Never again. Well, wait, not so fast… February 5, 2008
Wow.
This is going to be the tale of two posts… The post at the bottom was written YESTERDAY. It was going to be titled… “NEVER AGAIN!”
It was written before I attended any convention events.
The post immediately below was written TODAY. And, holy smokes, what a difference.
In yesterday’s writing (and I’ve left it raw since it was just some thought I jotted down via the keyboard), I ripped the overall convention. I didn’t think it was the right thing to do. I thought it was silly to think that Presidential candidates would be here and national media would write about West Virginia’s first in the day convention results.
Wow was I wrong. In 24 hours, all that changed.
The convention today changed me.
I may not support doing it again because of the lack of participation of the general Republican voter, but man I was wrong on many of my assumptions.
You’ll see below, I made a little fun of Bob Fish (who did an absolutely amazing job, by the way) about him continuing to repeat and repeat that we would sway the national tide that day.
And, while I don’t believe any voter in California changed their vote because of the West Virginia result, he was absolutely dead on when he said it is what would be talked about during the news day.
Kaboom! Good show, Bob.
Secondly, with the way Mike Huckabee pulled off a huge upset, the unorthodox convention actually played extremely well in the national media. Had Romney won, as expected, it might not have received as much play.
But, Huckabee winning, with a huge assist from McCain delegates, well… the intrigue caused the national media to take notice.
Of course, the Romney people are disappointed, but I learned a lesson a long time ago in politics that even if you THINK you are winning, you never proclaim it in the days before the election. Yes, Romney’s organization was the best in the state. Yes, they had been on the ground for nearly a year. Yes, they poured money and time and effort and mail and phone call after phone call into the race.
But, you should never say you are going to win big. It’s just not good form and well, it often blows up in your face.
But, more than the national media, more than the way the Huckabee campaign won, more than any of that… what was most shocking was the fervor and excitement among the 1,200 Republicans gathered in the Charleston Civic Center.
It was eventful. And, I dare say it may have been the most exciting and intriquing event in WVGOP recent history.
The only event that may have beaten it was George Bush’s event at the Civic Center on Halloween of his campaign that was absolutely rocking - and, that single event elevated Shelley Capito to rock star status in the Republican party - she was awesome and amazing that night. Other than that event, this was THE most eventful day in recent Republican politics.
Look, there were big problems with the convention. The online voting was embarrassing. The number of votes to elect at-large delegates, even in the big counties, was way, way, way too small. Looking back now, EVERY county should have been required to have it’s own convention, a portion of the proceeds from the candidates fee should have been dedicated to direct mail to Republicans to inform them, and inform them, and inform them again of the county conventions.
But, that being said, those who DID participate were excited. They were boisterous. They were believers in their candidate.
And while the Romney campaign took it as a bitter pill, the Convention rules were the convention rules and it played out as it has nationally that the other campaigns aren’t supportive of Romney and band together to defeat him.
From a West Virginia perspective, it played out as well as anyone could hope. The candidates were here, they all gave good speeches. Even Ron Paul, who I think even the most loyal Paulista has to admit is a little kooky, didn’t come across as too… well… kooky.
Romney gave a strong speech going directly after McCain. Romney reached out to the Rudy and Thompson delegates, which at the time seemed smart. But… But… He tore into McCain. Bad move.
What he and his campaign failed to realize was that MOST of the Giuliani and Thompson delegates had already switched over to McCain.
Being a McCain supporter going into convention day, there was no way in the world I would have voted for Romney after that speech. In hindsight, Romney reached out to the wrong people and bashed the wrong people. His bashing insured that almost to a person, any McCain supporter in the room would support Huckabee when it came down to a match between Huckabee and Romney. I did.
Every other McCain supporter I talked to supported Huckabee as well.
In fact, there was only ONE McCain supporter who I spoke with who just couldn’t support Huckabee because of his hardcore social views and the belief he couldn’t win nationally. Did he back Romney? No way. He simply voted for McCain a second time, depriving Romney of a potential vote.
