By Jason Easley
Politicususa
The mainstream media has chosen to ignore it, but Mitt Romney’s win in Maine demonstrated again that there is something shady going on with the Republican primaries and caucuses.
Despite the facts that not all of the state had caucused yet and the margin separating Mitt Romney and Ron Paul was less than 200 votes, state GOP Chairman Charie Webster told Washington County, who had to postpone their caucus today because of an expected snowstorm, and anyone else who didn’t caucus today that their votes will not count.
Only in a Republican caucus/primary is candidate able to be handed the victory without all of the results being counted.
The Paul campaign had been expecting something like this because the Romney campaign has been involved in dirty tricks,including getting the caucus in Washington County where Ron Paul was expected to do extremely well was canceled. In a statement the Paul campaign said, “Paul performed well throughout the state, although his campaign’s stronghold of Washington County did not report today for inexplicable reasons. Congressman Paul was barely bested by Gov. Romney by about 194 votes, a margin the campaign is confident it will make up with the 200 plus votes expected to come out of Washington County’s caucus.”
Here’s Ron Paul addressing his supporters via CNN:
Paul said, “I wish all the caucus had met today, because I was disappointed. There was one caucus that I think we would have done very, very well. But we won, we lost by I guess almost two hundred votes, a hundred and ninety votes. It’s almost like we could call it a tie, but anyway, the votes will be counted. All the caucuses will meet, but I do want to make a prediction. If I were a betting man, and I do not have ten thousand dollars to bet. If I were a betting man, I would bet that we will control the Maine caucus when we go to Tampa.”
The mainstream media has chosen to ignore it, but there is something really wrong going on in the Republican nominating process.
If this whole situation is reminding anyone of Mitt Romney’s caucus night “win” in Iowa, it should. Just as Rick Santorum won Iowa, it is very possible that Ron Paul won Maine. The Republican establishment is so desperate to get Mitt Romney nominated as soon as possible that they have no qualms about rigging their own elections.
The GOP establishment wanted Mitt Romney to win Maine. They needed Romney to win Maine, so they made sure that Mitt Romney won Maine.
The Republican establishment is rigging their own primary process to get the nominee that they want.
None of this would be necessary if Mitt Romney was a better candidate, or if they listened to their own party’s rank and file. The vast majority of Republican primary voters don’t want Mitt Romney as their nominee. The 2012 fight between the GOP base and establishment is an extension of the battle that began during the 2010 elections. After the base nominated candidates like Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, and Joe Miller, the establishment decided that they were not going to allow that to happen again.
The mainstream media doesn’t talk much about it, but there is something fishy going on in these Republicans primaries and caucuses. Ron Paul is running a campaign for delegates, so the victory or loss doesn’t matter to him, but the narrative is everything for Mitt Romney.
The establishment wanted Mitt Romney to look like a winner again, so they closed the voting and called the caucus over when he was ahead. If a party would steal the presidency (Bush 2000), I guess rigging caucuses is small potatoes.
Shouldn’t the Party wait until all the votes are counted before they declare a winner?