The Other McCain

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ILLINOIS PRIMARY RESULTS HQ

Posted on | March 20, 2012 | 45 Comments

by Smitty

10:07 ET 65.1% reporting in IL, and Romney is at 47%? Really? Let’s hear it for people voting their conscience!

8:53 ET Media door was closed after McCain was done with his cigarette, and he entered to discover the Secret Service agent, who told Stacy, nervously holding up his media badge, that “He almost caught one.”

8:43 ET Stacy McCain reports that the Santorum event has a major overflow crowd, with Rick expected to speak at 9:00 PM. Monitors are being deployed to the hallway to support the surplus.

8:34 ET With 7.1% reporting, Fox has called Illinois for Willard the Javelin.

8:24 ET 0.6% reporting, Romney 54%, Santorum 26.6%, and Perry has 88 votes, so there.

8:24 ET 0.3% reporting (28/10448) Romney draws first blood in Chicago, but it’s a tiny amount of votes.
P R E V I O U S L Y . . .

The Illinois outcome isn’t much in doubt. The question is how much margin Willard the Javelin bought for his ad money. Early news from CBS on voter mood:

As in other states, Illinois GOP voters overwhelmingly cited the economy as their top issue. Fifty-six percent pointed to the economy. That was followed by the federal budget deficit at 26 percent, abortion at 12 percent and illegal immigration at four percent.
One in five Illinois GOP voters say the economy is starting to recover, while one in three say it is stagnant. Nearly half – 46 percent – say the economy is getting worse.
The ability to defeat President Obama was the most cited candidate quality by Illinois GOP voters, chosen by 37 percent of respondents. One in four said the top concern was that the candidate have strong character, 20 percent sought a true conservative, and 18 percent wanted a candidate with the right experience.

Also, voters, unexpectedly, care more about the economy than some of the kulturkampf issues in circulation:

An Edison Research exit poll conducted at 35 randomly selected polling places around the state Tuesday afternoon found a majority of voters citing the economy as their top concern, with nearly half believing the nation’s economic conditions are getting worse. The preliminary results are from 1,078 Illinois Republican voters, with a margin error of +/-4 percentage points.
Many areas reported light turnout, despite record temperatures in the 80s across the state and a rare voice for the state’s GOP voters in the duel between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul did not campaign in the state.

Meanwhile, 1,000 or so miles east, in Gettysburg, where Stacy is on the scene to cover Rick Santorum’s event tonight, there are protesters in front of the hotel:

Stacy asked them if they were from the Gingrich campaign, but they didn’t get the joke. Humor is wasted on feminists. Meanwhile . . .

Juana Summers of Politico does a does a TV appearance. Is she biased? Probably. But then again, so is Stacy.

UPDATE (RSM) II: More protesters here outside the Santorum event in Gettysburg. This was probably inevitable:

Nothing says “tolerance” quite like a liberal comparing Republicans to Islamic terrorists.

Update, 8:10 ET: Stacy in Gettysburg grabs a brief interview with Santorum spokesman John Brabender:

Linked at The Camp of the Saints

Category: Election 2012, Illinois

Comments

45 Responses to “ILLINOIS PRIMARY RESULTS HQ”

  1. Mike Rogers
    March 20th, 2012 @ 8:09 pm

    That terrorist living, misogynist, guy looks familiar. Worth investigating.

  2. K-Bob
    March 20th, 2012 @ 8:33 pm

    I like the bra-burning sign.   First, I hate bras that look like bikini tops.  Why not wear a bikini?  Second, she’s smart enough to avoid actually burning a bra over such a phony issue.  A little tape, some mindless protesting, and hey presto! Back in service.

  3. The Camp Of The Saints
    March 20th, 2012 @ 8:33 pm

    Prairie State Primary…

    Per usual, Stacy McCain and Smitty are live-blogging the results. Stacy is in Gettysburg at a Rick Santorum event and Smitty is back in the TOM studio holding everything together and Itty Bitty Smitty is analyzing the exit polls [take that Karl Rove-Br…

  4. Zim
    March 20th, 2012 @ 8:41 pm

    Stick a fork in Santorum. He’s done. He falls further behind Romney in the delegate count every day. Illinois was a debacle for Santorum: he failed to qualify to contest 10 percent of the state’s delegates because he continued to neglect the fact that this race is for delegates and not the popular vote.

  5. robertstacymccain
    March 20th, 2012 @ 9:21 pm

    Could some sympathetic commenter do me the favor of transcribing the Brabender interview?

  6. Later
    March 20th, 2012 @ 9:40 pm

    Good.

    Santorum’s whiny act wouldn’t play well against Obama.

    Job #1, get rid of Obama.  Time to get behind Romney and start fighting the real enemy.

  7. newrouter
    March 20th, 2012 @ 9:58 pm

    i like how fox cut rick’s speech at the end to hear  from mr. newt

  8. Ford Prefect
    March 20th, 2012 @ 10:19 pm

    Thanks for sharing the “whiny” meme. *Yawn*

    And now, time for Romney to beat Obama the same way he’s beaten the conservatives: 

    By outspending him.