But, what I can’t get over was the level of excitement this brought to the Republican party. Whoever you supported, whether you were happy or sad with the result, you saw an absolute outpouring of energy and dedication at the activist level that should help carry us into the November election.
Congrats to the WVGOP for not only having an event that paid off the debt, but one that absolutely energized the Republican party.
***** remember - below was written yesterday!
That should be the WVGOP’s take on our first ever state convention.
Never again.
First, before I go a step further… the WVGOP convention staff and committee and leader, Bob Fish, deserve a HUGE round of applause.
It was amazing they were able to pull it off. They worked like crazy, and volunteered their time for months to make it happen. I thought they were awesome and deserve gobs of applause.
Let’s get the positives out of the way first.
By requiring the candidates to pay $5,000 to enter and then making all the potential delegates pay $25 to file, the state party will go a long way toward paying off the debt. Hallelujah! That’s a huge, huge positive.
It was nice to see 3 candidates come to West Virginia to speak to the convention.
But…
But…
This is simply not the way to elect the President of the United States.
First, the BIG reason the party moved up the date was to gain national attention and to attract candidates to our state.
In ALL the election coverage up to Super Tuesday, and I watched a great deal, West Virginia wasn’t even mentioned. Other than on the screen when it showed all the states voting that day.
Not a mention.
And, my guess is there wasn’t a single voter in California who suddenly switched their vote in favor of Romney or McCain.
I got a kick out of Bob Fish, who kept repeating that same mantra (that our results would shift the country’s results). Of course, I never thought they would. I don’t know if Bob even thought they were, but he did a good job of trying to plant that thought in the media’s minds…..
Of course, what really happened was that the candidates visiting here were simply desperate to try to win a state, any state, on Super Tuesday. The eventual nationwide winner didn’t have to be here to try to scrap up 18 delegates, he was winning California, New York, New Jersey and the other major states on Super Tuesday.
But, those weren’t the real problems.
The real problem was the lack of participation of Republicans in the state.
Look, in some counties, we had three and four people voting online. It was embarrassing.
Less than 1% of Republicans statewide participated. In some counties, less than 0.1% of Republicans participated.
Simply put, this isn’t the way to elect a President and it isn’t the way to bring more people into the party.
Also, you had all of your party operatives focused on making the Convention work. The problem with that? Well, there was a lack of success in getting candidates into legislative races. This was unacceptable, but it also was unavoidable because of the resources the Convention sucked away from the party.
So, Bob Fish - congrats. Convention staff - congrats. Convention delegates - congrats.
But, let’s hope this is the last convention ever held. It’s not the right way to elect our Delegates to the National Convention. Yes, the state party pulled off the convention. Yes, the state convention will have helped paid off the debt.
But, you can’t have a party with 1% or less participation. It doesn’t build the party. It doesn’t build our party’s future.
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51 Responses to “Never again. Well, wait, not so fast…”
Wow…….
What a day… Congrats to all whom I worked with during these last few months on the Convention, Bob Fish, Lynn & Mick Staton, Mark Scott, and of course Marti Riggall & Cheryl Rust… Also a big Congrats the our Party Chairman Doug McKinney for all his work in making sure the Convention was a great success!!! I’m glad it’s over, and I must say a job well done by all involved… Great article Vic! Btw - I think Mike Huckabee gave one of the best speeches I’ve heard all year,(and I’ve heard a lot of speeches), I think that really helped swing votes his way, and really fired the crowd up!
Take care & God Bless,
Tommy Phillips
Vic, It’s good to see that personal experience can change your mind on an issue.
I think that a few months using an Overlay Area Code would change your mind on that issue also.
And if you had spent some time working at the Freeport plant you might have a different opinion about Congressman Paul.
I certainly understand the energy and excitement that develops at an event such as this Convention, but in the long run will it have had any effect towards getting West Virginia back up to 49th place?
I hate to break this to you, but our convention is the laughingstock of the nation. Yes, we’re being talked about, but not in a positive light.
