Election '08: Primaries

[cityboi]

Hillary is going to have a hard time getting the African-American vote. At the end of last year African-Americans overwhelmingly supported Hillary but apparently the "race" dispute has caused some serious damage for Hillary. Hillary won in Michigan but it was meaningless. like others said, the delagates were stripped from that state because it held its contest too early. Hillary was the only major democratic candidate on the ballot. 70 percent of African-Americans in Michigan selected uncommitted instead of Hillary But they werent really uncommitted. according to exit polls, they overwhelmingly favored Barack Obama, whose name did not appear on the ballot. So now here comes a big question mark with South Carolina which has a very large African-American population. My guess is that Obama will come in first, John Edwards will come in second (since he was born there) and Hillary will come in third in South Carolina.

On the republican side, I do think If Mitt Romney becomes the republican nominee, whoever wins on the democratic side will beat Romney in the 2008 election. Democrats want Romney to win just like republicans want Hillary to win.

[cityboi]

Huckabee has already gone on record saying he wants to amend the US Constitution to reflect "God's Message". That is HIS god's message. It's a very scary thought.

[Justadude]

why can't we just do away with this primary nonsense and put all 12 (or however many are left) candidates in the real election in november?

[GRDadof3]

Hillary is going to have a hard time getting the African-American vote. At the end of last year African-Americans overwhelmingly supported Hillary but apparently the "race" dispute has caused some serious damage for Hillary. Hillary won in Michigan but it was meaningless. like others said, the delagates were stripped from that state because it held its contest too early. Hillary was the only major democratic candidate on the ballot. 70 percent of African-Americans in Michigan selected uncommitted instead of Hillary But they werent really uncommitted. according to exit polls, they overwhelmingly favored Barack Obama, whose name did not appear on the ballot. So now here comes a big question mark with South Carolina which has a very large African-American population. My guess is that Obama will come in first, John Edwards will come in second (since he was born there) and Hillary will come in third in South Carolina.

On the republican side, I do think If Mitt Romney becomes the republican nominee, whoever wins on the democratic side will beat Romney in the 2008 election. Democrats want Romney to win just like republicans want Hillary to win.

[Miesian Corners]

This is what you think a REAL question is? Who cares what he thinks of how old the Earth is. Too many of these debates spend too much time on these silly gotcha questions. I want to know about their policy belief and could care two spits what they think about such innocuous questions.

[Charlotte_native]

This is what you think a REAL question is? Who cares what he thinks of how old the Earth is. Too many of these debates spend too much time on these silly gotcha questions. I want to know about their policy belief and could care two spits what they think about such innocuous questions.

[Charlotteman]

Huckabee in Michigan:

"We need to amend the constitution so it's in god's standards."

All Dems should be glowing at the prospect the Reps might nominate this loonie tunes!

[Gusterfell]

CNN has those numbers a little diffierent...

Romney 42, Huckabee 22, McCain 19, Thompson 6, Paul 3, Guiliani 1, Hunter 1

Clinton 190, Obama 103, Edwards 51, Kucinich 1

[cityboi]

Barack's full name is:

Barack Hussein Obama

Many say his name reminds them of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein

[GRDadof3]

Barack's full name is:

Barack Hussein Obama

Many say his name reminds them of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein

[atlrvr]

All Dems should be glowing at the prospect the Reps might nominate this loonie tunes!

[runawayjim]

Or quite fearful, because he could possibly beat Hillary if she is the candidate....

I agree that the primaries are useless, and allow the media to have too much influence. I'm with the posters that said lets throw them all in a pot, and then let the top couple of vote getters (maybe 4) make it to the final round in Nov....hell, I'd even go so far as to say let the candidate that receives the 2nd most votes get to be VP, regardless of party.

[monsoon]

.......hell, I'd even go so far as to say let the candidate that receives the 2nd most votes get to be VP, regardless of party.

[swh1972]

All Dems should be glowing at the prospect the Reps might nominate this loonie tunes!

[monsoon]

.... The GOP will have a field day exploiting this in an election.

[runawayjim]

I am not a Huckabee fan, but the fact that he has experience as a Governor and Obama and Clinton do not cannot be ignored. Remember, Senators and Representatives don't "run" anything. They show up for votes, propose laws, sit in on a lot of meetings, so on and so forth. I'm not discounting their public service, but there is a big difference between sitting on the floor of the U.S. Senate and living in the White House. The GOP will have a field day exploiting this in an election.

[Gusterfell]

...there is a big difference between sitting on the floor of the U.S. Senate and living in the White House. The GOP will have a field day exploiting this in an election.

[swh1972]

^^ Who said Senators or Reps weren't leaders? I certainly didn't, and I didn't mean to imply it, either. Merely pointing out the differences between being 1 of 435, or 1 of 100 voters on an issue, vs. the individual that ultimately needs to make a decision. The fact that Democratic Senators routinely get beat in Presidential Elections can't be ignored.

^ As for Clinton's experience, I think you make a good point...however, it does not apply to Obama.

[runawayjim]

^^ Who said Senators or Reps weren't leaders? I certainly didn't, and I didn't mean to imply it, either. Merely pointing out the differences between being 1 of 435, or 1 of 100 voters on an issue, vs. the individual that ultimately needs to make a decision. The fact that Democratic Senators routinely get beat in Presidential Elections can't be ignored.

[swh1972]

I want to reiterate that I am not saying that either of the two Dems (Obama and Clinton) would make a bad President, only that saying it is a shoe in if they run against Huckabee ignores the fact that Senators do poorly in Presidential Elections.

[Raintree21]

Now, with only about 1/10th of the the states having had primaries, the latest buzz on the news channels is that the Republicans might not have a clear cut winner come convention time. What ever are we to do?!?! Gotta love the news.

[kayman]

Hillary has already spent eight years living in the White House, as arguably the single closest person to the sitting president. The popular joke at the time, especially among Republicans, was that she was actually the president. I would love to see these same Republicans try to argue that Huckabee's experience is more relevant than hers.

[kayman]

I want to reiterate that I am not saying that either of the two Dems (Obama and Clinton) would make a bad President, only that saying it is a shoe in if they run against Huckabee ignores the fact that Senators do poorly in Presidential Elections.

[cityboi]

This statement from Hickabee is a death blow to his canidacy

"And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

I actually heard this from his mouth on youtube where he was speaking in front of a crowd

[Charlotteman]

The breakdown of the Republican party might not be as far-fetched an idea as we might have thought. Even right-wing attack pit bull, Rush Limbaugh is expressing great doubt in the GOP.

On Jan. 16, Limbaugh said if the Reps nominate McCain or Huckabee it could well be the end of the party. I assume that means he sees the party moving out of the clutches of extremists, to a more centrist party. Well gee whiz, the GOP was a moderate party until 1980, when it was highjacked by right-wing forces.

Huckabee's nomination would certainly fit Rush's equation. Huckabee is cozying up closer and closer toward the GOP's religious factions. Yesterday I saw a speech by the Arkansas governor that was little more than a Baptist sermon--all about finding Jesus and being saved, etc.

In the general election, if he would take that religious stuff nationally, it would definitely backfire on the party. The GOP could face a 35-15 state washout. Then the religious right will be discredited as a political force once and for all. Blowhard Rush could end up being right, for once.