I see the votes are in, in Michigan. if there’s anything surprising about them, it’s that relatively few of the blogs have made notice of the results. I suppose that to some degree, there’s a reason for the lack of excitment, particularly among the blogs… It’s the result of the lack of controversy involved. At least on the Republican side, I mean. Nobody expected Governor Romney to do badly. It’s nothing more than name recognition, given his father was governor of Michigan. Three times. A real conservative doesn’t have much of a chance in Michigan, frankly, so of, what did have a chance Romney was probably the best choice to win the whole thing. A sad commentary on the state of the voters in that state, isn’t it?
The story on the Democratic side is perhaps less of a surprise than Romney’s victory. There’s a real mess breewing with this vote tonight, and it’s one I’ve not said much about.
As of this writing Hillary Clinton is the front runner. however, the number two position is held by uncommitted delegates. Still and all, the Democrats awarded no delegates tonight in the Michigan primary.
Why would that be? My personal read is that the Michigan Democratic Party is gambling on the idea that the national party doesn’t want a big fight over credentialing of delegates at the DNC. Doesn’t make for good television theater. The Democrat leadership currently is insisting that the allocation of delegates will be based on today’s vote. Given what we’ve seen in past elections, I’m not quite sure I trust that, but there it is. In the end, though, the Democrats have a full scale mutiny on their hands.
I’ve seen traffic from inside Michigan that suggests that the Alabama campaign and the campaign of John Edwards are both urging their followers to cast ballots for quote “uncommitted”. of course there are the usual denials that the national campaigns in each of the candidates is involved… (They blame “grass roots efforts”)…. I’ve even seen traffic involving a spot from John Conyers and his wife regarding a spot that ran on local radio in Detroit…(950/WWJ, if I’m not mistaken) which said that Obama backers should not “Surrender their vote”.
Since the number that I saw constitutes approximately half of those that voted for Hillary Clinton, and the number of uncommitted voters was only slightly above the people who actually voted for Obama anyway, in spite of the campaign’s ‘advice’, there is a large question mark as to how this is going to play out.
It seems clear to me that there is a civil war in the Democratic Party of today. And yes, we keep remarking on that point, but frankly it’s the biggest story coming from the Democrats right now. The argument centers around not what’s best for the country, but what’s best for the individual Democrat candidates.
Somehow, I doubt that’s going to impress the average voter.
Ed at Captain’s Quarters seems to be doing the best live coverage in blogdom at the moment. Memeorandum will have updates through the night, I don’t doubt. But don’t expect many to get overly excited about it.
Addendum: (David L)
Glancing over Michelle’s read, I note that Mitt Romney won among republicans and evangelicals. McCain has yet to win a among republicans and Mike Huckabee’s strength among evangelicals might be slipping.
Quite glad to see to that two dirty tricks did not work. Kos did not get the democrats out to vote for Romney. McCain carried the ‘rats. And McCain’s trick of importing Joe Lieberman to get cross-over votes flopped.
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