I thought it was great! Who would have ever thought??? How creative!
Would have been nice to know what’s going on with the WV GOP. When did this change happen? I must be out of the loop. How about a little communication! (BTW, I would have voted for Huckabee.)
I don’t understand exactly what you whacky R’s are doing. Now on CNN they are running the actual primary date for WV at the bottom of the screen.
Great!
How about this - let’s do away with the general election as well and have a convention to choose between the republican and the democratic parties. Don’t have to worry about voting machines and other nonsense that way…
And now that the republican party is energized, maybe they can actually field some candidates!
We’ll vic I can agree with most of your thoughts here.
Things went fast. I understand back-room deals now. McCain knew he was going to lose WV, so he made a back room deal to keep Romney or Paul from winning. Its amazing the amount of Paul supporters there were(a majority it seemed) yet the media representation illustrates to the General public that there is no support. Something fishy I’d say…The people are there but the #’s don’t reflect it.
I’ve lost my faith in the system, it’s cheap, dirty, fake and we’ll…at this point, no matter who wins the white house, they’re all going to takes us to the same point “B” from here(they’ll only disagree on how to get there. One we’ll say take big steps, the other will say to waddle, the other will say strut).
But where they are taking us is far from the constitution!
When I hear the word ‘change’ or we must ‘look to the future’…what they are saying is leave the constitution behind in the past and into a socialist government.
God save our souls
Aaron
As a Republican voter, I am extremely disappointed with what happened in our state today. I am so disappointed that I am considering changing my registration from Republican to Independent. The Republican Party seems to no longer represent me nor the wishes of the Republican voters of the State of West Virginia. To have seen that person who finished third in the initial vote win all 18 of the votes in an effort by the second place candidate to avoid getting his butt kicked reeks of the type politics I thought we were trying to correct. I could understand something like that happening in the other party but not in the party that I have thought was above that sort of dirty deal.
I will also have to say, I am somewhat disappointed to see you were not one of the people who stuck with you vote for McCain. Prior to today, I was a McCain supporter but will no longer support him. If he is the candidate for the presidency, I will not be voting for him or against him, my ballot will not have a vote on it because my opinion of the man changed with today’s dirty politics worthy of Democrats.
I also have a problem with having the caucus rather than waiting on the voters of WV to cast their ballots for the candidate of their choice. There are some of us who are not able to take a day off work to play dirty politics in Charleston and participate in the fiasco you guys perpetrated today. If you think this provided WV with some sort of positive light you are mistaken. I guess you do not realize what I get to hear about the State of WV from friends across the country. They talk about backroom politics worthy of the 1960 Kennedy campaign.
Well congratulations, looks like you got to vote for Huckabee afterall. One of the things you said in your Feb 4 posting: I like Huckabee, but I don’t think he can win… One of the most frustrating things we Huckabee supporter hear.
If all those who like Mike, who support Mike’s values, who agree with his positions would actually stand and support Mike, there would be no “but I don’t think he can win” talk.
I’m livid that the Republican party could throw its delegates to any candidate without one Republican vote being cast. If this is what our party has come to take me off the rolls! I will NEVER vote for john McCain, and if this is the type of tactics he is going to use to get the nomination, what will he do if elected–or the Republicans! You are no better than the Democrats!
This Convention was predetermined to be for Huckabee. I know 2 of the Delegates. Each ballot had a different number of votes counted and they were determined to continue voting until Huckabee came out on top (the people I know were committed to Romney) per the lady I know.
re: Ron Paul.
Does the word “Constitution” mean anything?
There was a terrible undercurrent against Mormonism in this convention. Christians are fearful of Mormons because Mormons dare believe there is another book to the bible. Because of that, Huckabee supporters were trashing mormonism and striking fear into Christians about it. That is a sad way to win.
Sounds like I missed the event of a lifetime!
