re: #5 goddamnedfrank

The Republican votes aren’t negated, they’re still there. By your own admission 37% of those Republican votes went for Santorum too, so those votes certainly weren’t negated by the crossover. The votes for Paul, Gingrich and Romney weren’t negated either, even if their collective weight was reduced by the respective difference between the Republican and Democratic voters.

You’re also making a huge assumption that the majority of those votes were “mischief.” You have no idea how those people are going to vote in the general election. At 9% many of them may only nominally be Democrats, blue dogs on the border, socially conservative and disenchanted with their own party. Locking them out of the primary denies them the opportunity to try on the Republican brand before they buy into the final product. This is part of the strategic thinking that goes into having an open primary.

Lastly, even if we were to assume that the group identified as “somewhat liberal” who Santorum also over performed with all voted to hurt the Republican party, the article doesn’t tell us what portion of those crossover voters this subgroup entails. It also ignores the fact that Santorum didn’t sweep this category, so we must reduce the “mischief” by the number that voted for Romney, if for no other reason than their idea of mischief lines up with the majority MI Republican orthodoxy.

From the top-Each Democrat that went for this attack op and voted for Santorum off set one Republican vote for Romney. That’s the undeniable effect. You admitted it yourself-“”even if their collective weight was reduced by the respective difference between the Republican and Democratic voters.”“ (Italics just for ease of read)

As to “huge assumption it’s mischief” I direct you to Daily Kos and many other lefty sites encouraging exactly that.

crooksandliars.com

At the Santorum election night official gathering we actually heard from one of the pro Santorum Dems on NPR. And yes it was all explicitly about helping the most potentially damaging candidate for the GOP into the win box.

A primary is really for the party to choose it’s man or woman. It’s not a try before you buy exercise like a new coat. Open primaries suck.