2016 elections - because it's never too early

[alfred russel]

My father, in Florida, switched his registration to Republican so he could vote against Trump. And then he early voted for Kasich.  I told him he wasted his time, and when I explained the situation, he conceded that maybe he shouldn't have voted so early.

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

[jimmy olsen]

Yeah I had not noticed Cruz fever really catching on in Texas. He is not loved or anything, though I fully expect him to be our Senator for a long time.

Are you ready for your fellow Texans to annoit Donald Trump the Republican nominee!

[Valmy]

Are you ready for your fellow Texans to annoit Donald Trump the Republican nominee!

I may adore many of my fellow Texans individually but as a group we are idiots.

[Monoriu]

My father, in Florida, switched his registration to Republican so he could vote against Trump. And then he early voted for Kasich.  I told him he wasted his time, and when I explained the situation, he conceded that maybe he shouldn't have voted so early.

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

Don't tarnish your clean record.  Stay home.  Or climb rocks.  Politics is somebody else's problem 

[Valmy]

Don't tarnish your clean record.  Stay home.  Or climb rocks.  Politics is somebody else's problem 

Politics might be. But voting is an American's duty.

[jimmy olsen]

My father, in Florida, switched his registration to Republican so he could vote against Trump. And then he early voted for Kasich.  I told him he wasted his time, and when I explained the situation, he conceded that maybe he shouldn't have voted so early.

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

538 advises Rubio in that case

http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/election-2016/primary-forecast/georgia-republican/#polls-only

[alfred russel]

My father, in Florida, switched his registration to Republican so he could vote against Trump. And then he early voted for Kasich.  I told him he wasted his time, and when I explained the situation, he conceded that maybe he shouldn't have voted so early.

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

538 advises Rubio in that case

http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/election-2016/primary-forecast/georgia-republican/#polls-only

I need to check out the Georgia delegate allocation rules, but I think it goes by district, and I suspect my district will go to Rubio -- it doesn't seem like Cruz territory.

[alfred russel]

My father, in Florida, switched his registration to Republican so he could vote against Trump. And then he early voted for Kasich.  I told him he wasted his time, and when I explained the situation, he conceded that maybe he shouldn't have voted so early.

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

Don't tarnish your clean record.  Stay home.  Or climb rocks.  Politics is somebody else's problem 

Fuck that.

[Monoriu]

Fuck that.

How about this: it is highly unlikely, nah, almost impossible, that your one vote will make a difference.  So there is no point wasting time, effort, petroleum, etc to vote

[derspiess]

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

Welcome aboard the Cruz ship

[DGuller]

I like that Beebs is trying to figure out a way to blame Trump on something other than the conservatives reaping what a decade or two of Fox News Conservatism has sown.

That is all this is - a couple decades of hatred, bigotry, vitriol, dishonesty, and pandering to the lowest common denominator has resulted in Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Carson.

It is really just that simple.

And I disagree.

The audience for Fox News wasn't created by Roger Ailes.  It always existed - Roger Ailes and Fox News just served that audience.

I disagree completely.  Not only did Fox News create an echo chamber that legitimized truly insane ideas, but that echo chamber also led to ever-deepening craziness among those who chose to enter it.

[alfred russel]

How about this: it is highly unlikely, nah, almost impossible, that your one vote will make a difference.  So there is no point wasting time, effort, petroleum, etc to vote

And the Allies would have won WWII even if my grandparents didn't serve, but I don't think they considered that a waste of time and effort.

[alfred russel]

I don't think I've ever voted in a primary before, but I'm voting for whoever is most likely to take away delegates from Trump in Georgia. Even if that is Cruz. 

Welcome aboard the Cruz ship

I am not on that ship. It looks weird and creepy. 

[alfred russel]

I like that Beebs is trying to figure out a way to blame Trump on something other than the conservatives reaping what a decade or two of Fox News Conservatism has sown.

That is all this is - a couple decades of hatred, bigotry, vitriol, dishonesty, and pandering to the lowest common denominator has resulted in Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Carson.