I’m glad Huck did so well! I know that there are a lot of Reps that didn’t realize that this was our Rep Primary… I talked to a friend today who was baffled… couldn’t understand what I was saying … that our Prez primary was today… I dont think they should ever do this again.. there was not enough of a message out… i know a lot of people are upset because they didnt get to vote….
good for you buddy
Yep - this is the way to build a party.
February 5, 2008, will go down in West Virginia history. Not as the day of the first State GOP Presidential Convention, but the as the day of the birth of the third party in the state: the Republicrats. Their chairman (who made the call for McCain delegates to meet) knew what he was doing, because this had been planned for a while. Showed REAL leadership, especially after calling in to a local radio talk show and saying folks were just voting with their hearts. When I registered to be a delegate I was told the process would be that when we left everyone would be 100% in agreement on a candidate. Well, I for one have NEVER been a fan of John McClinton…er…McCain. Congratulations to you folks who spent time railing about how the Democrats from southern West Virginia always made deals to get things done. You have shown you are every bit as wiley as they are. Oh, Mr. Reagan where are you when we need you?
The convention certainly was interesting! Tommy P., it was nice to see you and everyone else. I wish I could keep making those Monday meetings, but like I say, I’ll be working in Huntington on Mondays from now on.
To the Romney supporters whining about “back room deals”: Do you realize that the Romney people were offering just such “back room deals” to us Ron Paul supporters?
Yeah, that’s right. Romney’s people offered us the same thing Huckabee’s did. They both promised us 3 of their 18 delegates. And while neither Mike Huckabee nor Mitt Romney seem particularly trustworthy themselves, Huckabee’s supporters — who would be the ones giving up their delegate slots — seemed a lot more sincere.
Besides, the way Huckabee has been stealing Ron Paul’s planks (no IRS, end birthright citizenship, no more student visas from terrorist nations) and adding them to his platform, maybe he’ll actually try to live up to a few of them if.
So anyway, all of Romney’s whining is just a show. He was offering the same back room deals as everyone else, but now he’s crying crocodile tears since he didn’t get his way.
Oh, yeah. There NEVER WAS anything “kooky” about Ron Paul, as we’ve been trying to tell you for a long time. Ron Paul only seems “kooky” if you don’t have any idea what traditional Republican values and a traditional Republican platform look like. If you understand traditional Republicanism, though, Ron’s still your man.
re: Ron Paul.
Does the word “nut job” mean anything?
Way to go WVGOP!! Congratulations are in order. What happened yesterday with only an overwhelming 1% of registered GOP voters participating would make Karl Marks, Stalin, and Castro proud. Who needs the Constitution when Communism works so well? I guess WE THE PEOPLE doesn’t cut it anymore. Well 2000 proved that one.
I have been a life long Republican but not now. If you don’t need my vote and think you know better than I then it’s time to move on. What we need is a three party system then maybe we will have a true Democracy, but as long as the politicians are in the back pocket of lobbyist (both Republican and Democrat) we are doomed. Just look at what happened to Rome the emperor thought he knew what was best for the little people too.
Is it just me or does it seem to you that Huckabee seems to do well in States that have TV stations playing re-runs of Hee-Haw and Lawerence Welk ?
Sooo…if Republicans vote to nominate someone other than Huckabee in May, what happens?
If it overrides the convention, why have the convention?
If it does not override the convention, shame on the Republican party.
Can someone help me out here?
By the way, in talking to the uncommitted delegates before the convention yesterday about Ron Paul, the most common response was that they really liked his ideas (many said he made the most sense out of all of the candidates), but that he lacked “electability”.
I lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of the “drive-by media” (which, like it or not, really includes talk radio). If he had gotten fair coverage in the media, people would have seen him as a viable candidate, and he would have swept Super Tuesday like the proverbial tsunami the drive-bys kept talking about.
But they rarely even mentioned him. Barry Goldwater, Jr. hits the trail campaigning for him? Not a peep. He raises more money than any other Republican in the 4th quarter, and was the only Republican whose fundraising actually increased every quarter? Barely a mention. He won more straw polls than any other candidate? Not a word.
