Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
I just got back from the local public elementary school where I voted in the hotly contested Virginia primary. Just kidding, it's not hotly contested at all. There are only two candidates on the ballot -- Mitt Romney, who will win, and Ron Paul. As your resident (if lonely) libertarian, you should not be surprised that I pulled the lever -- or turned the dial, actually -- for the congressman from Texas.
And it felt great to be voting again. I tried voting a few times during my dozen-plus years in Washington, D.C. But elections there are meaningless -- unless you're a Democratic primary voter, your vote really doesn't count. And in 2008, D.C. went over 90% for President Obama.
Anyway, my report from the polls is that they were desolate. I forgot to ask what number voter I was, but apart from the five poll workers, I was the only human around. No one was there before I came and no one was there as I left.
How about the rest of the Ricochet universe out in Super Tuesday lands? Did you have to fight for parking to register your vote? Did you have fun? Do you have pictures? Are you organizing viewing parties for tonight to watch the results?
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Dec '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
will there be an official live chat tonight?
Nov '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
When you voted for Paul, did you think about how things are unfolding this very moment among Iran, Israel, and the United States?
The question of a nuclear Iran is rapidly approaching a decision point.
The best answer will be the one that is least bad.
More than the all the world's various economic crises, the issue of nuclear Iran is the issue of our time, the resolution of which will shape the world for generations. A failure to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons will cost the world, and the United States, dearly--in lives, in treasure, in peace of mind for our children asleep in their beds. It will cost us in every imaginable way, and in ways that we would not wish to imagine.
Does support for Ron Paul, at this crucial moment, make a nuclear Iran more or less likely?
Or would everyone prefer instead to argue about contraceptives?
Apr '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Astonishing: Come off it man. Ron Paul isn't wining anything and I hardly think the Iranians are watching Ron Paul's delegate count to determine our commitment to stopping them.
Interesting thought though Mollie. What if you were not the only Republican who stepped into the booth and said..."Boy what a choice" then pulled the lever for Paul. Can the man win Virginia because people would think it needless to come vote for the only man who can win the state?
That would be the biggest fluke ever...and I'd love to here people explain it if it happened. I doubt it will because it sounds like the plot to a bad Hollywood comedy.
Jul '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
I voted not too long after 7 am in Atlanta. The polling place was very quiet, and a colleague at work who voted at a different polling place said the same thing. To get to mine, I walked past two others, one had a few cars turning in, and the other looked very quiet.
Georgia is predicted to go for Gingrich, and the only other thing on the Republican side was a special 1cent sales tax for water and sewer work that I fear is perpetual.
Nov '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
So I take it that your answer to my question, "Does support for Ron Paul,at this crucial moment, make a nuclear Iran more or less likely?" is "neither."
But as some economists like to say, there's no such thing as equilibrium, and everything happens at the margin. (And Virginia is not far from DC, is it?) Any support for Paul (at least marginally) supports acceptance of an Iranian nuke . . . especially today.
May '10
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Residences should never have been allowed in the District of Columbia.
May '10
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Today is a Super Tuesday. Today, I gave birth to a new Republican voter.
My baby girl was a bit of a celebrity in our polling place today. She was eligible to vote at age 17 because she will turn 18 before the general election in November. The poll workers greeted her enthusiastically, "I bet you're our 17-year-old!" They all had to undergo additional training to handle just her.
Edited on March 6, 2012 at 9:38pmJun '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I just got back from the local public elementary school where I voted in the hotly contested Virginia primary. Just kidding, it's not hotly contested at all. There are only two candidates on the ballot -- Mitt Romney, who will win, and Ron Paul. As your resident (if lonely) libertarian, you should not be surprised that I pulled the lever -- or turned the dial, actually -- for the congressman from Texas.
· · 56 minutes ago
Molly, Molly, Molly,
I know this isn't supposed to be a thread about Ron Paul, but . . .
Ron Paul????
If you felt a need to protest, wasn't there an Occupy Someplace or Other movement you could have dropped in on?
Apr '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Oh come on guys...yes Ron Paul is crazy but so is putting bacon in your ice cream are you saying given a chance to indulge you wouldn't try it?
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Colin B Lane
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I just got back from the local public elementary school where I voted in the hotly contested Virginia primary. Just kidding, it's not hotly contested at all. There are only two candidates on the ballot -- Mitt Romney, who will win, and Ron Paul. As your resident (if lonely) libertarian, you should not be surprised that I pulled the lever -- or turned the dial, actually -- for the congressman from Texas.
