2016 elections - because it's never too early

[Barrister]

Everyone knows Iowa Republicans are dumb as bricks but I thought New Hampshire was a little smarter than that.

Same.  I'm hoping this turns out to be another Iowa, where a significant portion of the voters are either just lying to pollsters or aren't captured in the polling numbers.

Caucus vs primary though.  I think the Iowa effect will exist, but not to the same degree.  I frankly expect The Donald to win New Hampshire.  As weas mentioned, they're the same people who voted for Buchanan.

[Berkut]

I do that all the time, because I think it trite to write something immediately afterword.
Yet you get bent out of shape over this one?  Seems odd, unless one considers your political position.

I didn't realize it was my responsibility to respond to every single one of your posts.  My mistake.  I'll just stop responding to any of them, since you insist on consistent dishonesty.

[alfred russel]

Caucus vs primary though.  I think the Iowa effect will exist, but not to the same degree.  I frankly expect The Donald to win New Hampshire.  As weas mentioned, they're the same people who voted for Buchanan.

It seems as though how Cruz and Trump do are less important at this point in New Hampshire. Those guys are going to carry on as the leaders of the evangelical and bigot wings of the party, respectively. What is important is the finishing order among the more traditional candidates (Rubio, Bush, Christie, Kasich, Fiorina). Rubio could knock them all out, or someone could emerge to challenge Rubio.

Not sure how Carson fits into the picture, but he probably won't be in it for long.

The Democratic side is interesting. Clinton has been closing the gap. Sanders probably wins, but if he wins by 30 the story is a lot different than if he wins by less than 10. In the former case, Clinton is going to get a tsunami of negative press.

[Admiral Yi]

I just realized I have no idea what it's like to vote in a primary.  Is it just like election day?

[Razgovory]

I do that all the time, because I think it trite to write something immediately afterword.
Yet you get bent out of shape over this one?  Seems odd, unless one considers your political position.

I didn't realize it was my responsibility to respond to every single one of your posts.  My mistake.  I'll just stop responding to any of them, since you insist on consistent dishonesty.

Actually you did respond to some of them.  You just weren't enraged by lack of initial lack of comment.  What's this really about?

[alfred russel]

I just realized I have no idea what it's like to vote in a primary.  Is it just like election day?

Yeah, they even have secret ballots.

[Valmy]

I just realized I have no idea what it's like to vote in a primary.  Is it just like election day?

Well I get to do both. You show up and get in either the 'D' line or the 'R' line. After you vote you get handed a flyer telling you to come to the Caucus that night.

[lustindarkness]

Puppy Monkey Baby

[Admiral Yi]

Well I get to do both. You show up and get in either the 'D' line or the 'R' line. After you vote you get handed a flyer telling you to come to the Caucus that night.

What do you do in the caucus?  That party platform nonsense?

[Valmy]

Well I get to do both. You show up and get in either the 'D' line or the 'R' line. After you vote you get handed a flyer telling you to come to the Caucus that night.

What do you do in the caucus?  That party platform nonsense?

When I do the Republican Caucus I sit with the other ten guys and we talk a bit and then take a head count and leave and call it a day.

When I do the Democratic Caucus me and the other 5,000 people are crammed into a gym where eventually some Caucus worker asks us to write down who we support. Then I leave before I pass out from the crush of humanity.

[dps]

I just realized I have no idea what it's like to vote in a primary.  Is it just like election day?

Exactly how it works varies from one state to another.  For example, in West Virginia, when you register to vote, you can register as a member of a party, or as an independent, but you can only vote in the primary of the party you registered as;  in Virginia, OTOH, when you register to vote, you simply register as a voter, and then you can vote in the primary of whatever party you want.   Other states have different rules.

[The Brain]

I find rules restrictive.

[alfred russel]

Santorum makes a compelling case against Rubio, by accident. Rubio may have been better off without this guy.

Rick Santorum made his overdue departure from the Republican race official on Wednesday evening, endorsing Marco Rubio on his way out the door. "We decided that we could be better advocates in supporting someone who shared [our] values and will do better in this race," Santorum told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News.

On Thursday morning, the former Pennsylvania senator got one of his first chances to play the role of Rubio advocate during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. It, um, did not go well. Asked repeatedly to name Rubio's top accomplishment in the Senate, Santorum came up empty time and time again. "If you look at being in the minority in the United States Senate in a year when nothing got—four years where nothing got done, I guess it's hard to say there are accomplishments," Santorum said. "I mean, tell me what happened during that four years that was an accomplishment for anybody? It was complete gridlock."

Things only got worse from there. When Joe Scarborough reminded Santorum that the GOP has controlled the Senate for more than a year now, Rubio's latest endorser responded by noting that Rubio has been awfully busy during that time campaigning for president—something you'd expect to hear from one of Rubio' rivals, not one of his newfound allies. ("Joe, look, the Republicans have been in the majority for one year and one month, of which, as you know, he was running for president primarily," Santorum said.) At another point co-host Mika Brzezinski felt compelled to jump in and offer her guest a lifeline in the form of a fill-in-the-blank question. "Jeb Bush ran Florida. Donald Trump built a company," she said. "Marco Rubio... — finish the sentence." (Santorum went with "the speaker of the Florida House, which is not something that's a minor deal.")

Eventually, after several minutes of floundering on screen, Santorum was able to point to a Rubio-backed provision aimed at Obamacare that was inserted into the recent spending bill—but then quickly returned to what I can only assume were not Rubio-approved talking points. "The bottom line is there isn't a whole lot of accomplishments, Joe," Santorum said, "and I just don't think it's a fair question."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/04/rick_santorum_can_t_name_any_of_marco_rubio_s_accomplishments.html

[Eddie Teach]

There's nothing compelling at all about that story. 

Anyway, that's nothing to the case against Trump made by Sarah Palin's endorsement.

[derspiess]

I just realized I have no idea what it's like to vote in a primary.  Is it just like election day?

Well I get to do both. You show up and get in either the 'D' line or the 'R' line. After you vote you get handed a flyer telling you to come to the Caucus that night.

I considered pulling an Ed and voting in the Dem primary in 2008, but then it would be on public record that I voted in a Democrat primary