No, instead, when they bothered to mention him it all, it was always with the words “long shot” or “even though he can’t win” next to his name.
When are people in this country going to wake up and stop letting the media tell us who we’re going to vote for? When are Americans going to start thinking for themselves again?
BK,
The May primary does not override the convention.
The WV convention elected 18 of WV’s 30 delegates to the national convention. 15 of those went to Huckabee, 3 went to Paul.
In the May primary, we will elect 9 delegates to the national convention, 3 from each congressional district.
The remaining 3 delegates to the national convention are automatic delegates (superdelegates) from the state GOP leadership.
The convention was “held” by a private entity not the party? WVGOP Convention Inc? How is that a legitimate way to distribute the delegates?
If the registered Republicans (the people) can’t over-ride the “delegates” in May then maybe those of us who have been disenfranchised should leave the Republican Party and register as Independents?
How can the “delegates” represent the will of the membership if the membership haven’t had a say yet?
Why should I maintain membership in a “party” that does not represent the entire membership, not just the elite few?
I have a big problem with this convention thing. It was not well publicized to the membership and severly restricted the members’ participation.
The last sentence says it all:
“But, you can’t have a party with 1% or less participation. It doesn’t build the party. It doesn’t build our party’s future.”
AMEN!!
To whoever talked about Mormonism and Christianity as two separate entities in an earlier comment - Mormons are Christians! They believe in Christ as the Savior.
Get used to it, Mormons are the largest growing segment of Christianity, educate yourself before making inaccurate statements!
I was a Rudy delegate who held my nose and voted for McCain on the first ballot. No one approached me during the break to change my vote to Huck, probably because I was busy trying to find something to eat.
However, just before I found some donuts in Rep. Capito’s hospitality room (thanks, Shelley!), I overheard (and smelled) the Paul contingent in a hallway plotting Romney’s demise. They talked about how they were getting “offers” from Mitt and McCainn on how to vote on the second ballot, including three seats at the national convention, but agreed they should vote for the Huckster because he’s “an outsider, like us.” Good grief. Then I heard a McCain staffer tell them to vote for Huck, “that’s the best deal you can get.”
Because I never could vote for Huckabee in good conscience (who needs another Jimmy Carter?) I returned to the floor to vote for Mitt on the second ballot. I realize this was just “politics as usual,” but it all disgusted me.
Those McCain & Paul delegates are going to feel pretty ashamed when Hillary is taking the Oath of Office next January. …or at least I hope they will.
Also, thanks to Kent for the information. I have to admit, however, that I tend to agree with the poster who posted #26. His/her questions are all excellent ones.
I’m not sure the convention left a good impression. I live in NYC now (born and raised in WV) and people here had no idea what was happening. The general comments from coworkers went something to the effect of “does WV just send a couple hundred people into a building and come out with your presidential nominee in the middle of the afternoon, one who everyone knows can’t win?” I think it would be good for both parties to move their primaries up to Super Tuesday but the voting should be open to the general public.
Vic,
It is pretty clear that the convention, while undoubtedly entertaining to party actvists, did nothing to build the party at the grass roots. We go into this election weaker than we have been in many years. And I wonder how much debt we will really be able to pay off? It must have cost quite a bit to put on the convention. It will be interesting to what was our net gain?
Bill
Pleasant surprise to see the floor moves in the McCain to Huckabee delegation. Reminds me of the old convention floor work at our State Convention during the Arch Moore days.
Let the building of our Republican Party continue with more effort and participation.
I am neutral as a Committee member; but was pleased to see Huckabee win. We from West Virginia are noted for support of the underdog.
It is devastating to witness people selling out their principles to win at any cost, like what was witnessed yesterday. A double-minded man (or woman) is unstable in all their ways.
B.K.
I don’t think you’ll ever get it.
McCain in office or Hillary doesn’t make a hill of beans because they are the same. They will take this country down the same road in four years.
