"These Extended Primaries are making these candidates STRONGER"

[Bicoastal]

I think tonight's results finally put that theory to bed.

If they're all so incredibly strong, then how come they overwhelmingly win states one week, then come in 3rd or 4th the next? And how come turnout is now consistently low? This isn't a horse race between two exemplary candidates like WE had in 2008; it's a messy, sloppy Round Robin in a seedy barroom, and plenty of spectators have already left in disgust.

We've seen pyrrhic victories in politics before, but the Republican is ultimately going to find themselves with no choice but to nominate a Pyrrhic Candidate...

[Renew Deal]

1. I think it's about the quality of the candidates

Republicans don't like their candidates and I understand why. One is worse than the next. None of them are really sharp. They have spent very little time on real issues and spent a lot of time Obama bashing and fighting idiotic fights like contraceptives, etc.

[Old and In the Way]

5. These candidates are, to a large degree, reflecting the values and attributes that the Base want.

But each appears to have significant, fatal flaws with large segments of these voters. They got the Big Money Candidate, the hardball Republican Insider, and the Christian Fundie. All 3 both attract and repel big blocks of Republican voters. The best possible outcome is to see this traveling clown show go into the Convention deadlocked. It will be a spectacular implosion.

I wonder if Open Carry laws will be in effect? I'd certainly hope that the NRA is pushing for this.

[JHB]

11. They've trained up their base to produce exactly this result

They've spent decades using self-righteousness, fostered contempt for opposition, and grab-it-all tactics to win, and encouraged those attitudes in their base.

Now, having "been reasonable" last time and lost, enough of them are convinced that compromise will bring more defeat, so all their factions are doubling down to try to take all the marbles.

Add to that the way their base has trained itself to only listen to its own hot air, no clear front runner to impose conformity, and a pack of clowns now openly ignoring St. Ron's "don't speak I'll of a fellow Republican" commandment, and the Elephant winds up with a pack of mad dogs humping each leg and the trunk. Tough to keep standing, with all that.

[DCKit]

2. Can we please now concentrate a bit more on the progressives running for Congress?

We're not going to make a damn bit of headway unless we replace a bunch of (R)s and (D)-Corporates with progressives.

[bluestateguy]

3. Sounds like something Mark Halperin would say (or Gloria Borger)

Georgetown cocktail party nonsense.

[WingDinger]

4. Yes, Newt calls Romney a commie, polishing his right wing credentials.

His speechs will command top dollar. Romney looks like a moderate. Santorum is the most socially conservative, and will move the center as far as he can.

Obama needs to start throwing left jabs.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. Steel sharpens steel but shit just smears shit

I think we can all see what these guys are made of

[Surya Gayatri]

8. And the smearing just goes on and on...

aided by all those PAC $$$.

Amazing to witness such a spectacle of MAD (mutally assured destruction).
SG

[Scootaloo]

7. Perhaps so, but smell isn't everything.

[grantcart]

9. They keep comparing it to the Clinton/Obama race.

That was a race between two policy wonks that worked hard to improve how they were articulating very difficult and extensive policy measures.

That is not what is happening here.

This is a competition to see who can out crazy the other guys and they are simply getting better at that.

Not a big asset for the GE.

[Ebadlun]

12. Clinton and Obama were two strong candidates

And moreover they didn't personify radically different wings of the Democratic Party, so their contest wasn't a battle for the soul of the movement in the same way that Romney vs not-Romney is.

[mikeytherat]

10. And Gingrich's infidelities are a GOOD thing. A sign of strength and vitality.

Up is down, dark is light, bad is good.

mikey_the_rat