· · 56 minutes ago
Molly, Molly, Molly,
I know this isn't supposed to be a thread about Ron Paul, but . . .
Ron Paul????
If you felt a need to protest, wasn't there an Occupy Someplace or Other movement you could have dropped in on? · 23 minutes ago
I'm all about strategy. And I've been publicly calling for a brokered convention for about 10 months. I have problems with all of the candidates, sure, and I find Paul's foreign policy naivete to be scandalous. But there is precisely zero danger of his foreign policy becoming operational. He won't win Virginia, much less the Republican nomination, much less the Presidency. But I do like to send a message here.
Jun '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
I just don't want to give him a false sense of his prowess as a potential power broker at any convention (or as a potential 3rd party candidate).
And I'm sorry for misspelling your name.
Jun '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Neither my bacon nor my ice cream holds insane views on America's role in the world.
Mar '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
I'm boarding a plane in a few minutes for a 12-hour flight without internet access, so I need to get my entire Super Tuesday fix here. More posts, people!!
Colin B Lane
Ron Paul????
If you felt a need to protest, wasn't there an Occupy Someplace or Other movement you could have dropped in on?
To politicians, votes are the currency that count. Political protests mean nothing if the candidates can be assured that their constituents would never vote for the other guy. Besides, it's a primary, and for a candidate who has no chance. Sounds like a perfect time for a protest vote to me.
And to the idea that the Iranians are watching Paul's support to gauge our determination to prevent them from getting a bomb, I think they are saavy enough about American politics to know that 90% of Romney, Gingrich, or Santorum supporters also don't see Iran as their #1 priority.
Aug '10
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
How ironic that you comment on how meaningless DC elections are but then cast your primary vote for Ron Paul ;)
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
I could be wrong, of course, but I bet that Paul will get a higher percentage of votes in the Republican primary in Virginia than McCain got in the general election in DC.
Nov '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
. . . But there is precisely zero danger of [Paul's] foreign policy becoming operational. He won't win Virginia, much less the Republican nomination, much less the Presidency. But I do like to send a message here.
As to Paul winning a primary, you're probably right.
Unfortunately, your statement that "there is precisely zero danger of [Paul's] foreign policy [toward Iran] becoming operational," is too confidendent. Indeed, the Paulite position advances the "abandon Israel" policy the Obama has been shuffling toward since the day he took office.
An Iranian nuke would make the question almost moot, as it would force any United States president, as a matter cold-blooded national preservation, to adopt a more neutral policy toward Israel and the Islamists.
Nov '11
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Just as the Soviets took great interest in the US left during the Cold War, I would not be surprised, nay, I would expect, that the Iranians take great interest in Paul's doings and support advancement of him and his friendly positions in every way they possibly can.
The level of Paul's domestic support is significant, his supporters are active, and his being a "conservative" lends the isolationist worldview the legitimacy of being "bi-partisan." At this moment, when so much hangs upon the question of nuclear Iran, Paulites are especially dangerous.
It's a huge mistake to underestimate the damage Paul could do right now.
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
Astonishing,
The fact is that I support about half of Ron Paul's foreign policy. I did not support, for instance, the war in Iraq. I did not support our involvement in Libya. I think we've generally gotten too involved in too many countries.
Where I differ is that I believe we do face threats and must fight them vigorously. I'm not exactly a peacenik in that I'd like more spycraft and targeted assassinations and less boots on the ground in every corner of the world.
I would have favored carpet-bombing Afghanistan in response to 2001 rather than losing all the money and soldiers we have there.
But in general, I don't see how we can sustain such an interventionist foreign policy given our economic and moral situation.
I am nervous about Iran, of course, and various other threats. Ron Paul's positions in many cases make him an unacceptable choice for me. But I do want to send a message to the GOP about principled defenses of liberty and cuts to the size and scope of government. This is my little chance to do that, however meager.
Jul '10
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
I couldn't muster up the gumption to vote here in VA with half the candidates not even on the ballot.
Aug '10
Re: Super Tuesday? More Like Typical Tuesday
This afternoon, here in suburban Nashville, in perhaps the most Republican county in the state, the parking lot at my polling place was full. The line moved very quickly, however. I asked a poll worker what traffic had been like all day and he said it had been steady.
I was in and out in about ten minutes.
And it was a little weird to see Perry and Bachmann on the ballot.