Republican Voter Enthusiasm

You can tell a lot by who is supporting which candidate. I remember reading a story in the 2004 election about Al Queda putting out a statement that the violence would stop if John Kerry were elected President. When someone like Al Queda endorses a candidate, that should be a major red flag about that candidate.

As conservatives, we can tell which candidate is best by the reaction of the liberals to that candidate. The fact that Democrats were voting for Rick Santorum to make Romney look bad in Michigan should be a great indicator that Romney is the strongest candidate. If the Democrats want Rick Santorum to win, Rick Santorum winning cannot be the best thing for the Republican party in the general election.

THE LIBERAL MEDIA

You have seen it today in the media following the Romney wins in Arizona and Michigan last night. Here is a fun exercise: Go to any major news website besides Fox, and first of all, try to find any story about the wins. But then when you do find the stories buried down a way, note some of the headlines:

"How the gender gap helped Romney." -- CNN
"Super Tuesday won't help clear up GOP Presidential race." -- CNN
"Exit polls have warning signs for Romney." -- CNN
"Romney out of touch." -- CNN
"For Romney, a tepid victory." -- CNN
"Why the better candidate lost." -- CNN
"Can Romney maintain momentum?" -- ABC News
"Win saves Romney from explaining loss." -- CBS News
"In Ohio, Romney gets back to attacking Obama." -- CBS News

And my personal favorite, from MSNBC, who do not even try to mask any bias:

"As GOP rivals fight, voter confidence in Obama improves." -- MSNBC

The way that the liberal media react to a victory by a particular candidate tells us something. They are working hard to play down these victories and to explain how it was actually a loss for Romney.

How does this media reaction compare to the reaction of the wins by Gingrich and Santorum?

"HOME" COURT ADVANTAGE

The story that I hear over and over again is that Romney isn't connecting with voters and how Republicans just aren't happy with this field of candidates, and the possibility of an brokered convention or another candidate coming in.

Completely ridiculous. I like our field of candidates. Santorum would be a good President. Romney would be a great President. Newt would be a good President. And Ron Paul, for any crazy ideas he might have, would be infinitely less crazy than the ideas of our current President. The media are telling us we need to be dissatisfied.

Romney won Michigan Primary with 41% of the vote last night. (And that was with Democrats voting for Santorum!) Which begs the question, what percentage of the vote did Ronald Reagan get in Michigan in the 1980 Republican Primaries? Answer: 32%

Romney loves Michigan, and has good memories of growing up there. But there has been a lot said about how this is Romney's "home turf" because he grew up there. He moved from Michigan when he was 22, and never moved back. The majority of voters who were alive when his father, George Romney, was Governor of Michigan from 1963-1969 are now dead.

A much better test will be Massachusetts, where Romney spent most of his adult life and was Governor. Reagan was born in Illinois, so that is his "home turf". He got 49% of the vote there in 1980, but he won with 80% in California where he had spent most of his adult life and was Governor.

THE REAL FLIP-FLOPPERS

Barack Obama lost the Michigan Primary in 2008 with 29% of the vote. If we go back to the 2008 Democratic Primaries, here is how Barack Obama did in the the states that we have had primaries for so far in this election when there were at least four candidates on the ballot:

Iowa: 38% (W)
New Hampshire: 37% (L)
Florida: 33% (L)
Nevada: 45% (L)
Michigan: 29% (L)

I'm sure if I went back and looked, the liberal media back then was running story after story about how the Democrats were disconteted with all of their candidates because nobody could get a majority of the votes, right?

With four candidates in the race, there is nothing strange about any one candidate having trouble getting above the 50% mark. After one of the candidates drop, we'll start seeing some majorities in the primaries.

FIM

The media will continue to push the "Republicans hate all the candidates" and "Romney just can't connect with the people" and "Santorum is just too socially conservative" messages to discourage voters.

But the truth is that if any of these candidates win the Presidency, their goal will be to cut taxes, repeal Obamacare, balance the budget, defend religious freedom, and get this country back on track. We are in good shape, no matter what the media would have us believe.