why can't the media accept that Romney has won the GOP primaries?

[soundforbjt]

He outspent Santorum 5.5 to 1 in Ohio and won by what 1%,iirc.

Hardly a mandate to his popularity more like he won because of his money.

 

[Aegeon]

there's nothing wrong with covering the other candidates... but it makes me scratch my head on a night like last Tuesday where Romney won 6/10 states (including the newest "must win" contest that the punditocracy setup for him) and placed in second where he didn't, but all the talking heads can talk about is where he lost.

In Virginia Romney won by virtue of being the only one on the ballot other than Ron Paul, and Ron Paul ended up getting a shockingly high percentage of the vote under the circumstances.

On top of a narrow victory in Ohio, Romney also won a narrow victory in Alaska. By contrast, he got blown out in North Dakota by Santorum, and also lost decisively in Tennessee, where there had been recent speculation that Romney might be able to pull off a victory. (Romney also got blown out by Gingrich in Georgia.)

The key point is Romney did not perform strongly enough to pretty much effectively end the Republican primary race on Super Tuesday. (Which some some of the polling and trends right before the the date in question suggested he might do.)

 

[Double Trouble]

Several factors at play. The candidates like Santorum and Newt just refuse to see reality and bow out gracefully. As long as they are still battling, the media will (and should) cover it as a story. The media also has a vested interest in milking this stuff for ratings, they need something to fill the political air until November.

Finally, most in the media probably want to extend this infighting for as long as possible to benefit Obama.

 

[kage69]

Why would the "libruhl media" not celebrate the success of arguably the most liberal of the candidates?

Seems to me it's the bulk of the GOP who is in denial about Romney, not the media.

 

[monovillage]

Although i'm pretty sure Romney will be the eventual winner, it's not over till it's over. The Democrats went pretty long back in 2008 in the contest between Obama and Clinton, only the fact that the Democrats really sell out their members with so many super delegates (800+ in 2008) caused it to end as early as it did.

Which is why the Republicans are considering making their process more like the Democrats.

 

[WHAMPOM]

is there really a scenario in which Mitt doesn't win the nomination, short of some heretofore unknown scandal breaking? the last math I read indicated that Santorum would have to win all the remaining contests with +65% of the vote.

this WaPo op-ed kinda summed up my thoughts.





http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...nner/2012/03/09/gIQAyxqO1R_story.html?hpid=z2

I don't remember any of this talk about McCain failing to connect with voters when he was losing Southern states to Huckabee and Western states to Romney in 2012 😕

is the GOP nomination actually in flux, or is this purely a conflict of the punditocracy's creation?

Becuase all the state caucuses and primaries mean nothing, selection is decided at the convention.

 

[schneiderguy]

Because then they'd look awfully silly when Ron Paul wins the nomination.

 

[RedString]

The Romney delegates you see almost everywhere time and time again (if you read the small print) is a division of delegates based on % of vote total won.

This obviously is not how delegates are assigned, thus, these Romney delegate counts are meaningless.

Shown here (http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/delegates), go to the right and look under details. Most of these "delegate counts" given by the media are entirely assigned by this method I've described.

Poll % does not = delegates. Romney has a long way to go, as do all of them.

 

[soundforbjt]

Romney has the most money and by repub tradition, the next in line gets the nomination.

 

[werepossum]

Romney has the most money and by repub tradition, the next in line gets the nomination.

You see no parallels at all to Obama, the man who had so much more money than anyone previously running even without accepting matching funds and the accompanying limitations?

 

[Fern]

Fern - isn't it the candidates themselves that are keeping this going?- I love it when the right points out all of these media-fueled conspiracy theories despite any facts that say otherwise.

Well, for one thing the Repub establishment wanted a longer process this time around. While I appreciated being able to have a vote this time before it's over (my state votes in May), IMO their reasons for a long drawn process are highly questionable, but that's another thread.

So, the GOP still wants it for the time being I suppose.

I don't see any media "conspiracy". Common sense says they love the (political) advert revenue. And seriously, what the heck are the talking heads gonna yack about?

Isn't a contested convention a real possibility as well?

"Possibility"?

Well, almost anything is possible, so I guess so.

But for the reasons I mentioned above I see it as highly unlikely. If it's not wrapped up by May/June it will doom their chances against Obama. They cannot wait until after the convention to start a campaign. They need more time.

