Ron Paul Iowa Update
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- Category: Politics
Paul Campaign Shifts To New Hampshire Primary
The preliminary polls leading up to the Iowa caucuses last night showed Mitt Romney and Ron Paul leading the pack, but when all of the votes came in a candidate by the name of Rick Santorum was the surprise, taking 24.5% of the votes. Although Ron Paul was able to gather a large number of independent votes and 21.4% of the overall vote in Iowa, the 76-year old congressman from Texas appears to be struggling in his ability to sway the more conservative republican voters to buy into his ideology for the GOP moving forward. The good news for the campaigners behind Ron Paul is that no person finishing outside of the top three in the Iowa caucuses went onto win their parties' nomination, and although Paul finished in exactly third, he was only a small percentage out of first. Now, Ron Paul and his campaign will move to New Hampshire where it appears to be a three-man race.
Electability: The Main Hurdle
One of the most common words that was used during the caucuses in Iowa was "electability". Conservative news media and republican top dogs constantly discussed the importance of a candidate who had an electability quality in order for the GOP to put up a winning fight against incumbent President Barack Obama. What most of these strange polls showed was that Mitt Romney scored the highest when it came to electability, something the GOP believed would be essential to regaining control of the White House.
Ron Paul, on the other hand, apparently scores rather low in electability polls, even though he has been the one candidate drawing huge crowds of excited and enthusiastic young voters. The problem with many of these polls concerning electability is that they are mainly taken among conservative republicans. This is important to note because Ron Paul is gaining huge momentum among independent and even, yes, liberal democrat voters. Therefore, if Ron Paul were able to secure the GOP nomination he would likely steal many votes away from Barack Obama.
"One of the most important things that both the liberal and conservative media are purposefully not discussing is the impact Ron Paul could have on blue states such as California", explained a political writer for GPS Tracker Shop. "Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have zero chance of turning California from a blue state to a red state because they don't poll well among independent and liberal voters, but Ron Paul is the only candidate who could have a real shot of being the first republican to capture California since Ronald Reagan, among other states that are historically blue. By winning both California and Texas, Ron Paul would be in the driver's seat to the white house."
Clearly, the GOP is putting all their chips behind Mitt Romney, and believe his by-the-book conservative political approach will be enough to dethrone Barack Obama. Regardless of how high Romney scores on electability polls, the only man who can capture blue states is Ron Paul, making him the only real electable person from the republican side of the aisle.