Mr. One Percent pulls off a stunning stealthy surge in New Hampshire. I really don’t know what to make of it:
(Politico) — Here’s the latest – and final – New Hampshire survey from Public Policy Polling, which has a tracking that runs parallel to the Suffolk University numbers released earlier today.In short, Mitt Romney is holding steady, per PPP, with 35 percent, while Ron Paul gets 18 percent, Jon Huntsman gets 16 percent, Newt Gingrich gets 12 percent, Rick Santorum is in fifth place with 11 percent, and Buddy Roemer comes in ahead of Rick Perry, 3 percent to 1 percent.
The Romney numbers are no surprise, he’s been strong in NH for months. Paul is a little stronger than expected, but NH is said to be a fiercely indie state and Paul has a solid core of loyal supporters all over the nation. But Huntsman? I have no idea where that came from, what it means, or if it means anything at all.
Huntsman? But he is sane! No way can he get 16% of the GOP vote. Do they put lithium in the drinking water in NH?
I guess we’ll find out when the party moves on to SC and other less sane places than NH. My gut feeling is this is a blip.
I’ll tell ya what it means: The GOP knows they have to run Mitt, but nobody wants to. Only when I just said “the GOP knows” in the previous sentence, I said it like it was a single entity rather than just a huge collection of people with different ideas but a particular allegiance.
This is the GOP’s thrashing to find Anyone But Mitt. Every Not Mitt will be given his or her moment in the sun. And — probably — they will all fade away.
I hope I’m wrong on that last point. Romney will beat Obama in 2012, barring a miraculous economic recovery or some other unforeseen event. But I think Barack could take most of these other jokers.
On the positive side, googling Huntsman is a lot better than googling Santorum. I agree with Stephen…this is probably just a blip, the majority of the rethuglican party is too far gone to accept someone that appears sane such as Huntsman.
@ ^ jamessweet :
Be careful what you
wishhope for – you may get it.Huntsman would be okay & Romney would be not-too-bad Presidents ~wise methinks.
But imagine a Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul or perhaps worst of all Rick “stinkyfroth” Santorum Presdiency? *shudder*
The further the real crazies are from real power the better.
@4. unbound :
Providing you’re not arachnophobic that is – google Huntsman & you’ll get spiders!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider
I’m glad to see the sanest candidate in the race doing well. Would be great but really surprising if it lasts.
Huntsman (Jon) is probably even more electable and likely to beat Obama than Romney so really if they want a good candidate he’s the best they have. But I doubt very much they’ll end up choosing anyone other than Mittens.
Yeah, I mostly agree with this. Santorum getting the nomination would be risky, because if he did manage to pull it off… WTF?!?
Romney as a president will probably be a little bit likely Dubya, sans (hopefully!) the wars. i.e. could be a lot worse.
As you recall, Dubya’s run ended with the economy is tatters. And Romney sounds like he’s promising to do the same shit all voer again and expect different results. I’m not sure we can weather another great recession back to back with the one we’re in without going into full USSR mode.
Note that NH Republicans picked McCain over Bush in 2000. NH might be a red state but it’s an island, it’s cut off from the greater conservative culture. The majority of NH’s population lives within 10 miles of the MA border and many of those people moved there from MA. Many still work in MA as well.
In my experience, NH republicans tend to be more the individualist libertarian mountain-men wanna be types rather than social conservatives. Many others are moderate Republican business types that moved up from Boston or Connecticut or wherever.
Basically, NH may be pretty conservative but it is not Palin country. My guess is NH Republicans have been waiting decades for a sane Republican candidate and if that’s what Huntsman is (I honestly have no idea) I can see why he’d be polling so strongly there. Ron Paul also often polls well there as did Mike Huckabee before it became clear how religious he is. NH Republicans like unconventional candidates that don’t necessarily adhere to the R party line.
But obviously Mitt will win in NH. I wish I had made a bet on this a few weeks ago.