Archive → January 21st, 2008
Review: Gold Medal wine clubs
Even now, a few weeks since I sampled the Gold Medal Wine of the Month Clubs, I still think about what a nice idea the whole thing is. I remember with fondness the drunken pasta my wife was able to prepare using the wine we received after sampling it.
Of course, some of the wines that are sent out each month are a bit too fancy to be appropriate for cooking; even so, they can work well in whatever context a person decides they like to consume the wine of their choice. If a person has good control over their consumption of alcohol, and knows how to appreciate a good wine, it’s certainly a subscription-based club worth checking out, no matter how you vote!
“Open” primaries and caucuses must end!
How can someone as liberal as John McCain or Mike Huckabee win in a GOP primary or caucus? Are they perhaps bribing caucus-goers to abandon principal in favor of, say, gold jewelry?
No, I believe a far different dynamic is at stake.
Most notably in Iowa and New Hampshire, but prevalent in many of the early primary and caucus states is a set of rules, established by the GOP and Democratic parties at the state level, that allow anyone to vote in the primary (or attend the caucus) of their choice without so much as even having to declare a party preference or even prove they are a resident of the state in question.
This policy, called “open participation” or “open attendance,” skews the results of such primaries away from the wishes of actual party members. This was most noticeable in New Hampshire and Iowa, where all a person had to do in say they hoped to live in those states someday soon, and they would be allowed to attend and participate in a caucus (in the case of Iowa) or vote in the primary in question (in the case of New Hampshire).
This means that Hollywood liberals with time to burn thanks to the writers strike could conceivably have attended the Iowa caucuses to vote for Huckabee, then voted in the New Hampshire primary for John McCain, just to prevent a more conservative candidate, like Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson, from gaining traction. It also means that the traveling staff of each campaign could conceivably do likewise, leaving a multiple-vote trail behind them as the primary and caucus season advances.
This open policy needs to end.
It should be the business of Republicans – and Republicans only – to select who they want to lead their party in a presidential contest; it should be the business of Democrats – and Democrats only – to select who they want to lead their party in a presidential contest.
The media admits the truth of the current situation when they report how well McCain is doing by drawing his support from Democrats and independents. Yet the bottom line is, they should have no say in who fronts the Republican ticket, since they are not Republicans.
WonderfulPessimist.com suggests that both parties pass new rules for 2012 and going forward that require proof of residency and, hopefully, a declaration of party preference, prior to allowing anyone in any state to participate in a state caucus or primary. Until then, the whole process is a joke.
So what should independents do during primary season, you ask? Simple.
Either choose a side or stay home.
Florida leaning toward Romney
While the barely-active Rudy Guiliani campaign has pretty much staked everything on the Florida primary, as have many other marginal candidacies looking for an injection of legal steroids in the political sense, the latest Rasmussen poll indicates Florida voters may actually be leaning toward the current delegate front-runner, Mitt Romney.
According to the poll, Romney is garnering 25 percent of GOP support, followed by John McCain at 20 percent, Guiliani at 19 percent, Mike Huckabee at 13 percent and Fred Thompson at 12 percent. Ron Paul trails badly with only five percent. Romney seems to be the candidate benefiting the most from the withdrawal over the weekend of California congressman Duncan Hunter from the race.
Romney is the current leader in states won to date, as well as delegate count. Of the top GOP candidates, Romney to date has won Michigan, Wyoming and Nevada, and come in second-place in Iowa and New Hampshire. By comparison, the mainstream-media-pushed RINO leader John McCain has only won in New Hampshire and South Carolina. The only other candidate to win a state was Mike Huckabee, who won in Iowa but hasn’t broken through since then.
In the delegate count, Romney has an early lead thanks in part to garnering so many first-place and second-place finishes. Even McCain is not close to Romney so far in the delegate count. While a victory in Florida could add fuel to any candidate’s bid, a decisive win in Florida could put the Romney campaign in an undisputed lead heading in to Super Tuesday.
