I agree with your post

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

Santorum needs to win

[Melena]

Latest polls on CNN show Santorum winning Tennessee, and virtual tie with Romney in Ohio.

[Correction]

Fundamentally I hate the outcome of the Citizens United case but in practice I can't help but laugh at how unlimited amounts of cash in primary politics has rendered the GOP completely incapable of uniting behind an electable candidate.

[Melena]

I wouldn't say it's so much the limitless money as the fact the Republicans are almost two parties now. You have your super conservative religious right wing nut side, and then you have the super rich don't give a shit about the poor lower my rich friends taxes please side, with varying degree's of both.

[Gwynplaine]

Fundamentally I hate the outcome of the Citizens United case but in practice I can't help but laugh at how unlimited amounts of cash in primary politics has rendered the GOP completely incapable of uniting behind an electable candidate.

That has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the fact they're all terrible.

If there were an extent that it were due to money let's say, then that would be good wouldn't it? More competition for everyone to get their message out and less favoring of the established politicians.

[Darus Grey]

Personally well I think the citizens united decision itself was retarded, in practice I think Superpacs are a benefit to democracy, as shown in this primary.

What we're seeing isn't that they can't get behind one canidate, we're seeing the people actually matter because their vote for the first time in a long time counts for something. Without the Superpacs, Santorum and Gingrich would have been bankrupt after Florida and it would have been "Romney, the clear choice, the only choice". Instead we're seeing a very competitive campaign because the old strategy of bankrupting your competitors no longer works, and it's actually the people deciding who gets the nominations.

Like one friend said to me "If you want to make a resource more valuable(money) restrict it, if you want to see it be meaningless, put more of it in".

And at above, no, it really has everything to do with money. Santorum would not be as competitive as he is now, if he didn't have buckets of cash to keep going. Buckets that would be impossible pre-citizens.

[Correction]

That has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the fact they're all terrible.

If there were an extent that it were due to money let's say, then that would be good wouldn't it? More competition for everyone to get their message out and less favoring of the established politicians.

Gingrich and Santorum would have run out of money after their first third place finish if it weren't for their Super PACs. Let's not forget:



Shoop but lol

[archibaldcrane]

Like one friend said to me "If you want to make a resource more valuable(money) restrict it, if you want to see it be meaningless, put more of it in".

If it's actually properly restricted, like publicly financed campaigns with no outside money, then it would actually be meaningless.

[Demosthenes11]

If it's actually properly restricted, like publicly financed campaigns with no outside money, then it would actually be meaningless.

+5

[Darus Grey]

If it's actually properly restricted, like publicly financed campaigns with no outside money, then it would actually be meaningless.

I fully agree, and have stated so in the past, that the only way for true reform is to essentially eliminate "Campaigning" as we know it today, where all canidates receive limited public funds as their ONLY source of funding, or to go even further, no funding, and the only platform you have to get your message across is state/federal approved venues like structured debates(where *everyone* is allowed their turn, no exceptions...if they take 3 months, let them take 3 months).

However, being as that is super unrealistic in America, flooding the system with money is a good runner up.

/mmonerdon it's like ffxi gil vs wow gold. One is significantly more valuable precisely because it's restricted.

[Demosthenes11]

my face whenever Santorum wins a state

[archibaldcrane]

So, is Gingrich going to continue after this single state victory? Will Ron Paul stick around to the end, pingponging between 2nd and 4th in most states?

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I fully agree, and have stated so in the past, that the only way for true reform is to essentially eliminate "Campaigning" as we know it today, where all canidates receive limited public funds as their ONLY source of funding, or to go even further, no funding, and the only platform you have to get your message across is state/federal approved venues like structured debates(where *everyone* is allowed their turn, no exceptions...if they take 3 months, let them take 3 months).

That's still just a symptom of a much larger problem. Any attempt to even the playing field on this level will simply be branded by the PACs / SuperPACs funded by the rich and corporations as the bad word ______ism of the week and rabid, gun toting "patriots" will be out in force.

[Darus Grey]

I agree, which is why I said any kind of reform of that scale in this country is super unrealistic. Even without the citizens decision this was an issue, since campaign funding laws only apply towards campaigns, you could form a pac/superpac pre-citizens to advertise against a specific issue with unlimited funds(see: Prop 8 )

Given that we're never going to see that kind of reform, flooding the system with money is imho, the far lesser of the evils.

[Dantrag]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...kr/rebpres.png