Sunday, February 17, 2008
How Odd...
Wow, weird things are afoot in Virginia.
Virginia has voted Republican in every election since 1952 except one (1964). It went twice for George W. Bush: in 2000, of a total 2,654,780 votes, 1,437,490 were for Bush and 1,217,290 were for Gore. In 2004, out of a total 3,171,701 votes, 1,716,959 were for Bush and 1,454,742 were for Kerry.
In the 2000 Virginia Republican primary, the most recent primary in which there was no unopposed incumbent, 664,093 votes were cast, mostly for either Bush or John McCain.
And yet, in the 2008 primary on February 2nd, there suddenly appeared to be an astounding number of Democratic voters in Virginia.
Of the 1,467,368 primary votes cast this year, Democrats garnered 979,712, with the lion's share going to Barack Obama, who had 623,141. Meanwhile, Republican candidates received 487,656, with McCain edging Huckabee 244,135 to 198,247.
Twice as many Democratic voters as Republican in Virginia?
Obamaniacs -- both the cynics in the press and the true-believers fainting at the sight of him -- will no doubt claim this demonstrates the wide appeal their candidate has across the spectrum. The fainters may even believe that.
Those whose political agendas revolve around neither self-interested disingenuousness nor self-interested delusion will rightly find in the Virginia sand more than a small trace of monkey business.
No one truly interested in a Democratic victory in November should allow themselves to be kidded into believing that the very, very, Republican voters of Virginia are suddenly goo-goo for the Democratic candidate they think will beat the Republican. But they may in fact be very goo-goo to influence the Democratic nomination away from the candidate who won California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arizona...
Virginia has voted Republican in every election since 1952 except one (1964). It went twice for George W. Bush: in 2000, of a total 2,654,780 votes, 1,437,490 were for Bush and 1,217,290 were for Gore. In 2004, out of a total 3,171,701 votes, 1,716,959 were for Bush and 1,454,742 were for Kerry.
In the 2000 Virginia Republican primary, the most recent primary in which there was no unopposed incumbent, 664,093 votes were cast, mostly for either Bush or John McCain.
And yet, in the 2008 primary on February 2nd, there suddenly appeared to be an astounding number of Democratic voters in Virginia.
Of the 1,467,368 primary votes cast this year, Democrats garnered 979,712, with the lion's share going to Barack Obama, who had 623,141. Meanwhile, Republican candidates received 487,656, with McCain edging Huckabee 244,135 to 198,247.
Twice as many Democratic voters as Republican in Virginia?
Obamaniacs -- both the cynics in the press and the true-believers fainting at the sight of him -- will no doubt claim this demonstrates the wide appeal their candidate has across the spectrum. The fainters may even believe that.
Those whose political agendas revolve around neither self-interested disingenuousness nor self-interested delusion will rightly find in the Virginia sand more than a small trace of monkey business.
No one truly interested in a Democratic victory in November should allow themselves to be kidded into believing that the very, very, Republican voters of Virginia are suddenly goo-goo for the Democratic candidate they think will beat the Republican. But they may in fact be very goo-goo to influence the Democratic nomination away from the candidate who won California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arizona...
