A Daily Dish reader reports on what happened last night on Faux News.
"It was hilarious. They had no idea what to do. Rush Limbaugh was on and he was clearly annoyed that the Republicans did not vote the way that the establishment wanted. It was watching the machine Rove built begin to crumble. They didn't know what to do about Huckabee, they didn't know what to do about Paul, and they really didn't know what to do about the fact that they might not have Hillary to attack come November. It was beautiful."
What we are seeing here is the religious right, which was courted for decades by the Republican establishment, effectively do an end around, and make their own viable candidate without the nod of the traditional Republican leadership and punditry. Meanwhile, the establishment and blobviators are in a panic on what to do about the Fundiestein's monster they created. It actually would be refreshing if the prospect of a theocon actually being president wasn't so scary. Interestingly, Romney the Mormon is now the great white hope of the Republican establishment.
Can't you feel the love?
It will be an interesting contest to be sure.
Meanwhile Ron Paul trounces on Sean Hannity's boy. Rudy's response?
"None of this worries me - Sept. 11, there were times I was worried,"
Of course it's always about 9/11.
Hannity must be really fuming in his cornflakes this morning. I feel sorry for his cat.
And now some numbers.
Total Voter Turnout (approximate)
356,000
Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)
Democratic turn-out.
236,000 Up from 124,000 in 2004
Republican turn-out
120,000 Up from 87,000 in 2000
So while Republicans were up 30%, Democrats nearly doubled their previous turn out and outperformed the Republican turn-out by around the same margin.
Meanwhile, the top three Democrats recieve larger percentages of the total votes than the top Republican by a wide margin.
Pretty impressive, considering that all Republicans have to do for their caucus is show up, state their preferrence, and leave, while Democrats have to hang around for a couple hours.
And to think that it was only four years ago that we were hearing about how the Bush victory signalled that Democrats were doomed and that never again would the rural heartland turn out for Democrats.
So much for predictions.