Polls show Republicans despise Obama. The conventional wisdom is that Republcians will come out in huge numbers to vote him out. However, turnout for the Iowa caucauses was up only slightly over 2008. Clearly Conservatives don’t like their choices
But even if Romney wins the nomination, the Iowa results don’t bode well when it comes to assessing the Republican Party’s chances of beating President Obama in November. Though turnout was up from the 2008 caucuses, it was only up by a few thousand votes, even as GOP voter registration grew, more candidates were contesting the state and more Democrats and independents voted on the Republican side because there was no competitive Democratic race this time. Romney actually got six fewer votes this time than he did four years ago, but it was enough because nobody matched Mike Huckabee’s appeal.
Four years ago, Democrats were frothing at the mouth to win back the White House after two terms of President Bush. Starting from Iowa, the enthusiasm they felt was palpable — and they would have been ready to fight for whoever emerged as the nominee. The night he won the caucuses, Obama addressed a crowd with thousands of supporters going wild. We haven’t seen any of the GOP candidates attract that sort of affection.
Conservative may hate Obama, but they are not enthused over the candidates. This is what happens when a political party takes peopel for granted. Just because the Right hates Obama, doesn’t mean they love the GOP.
