Thread: The Protest Vote

Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
This is not a prediction, projection or prophecy, and certainly not a wish. It is the conclusion most Republican voters arrived at several months ago when they realized the few men who might defeat him were not going to enter the race.
What percentage of Republicans really want Newt Gingrich to be the next president?
About 10%.
What percentage of Republicans really want Rick Santorum?
About 10%.
Ron Paul has been gathering support for about 25 years and may have about 15% actively championing his election.
Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Herman Cain never reached 10%.
Rick Perry, as the obvious choice in the south, could have won up to 17 states in the primaries if he hadn't stumbled. In a three-way race that would be enough to guarantee that no one could win without his delegates.
With him out of the way, no one can really beat Mitt Romney throughout the primary season.
There is however a protest vote that appears when a winner seems inevitable and it consists of people who will be perfectly content to vote for Romney in November, but want him to be less like Mitt Romney by then.
The last time the protest vote was a factor was in 1992. Not many people wanted Pat Buchanan to be president, but they wanted George H. W. Bush to be less like Bush, so Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary.
Bush took it badly. He began aggressively campaigning and won the nomination easily without changing. He assumed he could defeat the upstart Bill Clinton and failed to anticipate a protest vote in the general election. That protest vote found a face in Ross Perot, a man with a small following to accompany it, and Bush lost.
In 2000 Buchanan ran in the general election and we discovered that less than l% of the people wanted him to be president.
Many of 1992's protesters are protesting Romney now.
When they were polled last fall, they chose the candidate least likely to win, so Bachmann and Cain got big numbers.
When it was time to really vote however Romney got a win and a tie and remained unchanged.
The protesters had to choose a candidate. They picked Gingrich because of his home field advantage in South Carolina and Florida.
There was a problem though. He started acting and talking like a frontrunner. They didn't want that, so Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado went to Santorum. Maine, more thoughtful, almost went to Ron Paul, a man who won't be called a frontrunner until he wins the nomination.
So far, Romney has only changed for the worst, attacking Gingrich and now Santorum.
Soon he will begin to win most states and gain the nomination, but please Mitt, be less like Mitt.

I really wonder what the so called protest is all about.

If you disagree with a successful business guy..vote for Obama.
If you want a continuation of the current status FLOW..vote Obama..
If you like high gas prices..dont change.
If you like blaming every other failure on someone else..Obama is your guy.
If you like a immigration problem and unsecured border..vote for Obama..
If you like Chevy volts and no jobs..Democrats are your ticket..
A vote for Obama is a continuation..a vote for Romney is the PROTEST VOTE..


It wasn't Romney that gave you this current garbage,,It was Obama.

To protest means to rally against what IS..not what might be.
Success is not worth protesting..failure is..GET OVER IT.

Romney the savior of our country! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

No..WE are the savior of our country..
Electing Romney would show OUR leadership abilities.

How well did Obama work out ?

Originally Posted by MnBillyBoy

How well did Obama work out ?

The same as Romney would... they're both greasy snake oil salesmen.

I think the protest is mostly his personality and flip-flops, rather than the substance. The last non-incumbent to have a poorly-contested ride to the nomination was Al Gore. He remained as stiff as a board, enough to drive 3% of the voters to Ralph Nader and lose the general election.
Romney represents the liberal side of the Republican party (no more than 40% of Republicans.) His vote totals therefore will remain in the 40% range in each state until it looks like one of the other three might win, then voters will panic and give him big victories in the last few states.
The problem is that they like him nice, not nasty, and the nasty side he's displaying lately will not help him.

Originally Posted by hoytmonger

The same as Romney would... they're both greasy snake oil salesmen.

Winner +rep!

Except one had a history of balanced budgets and the other doesn't.

One never accepted a penny for government work and the other does.

One is active within his church and the other isn't.

I look at the facts..and you drink the koolaide.

Was anyone here alive during the Year 2008?

Originally Posted by Cigar

Was anyone here alive during the Year 2008?

Yep ..gas was under $ 2 bucks..unemployment under 8 % and our debt was 4 trillion less.My house was worth a lot more.
Afghanistan was not a mess.
Iran was not near a nuclear bomb..
No border agents were being killed with our guns..

The world was a safer place.
and the REV Wright and Santorum didn't exist to most Americans.

Thanks for the reminder....oh and the IRAQ surge worked !