Another Reason to Pick on West Virginia

Anybody see what just happened in WVa?? If you doubted the validity of the Huckabee-McCain tag team, there should no longer be any doubt. Here’s the proof- As you may or may not know, the WVa caucuses must come to a 50% winner before the state can be declared for one candidate. The procedure is to take a vote and see where the chips fall. If one candidate does not receive the required 50% threshold, then the candidate receiving the lowest vote total is cut, and the voting is re-cast among the remaining candidates. This “cut” system is repeated until 50% is reached.

Here’s where it gets interesting! These are the results from the first vote:

Romney = 41%
Huckabee = 33%
McCain = 16%
Paul = 10%

Ron Paul was cut as the lowest vote getter with 10%, and a re-vote was taken. Now LOGICALLY, those 10% should have been re-distributed among the other candidates, bolstering support by just a few points to one candidate or another. Is that what happened? Not exactly. Here are the results from the final re-vote count:

Huckabee = 52%
Romney = 47%
McCain = 1%

So, you see that the McCain crowd didn’t have enough votes to get the job done to beat Romney. They saw this clearly. They CHANGED their vote and threw in with Huckabee to spoil the Romney vote. That’s why you see McCain’s vote dwindle from healthy support down to 1%. I guess those 12 people who kept on voting for McCain the second time didn’t get the memo.

Evidence? FoxNews says:

"But before Huckabee’s surprising turnaround in the second round, McCain delegates told FOX News they had been instructed by the campaign to throw their support to Huckabee.
McCain delegate John Vuolo said former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer approached him and other McCain supporters at the convention and told them he had spoken to McCain, and that the best thing to do was to support Huckabee in the hope that Huckabee could beat Romney in this winner-take-all state."

Upon hearing what happened, the Romney Campaign issued this press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kevin Madden (857) 288-6390

Boston, MA – Today, Romney for President Campaign Manager Beth Myers issued the following statement regarding the outcome of West Virginia's Republican Party convention:

"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change. "Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led on today's first ballot. Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party."

Can anyone now deny the dirty politics afoot against Romney? Huckabee should be taking to the airwaves any minute asking Romney to drop out. Hopefully this will be seen for the dirty political trick that it is before California voters get to the polls.