GOP Critics Blame Drawn-Out Primary Calendar They Re-Engineered For The Problems They Now Face - DK

[WillyT]

GOP critics blame drawn-out primary calendar they re-engineered for the problems they now face
Meteor Blades - DailyKos
TUE FEB 28, 2012 AT 09:51 AM PST

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The Republican plan, writes Benjy Sarlin: http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/whos-to-blame-for-the-gops-drawn-out-primaries-nightmare.php?ref=fpb was to emulate the Clinton/Obama contest of 2008 by rearranging the primaries to draw them out, which they thought would encourage more donations, build enthusiasm among voters and keep attention focused on the GOP message.

It might have worked, too. If only they had had a couple of solid candidates of the caliber of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton instead of a clown car brimful of clueless, gaffe-prone, dog-whistling, foghorn-blowing, take-us-back-to-the-14th Century ideological hard-heads with an even bigger than usual bucket of It's-OK-If-You-Are-Republican attitudes and a never-ending forgetfulness of the power of YouTube to spread what they'd previously said on camera a few years or a few days ago that was opposite to what they were saying now.

But they didn't.

So, as an interminable series of debates unfolded, one candidate after another gained front-runner status, collected more media attention and had his or her past and ideas exposed, the voters said ugh! and quickly shifted to the next candidate du jour. The plummet for each was steeper than the rise. Rinse and repeat. Week after week. One would expect at the very least the drawn-out calendar would bring large numbers of voters to the polls. In fact, turnout has been lower than 2008 in most states.

“You’re running against an incumbent president who will not have a primary, so your idea is make ours longer so we can beat each other up longer?” New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R) complained to FOX News last week, calling the new rules “the dumbest idea anyone ever had.”

The key problem, according to some GOP critics, including Republican National Committeeman John Ryder, is the primary schedule itself. Penalties put into place to keep states from moving their primaries or caucuses to earlier dates didn't work. That might not have mattered if there had been a big contest in which one candidate or another could have ended things with a decisive victory. Or if Super Tuesday could have accomplished the same thing by being held in early February as it was in 2008...

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More: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/28/1069080/-GOP-critics-blame-drawn-out-primary-calendar-they-re-engineered-for-the-problems-they-now-face?via=blog_1

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. We certainly can't blame their pandering to the ignorant.

That couldn't possibly be their problem.

[Johonny]

2. The plan has worked

the media has been 24/7 GOP coverage. The problem they have is they have highlighted 24/7 that the GOP is simply out of touch, tone death and elitist to the average American. They got the coverage they wanted. They are controlling the public debate. It isn't the primary processes fault they've chosen to debate birth control, ultrasounds, killing old Dutch people and nuking Iran.

[Bruce Wayne]

3. um, did the Democrats have the same thing for the same reasons in 2008?

The party bosses (R and D) are always trying to "engineer" the electoral system to control and manipulate the public's choices in nominating presidential candidates. And those goddamned voters, R and D, keep on refusing to line up and march to the bosses' tunes. Democracy is just sooo inconvenient.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. They also made most of their primaries, "proportional"

in an effort to prove this strategy's value if applied against the current President - i.e., the assumption being that if states hadn't had "winner take all" elections like 2008 (and most previous elections have, save Maine and Nebraska), they would have easily won the Presidency in 2008. Problem is, doing proportional during a primary helps to draw out the race because candidates like Ron Paul go around siphoning off delegates from the rest, making it take longer for any other to get to the magic number.

All I can say is sit back, relax, and enjoy some

[Beartracks]

5. When your party is bereft of ideas and has nothing to run on....

... except hatred of the incumbent and policy retreads that have already proven themselves to be disastrous, then yeah, if I were a Republican I would a) think the schedule was pretty dumb, and b) re-think why the hell I was a Republican at all. This primary season has served to show up the GOP for what it is, what it has become. The GOP has moved so far to the right even Reagan Republicans have to be wondering WTF happened to us.

=========================================

[DearAbby]

6. KARMA

for Citizen's united...Oh how sweet it is.

[mick063]

7. We defeat "big money" though attrition.

How the United States "won" the cold war. Very simple. We outspent the Soviet Union. We damn near bankrupt ourselves doing it, but we finally created a form of economic collapse for the Russians. So folks might think this is the proper analogy for the Plutocracy. That the Plutocrats will simply "spend us into the ground."

There is another, better scenario. The analogy would be that of King George of Britain. Early America was never, ever a superior power militarilly or economically to the British in that era. Despite that, the new American nation won freedom through attrition. We "spent them ino the ground" in an abstract way. We simply created a long term unprofitable situation:.

How?

A) The British economy became very dependent on a few American exports that were relatively cheap compared to the rest of the world. Finding similar goods elsewhere would mean a rise in prices for the typical British citizen. A problem for British traders that soon took on a political aspect. The same fiery group that put pressure on Parliment to repeal the Stamp Act in an effort to "calm" their trading partners across the ocean.

B) The cost of the fight was prohibitve when put in context of competing with other economic/miltary powers in Europe. A prolonged fight would allow competitors to encroach on other world British economic endeavors.

In short, the expensive fight no longer positively calculated into "the cost of doing business." American colonists imposed their will on the world's wealthiest nation through sheer determination. In the end, British profiteers were willing to minimize their losses in an effort to get back to doing what they do best. Profiteering.


How does this relate to the topic at hand? This long drawn out political campaign should have produced typical attrition common to previous campaigns. This election cycle has allowed candidates to remain that theortically shouldn't even be there. Without Citizens United, Santorum should no longer be there. Without Citizens United, Gingrich should no longer be there.

The Plutocracy is throwing money down a money pit. If a progressive, populist agenda can survive the full brunt of the most expensive political process in human history, the Plutocracy may rethink the monetary cost of political "mega influence". Like the British, they may eventually come to the conclusion that the expected results cannot account for the prohibitive cost of getting to those expected results.

Certainly, it will take more than a couple of election cycles to drive the point home, but perhaps the next cycle is akin to the War of 1812.

Perhaps in the spirit of the American Revolution, Americans will face seemingly unbeatable odds and through sheer conviction, they will win back their voice from the profiteers. Perhaps history will point back to the Citizens United ruling as the turning point where America was able to come to terms with the notion that their collective voice will always be more powerful than isolated wealth.

If President Obama wins and the country take a hard turn left, nothing could shake the confidence or determination of the Plutocrats more. For them, the prohibitive costs are more influential in relenting to campaign finance reform than the cry of a million protestors. Ponder what these folks really are.

Profiteers. "Wasting" money violates the very fabric of their collective souls.

Stay strong. We can win through attrition. On a personal level.....is your vote for sale?

I love the fact that this long drawn out primary may be potentially sucking large amounts of wealth with very little reward to show for it. Perhaps Citizens United is simply accelerating the process toward an enevitable conclusion. Stay strong. We can win through attrition.

[mick063]

8. For those mentioning Romney's recent plea for money

A bump