Folks like you are so simple minded that you actually believe that there are differences in these candidates. There aren’t any! Only minor technicalities.
The republican party doesn’t mean anything to me anymore after 20 years. I’m done with them!
We now have one party in America and that’s the Socialist/big government party. It has two branches the dems and republicans.
After the convention, there were so many people that are leaving the party too. We talked a long long time.
Does anyone care in this party that we talked of leaving? NO, of course not. They’re eat-up with themselves and blind to the constitution.
Where are we going? The third largest political party in America and growing as fast as the republican party is shrinking. It is becoming the new conservative party.
http://www.constitutionparty.com
http://www.constitutionparty.com
http://www.constitutionparty.com
http://www.constitutionparty.com
http://www.constitutionparty.com
Time for a fresh start. The revolution continues with a new party. Yes, it will hurt the Republicans next fall but no one listened to the dumb constitutionalists. Its time for real change! I hope that hurting the Republican party will bring REAL change or at least an ear.
B.k.
I brought that up a long time ago on here. The question on #26 Like I said, no one listened to the constitutionalists.
(www.constitutionparty.com) I posted this on my last post.
Nicholas County had betweem 1.4 and 1.5 percent voter turhout. While this was far less than we hoped for, it is certainly better than the numbers that you reported.
I agree that more counties should have had county conventions modeled after the state convention where candidates could speak and voters could ask questions. That helped to bright out voters.
It helped that we held our convention over a four day period. Thus a very bad ice storm did not bring our county convention to a complete halt.
NOTE: Only 20 counties had a county convention. Only Nicholas County went longer than one day.
Beginning in August 2007 we did a number of newspaper stories and radio shows to prepare voters. We also scheduled public service announcements and newspaper ads to inform voters.
However, with the time of year and with nearly all of the news being about elections in other states, most voters didn’t see or hear our information. They had already begun to tune out anything that had to do with elections.
One voter turned to me while she was in the voting booth and said: “How come this wasn’t in the paper?” I said: “It was.” That answer surprised her, but it illustrates the difficulty of getting out information on something new and local. Thus I believe your post card suggestion will fall short.
I believe we need stronger county executive committees to do a better job of informing voters and holding county conventions. Many Republican Executive Committees have been unable to generate donations. People often complain, but them do nothing to help. All expenses for the Nicholas County convention came out of the pockets of two members.
I wish to remind Republicans that we’re all up for re election in May of 2010. The filing fee is a mere $10, so if your a committed Republican you should think about running.
I voted for you when you first got in back around 1993. I was among those who
were WV Concerned Citizens. I was the secretary of the group.
I am so ashamed of you for wanting those CFR, pro-abortion, pro-war, greed and
pride mongers Giuliani and McCain. McCain is treacherous and probably is
Giuliani. Oh, well.
I can see that you are NOT a Christian or you would have NOTHING to do with
these people on such a level. You have a way to check what these men are really
all about. I check online and watch - most people are spoon-fed to vote against
people. I am aware!
Lawrence T. Beckerle said: “Beginning in August 2007 we did a number of newspaper stories and radio shows to prepare voters. We also scheduled public service announcements and newspaper ads to inform voters.
However, with the time of year and with nearly all of the news being about elections in other states, most voters didn’t see or hear our information. They had already begun to tune out anything that had to do with elections. ”
Then you failed in your responsibility to the membership!
If the party had the money to pull off this convention [which I questioned in #26] then the FIRST step in the publicity campaign should have been a mailing to EACH AND EVERY REGISTERED REPUBLICAN in the state notifying them of the change.
The party has left the people. Actually, this was done a long time ago and the convention this week is the fruit of it’s actions.
I just hope everyone who claims they will be leaving the party actually does it. Otherwise it will be as meaningful as the delegates’ votes are to the party members.
I suppose the little people up the hollows really don’t understand what is going on. You big people holding office in the party administration need to do all the thinking and fixing for us.
Most of the posts here are so far from the truth, you folks should try to get the correct information before you speak.
