Republican Primaries

 

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (https://twitter.com/MittRomney) won the Wyoming Primary with 39% of the vote. Senator John McCain came in second with a 30% showing. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee came in third with 16% of the vote.

With Wyoming, Romney now has two states that he has won and a significant lead (48-19 over Huckabee) in the number of delegates needed to win the nomination for candidacy for president at the Republican National Convention. It is still, however, a long way from the nearly 1200 delegates needed to secure that nomination. Many pundits and analysts were stating that Wyoming was a make-or-break state of Romney, but, given that it is his home state (where his family’s name still carries a lot of nostalgic weight), this may be a false positive for the campaign. South Carolina should give us a more true picture of how the Republican voters really feel about Romney. If he is a viable candidate, this pro-Bush, pro-military state should give Romney at least a second place finish behind Huckabee. Huckabee stands to gain from South Carolina’s predominant evangelical voters. It could go down to the wire, especially given that John McCain seems to be doing quite well in recent polls. (Of course, given the accuracy of recent polls to predict outcomes in the primaries and caucuses, McCain’s strong showing may mean nothing.) – he has formed no trust with voters.

Ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani came in a distant 6th place behind Ron Paul and Fred Thompson. Giuliani did not campaign much in Wyoming, basing his nomination strategy on winning Florida and a few other states in primaries to be held on Super Tuesday in February. Whether or not this is a wise move on his part remains to be seen. Recent polls have Giuliani trailing significantly and falling.

According to CNN, Mitt Romney not only had the advantage of being in his home state (he was born in Wyoming; his father was governor of Wyoming) but receiving most of the female vote and the vote of those most loyal to president Bush.

And that last little tidbit should tell us something. Do we really want a president (Romney) that people still loyal to the worst president this country has ever elected (Bush) are voting for? It is something to think about…

It should also be noted that the Democratic Primary for the state of Wyoming was also held but only as a formality, since the Democratic National Committee ruled that Wyoming lost its delegates (156) for allocating delegates outside of the allowed party time frame. Hillary Clinton received 55% of the vote, while 40% were uncommitted. The Republicans penalized Wyoming half of its delegates (30 of 60) for the same reason. These actions were taken recently when the states began jockeying for position in the primary line-up and the respective Parties began to fear a breakdown in the primary system.