Missouri caucuses won't include a straw poll

[J. J.]

Then it is down to IL and PR.  I think Santorum has to win at least one to be credible as a real alternative to Romney.

[J. J.]

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Newsflash, if he wins either one, he can take this outright.

That is what I mean to being a real alternative (and why LA isn't in there).

[J. J.]

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Santorum, in order to be credible, has to close the delegate gap.  It has consistently increased in March, and, rather impressively.   AP shows it 204 for the month.  If Santorum loses the next two primaries, that gap will grow and it makes Romney look like he is unbeatable. 

[J. J.]

This is unfortunate news.

Why is it either?

Santorum basically has two chances to start the reversal.  Romney has to stop him.

[J. J.]

This is unfortunate news.

Why is it either?

Santorum basically has two chances to start the reversal.  Romney has to stop him.

Huh? As a political nerd, I just wanted something to watch on Saturday.

Well, you'll want to watch if Mittens both wins and breaks 50%.  That will trigger WTA.

[J. J.]

This is unfortunate news.

Why is it either?

Santorum basically has two chances to start the reversal.  Romney has to stop him.

Huh? As a political nerd, I just wanted something to watch on Saturday.

Well, you'll want to watch if Mittens both wins and breaks 50%.  That will trigger WTA.

What?

In PR, on Sunday.

[J. J.]

Confusion leads to no Santorum victory.  A chance for Santorum to gain some momentum is gone.

[J. J.]

Confusion leads to no Santorum victory.  A chance for Santorum to gain some momentum is gone.

There was never going to be a winner declared. 99.9% of people will ignore this contest.

Probably, but there was still a slight chance that someone might have gained some momentum.  This eliminates that chance.

[J. J.]

Welcome to the St. Charles County caucus - our "participatory" democracy in action.

Fortunately, the Paul delegates are totally inept.    Not that chairman is much better.

[J. J.]

Welcome to the St. Charles County caucus - our "participatory" democracy in action.

Fortunately, the Paul delegates are totally inept.    Not that chairman is much better.

What's actually happening there? I'm not totally getting it.

The Paul folks were trying to get their way, and going about it badly.

What they were trying to do is object to the chair's ruling to ban recording devices (which he probably doesn't have the power to do).  You can do it by raising a point of order, and putting the appeal from the floor if necessary.  They didn't do that.

[J. J.]

Yeah you can't hold a "non-binding" primary and then go and retroactively make it count. Same situation as 2008 when J. J. and Hillary Is 44 were arguing to seat the delegates in Florida and Michigan as elected, Michigan being the more absurd of those two. In this case it'd be even more absurd since there's no standard for how delegates would be assigned, so deciding on a delegate allocation method would also be blatantly beneficial toward a certain candidate.

I think the whole reason Missouri had the non-binding primary is it was already scheduled there but would violate RNC rules and be subject to sanctions. So there was an attempt to have it moved forward, but the GOP-controlled State House and State Senate deadlocked, weren't able to meet the deadline, and the caucus had to be set up instead to assign delegates. So basically blame Republicans' inability to govern for this.

I'm not thrilled about this either.  Nor am I thrilled about the PA situation.

[J. J.]

This is officially the worst system of the season.

No, PA will be.