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February 11, 2008 9:18 AM

New TVs for Romney supporters

Ok, so democracy is messy and imperfect, caucus voting even more so. But can somebody tell me what happened to the caucus goers who showed up Saturday and gave former Massachusetts Gov.Mitt Romney 17 percent of the Republican delegates?

Romney bailed out of the race Thursday, providing supporters plenty of time to think about whom to support at Saturday's caucuses. News travels faster these days, not slower.
Loyalty can be a beautiful thing but voting in a caucus for someone who has already departed the race is just, well, weird. Isn't that the point of the primary election season? Winnowing down the choice. If one candidate drops out, backers re-think their position. Caucus-goers had ample time to switch to a viable candidate.
This is the biggest head-scratcher of the Washington caucuses.

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Posted by Concerned

10:27 AM, Feb 11, 2008

I think we can safely say that McCain benefited greatly from Romney's dropout Saturday. My question is why didn't those that voted for Romney, vote for Huckabee? Anyone who voted Saturday for Romney just costed Washington more voting headaches.

Posted by Mike

10:06 PM, Feb 12, 2008

I was at the Republican Caucuses and found that most of the Romney supporters were voting for one of a couple resons: (1) They wanted to vote for a true conservative. It was more of a voice to the fact that they felt there were no "true conservatives" left. However, most of them said they liked McCain second. It was more about beating liberalism (bunking many hard line conservatives that will vote for Clinton). (2) They were voting AGAINST Mike Huckabee. They feel that Mike Huckabee is nothing but a blight upon the Republican party. Their second choice - McCain.

It told me that people are going to support McCain. It also told me that the majority of the people did not support Huckabee.

Posted by South Sounder

11:22 AM, Feb 17, 2008

Wow, you are totally out of touch with the GOP base I guess. I caucaused for Romney to show the GOP establishment that I was upset at McCain & Huckabee. I didn't like any of the initial GOP field and went late for Thompson. When he dropped out, I supported Mitt. Mitt was the last acceptable guy IMO, which is why he got my vote in the caucus.

I am sick or bloated, corrupt, ineffective government that the Democrats support 100% and the GOP supports 70%. I want to clean the GOP of statists so we can a true choice in elections; the fascist/statist/bloated government cabal vs. classic liberals like myself who want to return power back to the people.

Posted by pudge

6:06 PM, Feb 17, 2008

Wow. I had no idea that the Times' staff was so out of touch. I mean, I knew they were out of touch, but so out of touch to not realize why Romney got so many votes?

I thought Romney might have actually WON the caucus EVEN THOUGH he dropped out days before. That you don't understand how he did so well is the real head-scratcher.