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And the Losers Are . . .

Results 2008 New Hampshire Primary

John McCain 86,571 7 delegates

Mitt Romney 75,546 4 delegates

Mike Huckabee 26,859 1 delegate

Ron Paul 18,308 0 delegate

Hillary Clinton 112,404 9 delegates

Barack Obama 104,815 9 delegates

John Edwards 48,699 4 delegates

Results 2012 New Hampshire Primary*

Mitt Romney 97,532 7 delegates

Ron Paul 56,848 3 delegates

John Huntsman 41,945 2 delegates

Newt Gingich loser

Rick Santorum loser

Rick Perry loser

*Only 12 delegates at stake reduced from 23 by the republican national committee for moving the primary up to January.

Speaking of relevance, the Jan. 31st republican primary in Florida already has more absentee ballots requests than all the votes cast in Iowa and New Hampshire combined.

2286 - number of delegates to republican convention

1144 - number of delegates to win nomination

37 - number of delegates decided thus far

20 - number of delegates committed to Mitt Romney

So how is it possible that Mr. Romney is now being declared the winner by so many knowledgeable sources or when did 20 become 1144?

Mother Jones magazine has this really cool interactive tool that allows you to predict who will win, lose or draw each of the upcoming republican presidential primaries. They call it the GOP Primary Predictor: Play Along at Home. You can prognosticate on what percentage of the votes each of the candidates will get in all of the upcoming 55 primaries. Yes, I did say fifty-five.

Here is a list of the primaries along with my less than scientific commentary.

Jan. 3 Iowa - Santorum or Romney they don't really know yet

Jan. 10 New Hampshire - Romney wins big
Jan. 21 South Carolina - the last real chance to derail the Mitt
Jan. 31 Florida - 50/50 chance for Romney to wrap it up

Feb. 4 Nevada
Feb. 7 Colorado
Feb. 7 Minnesota
Feb. 11 Maine
Feb. 25 Mariana Islands
Feb. 28 Arizona - it's over, Romney wins both; everyone else quits
Feb. 28 Michigan - it's over, Romney wins both; everyone else quits

None of the remaining 44 primaries matter as far as the presidential nominations go

Mar. 3 Washington
Mar. 6 Alabama
Mar. 6 Georgia - March 6th: eleven states in one day with no meaning
Mar. 6 Idaho
Mar. 6 Massachusetts
Mar. 6 North Dakota
Mar. 6 Ohio
Mar. 6 Oklahoma
Mar. 6 Tennessee
Mar. 6 Vermont
Mar. 6 Virginia
Mar. 6 Virgin Islands

Mar. 10 Kansas
Mar. 10 Wyoming
Mar. 12 Guam
Mar. 13 Hawaii
Mar. 13 Mississippi
Mar. 13 American Samoa
Mar. 17 Missouri
Mar. 20 Illinois
Mar. 24 Louisiana
Mar. 24 Puerto Rico

Apr. 3 Washington
Apr. 3 Maryland
Apr. 3 Wisconsin
Apr. 6 Alaska
Apr. 6 Texas - Rick Perry who?
Apr. 24 Connecticut
Apr. 24 Delaware
Apr. 24 New York - sorry it was Romney two months ago
Apr. 24 Pennsylvania
Apr. 24 Rhode Island

May 8 Indiana
May 8 North Carolina
May 8 West Virginia
May 15 Nebraska
May 15 Oregon
May 22 Arkansas
May 22 Kentucky

June 5 California - largest single electoral state votes 3 months too late
June 5 Montana
June 5 New Jersey
June 5 New Mexico
June 5 South Dakota
June 26 Utah

Now I would be happy to be wrong about this, if only for the entertainment value a longer race would give to The Daily Show and Colbert Report. But my overall 2012 position remains the same - whether you are choosing the lesser of two evils or seven, you still get evil.

So You Believe This is a Free Country

I am reluctant to say it, but if you are shocked by this story you must still be living under the impression that the government is on your side and that the USA is a free country.

Early this week the space occupied by Global Revolution was raided by the NYPD. The group for months has been aggregating live streams from the Occupy Wall Street movement and putting them out on the web. They operated for several months under a tarp at Zuccotti Park and recently moved to an indoor space in Brooklyn. A space that had been occupied (lived in, paying rent) for the last year by one of the GR members.

Suddenly on Monday the premises became "imminently perilous to life" according to the notice posted. On Tuesday the NYPD raided the site and arrested the members of GR who ran the video operation. Now if you have been to Brooklyn in the last twenty years you know there clearly are spaces perilous to life, probably scores of them within a block or two of the raided studio, but none of them were deemed so dangerous as to provoke a NYPD raid.

Could it have been a coincidence that the Occupy Wall Street live streaming team was operating from that location? Surely they weren't targeted by the NYPD on orders from the mayor, the governor or homeland security. No that could never happen here in the land of the free.

Move along folks, nothing to see here; which is why the NYTimes has yet to report this story even though they have done pieces in the past on the video team from Global Revolution.

The Real Iowa Numbers

Romney wins in Iowa but Santorum finishes incredibly close in a great moral victory. Ron Paul hangs in there while Bachmann and probably Perry step out of the race. That's what you could hear all last night and all day today on every "news" show you could dial up. But let me point out just three numbers to demonstrate just how ludicrous it is for "the greatest democracy on the planet" to select it's leader this way.

122,255

-that's how many Iowa voters showed up to caucus last night; over five times that many people were at the Rose Parade on Monday, why not let them vote?

677,508

-that's how many Iowa votes John McCain got in the 2008 general election, last night about 18% of that total caucused and were the object of all this media attention. Less than 1 in 5 probably voters bothered to go to a caucus. Oh by the way McCain lost Iowa to Obama 54% to 45%.

59,934,814

-that's how many Americans voted for McCain in 2008; last night .24% (1/4%) of that number boosted Romney, Santorum and Paul but ended at least two and possibly four other presidential campaigns.

Iowa - Is this really how we want to select the "Leader of the Free World"?

New Hampshire next, then South Carolina.

God Bless VespuciLand.

Happy New Blog Year

I apologize to those who miss the old light-hearted posts, I liked them too. I really don't want to do a Lenny Bruce and become mired in the endless crap of American politics but... this is going to be an interesting even a historic year in the U.S. Should that not turn out to be true I will get off the political sinking ship as fast as a congressman talking to broke lobbyist. Until then...

Good news for those who are not so fond of all the political commentary, the italicized opening above represented my thoughts early in December when I was planning my year end blog break. Since then I have been thinking about this here blog and I can honestly say I haven't come to any striking conclusions. So for now, I will continue with whatever wanders across my consciousness. I am giving myself another month to ponder what's it all about going forward.

Several major anticipated shifts in my personal life have been sidetracked, put on the back burner or discarded completely. So life that was planned to be in flux is more likely to be in stasis.

Wait! I'm sure I can be more convoluted than that...

The more things change the more they stay the same

Is it just me or does everybody see

The new improved tomorrow isn't what it used to be

Bon Jovi

2012

Best wishes for the New Year to all of my readers. Thank you for taking time from your life to stop by and share in a few of my thoughts, babbles and meanderings. I will be back come Monday with an reimagined version of Keeping Your Head in (All) the Game(s).