Tommy Thompson Expected to Withdraw

Who cares?

I nominate the withdrawal of Tommy Thompson the least exciting political news of the decade.

Few news reports even bothered to mention which Thompson they were talking about.

Not easy hiding among the midgets running for the Republican nomination but Tommy Thompson managed to succeed gloriously.

Got to give credit where it is due.

Best, Terry

If CW coalesces around the idea that Huckabee is a viable, legit candidate, and Brownback is not, Huckabee could get a low of that support from Brownback and emerge as the true social conservative in the race. That weakens both Romney and Thompson.

Re: Mitt's cost per vote, if you look at the marginal cost per vote over Huckabee's, it's even worse... about $960. Oh yeah, and of course, the cost per actual RNC delegate is, um, infinite.

Why can't the media just cover the issues instead of making everything into a cowrace?

I was kind of hoping Ron Paul would come out strong so he could stay in there and give more pain to the rest of the herd. I expect he'll be announcing the end of his effort shortly?

I expect Paul will be around for a while. He's running a internet, shoestring campaign. Its not like he's burning thru wads of cash or spending much time on the stump. He's an insurgent with lots of fervorant supporters.

Hell, I've given him 2 small donations to help keep him in, and I'm an FDR Democrat. He's all wrong on economics and social policy, but I wish one of the major Dems would adopt his anti-interventionist foreign policy.

UA

So we should just say "screw Darfur"? Actually it's worse than just one region, but that doesn't matter.

Since service industry types have to work on the weekends, I've always felt a national holiday for elections would be a good idea.

But same idea in spirit.

Riiiight. I'd totally forgot about the christian nation part. Shame on me. Anyways, this is the kind of stuff that makes people like Dubya believe that god wanted him here. Cuz obviously, he did not win the regular vote (in 2000 - Ohio '04 is more complicated). Church on Sunday, electoral miracle on Tuesday.

ps: all jokes aside, it always struck me how the whole electoral ritual takes on the form of a lay, civic miracle. The vote itself, in its very function as a sort of aggregator and distillator in representative government, is of a miraculous nature. I mean, "popular will?" or "representation" of said "popular will?" In the age of daily polls and the Internet? Come on!

More 18th century bull, if you ask me.
[CT]
One million page hits against Bush!!!

If it were made a national holiday, fewer people might vote, distracted by other things.

Nineteenth Century technology is good enough for me.

I was thinking of Oregon, too. They do manage to get close 100% turnout as a result. And yes, voting machine are instruments of tyranny while the internet is under constant electronic surveillance. But in a sense it goes both ways, we turn it back onto them : the watchful eyes of citizens are constantly trained on the politicians now, and in a much less filtered and hierarchical fashion. They cannot get away with nearly as much as they used to (think Hillary and the nukes, for instance, or Lazy Fred and his red pickup...)

So of course they do have data mining and all their other wonderful toys (including voting machines). We have just-in-time on-demand communities, the internet echo chamber and the politics of shame and accountability (and perhaps the mail-in ballot). The rule of the mob - but the smart mob, baby! Hamilton would be aghast. I mean, it's a start in the long and painful process of undoing the legacy of these 18th century authoritarians.

(As for 18th century political technology, I was referring to representative government itself.)

[CT]
One million page hits against Bush!!!

Paul was already staying in the race long before his groundswell of Internet support and donations, so I find that kind of funny. Perhaps it's because Ron Paul's success in the straw poll is being underplayed severely, particularly compared to what his campaign and others had anticipated; media expectations until a day or so before Ames essentially had Paul finishing tenth ahead of John Cox. Finishing fifth means Paul beat expectations more than any other GOP candidate, even Huckabee; the fact that some reporters started hedging their bets when they got to Ames and saw all the Paul signs does not affect how the long-term expectations of Paul were exceeded, and that's what matters, just like a sudden concern about Romney the very day of the poll would not have softened the blow had he lost, given the long-term media expectations for him.

Furthermore, Romney, Brownback, and to a lesser degree, Tancredo all had buses; just as Huckabee deserves credit since he had no buses, so does Paul, if not moreso, since Paul only has visited Iowa a total of three times this year. And yet, he beat out the one candidate who has spent more time in Iowa than any other Republican, Tommy Thompson. I find it odd that some in the MSM and even EC are acting like Paul didn't meet expectations; the fact is no one in the media establishment, party establishment, or Ron Paul himself expected his candidacy to be as successful as it has been. I don't agree with many of his views, but credit where it's due; besides, anything in the national GOP that isn't neoconservative is one step further from the abyss for the country, as far as I'm concerned.

I actually went there and saw the Thingvellir falls

I hate you. Hate that you got to see the geothermal paradise and all I ever got to see was The Geysers north of San Francisco as it was being developed, got to smell the stench of sulfur in the air so thick it ate copper pipes like termites eat old wood, got to drive on hairpin turns on narrow mountain roads against semis that was something like Laurel and Hardy trying to move a piano across a rope bridge while fighting a large gorilla.

Been wanting to see geothermal developments like Chena Hot Springs north of Fairbanks where Japanese newly weds increase the population of Japan under the northern lights but I can't even get to Nicaragua where my wife found a description of an airport bathroom more frightening than tales of machete-wielding street muggers.

Don't tell me any more. I don't want to hear. :-)

BTW there are estimates that geothermal could replace all the electricity produced in this country 56,000 times over using only a fraction of the resource available. Meanwhile our fine president has zeroed out funding and threatens to veto a bill by Jerry McNerney to fund research should Congress pass it.

Thanks for the word, concerntroll. You struck a chord.

Best, Terry

T. Thompson and Tancredo are the only reason I follow the Republican side of the equation . . .

They blow-out the totally insane and there would be no fun left in the game.

This is obviously Romney's high-water mark. As it gets harder and harder to actually buy votes directly, he'll fade. Has anyone ever seen a guy with worse presidential blue balls? Jesus, talk about saying anything to get elected. He'd be speaking in tongues if he thought it would get him a vote. Romney really sucks.

If it's a Tuesday holiday, fewer people will probably leave town, although if they do, they could vote absentee.

I believe Michigan has had some success with a holiday on election day.