What if Romney did NOT win Maine?

[K Gardner]

Would this make any difference going into Super Tuesday? There are reports out on the interwebz that Ron Paul actually won the Maine caucus.

Rachel Maddow did a segment on this last night and it's being covered extensively by one of the local Fox affiliates up in Maine.

Votes from 3 counties were not.. well, counted. The head of the GOP admits this. Some counties had vote totals of ZERO. Votes from one county were recorded incorrectly even when they were turned in correctly.

Romney only edged out Paul by 164 or so votes. Needless to say, there is a huge push underway to "find" the missing votes.

Now, I know Maine is a little state, and nobody paid much attention; but didn't this just happen in Iowa?

I still have PTSD from Florida in 2000. Oh, and Ohio in 2004. Is that where we're headed again?!

http://www.fox19.com/story/16937227/reality-check-was-there-voter-fraud-in-maine#.Tzs3qAjkZYo.facebook

And here's a link from the Brevard Times paper, in Maine, announcing the investigation:
http://government.brevardtimes.com/2012/02/voter-fraud-in-maine-caucus.html

[baldguy]

1. If he can't beat Paul and Santorum, how can he expect to beat Obama?

So, they made it so he beat Paul and Santorum.

[K Gardner]

2. I tend to agree with this. My gut feeling is that Romney is dead in the water..

The wingnuts down here in the South will vote for Santorum on Super Tuesday. Or even Newt.

There is a big Ron Paul contingent among young people in the South.

I feel a train wreck of massive proportions coming on.

[onehandle]

3. He got the headline that night. Same as Iowa. Headlines = Win. nt

[K Gardner]

4. Exactly. And the "new" results from Maine won't be announced until AFTER

Super Tuesday, per the GOP in Maine. Just like Iowa.

[Cosmocat]

21. TWO TIMES the state party has given him a win he didn't get

It really is a BIG deal, the very foundation of our democracy, but it is the Rs, so no talk of it from the "liberal media."

Imagine the outrage if this had happened with Hillary/Obama, the Rs would have been screaming about it and the national media would have carried water for them - see all of the outrage over Joe Sestak's statement during his race, which is not even in the same universe what this is.

[quakerboy]

29. Its not that big a deal

The Republican party is not a democracy. Not even the Democratic party is. They get to choose their nominee's. We like to play democracy, but we all have super delegates and caucuses and primarys and open primarys and all of that. And then in the end, at the convention, everyone votes for the winner in the end anyway.

Now, When they cheat in the General election, then its a big deal.

But if they chose to operate their own internal nomination procedure based on the free market bribery principles they claim to support, that's just republicans slightly less hypocritical than usual.

[European Socialist]

5. Why isn't Ron Paul screaming bloody murder?

Why didn't John Kerry scream bloody murder about Ohio in 2004? Why do candidates work so hard to win and then give in to being cheated?

[Little Star]

8. He's too busy laughing....

I just posted a link (down thread) to a segment of Rachels show where she explains what Ron Paul is doing and how he intends to win the caucus states. He's got a pretty good game going on for himself. Rachel did a fantastic job of explaining Paul's game in that segment, it's well worth the watch.

[politicasista]

15. Interesting. Praising Paul while bashing Senator Kerry?

Strange.

[Little Star]

17. huh?

[politicasista]

25. The person asked why wasn't

Senator Kerry screaming bloody murder about Ohio, and then complement Paul on the campaign he is running?

It just came out wrong maybe.

[Little Star]

26. The person I replied to said ...

"why isn't Ron Paul screaming bloody murder". That was what I was talking to.

[politicasista]

27. Ok

Peace.

[K Gardner]

18. I didn't look remotely like a bash. Just an honest question.. and

no one except the people at the highest levels of power in a party know why a contest is contested, or not. It's not always up to the candidate. But there was no slight intended to Senator Kerry here that I see.

[politicasista]

23. Ok

It still looked like the poster was throwing shade at the Senator.

To be fair, we would all like to know what the Kerry/Edwards team was thinking that night, but to continue to put the blame on one person instead of those that should have been doing the heavest lifting lets them off the hook.

[morningfog]

28. Paul may have a plan to win, but if he doesn't make it a big story now,

the momentum to Romney could soon be off to the races.

He should be more vocal about it and put Romney's win loudly into question, IMO.

[K Gardner]

10. Ron Paul has an Army of volunteers on the ground that are doing this

dirty work for him. He doesn't have to do anything

[politicasista]

16. Yep, let's scream at the Senator instead of the lazy DNC infrastructure that was dragging its feet

That's the easy way of course.

[K Gardner]

19. Again, no one was screaming at anyone. I think it was a hyperbolic way of asking why..

nothing sinister here, move along. A metaphor, if you will.

[politicasista]

24. Ok

Apologies for the comments here.

[Johnny2X2X]

6. Shenanigans

I am calling shenanigans. The delegates are not important here, it's the money that matters. Santorum already got totally hosed in Iowa, he ended up with the win and the delegates in the end, but he missed out on tens of Millions in cash. The same is happening in Maine now, Ron Paul wins Maine cleanly and money flows into his campaign. This is at least 2 races now where there has been confusion that greatly benefited Mitt Romney. The GOP establishment is clearly fixing the race for the Mitt and the other candidates are going to start really crowing about it.

This would be a completely different race had Santorum been given the win in Iowa right away and Maine been correctly awarded to Paul. Romney would be an under dog by now.

[K Gardner]

11. BINGO ! n/t

[Little Star]

7. I don't think anyone has won in Maine yet....

Maine is a caucus state and the results are not binding as far as I know. The delegates are not even formally allocated until district and state conventions in May.

I know that Ron Paul is saying that he will win other caucus states because his supporters are getting themselves elected as delegates by staying for the business meetings after the actual caucus attendees vote.

Did you see the earlier show that Rachel did about how Paul is trying to win caucus states? It was a fantastic segment! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46349475

No doubt there could be other crap going on there too with votes missing and such. Personally I think caucus states are more susceptible to fraud.

[denem]

14. I finally looked at that segment - thank you.

VERY informative.

[yellowcanine]

9. Isn't there a whole county voting this weekend?

[K Gardner]

12. Yes. That particular county was cancelled due to "weather".. but the

votes from that county won't be announced until AFTER Super Tuesday.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. I don't think he did. But the GOP Establishment wants him to win and looks like they're

making it so.

ETA: If it turns out that Mittens and his fans are tampering with the votes or commiting some other form of fraud or voter suppression, that'll only piss off the voters even more. Mittens is taking a real risk, but he's an arrogant son of a bitch, so it fits.

[Craigtee3030]

20. The RNC KNEW EXACTLY what would have happened IF

Ron Paul had been victorious.

Mitt would have soiled the Magic Boxer Shorts and legally changed his name to "Toast".

Caucus Interruptus - Part Douche! Thoughts at 3 A.M. http://thoughtsatthreeam.blogspot.com/?spref=tw

[K Gardner]

22. Great Blog ! Thanks for the link to it ! Love this article. n/t