2004 Elections: Democratic Party Contenders

In recent weeks, it's been hard to watch John Edwards on the campaign trail without feeling so hopeful, optimistic, and uplifted that you want to puke.

Eh, funny PD. But - Independents could vote in the NH Republican primaries, too, no - even ones that registered as such on the very day of the elections, did I get that right? So that could just have been a deliberate bit of Independent trolling ...

Under New Hampshire law, only Democrats and independents were permitted to participate in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary. That meant that Republicans who wanted to register their opposition to Bush had to do so in their own party's primary. A remarkable number of them did just that.

* * *

US Senator John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, who won the Democratic primary, came in second to Bush in the Republican contest, winning 3,009 votes. Kerry's name was written in on almost 5 percent of all GOP ballots. Who were these Republican renegades for Kerry? People like 61-year-old retired teacher David Anderson. A Vietnam veteran, Anderson told New Hampshire's Concord Monitor that he wrote in Kerry's name because the senator, also a veteran, understands the folly of carrying on a failed war. "I feel a commander, the president of the United States, ought to be a veteran," explained Anderson, who says his top priority is getting US troops out of Iraq.

There really wasn't any conceivable reason for an Independent in NH to write in a Democrat on a Republican ballot when he could simply vote in the Democratic primary...

American Research Group Poll. Jan. 27-29, 2004. N=768 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.5 (total sample).

"What if the election for president were being held between George W. Bush, the Republican, and John Kerry, the Democrat, for whom would you vote: Bush or Kerry?" Names rotated

ALL
George W. Bush 46%
John Kerry 47%
Unsure 7%

Republicans
George W. Bush 89%
John Kerry 3%
Unsure 8%

Democrats
George W. Bush 12%
John Kerry 81%
Unsure 7%

Independents
George W. Bush 39%
John Kerry 55%
Unsure 6%

There really wasn't any conceivable reason for an Independent in NH to write in a Democrat on a Republican ballot when he could simply vote in the Democratic primary... [..]

Go read the whole thing.

Warms my heart and chills Karl Rove's.

Isn't it interesting that Bush is promising to cut the national debt in half by 2009 - after he's long gone. I think most repubs will miss this glaring pronouncement.

"If Kerry wins all four states, you don't need me to tell you what it means. But if Edwards wins in South Carolina and polls strongly enough to win delegates in Missouri and Oklahoma, he has some significant regional strength and can certainly make a case to go on. If Clark wins Oklahoma and comes in a strong second in Arizona, he also can move on -- but it is hard to see where. Dean has already conceded these four states, but winning some delegates in one or two states can help his cause in both Michigan and Wisconsin (voting 2/7)"