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General discussion

Bush beat Kerry in CA

Mar 6, 2004 4:55AM PST
George W. Bush Got More Votes in California on Super Tuesday than John Kerry


Trailing Bush in the polls? We?ve heard this before and often. On Tuesday we had the benefit of something more meaningful than a poll. Voters went to the polls and actually cast several million ballots to choose their favorite candidate out of a field of 21 possibilities. And, while I haven?t seen it reported anywhere, George W. Bush in that primary election received 185,000 more votes than John Kerry received in his so-called ?landslide victory.?

California has a ?modified? open Primary system, which permits those who refuse to state a party preference to vote for a person of their choice in a primary. If they are registered as a party member, they can only get a ballot for their party?s candidate. Of course, when there is only one candidate running, most voters don?t bother to take the time to vote. To my surprise, on Tuesday with 100% of the precincts reporting, the actual winner of the Primary race turned out to be George W. Bush. Bush received 1,949,761 votes to John Kerry?s 1,764,446 votes. So far, I have not read a single story on the California Primary race that mentions the actual vote. George W. Bush received 185,315 more votes than John Kerry received in his ?landslide victory.?


Evie Happy

Discussion is locked

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Maybe he's riding Arnold's coat tails!
Mar 6, 2004 5:11AM PST

Just kidding. San Francisco? Interesting.

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Doesn't bode to well for Kerry Evie considering California has quite a high Democrat population or is that not so? NT
Mar 6, 2004 11:14PM PST

nt

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That's the way I see it!
Mar 6, 2004 11:26PM PST

I can't imagine myself voting for anyone other than Bush in November, but I am really amazed that the Democrats couldn't come up with anyone better to challenge him than Kerry -- assuming, of course, that they really believe that Bush has been such a miserable failure and the country is in such dire straits. IOW, if the Democrat rhetoric is to be believed, Bush should be ripe for the picking. So why such a lame candidate? I mean, Kerry is a long time Senator, but he's not even in a major leadership position there after all these years!

I look at Kerry and he just **SCREAMS** "Phoney!" On any issue, he says Bush did this wrong. He says he's for the right way to do things. He can't articulate what that right way is tho!

Evie Happy

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(NT) Odd! This was a reply to Steve
Mar 6, 2004 11:27PM PST

.

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I know exactly what you are getting at Evie
Mar 7, 2004 8:09AM PST

I recently saw Carter on the T.V and he still has that polish that Presidents seem to carry with them.
Kennedy had that polish and leadership quality, and he met a dreadful end.
You could see people like Carter being President, well that was before he disgraced himself, (but I am not going down that road) and agree with his policies or not, you must admit he looked smart.
I don't think it is anywhere near a forgone conclusion.
If Kerry's camp keep knocking Bush over his foreign policies it may well backfire. The American public aren't stupid. They know that something had to be done about the terrorists, and can see how difficult the job is.
Perhaps Bush hasn't gone exactly right about where the threat was coming from, or perhaps Iraq was a part of a long term plan to defuse all the Arab hatred for the west. I expect we will get someone coming in and saying what a mess he made of Iraq, but judging from reports coming out there wasn't a very good structure there in the first place, and new building as opposed to rebuilding is the main theme at the moment.
I think we find that a lot in life, when someone wants to have a go and demean somebody they pick on the smallest of problems, and ignore the great things that are happening.
Sad That's Life I suppose Sad

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Re:(nt) Very Well Put Steve.
Mar 7, 2004 8:25AM PST

.

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Thanks George - Hope you have had a nice weekend with a bit of sun. What is it like over there at the moment? NT
Mar 7, 2004 8:52AM PST

NT

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Re:Thanks George - Hope you have had a nice weekend with a bit of sun. What is it like over there at the moment? NT
Mar 7, 2004 9:38AM PST

Hi Steve

Very nice weekend. Have had pretty good weather for a couple of weeks now. Up to 60 in the sun this afternoon . Going down hill fast now. Suppose to snow tonite. And light snow or flurrys for next few days.

George

PS. Don't know where you are from Steve, but if its the Carolinas, I guess its been some fun down there.

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Re:Re:Thanks George - Hope you have had a nice weekend with a bit of sun. What is it like over there at the moment? NT
Mar 7, 2004 9:51AM PST

Hi George,
I am over in the U.K but have been a member of this forum for quite a good number of years.
I have always followed the U.S politics avidly. It all seems so much more exciting than british politics.
I haven't introduced myself to you properly since you became a member, and I must beg your forgiveness for not saying hello earlier.
I think all the snow has finished here in England, and was wondering where you are. The upper North of America appears to have the snow roughly when we do, but I haven't got the foggiest idea about the weather in other parts. Sad

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Apologies to Evie for going off track from the main subject :( NT
Mar 7, 2004 9:55AM PST

NT

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No need for an apology Steve ...
Mar 7, 2004 8:37PM PST

... the only time anyone here in SE ever complains about a change in path of a thread is when someone switches the subject to divert attention or stoops to personal attacks.

Back to being Presidential, I think you catch my drift. Twill be interesting to see if the video of Kerry at a "house party" fundraiser taking an imaginary toke gets some play. LOL, it wasn't a Presidential moment!

Evie Happy

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Re:No need for an apology Steve ...
Mar 8, 2004 6:46AM PST

Thanks Evie,
I Didn't want to mess the thread up too much.
That behaviour at the party was a bit silly.
He will have to do a great deal better than that if he wants people to take him seriously, I.M.O
I wonder how much the person with the video has been offered Wink If you catch my drift. Happy

Steve Happy

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To be fair
Mar 8, 2004 5:30AM PST

The democratic vote was split amongst the candidates. It would be interesting to see how the total number of votes cast for all democratic candidates stacked up to Bush's number. I didn't vote for Kerry or Bush.

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That would assume, Patrick...
Mar 8, 2004 5:41AM PST

Patrick, that would assume that if the choice were either Bush or Kerry, all of the Democratic voters would vote for Kerry and all of the Republican voters would vote for Bush.

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Not assuming
Mar 8, 2004 7:32AM PST

Just saying that a one horse ticket vs. a six horse ticket wasn't a fair comparison. We'll find out in November what a one on one shoot out yields. Not being able to predict the future I won't speculate - besides if I could predict the future I would direct my predictions to something more meaningful - like lottery numbers Happy

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Re:To be fair
Mar 8, 2004 6:05AM PST
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Theoretically speaking;
Mar 8, 2004 6:20AM PST

Where would the other half of Edward's votes go then? Bush I would assume, so how would that change the result?

The problem with primaries as California has where party members are locked into that party's primary only, is it doesn't give an accurate view by any means. For instance, here in Maryland, if I could have chose which primary to vote in, I would have voted in the Democratic primary. I would have voted for Edwards too, in a effort to weaken Kerry. Now, there are people in this state who always vote Republican in the main elections, but are registered Democrat since this state is 60% Democrat. Their reasons are varied. Some of them just want a greater sway in the Democratic primaries which produces most of the eventual winners here, and still be able to vote against the Democrat later in the general election. Others in some businesses know they will do better as a registered Democrat and keeping their true vote quiet.

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Practically speaking
Mar 8, 2004 6:32AM PST

I would expect that practically all of the Edwards vote to go to Kerry. The rest would go to fringe candidates or nobody. I would expect that the number of those votes going to bush to be close to zero.

Dan