    Oh wait, never mind.

    Hello 4 more years of Obummer.

  9. Wombat_socho
    March 20th, 2012 @ 10:22 pm

     The fix was in.

  10. Mike Rogers
    March 20th, 2012 @ 10:29 pm

    Romney is beginning to use the right words in his speeches, but he is still not exciting.
    Santorum truly sounds like he gets it on freedom and limited government, but tends to go a bit long on the speech.
    Fox cut him off early – must have heard the dog whistle – to bring Newt on for his comments, even though Newt is 4th, again.

  11. K-Bob
    March 20th, 2012 @ 10:48 pm

    To take your minds off of politics, even though Sunday is still in the distance, I think you all need some serious Rule 5 disturbance in the force.

    This is technically safe for work, but not necessarily for your eyes.

    Actually, this is like a combination of rule 5 and rule 4.

  12. Pathfinder's wife
    March 20th, 2012 @ 11:07 pm

    Looks like upstate broke for Romney, and downstate broke for Santorum — and anyone will tell you, upstate always wins in IL.  Sometimes one wonders what the use of voting really is in this state.

    Turn out was…disspirited and a bit grim, and some of the ballots weren’t working right…probably a test drive for November.  Did I say I was in a bad mood?

  13. ThePaganTemple
    March 20th, 2012 @ 11:25 pm

     So wait a minute. Romney can’t outspend Obama, but-wait for it-SANTORUM CAN?

    How would he accomplish this, pray tell? Are all the church congregations going to kick up a portion of their tithes?

    Bake sale?

  14. ThePaganTemple
    March 20th, 2012 @ 11:27 pm

     You’ll stay in a bad mood as long as you revolve your life around these idiots.

  15. Ford Prefect
    March 20th, 2012 @ 11:36 pm

    If Romney’s march to Tampa keeps going the way it is, all I can say is, BUY GOLD.

    Since it is doubtful Romney will beat the Marxist, we’re in for a quick slide down into Hades starting the second week of November.

    Over the next 4 years, Obama will have his EPA clamping down on every energy source there is such that all we can hope for is our daily ration of ObamAlgae™ or better yet, relief from the worries of this world via a summary rejection of care by one of his hundreds of Death Panels.  

    What America, if it is still here, will look like by 2016 is the stuff of dystopian science fiction.

    We had a real chance to pick a conservative (actually, about 5 chances) but noooo.  

    So it now looks like after Obama gets through eviscerating the latest DoleGHWBMcCain clone, we’re going to finally get to see totalitarianism in action.

  16. SDN
    March 20th, 2012 @ 11:41 pm

    Nothing says “tolerance” quite like a liberal comparing Republicans to Islamic terrorists.

    If only it were just the liberals….

  17. Zim
    March 21st, 2012 @ 12:03 am

    Santorum’s whiny act

    Exactly. “Romney’s outspending me. Romney’s saying mean things about me. Fox News doesn’t like me.” Waahh waaah waaah. Lesson No. 1 of a presidential campaign: don’t talk like a loser, even when you’re losing.

  18. Zim
    March 21st, 2012 @ 12:15 am

    upstate always wins in IL

    That’s because almost everyone in Illinois lives upstate. Chicago alone is home to 75 percent of the state’s population. So…it’s not evidence of a conspiracy that the person who wins the region where all the voters live also wins the state.

  19. ThePaganTemple
    March 21st, 2012 @ 12:15 am

    We had a real chance to pick a conservative (actually, about 5 chances) but noooo.

    I guess God couldn’t quite decide which one’s side he was on. What does he think he is, a Republican or something?

  20. smbren
    March 21st, 2012 @ 12:17 am

    I cannot even stress to you how absolutely difficult it will be to pull the lever for Romney in a general election should I be forced to. For me personally, it is like admitting defeat from the fight of  Obamacare. I hope he at least can pick a halfway decent VP.

  21. Zim
    March 21st, 2012 @ 12:26 am

    Another dumb move: campaigning in Puerto Rico on a stop-speaking-Spanish platform. Santorum got what he deserved there — 8 percent of the vote.

  22. Testor
    March 21st, 2012 @ 12:45 am

    So if Santorum “promised us” that if he won Illinois, he’d be the nominee, isn’t that also a promise that if he lost, he wouldn’t be the nominee?

  23. Adjoran
    March 21st, 2012 @ 1:48 am

     I don’t watch the “after” speeches any more, the candidates tend to use them not to thank their supporters and claim victory or concede defeat, but as a free chance to give their stump speech. 

    All the networks will cut them off or voice-over them if they go too long.  If the Santorum folks want to complain about it – and it seems to be what they do best, or at least better than meeting ballot requirements – they should figure the length accorded him  versus the others in both winning and losing states. 

    But no one steps up and says, “Romney got x when he was second, and Gingrich got y, but Santorum only z, and also less when he won.”  Instead, they just whine.

  24. Adjoran
    March 21st, 2012 @ 1:49 am

     Don’t like the “whiny” meme?  Quit whining.

  25. Adjoran
    March 21st, 2012 @ 1:50 am

     Those darn Bilderbergers are EVERYWHERE!

