Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Ricochet GOP Poll Results
September has been quite an interesting month for the GOP nomination race — and for the Ricochet primary. I think the changes have been unsurprising, since we’re seeing previous second- and third-tier candidates moving up. It seems Ricochet members are pretty set about their preferences and honest about it.
Here’s how the top choice breaks down:
The second choice is identical in order. We see Carson pop up a bit. Rubio and Fiorina, together, take the majority of votes. Basically, members are set on one of these two candidates, with the other as the alternative.
Next, I looked at the second-choice candidates. Below is where Rubio voters go:
Below is where Fiorina voters go. (Notice how Rubio and Fiorina are substitute goods, as it were.)
I also took a look at where Cruz voters go, just out of curiosity. Interestingly, they split between Rubio and Fiorina:
Finally, some trend data on the top three candidates this month:
I hope to grab the trend data for the rest of the field, as requested, but that’ll take a little more time to compile.
Published in General, Politics
I want to start a campaign to have Senator Tom Cotton run for vice president no matter who is at the top of the ticket:
Yes we get to see if governors can deliver and manage, but we don’t want a President who thinks he’s running a state which the constitution allows governors to do. The President’s job is national security and the next Presidents biggest task will be to dismantle the monstrosity we’ve built up over the last many decades. So those fine governors may simply not have the right mind set for this critical period.
The effective purple-state governors have had some dismantling to do — more than the senators.
We don’t get to be quite so particular about mindset, given a limited number of flawed human candidates… I’m more concerned about evidence of actual conservative conviction.
But I agree national security is a key issue. Of course, no reason an effective conservative governor can’t have had past experience in Congress… like Kasich.
I agree. I think it boils down to who many here believe will not be destroyed by the media, period. Call it “electability” or what have you, but it is merely the belief that Rubio and to some extent Fiorina have a good mixture of the right policy stances and acceptable polish for the cowering class. I could understand the desire to have a polished candidate if the top two Democrats right now were not a 70 year old woman who is more robotic than the Terminator and a 70 year old codger who wasn’t an unabashed Socialist.
Leigh,
Yes, we have seen them deliver so we know they’re conservative. But reform at the state level is necessary but not sufficient. Mind set includes conservative, but with an axe or chain saw rather than a scalpel. I’m simply making a point that the roles are radically different constitutionally and want to see evidence that they will wield a chain saw. There also are real world differences between Washington and the states, at least the smaller less popular states. For instance, real people are engaged in struggles over real interests at the state and local level. Such folks can compromise interests as they personally engage their differences. In Washington, professional lobbyists who are far removed from interests of real people compete, they compromise though log rolling, which drives budgets, tax and regulatory regimes always upwards and beyond rational understanding without reaching real compromise or reforms. Governors must show they understand and don’t engage in fallacies of composition. Axe and Chain saws in such circumstances are actually more feasible than scalpels, which are shinny but don’t do the job.
Oh, there are certainly lobbyists involved at the state level too. The main difference is that we don’t hear as much about the details of our state politics, depending on where you live and how hard you try.
And again, I’m not looking at it as a question of ability to “deliver.” I’m looking at raw commitment to principle. You’re right that it’s not quite like state politics, but it’s not quite like anything. All we have to go on is their words and the evidence that they actually mean them.
It’s easy to be a conservative in South Carolina. But Washington’s going to bring a whole new level of pressure: from the media, from the Left, from opinion polls. I prefer someone who’s held up under that kind of pressure before without going all squishy on us. Someone who’s been conservative when it would have been politically easier to be wobbly. That tells me you actually believe what you say you believe.
Kasich, it seems, did go all squishy, at least from what’s been covered nationally. If he hadn’t, he’d probably be my first choice.
Other than Medicaid where has Kasich gone squishy? And as for scalpels vs chainsaws, the only time we are going to bring out the chain saws is during a collapse like 2008, wish it were different but that’s the reality. The best we can hope for, in my opinion, is a Prez that will move us in the right direction, appoint judges with common sense, and be ready with a plan for using the chain saws when the time comes. I still see Kasich as our best hope.
Common Core. And I’m uncomfortable with his overall rhetoric on various issues, including abortion.
But I don’t pretend to have researched Kasich or Ohio in depth. There’s a reason I add the caution that I only know what has been reported nationally: watching national coverage of Walker was a lesson. If on primary day Kasich is still on my ballot and I’m otherwise out of options, I’ll give him a good hard look.
But his case for Medicaid makes it difficult for me to dismiss as just one bad decision — he’s articulating, frankly, a liberal rationale. Those words would be thrown back in our faces over and over again when we, under President Kasich, tried to repeal Obamacare, to reform Medicare, to cut absolutely anything anywhere.
I do not mean the Medicaid expansion, itself. I mean his argument for it. He’s not offering any limiting principle, and he’s handed his future liberal opponents a talking point they will use against him.
Remember Paul Ryan pushing the elderly over a cliff? Now imagine that with Kasich’s quote about giving his opponents a Bible, and so on.
Naillllled it!
Seriously – I don’t trust Rubio on immigration, but he’s otherwise solid and I can live with him, and he is young and hispanic, so probably pretty electable. Fiorina is incredible in an interview. She’s just tough as nails, what the left wishes Clinton was. I agree with 80% of Cruz’s positions, but I am a libertarian/ conservatarian, so his law and order stuff turns me off. Still, could live with him. Jindal would be higher in my book but he had that awful awkward appearance a few years back and I haven’t been able to get over that. I note that Carson does not feature prominently, which surprises me. He really is a terrible communicator. Trump’s absence does NOT surprise me, since the Ricochetti seem pretty reasonable.