It is really just that simple.

And I disagree.

The audience for Fox News wasn't created by Roger Ailes.  It always existed - Roger Ailes and Fox News just served that audience.

I disagree completely.  Not only did Fox News create an echo chamber that legitimized truly insane ideas, but that echo chamber also led to ever-deepening craziness among those who chose to enter it.

I don't think so. Today there are Quinnipiac polls showing Trump ahead of Clinton and tied with Sanders in Ohio. The audience of cable news isn't that big to cause that.

Also don't forget that Pat Robertson carried four states in 1988. Pat Buchanan won New Hampshire in 1996 and for a brief moment looked like he could legitimately challenge Dole. That craziness preexisted the creation of Fox News.

At the same time, this country has a long history with racial politics. As you probably know, George Wallace actually carried states in the 1968 general election. There are lots of topics that are out of the discourse of normal politics but people have very strong opinions on--affirmative action for instance.

In this immediate election, Trump and Fox News have been somewhat at war.

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like Trump's a lock for Tennessee.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2016/02/24/early-voting-smashes-records-for-tennessees-super-tuesday

Early Voting Smashes Records for Tennessee's Super Tuesday

Posted By Jeff Woods on Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at  1:34 PM


Maybe it's excitement for Donald Trump or fear of Donald Trump or both, but turnout is historically high in Tennessee for Super Tuesday.

Tennessee has smashed the record for early voting with 383,259 people casting ballots. That's 16 percent more than the 329,154 who voted early in 2008, the last time both parties held contested primaries.

Republican primary voters are outnumbering Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin, with 254,659 early GOP voters compared with 128,343 voters for the Democrats.

According to state GOP director Brent Leatherwood, as many as 860,000 voters could turn out on Election Day—a massive turnout. Said Leatherwood:


These results are indicative of where the two Parties are right now in our state. Each election cycle shows fewer and fewer voters supporting their candidates and that is certainly the case this year. Meanwhile, Republicans have the energy, enthusiasm, and ideas that are motivating a record number of Tennesseans to come out to the polls. Given these early voting results, we are looking at nothing short of a massive Republican turnout for Election Day in Tennessee. 

It looks like Tennessee's top three Republicans—Gov. Bill Haslam and Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker—are about to endorse Marco Rubio. But Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said today he won't make an endorsement. Said RonRam:

I've decided not to endorse anyone. I did vote. So I can't actually tell you I haven't made my mind up. But I'm not going to tell you who I voted for. That's why we have secret ballots in the United States.

Once again I do think Trump is a force that's going to be impossible to stop now. Democrats can't believe the Bernie Sanders phenomenon and we can't believe the Trump phenomenon. So it's an interesting election cycle.

I don't know who exactly I want to be president, but I know who I don't want to be president. So absolutely I'll get behind Donald Trump this fall and do everything I can, assuming he wins [the nomination] of course.

Fun Facts about Super Tuesday courtesy of the state GOP:

- 11 states award delegates on March 1st, with the majority of states being in the South, hence the "SEC Primary" moniker.

- In all, 595 delegates are awarded on March 1st.

- March 1st is also known as "Super Tuesday" because more delegates are awarded this day than any other during the Republican primary calendar.

- In general, states holding Republican contests prior to March 15th will award their delegates on a proportional basis.

- Tennessee awards the third-most amount of delegates (58) on March 1st, following Texas and Georgia.

- As a basic rule of thumb, Tennessee has a 20% threshold for a campaign to be awarded delegates in our state [Exceptions: 1) One candidate receives 67% of the vote, or 2) No candidate gets to the 20% threshold].

- To secure the Republican nomination for President, a candidate needs to capture 1,237 delegates.

- Recent previous winners of contested Tennessee GOP Primaries:

1988 - George H. W. Bush
1996 - Bob Dole
2000 - George W. Bush
2008 - Mike Huckabee
2012 - Rick Santorum