High Ground Underground

Will someone please wake me from this nightmarish GOP (& Democrat) election?  While Rubio shone brightly in the last GOP debate, especially on foreign (incl. Cuba) policy, and Trump was his usual blithering self, things continue to look bleak for Rubio.  His path to regular nomination is now mathematically nearly impossible, even if he wins Florida, which the polls show questionable.  It may only be feasible in a contested convention, if none of the candidates reach the magic number.   At least we have put behind us some of the childish taunts of the previous debate, where Rubio momentarily stooped to Trump's level. Various conservative pundits (Hewett, Medved, Romney…) are promoting strategic voting – everyone against Trump vote for the other candidate with the best chance to win that state – i.e., Kasich in Ohio, Rubio in Florida, …  We’ll see if the message gets out & received.  It may stop Trump’s mo...

My personal Nevada Poll On Oct. 15 I volunteered for Mitt Romney’s campaign, making survey phone calls for 3 hours to GOP voters in the Las Vegas area (N. Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, Pahrump, Alamo, Searchlight (Harry Reid country), Beatty, Tonopah, Overton, Panaca, Pioche & Round Mountain) just days before the CNN debate there. Questions included: what’s the next most important issue besides the economy & jobs, which candidate do you support, whether they planned on participating in the Nevada caucuses, and if they support Romney, whether they’d be willing to help and/or receive emails. I made 93 calls, and got 18 to go thru the survey. Of those 18, 5 ½ for Romney (halves were split w. another candidate), 3 + two halves for Cain, 1 for Newt & ½ for Ron Paul. 7 undecided. A small sample, but seems consistent w. national polls, except Perry. I also left 39 voice messages (expected on a Sat. afternoon), 12 were unavailable (someone else answered), 10 not intere...

Leveling The Playing Field Regarding the GOP race, this is no time to count any chickens before they’ve hatched. As has been pointed out, at this time in the last election, John McCain was only polling 3%. There are still at least a couple of very possible strong, late entries, missteps and key endorsements to be made, debates to be won and lost, and domestic and international events to unfold. The debate this week saw the boxing gloves put aside for now, and niceties from and for all except Barack Obama. But warning shots like “Obamneycare” had already been fired, and the truce will no doubt be only temporary. Nonetheless, polls last week showed Romney leading the GOP pack, and the only one beating Obama in a head-to-head contest. Of course part of that is due to name recognition from the last election, and the dilution of votes among the wide and lesser-known field of candidates. But the post-debate polls show Romney at 33% of GOP likely voters, and Bachmann at 19%, with the re...