2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

From our very own comments - which are piling in, thanks ya'll - here are the theories that are emerging for why Republicans are "crossing over" and voting Democrat today:

Mark: I'm a lifelong Republican who voted Democrat today. Rush Limbaugh had nothing to do with my choice; George Bush and his lunatic war in Iraq had everything to do with it.

JCLE: This is the first time I have ever voted for a D. I voted for Hil because if we have to have a D in the White House, Hil would not be near the nightmare that the Big O would be. His foreign policy by Kumbah Yah is scary to say the least.

PMS: At my local coffee shop, the GOP-types were going the other way... voting for Obama as the MUCH easier Dem to defeat.

Michael Crawford: Hillary is the most centered candidate out of Mccain, Obama and Clinton. Vote Clinton, at least you know where she stands on the issues, the other two will let subordiantes tell them what to do.

Barry Pierson (addressing everyone as "you people", so I suppose he's talking to all of us): They voted for Obama because they despise Hillary Clinton. Much to the disappointment of Democrats, these same Republicans will NOT vote for Obama in November.

Jeff: I am a very conservitive Republican and I voted for Hillary today. The Republican nominee is a pretty much settled so I used my vote to help set the stage for the general election. Hillary has very high negative numbers. Obama is little more than a cult of personality, which can be very dangerous.

Brian: I'm an ex-Republican who voted for Obama today. I am sick of the Republican party. McCain will be nothing but four more years of misery and bloodshed and shame.

Dustin: As much as I hated it, I also crossed party lines and voted for Hillary this morning. Given the rules in Texas, I will definitely play the game. ... why not vote for the lessser of two evils? McCain can beat Hillary

Kevin, resident peace-maker: I think people see that being a Republican or Democrat is merely a label. Picking a candidate to unite Americans is more important than the polarizing politics of the past 15 years. People want to move forward. Old school bipartisan politics is coming to an end.

yah hillarys still got a slim chance and shes gonna take it

Michael Crawford?!

Jeff: I am a very conservitive Republican and I voted for Hillary today. The Republican nominee is a pretty much settled so I used my vote to help set the stage for the general election. Hillary has very high negative numbers. Obama is little more than a cult of personality, which can be very dangerous.

would be pretty lol if this backfired and she, you know, beat mccain

i've been hearing a lot about rush limbaugh's calls for strategic voting for hillary, and i'm just not buying that it'll play much of a factor. republican cross-overs have largely favored obama. whether that holds in ohio/texas remains to be seen obv., but i don't think republicans are really en masse going to strategically vote for hilz

its a pretty risky tactic

I doubt HIllary will beat McCain... nobody cares about her or they hate her, so I'm sure a lot of people who would've voted Obama would just stay home.

oh no

Guys, ILX just told me this thread has 666 new answers. This is clearly the work of Hillary.

http://i31.tinypic.com/nffotd.jpg

what if obama sweeps all 4

that would be nuts but it won't happen

but I think people didn't think that would happen a few weeks ago and it did so what the hell

Early voting probably makes exit polls off a bit.

Yeah if it really is a deadlock it probably means Obama wins Texas based on early voting and Clinton wins Ohio based on the same. But then again it might not actually be a deadlock at all.

apparently bill richardson is about to endorse obama. hmm.

ware u hearing this?

that has been the rumor for a week, why would he endorse while voting was half over in tx? he'll wait until tomorrow

yah maybe part of the master plan w/those 50 super delegates brokaw mentioned to push hillary out

Marc Andreessen: likes Obama

Has Obama's skin been darkened in a Clinton campaign video?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/3/14550/75567/858/467989

compare:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjSEqh9zFTE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l4_jMyV3mY

dailykos is kind of turning into dailyracetwat

or maybe it's always like this, I never read it before

well it's always the last four letters anyway

eh it just looks desaturated and contrasty - a popular palate for painting political opponents ominous

VT called for McCain and Obama.

saying that the media reporting on his successes and her failures in each and every one of the post-Super Tuesday states constitutes some sort of bias is pretty fucking dumb.

what's even dumber is imagining that anyone here is saying this?

i'm not sure why it makes me so upset that so many people here really go for the "hillary = don corleone" line. or that so few of us actually seem to be listening to what others are saying. or that so few of us are responding to the strongest version of the arguments they disagree with, instead of the weakest. or that so many people here are fine to go with "conventional wisdom" about the democratic nominees, when the conventional wisdom over the last several decades has wound up being pretty uniformly hostile to progressive interests, and when the conventional wisdom about this race is peddled by such obvious boobs. and i'm not sure why it gets me all het up that people feel a need to take stark and defiant sides in this nomination, and gleefully pile into all the theatre that taking sides entails.

just got back from voting in CleVegas. A bad ice storm has shut down the light rail which I usually take and would've prevented me from voting but thankfully my alarm malfunctioned last night. I had to drive into work and could drive to the polls afterwards.

I wonder how many potential voters have been shut out. I blame Diebold.

I wrote in Brett Favre btw

THAT'S SICK

j/k.

Bernie Kosar always gets my vote.

;)

how quickly they forget brian sipe

tracer, i wasn't meaning to position that argument on anyone posting on this thread; i was merely trying to make a rather basic assertion that winning electoral contest will result in positive press due to the nature of political coverage, and in this case obama has benefitted from that.

CNN reporter lady, why the long face?

i'm not sure why it makes me so upset that so many people here really go for the "hillary = don corleone" line

i'm not sure why you believe so many people here go for it

Ohio called for McCain yeah of course whatever

Pundits are already talking of "cosmos shifting" back to Hillary based on exit polls. We already knew she'd probably win Ohio. How do they get away with such nonsense.

it's gabbneb's fault

Have you seen the Texas early votes coming in? Crazy numbers - 750,000 counted so far, Obama up 58/41

!!

old people vote slower?

Hillary's up in Ohio 62/36. 0% reporting.

winning ever non-redneckpopulation center

ooooooh shit Texas is up to 1% reporting! I need to stopping checking the nyt site.

HRCfriend: ok so there are STILL people voting at my precinct in the PRIMARY and there are 500 people in line to caucus
Sent at 7:53 PM on Tuesday
me: shit
HRCfriend: i get up at 5 in the morning, i can't wait all night
me: i know right
HRCfriend: and people there had absolutely no clue what to do with that many people there
the people who were running it
me: wow
HRCfriend: yeah
me: and presumably nobody's name is on anything yet cause its nuts
HRCfriend: it took me a half hour to finding a parking spot and then i waited in line a while

CNN SHITBIRD BILL BENNETT just referenced his Book of Virtues

Didn't he get busted for gambling away a shitload of money in AC?

god, fuck you CNN for hiring this asshole

Bill Bennett: 'The Bookie of Virtue'

i'll be curious to see how this wraps up:

clinton camp has "emergency" conference call regarding the texas caucus, claiming that obama caucusers are blocking out hillary supporters:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/texas_battle_heats_up_clinton.php

if it's legitimate, we'll see, but i really wouldn't be surprised if it's an attempt to de-legitimize the caucus in advance, as it's expected for obama to win it