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Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Oh, those Young Republicans: ‘Talk radio is inflammatory, divisive’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Things were moving too fast on Tuesday to make mention of it, but the Georgia Young Republicans have picked a fight with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham over their denunciation of emerging Republican nominee John McCain.
“It’s hard enough to reunite after a tough primary process,” said Jason Shepherd, chairman of the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs. “They talk into a microphone or TV camera with no consequences and it is us activists that must pay the price as we fight for our candidates precinct by precinct.”
While specifically excluding local talk artist Neal Boortz, the group’s board of directors issued a resolution that “condemns and denounces the actions and speech over the past several weeks by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and others for breeding contempt, disunity and hatred among the Republican Party in order to bolster their own careers.”
Read the entire collection of whereases and therefores on the jump.
Whereas: Political Pundits like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter, along with other talk show hosts in national and local markets, have viciously attacked Republican candidates running in the primary election; and
Whereas: Many of these same pundits have used their shows and their vast audiences to spread disunity among Republicans when we need to be uniting to face the greater threat to our national security and well being that is embodied in the Democrat candidates for President; and
Whereas: Despite all of these pundits invoking the greatness of Ronald Reagan, none of them have paused for a second to remember Reagan’s 11th Commandment; and
Whereas: Each of the above named have, through their actions and words, lost the confidence of millions of their fans and Republican voters; and
Whereas: The members of the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs are prepared to support our nominee, whether he is Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul or Mitt Romney, against the real threat, the Democrat nominee; now
Therefore, be it resolved, this 5th Day of February, 2008, that the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs strongly condemns and denounces the actions and speech over the past several weeks by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and others for breeding contempt, disunity and hatred among the Republican Party in order to bolster their own careers; and
Therefore, be it FURTHER resolved, that the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs praises talk show hosts like Neal Boortz, who, despite making their preference known, have chosen not to make it their mission to tear down other GOP candidates.
The Baptist factor: ‘How much does it matter that a candidate shares your beliefs?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If there was one exit poll question that captured the dynamics of Mike Huckabee’s win in Georgia last night, it was this one:
“How much does it matter to you that a candidate shares your religious beliefs?”
Thirty-seven percent said it mattered “a great deal.” Of those, 58 percent voted for Huckabee, 25 percent voted for John McCain, and 15 percent chose Mitt Romney.
Romney’s Mormonism — and Huckabee’s former position as a Southern Baptist preacher — clearly played a role among voters.
The Romney campaign played into it, actually. Late last night, less than an hour before the polls closed, the Romney campaign let loose with a robo-call that broadcast the denunciation of John McCain by James Dobson, the influential leader of the evangelical group Focus on the Family.
Dobson listed McCain’s many sins, including support for embryonic stem cell research, opposition to a gay marriage ban for the U.S. Constitution, and the use of “foul and obscene” language.
But Dobson didn’t say who evangelical voters should vote for, leaving many to guess. And on Tuesday, in many cases, like chose like.
Meanwhile, in California: Cynthia McKinney takes a dive
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While Hillary Clinton was muscling through a big win in California on Tuesday, Cynthia McKinney was getting trounced by Ralph Nader in that state’s Green Party presidential primary.
Nader took 61 percent of the vote. The former Georgia congresswoman came in a distant second with only 26 percent, or 7,152 votes statewide.
By comparison, in Georgia, Democrats in her old haunt of DeKalb County cast a total of 148,773 votes.
McKinney did win San Francisco County with 46 percent of the vote. But Nader walloped her everywhere else.
Watercooler ammunition for Democrats: They won the generic ballot race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a Democrat, this is the number you should be cheering about: 1,012,747.
That’s how many Democratic votes are recorded on Secretary of State Karen Handel’s web site this morning.
That’s 52 percent of all ballots counted.
The Republican vote total comes to 937,604.
The morning numbers put turnout at more than 43 percent. A record, we think.
In the 1988 presidential primary, turnout hit 40 percent, with 622,752 Democratic ballots cast and 400,928 Republican ones.
For Hillary Clinton supporters, the news in Georgia was pretty grim. We advise quickly shifting the subject to California.
According to our exit polling:
— Hillary Clinton won white women by 56 percent, virtually the only demographic group she claimed last night. Barack Obama even won among white men, albeit narrowly.
— Clinton also won among people over 65 years old, but no other age group.
— While in other states we’ve seen Clinton do well among lower income households and those who never went to college, there was no blue-collar bump for her here.
— 92 percent of Democrats who voted Tuesday rated the economy “not so good” or “poor.”
— There were signs of a Bill Clinton backlash. About a quarter of Democratic voters said they had an unfavorable opinion of President Bill Clinton. Of those, more than 80 percent voted for Obama.
— All in all, Clinton can say she finished a close third in a five-person race. And Romney finished last. The current totals:
Obama: 671,158 votes
Huckabee: 318,860
Clinton: 315,633
McCain: 295,242
Romney: 283,205
Watercooler ammunition for Republicans: How Tuesday’s vote went down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s talk Republicans first, since they were more interesting.
Much of the GOP establishment went with Mitt Romney, including four congressmen and Sadie Fields, leader of the Georgia Christian Alliance.
Georgia’s two U.S. senators went with McCain, as did House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
But the GOP base chose Mike Huckabee, the candidate chosen by U.S. Rep. John Linder. There’s no indication that Huckabee’s endorsement of the Fair Tax — supported by Linder — did Huckabee a great deal of good, but neither is their any evidence that it did the former Arkansas governor any harm.
Geographically, Mitt Romney did best among establishment Republicans in suburban Atlanta. He won seven counties: Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Fayette, Forsyth, and — his only south Georgia victory — Glynn.
But Romney’s suburban victories were narrow, and couldn’t keep up with the margin that Mike Huckabee rolled up in rural and exurban Georgia — Democratic counties brought into the Republican camp by Sonny Perdue. Huckabee’s counties included Houston, Bibb and Cherokee.
McCain did well in counties with a heavy military population, including Richmond and Muscogee. But he also took Savannah and Chatham County, where Romney was supposed to have done well.
According to our exit polls:
Of those participating in the Georgia Republican primary, half said shared values were more important in a candidate than experience, religious beliefs or electability in November. And among those voters, Huckabee won half of those votes — by far the largest share. McCain received 14 percent, and Romney 31 percent. This is evidence that Romney’s Mormonism was indeed a factor in Tuesday’s results.
Huckabee received more than half the support of Georgia’s most devout Republicans - those who attend church or synagogue more than once a week.
Huckabee did better than his two main rivals among women, who made up slightly less than half of the GOP electorate.
Huckabee did particularly well among voters under 30, while McCain and Romney were splitting those over 45.
Throughout the campaign, Huckabee has aimed his message at what he calls “Walmart Republicans, not Wall Street Republicans.” According to the exit polls, Huckabee had his highest success among those whose family income is than $50,000 a year, and among those voters with no college degree.
The most highly educated among voters, those with college degrees or better, leaned toward Romney.
Surprisingly, Huckabee got a greater share of those who identified themselves as independent than did McCain.
Huckabee and Romney split those who called themselves somewhat or very conservative - more than two-thirds of the electorate. McCain did far better among those who considered themselves moderates.
Of the three candidates, McCain did best among those who expressed negative feelings about the Bush Administration, and worse who had positive thoughts about the current administration.
McCain, who has argued that his push for a surge of U.S. troops has turned the tide in Iraq, did best among those GOP voters who disapprove of the war. Of the three candidates, McCain was doing the poorest among those who approved of the war.