IF Santorum, Gingrich, and oh, yes, for some reason Paul is still in this - when they give up the media will stop covering it. Really not difficult to figure out.

OK. As I said above, even after Romney dropped out the last time (02/02/08) because McCain was the guaranteed nominee (winner take all primaries) the media kept going when it was only Huckabee still in the race. Huck had zero chance of winning, didn't stop the media.

I don't remember if Ron Paul stayed in too?

IMO, Ron Paul will not be dropping out. Period.

Fern

 

[Fern]

He outspent Santorum 5.5 to 1 in Ohio and won by what 1%,iirc.

Hardly a mandate to his popularity more like he won because of his money.

Both MI and Ohio are open primary states. Both had campaigns to get Dems out to vote for Santorum. H3ll, Santorum himself paid for robo calls to Dems asking for that in MI IIRC.

Fern

 

[soundforbjt]

You see no parallels at all to Obama, the man who had so much more money than anyone previously running even without accepting matching funds and the accompanying limitations?

Obama was not next in line. He was going up against Hillary Clinton who was far more well known. He was not anywhere near Romney's wealth. Don't see as many parallels as you seem to.

 

[soundforbjt]

Both MI and Ohio are open primary states. Both had campaigns to get Dems out to vote for Santorum. H3ll, Santorum himself paid for robo calls to Dems asking for that in MI IIRC.

Fern

And you don't think if the spending had been close to equal, Romney still would've won?

 

[PingSpike]

Because Santorum and Gingrich have no duty to retreat under Florida law.

LOL

 

[NeoV]

do tonight's results change your feelings on this?

 

[Wreckem]

do tonight's results change your feelings on this?

Santorum cannot win via delegates. Its just mathmatically impossible with the way the other states should fall.

Santorum may cause a brokered convention, even then thats iffy since Republicans have "super" delegates now as well.

 

[hal2kilo]

Santorum cannot win via delegates. Its just mathmatically impossible with the way the other states should fall.

Santorum may cause a brokered convention, even then thats iffy since Republicans have "super" delegates now as well.

Santorum and Ginggrich will work out a deal and put their delegates together, enough so, that Romney can't outright win on the first vote. It will be a brokered convention. Which could make this ugly campaign for the Republican nomination look like a picnic. On the otherhand, it could be the best thing for the Republicans. I mean I don't think the majority of Republicans really like or trust Romney, they just hate Obama so much they'll hold their noses and vote for him only because he's the best possible bet to beat Obama in the general so they (the Republicans) can get back in charge come hell or high water.

Hell, maybe the Donald will come to the rescue after all through the due dilegence of the sheirif in AZ, after all, it turns out he was right about the birth certificate (I jest).

 

[woodie1]

With the AL and MS results in it looks like we have a horse race again. If the convention is brokered what's the chances they nominate someone who is not currently running? God knows he can't be any worse than the current crop.

 

[nageov3t]

do tonight's results change your feelings on this?

pretty sure Romney still walked away from yesterday with the most delegates won.

I can't really picture a likely scenario in which Romney enters the convention with a clear majority of delegates and is still denied the nomination.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

pretty sure Romney still walked away from yesterday with the most delegates won.

I can't really picture a likely scenario in which Romney enters the convention with a clear majority of delegates and is still denied the nomination.

Romney did win the most delegates, it was basically a 3 way tie in Mississippi and Alabama. I feel it's time for Gingrich and Paul to drop out of the race, neither have a snow ball's chance in hell of winning the GOP nomination..

 

[crashtestdummy]

The main reason, beyond the press wanting to keep the story rolling, is that normally in these circumstances the other contenders run out of money and drop out. The Super PACs are preventing that. A single person with a ton of money can now single-handedly keep a campaign afloat for months.

 

[airdata]

Looking at the $$$ in his warchest, you would have known Romney is the choice canidate for alot of influential people.

Hell, Romney even wins states that he really didn't win.

 

[blankslate]

The answer is simple.

The longer the Republican Primary goes on the longer news companies can report new updates about the contest for the Republican nomination and the more guests they can bring on for their "insights" into the race.

If the Republican Primary is decide sooner then there is less "drama" for the news companies to cover.

 

[nageov3t]