Romney's Victory in Michigan Leaves Republicans Confused and Desperate

Posted by Steven Reynolds, The All Spin Zone at 6:44 AM on January 16, 2008.

The Michigan GOP is so confused they can't even congratulate the right guy, Rudy wears a dress to an evangelical church and asks the folks to pray for him, and Huckabee wants to amend the constitution to reflect his God. OK, the dress part isn't true. .

Last night the GOP in Michigan mistakenly congratulated John McCain for winning the Michigan primary. Sure, they immediately noticed their mistake, but that's a big and stupid mistake, isn't it? Here's the report from Yahoo News:

The Associated Press named Romney the GOP winner when polls closed in Michigan's western Upper Peninsula at 9 p.m. EST.

The first GOP release went out just minutes later and stated, "In a close-fought victory, Senator John McCain succeeded again (in) the Michigan Republican primary, winning over a traditionally unpredictable voter base in Michigan."

Five minutes after that, the party sent a release that said, "In a close-fought victory, native son Governor Mitt Romney won an important contest here tonight."

I'm thinking this confusion is not confined to the GOP in Michigan, but is spread throughout the party, and throughout their slate of Presidential aspirants. That shouldn't be surprising, given the seven years of failure of George Bush and his Republican cohorts. None of these folks wants to run away from George Bush's record, but they rarely mention his name in any way, either positive or negative. They are forced to run with their party doctrine, I suppose, but must do so without acknowledging the record. That's going to make anybody confused.

Rudy is so confused he's asking for prayers. From USAToday:

With his plan for winning the Republican presidential nomination riding largely on a big Florida victory at the end of the month, Rudy Giuliani asked an evangelical congregation for prayers instead of votes and quoted scripture to evoke a message of hope and perseverance.

"I'm not coming here to ask for your vote," he said Sunday. "That's up to you and it's not the right place. But I am coming here to ask you for something very special and more important: I'm asking for your prayers."

While other Republican candidates are focused on Tuesday's Michigan primary, Giuliani is following a strategy of pushing for a Jan. 29 victory in Florida he hopes will propel him toward a dominant showing on Feb. 5, when more than 20 states hold primaries and caucuses, and then on to the nomination for the November election.

Once a strong front-runner in national polls, the former New York City mayor has fallen well behind the three candidates jockeying for a victory in Michigan, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

As Richard notes, Guiliani is far down in the polls, and he's counting on snowbirds in Florida to support him. I'm not seeing it happen without a lot of effective prayer, so those evangelicals better pray really hard. Of course, they're a bit nervous about Rudy's three marriages, his support of gay rights, his support of gun control. . . I'm guessing those evangelicals might be more attracted to Mike Huckabee down there in Florida, what with his support of constitutional amendments to "meet God's standards. The commentary in the Pensito Review is great, but here's the relevant statement from MSNBC to think about:

"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Huckabee often refers to the need to amend the constitution on these grounds, but he has never so specifically called for the Constitution to be brought within "God's standards," which are themselves debated amongst religious scholars. As a closing statement he asked the room of nearly 500 supporters to "pray and then work hard, and in that order," to help him secure a victory in Tuesday's GOP primary.

Not even a nod to the notion that ours is a secular country, and certainly Huckabee does not respect with this statement the vast majority of Americans who are proud of the tolerance we show for all religions. Make no mistake, Huckabee means his God, not anybody else's. Of course, he, like Guiliani, asked for the prayers of his audience, because he's going to need them, too. Still, I might sound a bit alarmed here, but I'm secretly hoping Huckabee wins a couple more primaries, and maybe the whole confused Republican nomination process. Mike Huckabee is a walking, talking Democratic landslide, even if we nominate Dennis Kucinich.

Tagged as: mccain, republican party, giuliani, romney, michigan, huckabee

Steven Reynolds is a regular blogger for the All Spin Zone