  26. Pathfinder's wife
    March 21st, 2012 @ 2:19 am

    Actually I don’t — and my bad mood comes from several factors, but voting today pushed it over the edge.

    Voting usually does do this to me — so much for active participation in our glorious electoral process!

  27. Pathfinder's wife
    March 21st, 2012 @ 2:22 am

    Did I say “conspiracy”? No.  I’m quite aware of the realities — doesn’t make it any more fun on a day when said reality once again slaps me in the face like a cold mackerel.  Blech; nothing like being reminded in a most obvious way that you truly are an insignificant little peon.

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    March 21st, 2012 @ 2:27 am

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  29. Bob Belvedere
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:45 am

    That was Anti-Rule 5.

    I’m suing you for mislabeling!!!

  30. Bob Belvedere
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:47 am

    The heck with gold, FP: arms, ammunition, and MRE’s [oh, and booze].

  31. Bob Belvedere
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:50 am

    I ask again: ‘Bill who?’

  32. Bob Belvedere
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:51 am

    I’m sick of lowered expectations.

  33. Quartermaster
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:52 am

    I say it rises to the level of crimnal fraud. It is a disturbance in the rule 5 force however, but not in a good way.

    Yes, everyone needs to go look. Why should Bob and I suffer alone.

  34. Bob Belvedere
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:53 am

    Egg-xactly, Batman.

  35. Quartermaster
    March 21st, 2012 @ 7:54 am

    Barbancourt 5 Star is all you’ll need. You’ll be too numb to know about anything else.

  36. Bob Belvedere
    March 21st, 2012 @ 8:26 am

    Sadly, Rum and I had a parting of the ways in 1982 after a night that as so good I can only remember the after and not the during.

    Will Maker’s Mark and Marker’s Mark 46 do?

  37. Zim
    March 21st, 2012 @ 8:30 am

    Your self-esteem problem doesn’t stem from where you live — it’s who you vote for. The downstaters who voted for Romney aren’t feeling like insignificant little peons this morning. The exit polls explain that regionalism had nothing to do with why Romney won: the top issues for GOP voters were fixing the economy and having a candidate who could beat Obama. Romney fit that bill better than Santorum, who can’t stop calling for more government regulation of  personal behavior. Stop speaking Spanish! What’s funny about this blog’s support for Santorum is that he’s actually an anti-liberty candidate. What will Stacy do for Rule 5 links when Santorum has rid the Internet of porn?

  38. Tennwriter
    March 21st, 2012 @ 9:31 am

    Obviously PT, no one can outspend Obama, so therefore one should support a candidate that has an actual policy instead of just $.

  39. Tennwriter
    March 21st, 2012 @ 9:39 am

    That means you’re whining.  Stop whining. Be of good cheer. The best, err, the smartest, err, the richest man won.  All is well in America.

    And I know some people are going to say, ‘that Tennwriter is whining like a little puppy’, but frankly I don’t care.  Who cares?  Romney wins, and then gives a good concession speech, we tell the RINOS we told you so, and then they blame the conservatives, and in 2016 we’re told we have to vote for Kucinich or else the Democrat will win.

    Its all so dreary and so much garbage.

    So yes, I’m whining because the Stupid Party’s done it again.  Time to vote Constitution.

  40. Tennwriter
    March 21st, 2012 @ 9:42 am

    Congrats, Testor. You won. America is going over a cliff. Happy?

  41. ThePaganTemple
    March 21st, 2012 @ 10:31 am

     Its a tag team set-up. While the Bilderbergers are out for Santorum the Rothschildes are out to destroy Paul. And Newt of course is the evil maestro in charge of coordinating this evil plot.

  42. ThePaganTemple
    March 21st, 2012 @ 10:38 am

     So just what “actual policy” are we talking about here? Aside from eliminating tax on manufacturers, I don’t really have a handle on what Santorum stands for, other than he claims to be conservative.

    But what does that mean exactly beyond social conservatism? And to what end is he socially conservative? Does he want to get government off our backs or does he instead just want to make sure we all practice the missionary position without a condom?

    I’m not just trying to be snarky, I really want to know what he means, what he believes, and what he thinks the governments place is in our lives. He seems to have a hard time articulating it.

  43. ThePaganTemple
    March 21st, 2012 @ 10:46 am

     I hate to break it to you but America went over a cliff before Obama was elected. Where we fucked up in voting for Obama is in assuming he would want to bring us back out of the ravine as opposed to burying us there.

  44. Mike Rogers
    March 21st, 2012 @ 10:50 am

    Missing the tongue-in-cheek humor there 😉
    Dog whistle, as in “my dog, Dago, pricked up his ears when I read Stacy’s article”.. I wasn’t surprised that Fox moved on – they have a schedule to keep. I noted that Santorum ran long, and you are correct that he should expect to be cut off. Newt makes for interesting commentary, but my point was that he isn’t earning that spot on Fox by superior poll results.

  45. K-Bob
    March 21st, 2012 @ 5:36 pm

    Yeah, but I bet you looked at all of the pictures!