News from the Votemaster          

Romney Wins Kentucky and Arkansas Primaries     Permalink

As expected, Mitt Romney won the primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas yesterday. However, despite all his opponents having dropped out, he managed to get only about 2/3 of the vote in each state. Here are the results.

Again we see that he has not yet brought all the diehard supporters of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul on board.

Obama Also Has Trouble Unifying His Party     Permalink

Romney is not the only one with a problem herding his cats. Obama has also gotten less than 100% of the vote in uncontested primaries, especially in the South and Appalachia. But the issue of unifying the party is more critical for Romney because he had actual opponents this year and they had actual supporters who may not yet be reconciled to voting for Romney (like the Hillary voters in 2008). Democrats voting against Obama in the primaries are just expressing generally dissatisfaction with the state of the country and the economy. They are not bitter because their candidate lost to a guy they don't trust.

To some extent, the situation is summed up by a new WaP/ABC News poll It found that 93% of Obama's supporters are enthusiastic about him whereas only 75% of Romney's are enthusiastic about him. In other words, the Democrats who voted against Obama have a diffuse unhappiness with the state of affairs in the country whereas the Republicans unhappy with Romney actually wanted a different nominee.

Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage Collapses     Permalink

Joe Biden's announcement that he was OK with same-sex marriage may have pushed President Obama into seconding the motion a bit earlier than he had planned, but it doesn't appear to be hurting him politically. An NBC/WSJ poll shows that 17% of the voters are more likely to vote for Obama as a consequence of his announcement vs. 20% who are more likely to vote for Romney. Furthermore, Obama's announcement is driving public opinion. A new WaPo/ABC News poll shows that 53% of Americans now think same-sex marriage should be legal while only 39% now say it should be illegal. This is the lowest rate of disapproval ever recorded.

What is truly amazing is that to a large extent, Bush's Brain, Karl Rove, made the Republican opposition to gay marriage one of the pillars of the 2000 and 2004 campaigns. That was not so long ago and now the Republicans are completely silent on the issue. After Obama gave his interview, no high-profile Republican went on the air to denounce him. The electoral potency of the issue is completely gone, and in a historically short time.

Thanks to All the Beta Testers     Permalink

Yesterday morning I posted a request for some people to test the newly designed Website. The response was overwhelming so I quickly took down the request. The responses are pouring in now. I don't have time to respond to everyone individually, but I will read them all carefully, fix errors and make changes where there is a clear consensus. Again, thank you.

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