CNN: ” Romney’s Iowa confidence grows ” Philip Klein: “
[Posted by Karl] In the lexicon of Rick Perry, “Oops!” Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, state GOP officials said Friday evening. Perry’s campaign told state election officials it had submitted 11,911 signatures, but a Virginia Republican familiar with the situation said that the Texas governor did not submit the required 10,000. *** They have not examined Gingrich’s signatures yet, but expected to do so by late Friday night. Candidates had until 5 p.m. to collect 10,000 signatures from across the state, including 400 from each congressional district. Things may not be looking much better for Newt , who submitted only 11,050 signatures. Bachmann, Huntsman, and Santorum failed to submit any signatures, potentially leaving this as a Mitt Romney vs Ron Paul matchup. Do we all get to point and laugh at those who claim organization doesn’t matter any more? The practical effect, as GOP fundraiser/consultant Nathan Wurtzel notes, is that the Virginia primary will drop in relevance relative to other contests that day, which will not help GOP efforts to win this swing state in the general election . Update : The issues in qualifying for the Virginia ballot are well-known. Via Philip Klein’s Twitter feed, Stacy Cline notes that in 2007, “the Giuliani campaign had a full-time lawyer devoted almost entirely to qualifying for the VA ballot” and Team Rudy spent an entire weekend checking to make sute they had enough signatures from each district. Virginia GOP officials tell John McCormack there is not a write-in line on the ballot. Klein will be shocked if Newt qualifies . Update 2 : Looks like Newt’s in , making Perry look even worse. Update 3 : Patterico commenter SarahW tweets that she got a robocall to come down and sign a petition… on the day before the robocall. Oops. Update 4 : Newt Gingrich has also been DQed from the VA primary. He promises an aggressive write-in campaign. It may also be futile, if John McCormack’s source was correct — and, given the circumstances, we might credit some anonymous state party official over Gingrich until definitively proven otherwise. Update 5 : Yep, looks like there’s no write-in for Virginia primaries . IIRC, the GOP has minimal control over the state legislature… could they amend the law to allow write-ins? I do not even know if the legislature is in session, but I would think there could be discussion, as it would benefit the state and national party to have a more competitive primary. (I presume the fear is that in a year like this, Dems could flood the GOP primary for Obama.) –Karl
Read more:
Perry off VA primary ballot; GOP Clown Car wreck (Update: Newt’s off)
In the Washington Examiner , Philip Klein takes issue with a National Review editorial praising Mitt Romney’s outline for a Medicare reform plan, which would offer seniors the choice between subsidies for privately-managed insurance plans and traditional Medicare: One of the biggest potential problems is that it would be hard to create a level playing field between traditional Medicare and private plans, for many of the same reasons conservatives vigorously opposed a “public option” in Obamacare. But in some ways, creating fair competition would be even more difficult under Romney’s proposal. Romney has not specified at what point his reforms would kick in. But as an example, in 2024, according to projections from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, there will be 71.2 million seniors enrolled in traditional Medicare, giving it market power to set prices and shift costs onto private plans. About four million Americans turning 65 that year would be theoretically eligible to choose private coverage. How do you create a competitive market when one participant starts off with at least 95 percent market share? … Conservatives praising Romney should also recognize that any proposal inevitably gets significantly compromised through the legislative process. If Republicans were to start off with the Ryan proposal, and after a brutal fight, ended up with something closer to the Romney plan, conservatives may still be able to claim victory. But the Romney plan has already moved the goal posts decidedly to the left. What would remain once it gets heavily compromised? I share both of Phil’s concerns. And I wonder whether the good folks at National Review
At National Review , Kevin Williamson defends Rick Perry from Rick Santorum’s accusation that he is soft on illegal immigration because of a “bi-national” health care initiative in Texas.
Last night in the debate, Mitt Romney went after Rick Perry over Perry’s characterization of Social Security as a Ponzi Scheme. I happen to agree with Perry. The payroll taxes of currently employed workers are used to pay beneficiaries and even the Social Security Actuary agrees that the current model is not sustainable more than 20 or so more years. Mitt Romney went on the attack today on Sean Hannity’s Show. I’m not opposed to attacks on your opponents over policy. I am opposed to flip flopping. According to Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner (ht to NRO and Ace ): “The issue is not so much how we finance Social Security, it’s that Gov. Perry in his book ‘Fed Up,’ says that Social Security has been forced on us, and by no measure is Social Security anything but a failure,” Romney said. “That is being against not just how you finance Social Security, but being against Social Security. One, in my view, that is wrong. I am for Social Security. I want to save Social Security, it’s an essential safety net for the American people. And number two, it’s terrible politics. If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we will be obliterated as a party.” This stands in stark contrast to whatever version of Mitt Romeny wrote his book last year where he says: “Let’s look at what would happen if someone in the private sector did a similar thing. Suppose two grandparents created a trust fund, appointed a bank as trustee, and instructed the bank to invest the proceeds of the trust fund so as to provide for their grandchildren’s education. Suppose further that the bank used the proceeds for its own purposes, so that when the grandchildren turned eighteen, there was no money for them to go to college. What would happen to the bankers responsible for misusing the money? They would go to jail. But what has happened to the people responsible for the looming bankruptcy of Social Security? They keep returning to Congress every two years.” Last night Mitt Romney nearly made me forget why I disliked him so much in 2008. In 2008, Romney surrounded himself with smug, arrogant little twits who lied to bloggers just to keep in practice. Everyday my inbox would have a emails slinging mud on other candidates always labeled “Not For Attribution.” And everyday Romney would seek to reinvent himself from a pro-choice liberal governor into a conservative into Heaven Knows What. The whole sorry spectacle was only mitigated by the hilarity of watching NROs KLo swoon over every syllable the man uttered. Last night I liked Romney and told RedState contributors in an email discussion that I thought I could not only accept but actively support Romney if he wins the nomination. The cheap, tawdry flip-floppery we’ve seen today is making me reconsider.
Continued here:
Romney Never Met A Flip He Couldn’t Flop
