Aftermath of Iowa Caucus

After a chaotic evening last night including missing ballots, Romney was declared the winner by eight votes.  Nice of the independents to give Republicans a winner who is moderate to liberal and the runner-up who is for gun control, Rick Santorum.  According to Red State less Republicans voted this time then in 2008 is not surprising.  Why is a state who allows independents to vote in the Republican primary and people to register on the day of the primary the first to vote in the Republican Primary?  Looks like that is exactly what the establishment wants.  Anyone who still believes there is not a group of establishment, east coast leaning elitists pulling the strings in this election needs a reality check.  Romney received approximately the same number of votes in 2012 as he did in 2008 in Iowa but now is now being dubbed by the media as having big momentum going into New Hampshire.  

We have to give it to Dick Morris for saying the media was going to choose the Republican candidate.  With their flavor of the week, news blackouts on certain candidates, and a rush to believe lies told by the Romney camp about other candidates it turned out Morris knew what he was talking about.  Michelle Bachmann's job is done as the Perry attack dog so she is pulling out of the race today on cue as Perry mulls pulling from the race after coming in 5th.  He won two counties which is more than Newt who came in a surprising 4th after internal polls showed him doing well.  Usually internal polling is accurate but not when independents vote in large numbers since they are not polled by internal pollsters.

The chaos of missing ballots, the close race, media hype was so far over the top it was laughable.  Makes a difference when you have already decided that no matter what, there is one candidate who you will never vote for and know you are joined by a lot of fellow conservatives.  We held our nose and voted for John McCain in 2008 but never again will I hold my hose to vote for a Republican candidate for President who will lie, cheat, and steal to win an election and who I have zero respect -- Mitt Romney.  The establishment may have won this battle but they are going to lose the war because most conservatives will no longer be bullied into supporting a candidate of their choosing.

If you are conservative, the 2nd amendment is held near and dear to you so why would you support Rick Santorum who is a big government Republican who supports gun control?  Questions like that were not answered in Iowa as the anyone but Romney bug hit a few people.  Media also reported that some Iowa voters punished Perry for announcing in SC not in IA.  Excuse me but why do Iowa voters expect every candidate to bow down to them?  This is one Republican who has had it with Iowa and someone better figure it out at the RNC what to do because this dog and pony show we saws in Iowa with independents voting in large numbers for Ron Paul is a joke.

The biggest winner of the night currently sits in the White House.  He is seeing a party in chaos with the establishment trying to wrest control from the conservatives for the 2nd Presidential election in a row.  The outcome IMHO is going to be the same as 2008 as Romney has a threshold that he is not likely to exceed by much.  Conservatives, including this one, do not like him.

Truthfully if a viable conservative came along, many of us would support an independent over Romney.  Most conservatives I know will not vote for Romney and will not be made to feel guilty about not supporting a big government liberal for President.  

The question of the day is whether Donald Trump will throw his hat in the ring as an Independent when Romney becomes the Republican candidate?  Time will tell.  Right now former Governor Gary Johnson of NM is thinking of running for President as an independent after the way he was treated on debates by the Republican establishment's RNC.  

Looks like the fix is in for Romney but we will see after the five first states vote.  Only one, SC, voted for a Republican for President in 2008 but their Governor has endorsed Romney.  Wonder who supported her election in SC in 2010 -- could it be Crossroads and Romney?  Looks like 2009/2010 was about buying IOU's for Romney in 2010.  Is McCain endorsing Romney today a plus?  Don't see how it would be as it will just show that a candidate who most of us held our nose and voted for supports the establishment candidate.  What does Dole have to do with this endorsement of McCain?  Wouldn't give you two cents for either one.

As a conservative, what can we do if Romney is the nominee?  The number 1-100 answers is to turn our energies to the House and Senate races.  I used to be of the mindset that you don't want to throw out incumbents but my philosophy has changed.  We have some establishment incumbents who need to go.  Count me in on only voting for conservative candidates for the Congress -- tired of these pretending to be conservative to get elected types.  My vote is precious and not going to waste it in the future on candidates I don't respect or like.  Those days are over for this conservative.

Will Rick Perry stay in the race or get out?  Have no clue but for months I have wondered why he took all the attacks he has from the Rove side of the GOP.  I would have told them to take it and shove it a long time ago and then turned my energies to electing good conservatives in the House and Senate.    Governor Perry put a plan together for a much smaller government which many of the big government conservatives in the Congress hate.  Don't know how you can be for big government and be a conservative which is why some incumbents need to go and get more citizen legislators like Oklahoma's James Lankford elected.

Red State's Erickson is blaming former President George W. Bush for not have a successor as the VP -- we wondered about that especially in 2004 that he kept Dick Cheney on the ticket.  While the rationale by Erickson makes sense, I think another problem is that conservatives didn't overhaul RNC after the 2008 election and stop this first in the Nation voting by Iowa, NH, FL, and NV -- all states who went to Obama in 2008 by fairly large margins.  They also needed to stop the Iowa entitlement mentality requiring all the candidates to camp out in Iowa a state who is becoming more liberal and is filled with entitlement voters today -- can you say ethanol?

The bottom line on the aftermath of Iowa is that it was a money wasting joke of a caucus with the media and Romney declaring victory while the total of votes for conservative candidates is ignored.  Iowa was the first in the Nation of the media choosing the Republican candidate to lose to Obama.  Who is in the wings for 2016 that some Republicans are willing to sacrifice this 2012 election?  What will the establishment gain by four more years of Obama?  It sure won't be energy independence but then we don't expect that with Romney either.  There are actually two winners last night -- Republican establishment and foreign oil who they support