As to post #29 ,you are not being truthful. There were NO Deals, The Paul campaign did Not get 3 delegates. Stop the lying!!
Olfrt
That is what huckabee said in the backroom, you ron paul people vote for me, I’ll let you have 3 of the delegates.
THIRD LARGEST POLITICAL PARTY IN AMERICA
(constitutionparty.com)
(constitutionparty.com)
(constitutionparty.com)
WEST VIRGINIA CONSTITUION PARTY
(WWW.CPWV.ORG)
(WWW.CPWV.ORG)
(WWW.CPWV.ORG)
Its time to move!!
I have been a Republican since I returned to the Hills of West Virginia from my service in the US Navy in 1985. You could say I was recruited into the party by Ronald Reagan, my Commander in Chief, only from a distance.
Being a Republican in West Virginia doesn’t get you much, but now it gets you even less. You don’t even get to vote in a primary for the Presidential Candidate of your choice. I suppose the Republican Party in West Virginia belongs to people that can afford to take time off from work, leave their families to travel and attend a boondoggle in Charleston. Apparently the West Virginia Republicans don’t want my vote in a primary for the Presidential Nominee, so I suppose they won’t mind if they don’t get it in the other elections as well. As soon as I can get to the Courthouse I will become an Independent.
I do not care about whether there were deals, I don’t care who showed up to speak, I don’t care what anyone did…the fact is I did not know anything about how to vote and now it doesn’t matter because even if I do mark a box in May, the decision is already made!!!!!
The WVGOP really shot itself in the foot today we me and my entire family of 21!
How is Vic now not Christian because he supported a candidate who has a 100% pro-life voting record during his time in the Senate? I’m not sure how that is “pro-abortion.”
Post No. 40 calls me a liar for reporting what I overheard at the Civic Center during the lunch break. Considering I took notes as it was being said, believe me, it’s accurate.
I didn’t say the Paul people received three delegate seats, but they most certainly were PROMISED them by the McCain camp. If anyone should be upset, it is they, even more than the Romney folk. They were snookered. Politics as usual.
As for the poster (38) who calls McCain pro-abortion, you need a history lesson. He’s been consistently pro-life. Even if you disagree with certain other of his positions - and I do, despite voting for him in the first round - he’s been “conservative” in that area.
McCain is 100% pro-life, there are a few things to chastise him on, (like McCain/Feingold & immigration) but being pro-choice is not one of them…
Take care & God Bless,
Tommy
Looking at the previous postings, it appears that our convention process could use some fine-tuning. I agree that the publicity was terrible and that the online voting isn’t user friendly for most West Virginians (especially the elderly voters).
My biggest problem with the system was the method of selection of delegates. Some people who were Democrats changed their registration to Republican in order to file as delegates for Ron Paul. Then there was the sleezy tactics that Gary Abernathy used to ensure Mitt Romney’s defeat by asking McCain delegates to vote for Rev Mike.
We need to establish some protections against people or candidates hijacking our convention like the Ron Paul and John McCain folks did. If this had been a normal primary, Mitt Romney would have won comfortably. Better yet, toss the convention idea into the trashbin and move our normal primary up to Super Tuesday.
FWIW, I liked a lot of what Ron Paul said, but like most of the audience I quit paying attention when he advocated surrender. I, like most veterans, would much prefer to kill our enemies over there rather than over here. We also cannot be isolationists. I have no problem with FAIR trade (which is not what NAFTA and GATT do).
I agree with Lawrence B. See my post on the next issue
GOD BLESS
GOP BUDDY
Better yet, toss the convention idea into the trashbin and move our normal primary back to June where God intended it to be.
As one who supports only candidates who strongly uphold the Constitution, I can tell you tha I will be writing in my vote next November.
Insofar as the WVGOP is preening after this convention, let me advise you that you have not grown the party at all. Furthermore, you will see that many current Republicans will be gone either tomorrow or by November.
Congratulations on your success in denial. Soon you will see what you have wrought.