Washington State Caucus

Those of you who are political junkies (or those who aren't but curious anyway) may wonder how the caucus process works. Well, a friend in Washington state recently emailed about the Washington GOP caucus. He agreed to let me pass on his experience (some editing was done to protect the innocent).

Caucuses (caucii?), I don’t know, I’m kinda’ torn between primaries and the caucuses. There’s good and bad in both. Yes, with a caucus, there is considerably less financial involvement. If you weren’t paying attention, the average person had no idea there was even a caucus here last Saturday. I saw one TV ad (for Paul). I did get numerous phone calls from Romney urging me to attend. In the days leading up to the caucus, Romney, Gingrich and Paul showed up. Don’t know about Santorum.

Yes, it’s a great grass roots kinda thing. You get together with your neighbors on a precinct level. There’s about 600 voters in a precinct here, normal turnout for caucus from my precinct is 5-7 people. The local precinct captain picks the location, it can be in his home. Went to one of those back in ’88. All of ‘em since have been in a school cafeteria with dozen or so other precincts. While I missed the ’04 ( I mean, why bother), I’ve been to all the others. Generally, pretty boring.

During the first hour, you discuss what should be in the platform, so really it’s an hour wasted on arguing about abortion. At a specified time, generally 60-90 minutes after the start time, you get to vote for delegates to the county convention. Most years, anybody, regardless of who they want for president, who promises to go to the county convention gets picked as a delegate. We’re a big precinct, so we get two delegates.

A couple of months later, you get to go the county convention. Bunch of speakers, hours spent arguing over abortion and then finally you get to vote for this slate of delegates or that slate of delegates to go to the state convention. I’ve been to a 3-4 county conventions, but never been to a state convention. At the state convention, held a month or so later, they pick the 43 lucky bastards who get to go the national convention.

Only thing different about this year, was that as you signed in, there was a spot where you vote in a straw poll who you were supporting for president. And that’s the number the news reported later in the day. Who knows the number of delegates everybody got. Probably the same percentages. But the numbers aren’t really going to matter by the time the state convention gets around to selecting delegates.

Honestly, I much prefer the primaries, but maybe without the TV ads. Once it’s over, it’s over. And everybody knows how many delegates everyone won.

Who did I vote for? I didn’t. I never got in. Another downside to the caucus. It’s my own damn fault. The doors opened at 9:00 AM, proceedings started at 10:00. I got there at 9:30, in plenty of time. Or so I thought. Never ever had lines before. Never had all those people show up.

However, had I gotten in and gotten to vote, I would have voted for Romney. Now, I expect the rest of can handle that, but James, I know that won’t sit well with you. Sorry about that, but that’s the way it is. Santorum’s a religious nut case. Gingrich (whom I’ve always admired) just has too many things wrong with him. While I like half of what Paul says, he’s off the deep end. And the bottom line here, none of those three are going to beat Obama. Romney has a chance.

Newt Gingrich and Ronald Reagan

Above, Ronald and Nancy Reagan at Los Angeles International Airport in 1980. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

National Review Online has an interesting article on Newt Gingrich. It was written by Reagan Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams.

The article starts off with this:

In the increasingly rough Republican campaign, no candidate has wrapped himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan more often than Newt Gingrich. “I worked with President Reagan to change things in Washington,” “we helped defeat the Soviet empire,” and “I helped lead the effort to defeat Communism in the Congress” are typical claims by the former speaker of the House.

The claims are misleading at best. As a new member of Congress in the Reagan years — and I was an assistant secretary of state — Mr. Gingrich voted with the president regularly, but equally often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides, and his policies to defeat Communism. Gingrich was voluble and certain in predicting that Reagan’s policies would fail, and in all of this he was dead wrong.

Many conservatives look at Gingrich as a loose cannon. The article above is a good example on why this is so. It is a real eye-opener, to put it mildly.

To read the full article go here.

UPDATE (1/26/12): Newsmax is reporting that Michael Reagan and Rush Limbaugh are blasting Mitt Romney and his supporters over "false claims."

Ronald Reagan’s eldest son Mike Reagan has issued a statement lambasting Mitt Romney and his supporters for claims that Romney’s Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich was a strong critic of President Reagan.

Reagan says such claims are false.

Even Rush Limbaugh, shocked by the Romney claims, chimed on his Thursday radio broadcast to say "This is obviously a coordinated attack to take Newt out here in Florida."

Rush slammed the Romney-backed smear campaign against Newt.

“That kind of stuff is why people hate Romney so much," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh added that Newt has always been a conservative from his early days in national talk radio in the 1980s.

“He was perhaps the premier defender of Ronald Reagan,” Limbaugh said.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Mike Reagan, Rush Limbaugh Blast Romney

Romney Wins New Hampshire GOP Primary

The voters of New Hampshire have made their presidential primary decision.

From the Associated Press:

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Mitt Romney cruised to a solid victory in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, picking up steam from his first-place finish in the lead-off Iowa caucuses and firmly establishing himself as the man to beat for the Republican presidential nomination.

Returns from 52 percent of New Hampshire precincts showed Romney with 37 percent of the vote, followed by Texas Rep Paul with 23 percent, former Utah Gov. Huntsman with 17 percent and former House Speaker Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum with 10 percent each.

To read the full article go here.

NOTE: While there is an active (and heated) primary season, I am refraining from endorsing any candidate. In 2008, each candidate during the primaries fell by the wayside when I did. Call me superstitious.