Presidential Primary Day in Michigan

[XLFD]

It's March 10, 2020 and time for all interested Michiganders to vote for their favorite candidate in their chosen party.  And even though you may see a few names on the ballot in both parties, there's not a lot of choice.  

If your party preference is Republican, the race is pretty much been decided with Donald Trump generally getting over 90% in the GOP primaries so far over a small field of token candidates who have been completely ignored by most, even the press who doesn't much care for the party's leader.  Never-Trumper Republicans have Massachusetts moderate William Weld still campaigning weakly.  Libertarians in Michigan and other third parties have sat Michigan out in this election cycle choosing other states to determine their flagbearer.

   

The most interesting side is the Democratic side with the race effectively down to three (when you include Tulsi Gabbard who has amassed one delegate from American Samoa so far), with former Veep Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders vying for the top spot.  Biden is coming off a promising Super Tuesday, yet Bernie showed some strength out in California and Colorado that's hard to ignore.  

It would also be lazy to write Sanders off in Michigan, as Sanders actually scored a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton four years ago-- she would find an even bigger surprise waiting for her in November, getting defeated by Trump in a state that has been reliably on the blue side since Reagan left office.

Bernie will need some more Michigan magic this time around as his wing of the Democratic Party seems to have lost a lot of momentum with many candidates leaving the race endorsing Joe Biden.  Here are some interesting Michigan Presidential Primary facts of this millennium that you may not be aware of:

2012:  Despite a crowded Republican field, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum almost evenly split 80% of the vote, with Romney coming out 4% ahead likely due to his family's heritage in Michigan.  Arch-Libertarian-Republican Ron Paul came in third at 12%.

2008:  Neither party had an incumbent, and Michigan easily went to Hillary Clinton, as Barack Obama (the eventual President) wasn't on the ballot.  This explains why over 40% of the ballot was uncommitted.

Mitt Romney won easily over eventual standard-bearer John McCain by 9% on the red ballot.

2000:  Republican John McCain won over eventual President George W. Bush, signaling a potential momentum shift which didn't last.  

Vice President Al Gore was the chosen one for the Democrats which explains the victory by perennial candidate, Lyndon LaRouche, who effectively won the primary but lost handily to an uncommitted vote of 70%.  But the most interesting primary in 2000 in Michigan...

The Reform Party candidate, Donald Trump scored 70% of the vote in their primary, which was pretty much all his at that time.  Tomorrow should be his third presidential primary win in Michigan.

[Willy]

For those Trump supporters, don't stay away from the polls because you think he is going to win because if Trump supporters get to confident and don't show up then one of the other Republican candidates may get the delegates.

[AQUAMAN]

Last Tuesday was Super Thursday for Biden. What a sham! The DNC obviously had "the FIX" in for him. He showed no good stats. previously, then, all of a sudden, he's the top candidate, out of the sky blue? Give me a break, he just said recently he was running for the Senate, not President too, along with a dozen other serious gaffe's, he's a joke and can't win in November for sure, it's going to be a huge landslide for Trump.

[stump]

You also notice that when Biden screws up a word, sentence or data the media just lets it go or if they do correct slow Joe he just says he miss spoke and the interview goes on. If Trump miss spoke or types a word wrong in his text it's world news.       I think Biden is in the age of dementia . Interesting thing though,. My sister in law , a pure Democrat noticed his screw ups  also and stated , he'll  be all right as the President has other people to make the decisions .    Yep ,that's how the Democrats thinks. LOL

[Dave]

I was engaging someone in a conversation on Facebook regarding Biden, after I mentioned several recent instances of Biden saying stuff that was strange or dumb the reply to me was that sometimes he was  "he gets confused about the truth", my reply back was the following:

"If he's getting confused about the truth, is that really someone you want as the leader of the free world?"

Apparently the person hasn't been able to think of a good answer to that question as they have not given me a answer yet

[XLFD]

Quid pro Joe was debating an electrical union worker earlier today in Detroit when he used some rather colorful language and downgraded an AR-15 to an AR-14 as regards gun control.  If he does become the Democratic candidate, it will illustrate that the Democrats do not believe they have a chance to defeat Donald Trump, that they don't desire to have a proud socialist at the top of their ticket, and that they want to minimize the damage in the congressional races by putting this compromise/compromised candidate forward rather than sacrifice someone who might be a viable 2024 candidate.  

[XLFD]

With just over 51% of the vote in, Joe Biden has one the MI primary on the D side receiving 53.2% of the vote over Bernie Sanders' 39.2%.  Gabbard is actually in sixth place, behind Bloomberg, Warren and Buttigieg who have all suspended their campaigns.  I still think she is the best qualified Democrat remaining, but it's just one more peccadillo of today's Democratic Party that they overlook the only mentally and physically capable person in the room.

On the Republican side, President Trump is leading the nearest challenger by over 92% with 47% of the vote in, likely to get over 700,000 votes in a fairly meaningless March prez primary.  This is meaningful, because in 2012 Barack Obama seeking re-election virtually unopposed only received 174,000 in the MI Democratic prez primary-- less than 1/4 of what Trump will receive.  There is a lot of enthusiasm behind this incumbent.

[Dave]

Yeah, as far as the Republican side of things go there wasn't any surprises on who was going to win.. the democrat side though it was of course a bit of a toss up. At the end of the night though I'm not shocked that Biden is the likely winner. One main thing that Bernie probably had running against him in a state that has a fair amount of unions in it was the healthcare issue. One of the bigger bargaining chips unions have when representing their workers is quality healthcare... take that away and it just makes it a little tougher to get a deal done. Medicare for all may sound like a good thing to some, probably would be helpful too a lot of people... but the price tag is just massive and I sincerely doubt that Bernie would ever get the funds through congress to make it happen. With Biden I just find it odd that a guy that was barely noticed when he ran for president before is all of a sudden their knight in shining armor. His record is spotty on several things and of course there will be questions about his mental health asked for pretty much the rest of the election cycle.. specially when he continually makes gaffs.

As far as Gabbard goes, of the friends I have that are more libertarian than anything she was the only democratic candidate that they expressed any real interest in.

[Freedom Seeker]

https://www.wnem.com/news/michigan-has-two-cases-of-coronavirus/art...

I find it interesting and perhaps very political that the "announcement" of two positive cases of Conona virus in Michigan was made shortly after the primaries ... 10 p.m. last night. The DHHS has been "monitoring" over 400 cases in Michigan for more than a week.

[Freedom Seeker]

https://www.wnem.com/news/breaking-msu-suspending-in-person-classes...

In-person classes cancelled at MSU. All of a sudden after primaries!