I just got off the phone with Newt Gingrich. He called here at the house to urge me to vote for him in the upcoming South Carolina Primary, January 21. I’m afraid I was a little rude by hanging up; I hope the machine wasn’t offended.
A win here won’t mean as much as it once might have, since the South Carolina Republican Party’s engaged in the old South Carolina tradition of nullification, by selecting a primary date earlier than what the national party rules allow. South Carolina will only get half its normal number of delegates to the Republican National Convention. Given the number of birthers in the state, that’s probably a good thing.
Needless to say, I’m getting surveyed, push polled, mailed and broadcast to quite a bit. If anything interesting happens, I’ll add to the comments.
Speaking of Gingrich. . . with 1% of New Hampshire precincts reporting, it’s Mitt Romney in the lead, followed by Ron Paul, John Huntsman, Newt, Rick Perry, and with zero votes, Rick Santorum.
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/10/144817102/new-hampshire-primary-live-blog-and-results
Santorum’s South Carolina ads describe him as a “full spectrum conservative.”
Expect a lot of calls over the next 10 days doc.
SC will be a lively battleground in the dynamic of this race, regardless of what happens in NH today.
If anything, SC’s results are more important to resolving whether the field will winnow than NH is…so you are truly in for an intense period of competitive campaign activity!
You may not be aware of this, but the winner in South Carolina has gone on to be the national Republican nominee every time for the past 30 years. Yes friends, Republicans are trying to turn the entire country into South Carolina.
Being a Delawarean, my TV and radio stations are served out of Philadelphia (this is at least true for New Castle County where I live, the southern parts of the state I think are actually served by Baltimore). Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania which is a battleground state, which makes it particularly annoying to watch TV any time close to an election.
On the upside, I don’t get push polled from Presidential candidates, because nobody gives a crap about Delaware’s 3 electoral votes. I do get calls from everything else up to the Senate, and I guess Tom Carper’s up for a 3rd term this year.
I am fully aware of that statistic, yes. But it certainly bears repeating, thanks!
“I just got off the phone with Newt Gingrich.”
He wanted to know if there were any single women there.
Newt isn’t doing well in New Hampshire. With 71% of the votes counted, he’s below 10%. Romney maintains a double-digit lead over 2nd place Ron Paul, with Huntsman at 16%.
I don’t remember anything about “single.”
Sorry about the calls, Doc! I’m as lucky as Thrifty, sort of …. Okieland is late in the process, and so Red—Red dirt music, red dirt dirt, red dirt brains—only Reds would ever call, and only if there’s still a race come “Super Tuesday”. Just in case, I have outsmarted them …. I have no phone! ha!
Speaking of being Red, Okieland made national news today, by losing its defense of State Question 755. 755 was to bar international law, namely Sharia law, from consideration in Okie courts. It passed, 70% approval. In federal court in Denver, the state’s defense was, “We aren’t intending to discriminate against Muslims, Sharia was only named as an example. We meant to bar all religious law!” That will sit well with the christian evangelical base!
If he’s still around, Santorum can count on Okieland. Yes, the “full-spectrum conservative” is weird, and creepy. I (think) I know what he means, but consider the words on their face. Full spectrum as in Birch to Buckley to Goldwater to Reagan to Robertson to Buchanan to Cheney …. crowd them all into a big tent full-spectrum conservative? Haha.
Doc, has SC legalized tattooing yet? OK and SC were the final 2 holdouts, OK finally caved about 10 yrs ago!
Yes, it’s legal here since 2004.
(rimshot)
Subtle, funny!
“As an entertainer, I believe in giving back to the community, so I do a lot of work with unwed mothers. You know, just helping them get their start.” – Steve Martin